CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

 

Segun took my phone when I was done calling Cleo because he was using it to play games, but he gave it back when a call finally came from him.

"Hi", I answered the call nervously.

"Take a deep breath", Bola instructed and I obeyed her.

" Hey, ma'am. Sorry I missed your call. I was in my therapist's office",  His cool voice said over the phone.

"Oh..", I stuttered a bit.

"Is there a problem?"he sounded worried about me.

"No. I just...wanted to know if you'd be around today. I want us to go watch a movie together", I was hoping his schedule would be free.

" Wow! Miss Nifemi Adeoye taking me on a date?" I imagined him smiling at that moment. "Why not? I'd be honored"

I was very happy he said yes to my proposal.

"Thanks", I told him.

" Thank you more. You're first lady taking me on a date".

"Oh!" I exclaimed.

Was that supposed to be a compliment or an insult to my personality?

"My reading session will be over by 11am. What time will you come pick me up? Ideally, I should be the one doing that but unfortunately, I have no car to call my own".

"2pm. See you soon", He responded.

"Okay. Take care", I hung up and he did the same.

Bola didn't pick my outfit today. When it was almost time for me to leave the house, I looked into our closet and brought out a pair of blue jeans, a white crop top with printed words on it and a D&G belt. To the glory of God, she didn't complain about it.

After putting on my clothes, I took one of Aunt Simi's shoulder bags with her permission of course, then I saw Bola's mascara tube lying around.

Goodness me! I was tempted to use it and did so. But thank God it didn't make me look like a masquerade like I had imagined. Even Bola couldn't believe her eyes when she saw me.

At the film house cinema, Cleo didn't keep his eyes off me. Each time an opposite sex of our age tried to start a conversation with me, he scared them away like a Chicken protecting her baby from hawks. That made feel very secured but at the same time, socializing with new people isn't that bad, right?

I wish you were all here to see how I was making a fool of myself when Ramsey Noah was taking a picture with us on the red carpet event for his new movie, 'Living In Bondage'.

You just can't imagine how happy I was to see him with my two eyes! He was my number one  celebrity crush! Despite his age, he was still able to keep fit and he keeps getting more handsome. Aside from that, he's also very good at what he does. That man is a legend!

"Should be start heading home? It seems like you've lost interest in watching the movie", Cleo said because I kept staring at the picture with my celebrity crush even after we settled on our seats to watch the movie.

"He called me pretty and charming!" My eyes dilated with joy as I keep remembering the moments spent with him.

"What!" Cleo yelled angrily."He must be a good for nothing pervert!",By the time he realized his mistake, people were already watching us. Probably feeling stupid and sorry for speaking that way in public, he rose on his feet and headed for the exit."I don't deserve to be here with you".

"No, wait", I pulled him back, feeling the coldness of his palms on mine."I'm sorry. I went overboard with the Ramsey stuff".

"Same here",he sighed."I'm extremely sorry. Will you forgive me?"

"More than the number of times Jesus commanded us",We returned to our seats clasping our hands. We were then prepared to enjoy the movie.

As soon as the lights turned off for the movie to commence, Cleo puts his arm round me defensively. Between the movie, we took bits of milky popcorn and sips of coke to refresh ourselves.

To be honest, the movie was way beyond my expectation! Ramsey really exerted his energy, passion and devotion into ensuring every scene turns out magnificent.

To avoid missing any important scene in the movie, I didn't take my eyes off the movie projector for a sec but all of a sudden, Cleo covered my eyes with his right hand.

"What's going on?" My heart was beating faster.

"This scene's not meant for a minor", He defended his action.

"Oh.."I sat still.

Even though the room was pretty dark, I still didn't want him to catch a glimpse of my embarrassed look so I bent down and pretended to be looking for something. He also did the same and our heads collided in the process.

"Ouch!" I groaned. The collision really caused me pain. His head was as hard as a rock.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I just wanted to help you find whatever it is you were looking for", He wanted to help me rub the affected area but I didn't let him.

"It's alright. I'm okay", I told him.

As soon as the film ended, Cleo grabbed my hand and headed for the exit because it was already late. He didn't want me to get in trouble with my aunt and I didn't want to leave without getting being interviewed by one of the reporters around, so I'd be able to tell them how much I enjoyed the movie.

In the car, it took me lot of courage to thank Cleo for what he did back then in the cinema. He also apologized for hurting me in the process and made me promise that I'll never let anyone use and dump me.

Making that promise was very awkward!

