The Need to Be

He was gradually losing control. There was a debate going on in his mind weighing the pros and cons of the decision he was about to make. Here he was seated close to a beautiful girl who would give him what he wanted without any preamble. There was only one problem, she was five years old. His gaze lingered on her dark, silky, unusually long hair and her fair glowing skin. She smelled so good!
“Stop it!” an inner voice told him
“Why should I?” he countered
He wasn’t exactly handsome, in fact, he was far from it. His acne riddled face which was characteristic of his stage of development also made things worse for him. He was skinny and tall and his spoken English was so defective that he could not even say as much as a hello to the girls in his class without eliciting a mocking laughter. His already low self-esteem was made worse when his male colleagues found out about his virginity. Not only did they tease him to no end about it, they bragged about their legendary sexual encounters. Last week, Kenny had brought pictures of a girl he had slept with and had excluded him from viewing it because he was “still a small boy”. Whenever they were given an exhortation against pre-marital sex at the assembly ground, they whistled his name. Even the girls knew he was a virgin; they already thought him weird anyway. The only girls who would give him an audience were the “outcasts”, the girls who were too unattractive to be significant.
Now he finally had an opportunity with this beautiful girl who held him in awe because he always gave her biscuits and sweets. Today her mother had left her in his house to go and attend a wedding. His mother was at the backyard doing laundry, his Dad was out and his younger siblings were asleep. He had brought her to his room when the power had gone out and she could not continue watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He would do it quickly before his mother finished her chore. No one would ever know. He would tell Kenny that he was no more a small boy. He called he to him and set her on his lap.
“Do you want another sweet?” he asked huskily
“Yes” she said bashfully. He gave it to her.
“Do you know you are very fine?”
“Yes” she replied, too distracted with unwrapping the sweet to notice that he was slipping his hands gently up her skirt.
“Dare!” his mother called
“Y…yes….yes ma!” he responded
“Bring Eniola o. Her mother is here” she said
“Y…yes ma” he replied

“My sister that was why I came back o! If I had driven into that main road, I would have seriously regretted it and …” Eniola’s mother was saying.
The first thing she noticed was the unmistakable bulge in front of Dare’s trousers. She quickly pulled her daughter to herself and checked her. Everything seemed fine.
“What did you do to my daughter?” she asked before punching him in the face