The excitement started to fade, replaced by anxiety. Why? I didn’t have that kind of money. I was barely scraping by with the little pocket money my parents gave me each term. I was Young Dumb Broke high school kid. But the thought of meeting her in Mombasa—of finally being with her—kept gnawing at me. I wanted to make it happen. I needed to make it happen.
Whenever I needed a loan, it was just one person that comes to mind- Zak.
But this time there was something else weighing on me—a problem I had been trying to ignore. I owed Zak money, how can I ask him for more loan? Zak wasn’t someone you wanted to mess with. He was a tough guy from Nairobi, always hustling, always in control. He was in his 30s and had his own businesses running. He knew people, had connections, and had this air about him that made you feel like you owed him even before you did.
I had borrowed money from Zak during the last term holiday to take another girl, Najma, on a date. I met Najma during school “funkies”. She was from Wellsprings Girls.
Najma wasn’t like Nadia; she was a real girl, someone I knew from my neighborhood in Nairobi. She was smart, funny, and we hit it off quickly.
So, when the opportunity came for me to take her out, I jumped at it. But I didn’t have any money. That’s when Zak came in. He lent me some cash, no questions asked.
I took her on dates, trying to impress her with fancy dinners, shoppings and adventures. But things didn’t work as planned (Story for another day “Najma, the Girl from Nairobi”), and by the end of it, I was left with nothing but a sinking feeling and an unpaid debt to Zak.
Zak wasn’t the kind of guy who forgot things easily. He had been after me for weeks and months, calling and texting, reminding me that I owed him. I tried to avoid him as best as I could, but it was hard. The truth was, I didn’t have the money. I had no real income and no way of paying him back. But Zak didn’t care about that. He wanted his money, and he made it clear that he would get it one way or another.
Whenever I thought about Zak, a knot of anxiety twisted in my stomach. I knew I was living on borrowed time. I didn’t have many friends outside of school, and Zak was one of the few people I could turn to when I needed money. Every time I thought about him, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen to me. But now that I’m in school I knew I was safe for the next three months- Alhamdullilah.