"How did it go?" Bola opened the front door, waiting for me to bombard her with gist.

"Cool", I smiled." Very nice".

"You must be very tired. Go and have a shower. Dinner is ready", Aunt Simi told me as I entered our bedroom, where she was having her cloth sowing session.

" Thanks but I'm not hungry",I moved into the bathroom to have shower, hoping it'll wash off the bad memories I had today, yet give the good ones a permanent permit.

The Monday we started our examination was accompanied by creative artworks in different angles, which were unique enough to make Marie's high the school with the best Xmas decoration in the country. It's not like I had enough time to check the school's page. I just happened to catch a glimpse of the news on Bola's phone. What I really cared about was my exam. My first paper was Government and it was the least of my favorite subjects.

"Good morning, students", One of the external invigilators in my exam hall said few minutes after I settled down.

"Good morning, sir", I and the other students in the hall said at the same time.

"I hope you're all ready to work", He grinned.

"Yes, sir", We raised our voices.

"Can someone remind me the motto of this hall?" He moved about the hall.

"Violation not allowed", A coarse voice said from the back roll.

"Good", He ordered the teachers in charge of our hall to start distributing the question papers to the exam question."Hey, you!" He pointed to a student who mistakenly opened his question script before we were instructed to do so.

"Sir?" The guy shivered like a leave being blown by the wind.

"You're dismissed from this hall till further notice", He ushered the boy out.

For a couple of minutes, I remain dazed. I was expecting him to call the boy back but he didn't till we finished our papers for the day. That made me extra careful with the every action I took while writing each paper.

After my papers, I boarded a taxi home with Gbemi and Tominwa because I was not in the mood to wait for Bola. She still had one more paper left.

"How could you leave my baby alone",Aunt Simi felt sorry for her daughter.

"I'm sorry", I dashed into the kitchen to grab a bowl of cornflakes with milk and few strawberries.

"You don't have to be. I can see how drained you are because of your school exam", She went to check what she was cooking in the kitchen. "Lunch will be ready soon".

"Ok", I returned to the kitchen to wash my now empty cereal bowl.

Grandma told me severally that it was very bad to sleep from afternoon till midnight but I still didn't plan to wake up until the next day after I closed my eyes for a nap. The exam questions I did really took a toll on me. However, Aunt Simi sent Gbemi to inform me Cleo was waiting for me downstairs so I had to wake up.

"Hi. I'm sorry for coming at an inappropriate time", He said as soon as he saw me.

"No. It's fine", I rubbed off sleepiness from my tired eyes.

"I think it'll much more convenient for you guys to talk under the apple trees upstairs for the love of God. We have an important mission to accomplish, and we're not eavesdroppers". Bola opened the living room door for us.

Could there be any more important mission for Bola, than watching the grand finale of her favorite Indian telenovela?

"Thanks for the kind gesture",I winked at her before going after Cleo.

"So how was your exam today?" He asked as we settled on a bench under the apple tree.

"It was cool", I sighed. " But quite different from those I had to deal with in the past".

"I understand",he smiled."I know you'll figure things out easily. Besides, I brought you past questions and the ones I developed myself. I hope it's not too late.

"Not at all. I really appreciate you for doing this", I shook off a pair of green leave that fell on my left leg.

" You don't have to",he brought out a new jotter from his briefcase, drew a tabular form in it and gave it to me because he wanted me to answer some questions in it. "Let's get started".

" Yes, professor", I took a deep breath.

"Where do I get a stick to unplug these delicious fruits?" He stared at some fully grown ripped apples on the tree which we are underneath.

"Are you really interested in these apples? We have the foreign ones upstairs" I informed him.

"I don't want those", he insisted and climbed the tree.

"Cleo, do you really have to do this?"I panicked, and constantly looked up to be assured of his safety.

"Yes and I'm fine up here. Will you like to join me when you're done?"his voice got thinner.

" No. I'm not as strong as you, Mr Cleo",I closed my new jotter, having finished the work he gave to me.

"Oh my God! It's a snake!" Cleo screamed all of a sudden.

"Are you serious?" I was shocked.

"Yes. It's heading towards me with it's poisonous tongue stretched out. What am I goanna do?" He whinnied.

"Just stay calm. Everything will be alright", I picked up a machete on the floor which belonged to one of the timber cutters in the area, even though I didn't know how to use it.

If they were around, they would have helped in dealing with the snake issue easily, but unfortunately that day was their union party day.

"Nifemi, I'm very sorry. I would have loved to spend more time with you but unfortunately...." He started lamenting.

