9 - Treasure #LoveStoryChallenge

One Tuesday morning in June, when Kalanne was home from her revision session in the library, Sean went to visit her. The tap was no longer dripping, but they sat at the kitchen table, ate cereal with Greek yoghurt and tried to talk to each other, their feet just a few inches apart.

                “So, your skin is really brown,” Sean had said, and Kalanne had laughed.

                “And your eyes are really blue,” she said.

                He chuckled.

                “I’m leaving in July,” she said and saw the glimmer in his eyes dwindle.

                “Oh?”

                She nodded. “My grades aren’t good enough. If I can’t make a two-one, I’ve got to go back to Nigeria.”

                “You’re going to make a two-one,” he said.

                “How do you know?”

                “Because you work hard and you’re really bright, Kalanne.”

                She giggled then. “You say my name funny.”

                He reached out and covered her small hand with his. “If you have to leave, I’ll come find you, once I’m through with the rehab program and I save enough.”

                “Really?” She asked, not sure she had heard him properly. “Nigeria is three thousand miles away.”

                “So?”

                “So you would really come and find me?”

                “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

                She lowered her eyes and looked at his hand on hers, his white skin in sharp contrast to hers. “My skin really is so brown,” she said.

                “Yes,” he said. “And it really is beautiful.”