DENIM

The clouds gathered. They ushered in a drizzle. Matteo wished he had brought his bike along as he walked through the Salford crowd heading to the department. He couldn’t be late for Mr. Andy’s class. He walked

in just before the doors were locked. Mr. Andy was superb as usual. He beckoned Matteo and a few others who worked on his project to see him immediately after his lecture.

“Who did this? Denim” he asked in his usual manner, even though Matteo Huston was clearly inscribed on the front page.

“Mine Sir, still got a few adjustments to…”

“Bollocks! It’s perfect already, asides the odd name, why the backlash from Clint and the others then?”

“Jealous much?” Gina added as she walked in the room. No one noticed she stood outside waiting. Mr. Andy let out a dry hearty laugh “you’re catching the fun Matts? You look like me on a Monday morning”. Matteo was surely tired, he left Nia for the pettiest reason. She laughed at him getting orchestra tickets, a heated argument followed and they finally agreed on what they hated about each other. He cursed at the advent of music taste as she left angrily. Gina came to the rescue.

“Let him be Andy, he’s in level four” they both chuckled as Matteo left the room. He proceeded to leave quickly and catch a taxi before the rain started.

“Hey, what’s up” a petite girl said as he stepped out “you’re new here?”. She had a bright red scarf on which was perfectly complemented with her flawless dark skin. She had a warm smile on, he could notice the freckles as both sides of her cheeks widened. Her thick braids fell to one side as she gingerly walked away from a group of giggling girls.

“Not exactly, been around…Matteo!” he muttered before he became tongue-tied

“Ennie, Ennie Wilson” she had a full smile “heading for the creek?”

Creek was a building just off-campus where arts and humanities students hung out, he hated it. Now he’s willingly going there with some girl he couldn't wrap his head around. 

“You remembered us today” 

Matteo turned to the familiar voice of Clint, he suddenly remembered all the declined invitations to come ‘chill at the creek'. Just some weird nerd hangout. That was his thought everytime Clint asked him, however, he was a nerd too the sad angry one.

“I just felt like…”

“Hey! What's up” his gloved palms were outstretched to shake Ennie's. “I haven't seen you around, something tells me you usually come here to chill though”

Matteo wished he could just let go of the word ‘Chill’ for once.

“Just a few times, I actually brought him here” Ennie said as she tugged at the shirt of a distracted Matteo. Clint let out a dry long laugh, then offered to buy them Punch.

Matteo found himself locked in on the activities of the weird looking hall. He was obviously wrong about the place. How could he believe it was actually a cool spot? Clint of all people invited him first and he assumed it was some Bourgeois tea party setting. 

Potter Payper's “Gangsteritos” blared loud from the speakers as Matteo and the others sat round a low table.

Clint went first, “Andy spoke well of your project, and we see it the same way, had a brief discussion and I actually love the idea”

“You did criticize it before, am I safe?” Matteo asked.

Clint let out his loud laugh once again, spilling some Punch on the table. “Not at all, In fact Gina agrees too”

“I don't”. Gina adjusted her glasses as if to assert her stance. “The tone and everything else was good, but you are addressing the issue of slavery, and eventual colonialism from the point of African leaders failing to take an initial solid stance against whites, beats me”.

Matteo was surprised at her change in opinion. He took his time, as he wanted to look smart in front of Ennie. “The main goal is to highlight how important the African identity is, the whole period after the Berlin conference ushered in a full shit show of big European powers trying to control, but certain chiefdoms and empires were so divided, the idea of a unified stance against the Brits was absurd. Funny enough the biggest record of a unified force was that of the Caliphate, Sokoto”

“I've read about that,” Clint added. “Where exactly?”.

“Current day Nigeria, North” Gina said almost coldly. “Vast lands all turned into one caliphate by a jihad, the culture there is actually rich, Islamized or not, need to see for myself soon”.

“Been there before”. Ennie joined the ‘Punch debate' for the first time. “I'm Nigerian, well my mother is, I've been there, just twice though, art tour with my Mother”.

“You're damn lucky” Gina said between sips.

Matteo knew a Nigerian guy down in Stockport, he arrived last year for a job at Chris' workplace. Whenever he's around they hold conversations about politics, Africa and Highlife music. Matteo decided it's better to keep that to himself though, he was getting tired, 28 hours without sleep, his muscles ached. Ennie seemed to read his mind as she excused herself and thanked them for the drinks. Matteo walked her outside and waited till she got a cab.

What a weird day! He was one second away from taking a bus back home before Ennie showed up and assumed he was heading for The Creek. Well it wasn't really an assumption, maybe she just asked him out. 

“Fucking lucky” he muttered to himself as her taxi drove away.

Matteo found himself going out more with Ennie, Creek, another spot on campus, coffee shops, later on Carrington.

Then her parent’s house at Bolton for dinner. Who was he to decline? She’s a jewel

“Hey Bruv” Matteo muttered as he stepped into his brother’s condo. Chris was on the sofa with headphones on.

“Game or two?” he asked Matteo as he examined his old joystick. They settled on FIFA and played till dark.

“ I got a thing with this college chick, invited me for dinner in Bolton”

“That’s nice, good to see you’re over Shelly” Matteo chuckled. “Stayed long at work, couldn’t work out anything, bought some hot burgers”

The next morning, he kept wondering how he’d meet the parents of a girl he doesn’t even know if he’s dating yet. He thought of his project, unapproved despite the praise from Mr. Andy. Of course! it received backlash from his project colleagues, but he couldn’t care less, Denim was his baby.

The next day, Ennie gingerly led the way to the train station. It was a busy Manchester afternoon, hardly any time to admire the usual serene scenery of commercial streets as he liked to.

“What are you playing?” she asked. Matteo removed his airpods to hear her properly

“Let me have a look” She peered at his arranged queue “no dancehall? What do you play?”

“It’s just liked songs, I do play Koffee’

“Yeah, she brings the stuff!! omg! You fuck with Burna?”

“Heavy”.

They talked about their weirdly similar music taste at the station. The train journey was long, by the time the taxi dropped them off at her Parents’ it was past six.

The Wilsons' house was incredibly large. Mrs. Wilson welcomed them in with a wide smile, the kind her daughter had when they first met. Mr. Wilson was one bulky man, he had on loose joggers and a beach shirt.

‘Daddy!” Ennie gave him a quick hug “this is my boyfriend Matteo, Matteo Huston”

Matteo was flushed with mixed emotions, well, they’ve been in love for weeks, they just avoided the words.

“Ennie tells me you’re an African history enthusiast” he had a really deep voice.

“Yeah, I’ve worked on…”

“You know, I grew up on cape coast, lovely place! People hardly give any focus on that area”

“Well you’ve got two international history students here now, count yourself lucky” Mrs. Wilson added between mixing spinach and serving more rice for her husband. Ennie gave a chuckle and squeezed his outstretched hand. 

Ennie was staying back till Monday. After refusing a ride back to the station, She offered to walk Matteo till he saw a taxi.

“So….” Matteo desperately tried not to ruin the moment “your folks are pretty nice”. She laughed. He didn’t realize they were holding hands. “I’m fucking lucky we got to know each other for real” he was extra courteous now “I hope you don’t pick offense, but what got you interested in me at first ?”. She grinned wide and walked slowly.

“If I tell you, you owe me a kiss”

“You don’t need to ask at all” they both chuckled

“Ok” she turned and wrapped her svelte arms round his shoulders “your Denim project”

He grinned sheepishly and gave her a slow kiss. She was the one.

A taxi finally approached, a chill wind started blowing. Winter was fast approaching.