"Please stop that", I wiped away the bits of tears coming out of my eyes, and summon courage to meet him at the top of the tree.

"So you finally came",Cleo made mockery of me. I figured he only used the snake issue to get my attention.

"You're so cruel", I hit his arm." Do you know I almost lost my breath?"

"Uh oh...I'm very sorry", he kept on laughing." I couldn't let you miss the refreshing breeze up here".

"Yh", the coolness of the breeze overwhelmed me.

"What are we going to do? I don't feel like doing anything anymore", he held two stems around him firmly.

"It's alright", We can stay here all night",I plucked a fruit within my reach.

"Lazy student", he gave me a knock and proceeded to climb down.

" Cleo, are you really going to leave me up here?"I moaned.

Almost all the questions Cleo told me to work on, came out in the exam script which made things quite easy for me than the previous day. Nevertheless, I made sure to go through my work thoroughly before making a final submission to avoid stories that touch.

During lunch, Shola and I hanged out with Timmy at the school's cafe. They didn't enjoy talking about wrong or right objective answers like me so we talked more about our plans for the upcoming Christmas holiday.

"Nifemi Adeoye" Someone called my name in the literature room, which was also one of my favorite places in Marie's high. It was a library filled with book shelves harbouring mostly nineties and eighties literary books which I loved scanning through once a while. It also had a portrait of Shakespeare and other great poets.

"Yes", I turned to see a male figure standing behind me.

"I looked over your literature script cause I was eager to see how you'd perform. You did a great job in there", Mr Yemi offered me a hand.

"Thank you sir", I received his handshake with my face turned down.

"I've also seen the script you made for the carol dram. Go into full-time writing", He advised." You'll do great".

"I'll think about it. Thank you very much sir", I smiled.

" You're welcome",he picked some few books and walked out of the room.

As soon as the closing bell rang all over Marie's high, I retrieved my backpack from my locker and ran to the main gate. I decided to take a stroll home that day but Bola wasn't in the mood to walk so she accepted DJ Freaki's offer to take her and our siblings home.

From the bicycle racks, I saw Cleo waving to me and I waved back. Still he doesn't allow me to leave in peace.

"Why are you walking home alone?" He questioned me.

"I just feel like walking home", My response made his usual facial expression turn into an inscrutable one.

"I'm going to ruin your plans. Hope you don't mind?"he gave me an piece of helmet, with two thick leather gloves to protect my head and hands.

"Okay", I put on those outfits as instructed.

"Here we go",He cycled out of the school compound.

Riding with him was more fun than I'd expected. It would have been cool if I had a long wavy to roll with it but the only hair I had was short and curly but I still loved it.

"We're home", Cleo said as we got to Aunt Simi's apartment.

"Thanks for the ride"I got off the bike and returned the accessories he gave me.

"You're welcome, ma'am", He smiled

" So what'll you be doing after leaving?" I inquired from him.

"I actually planned to stay and tutor you like yesterday but I can excuse myself if I'll be causing an obstruction to your schedule", he said.

" No...not at all",I got him an iron chair to sit on and went inside to change into a casual wear.

Cleo enjoyed being on the tree so he made us climb up again. But this time, he didn't have to force me. I even took my books with me to make things easier for us.

It was very amazing there. Apart from the breeze, I got to see variety of scenes like people lined up to buy sweet puffpuff from the fattest woman in the area, groups of children playing local games, and men taking bottles upon bottles of beer over a draft game.

"Did your mom like the apple?" I asked him as he reached for the fruit on a nearby stalk, because he took some home for her the previous day.

"Sure. She was even asking about how she can get a bulk supply", he answered.

" That's good. I can be the middleman", I couldn't wait to apply the business strategies I learnt in marketing.

"You like money too much!"He shook his head.

"Na you sabi oo. So what are we doing today",I showed him all the textbooks available.

"We don't need these today", he put them aside." We're goanna to interrogate each other today".

"Based on what?" I was very curious to find out.

A/N:
When we love people, we shouldn't only carry about having fun with them, disturbing them with text messages or posting their pictures on social medial platforms. We should also endeavor to help their career in anyway we can and assist them in maintaining their moral standards.
This is the hardest chapter I've edited so far in Marie's high 😅but I still hope you guys enjoyed it. If you did, please do not hesitate to vote and comment on it. You can also share it to other teenfiction lovers. Thank you very much.
Yours teenfictionly,
Eniola Oluwamuyiwa.