CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

STRENGTH

"Sir, your guest has arrived", she drew my attention to the young man sitting on a swivel chair with his eyes fixed on a laptop.

But as soon as she finished her statement, his eyes traveled to mine and it felt awkward being in that kind of situation with him.

"You should have told me earlier!", Cleo gave the employee a cold stare and took me to the top of the grocery which has a spectacular view and setting.

"Why were you hiding your identity from me?" Instead of scolding or reprimanding him for his actions, I laughed."You really scared me".

"I'm sorry about that", He smiled."I just wanted to tease you a bit".

"The last time I checked, Cleo Martins was a perfect gentleman", I blurted.

"I'm still one", he brought out a chair for me to sit on and also sat next to me" I've got something important to discuss with you"

Yh! I was crazy! I was crazy enough to think he was gonna confess his undying love for him or ask me to be his girlfriend!

Cleo played the role of the big brother I never had and that must be the reason Michelle hated me so much! He was very concerned about me maintaining my moral standards so how could be possibly want to start a relationship with me?

A minor for that matter!

"There's a contest coming up in Marie's high soon", he told me instead."It's to determine who's gonna be the organizer of this year's carol service among the finalists"

"That's totally cool", I smiled." Are you joining them?"

"I don't think I'm fit enough to do that", he responded."I'm not as jovial as the other boys in Marie's high, you know. Most students think the job of an undertaker is most suitable for me", We both laughed.

"Regardless of what you think of yourself or what others think of you", I sighed then continued," I think you're the most amazing person I've ever met".

"Oh my goodness!" He was taken aback by my statement "I don't you were a flirt before meeting Cleo Martins".

"Whatever", I roll my eyes, then realized something."Hold on a sec....if you called me here to talk about the contest, that means..."

"Yes", he smiled." I don't know if I'll end up being a loser but I want to try my luck. This is my last opportunity to explore Marie's high and I don't want to let it slide. Will you support me on this?"

"Of course. I'll be very happy doing that", I smiled.

Cleo always found a reason to make me look like the bad guy. Apparently, he was busy drafting out the plans he had for the carol service, and that's why he didn't have my time during the week( I should have called to check on him instead of assuming he didn't care about me).

What he wanted me to do was find a new scene that can be added to the Christmas story to spice it up a bit, since I was an Art student. I prayed not to disappoint him because I already pledged my undying support for him, and to a large extent, I felt like he signed up for the contest because of me.

After telling me what to do, Cleo also showed me the nice graphic he designed for the event. At noontime, he took me to Protec's underground car park to give me a ride home in his car though I protested for a while. Being with him was something I never got tired of, but I still didn't want him to go through any inconvenience because of me. I knew he needed more time to plan for the event.

As I expected, Bola already fed the kids but instead of sleeping after dinner, they waited for me to return while watching, "The Grinch". Seeing the lovely Christmas decorations displayed in the movie, it dawned on me that Christmas was fast approaching and I felt like the weight of making this year's Christmas carol service memorable for all Marie's high student and Cleo especially was on me.

At some point, I was tempted to give up everything, without considering how Cleo will feel.

After all, we can have the normal Christmas story displayed and be happy in the end.

"How was the place?", Bola asked me as we sat in our usual spot at the master's bedroom balcony. For reasons known to her only, grandma didn't lock it.

"Cool. My anonymous admirer turned out to be Cleo", I replied, wishing that was true.

"How can that be?" She laughed."Are you sure you didn't go to that address on purpose, cause you seem to be really into that guy lately".

"No. I didn't think he was going to be the one. I was very surprised when I saw him there too", I explained.

" If that's the case, what does he want from you", she was very curious to know.

"Well......", I told her everything.

" You don't mean it", she was surprised "Who does that? He couldn't even think of taking you on a boat cruise."

"That's enough", I shut her up politely." If money is the only thing that matters to you darling, that's not the same for me. I really appreciate what Cleo's doing even if you.... ", In the middle of our conversation, Bola and I hear the sound of something crashing so we rushed downstairs to check on the kids.

"What happened?"Bola uttered some words before I could think of doing so.

"Tominwa and Segun broke the decoder remote after fighting over it", Gbemi explained to us.

"We're just getting started", I closed my eyes and rubbed my temple slightly to avoid doing something I might regret.

For the rest of the weekend, we were forced to watch the African Magic Movie Channel since there was no remote to change over. Anyways, I eventually got the inspiration I needed for theu Christmas story from it so I wasn't too bothered like Bola and Gbemi who couldn't watch their favorite Indian telenovela series.

As early as 5 am on the following Monday, Cleo called to inform me he was coming to pick me up so we can continue discussing our plans for the contest. To make things easy for Bola, I cleaned the house a little, prepared Boiled Yam with fried eggs, and dished it in the kiddies' lunch box since they agreed to eat cereals for breakfast.

Bola thought I was trying to bribe them so they won't notify grandma about my outings but that wasn't the case. I really cared about them. Since they came into the house, I've been feeling less lonely though it was very hard to be to deal with their lousiness in the beginning.

Before joining Cleo in his car, I informed Uncle B about our outing since he happened to be home when I was leaving. He wasn't sure about letting me go but he agreed after I told him the outing was important for a school project we were working on. Nevertheless, he warned me to be careful not to do anything that will get grandma upset again.

"You go first, ma'am", Cleo said as a lady came to take our order at a local Breakfast Restaurant.

" I want a bowl of ogi with one pack of Hollandia milk and a plate of akara. Thanks", I told her confidently.



"I'll take the same order", he said when it got to his turn.

"When did Cleo Martins turn a copycat?" I teased him after the attendant turned her back on us.

"Do I have a choice? Miss Nifemi Adeoye makes me do unimaginable things", he replied.

Blushing was the last thing I wanted to do, yet I did it and wouldn't stop doing it for a long time. It was very embarrassing!

The meal we bought turned out to be tastier than I expected so I ordered for more. While we were eating, Cleo told me he's been one of the restaurant's top customers for years because they've been able to maintain their unique taste and that made me think of being one as well.

Instead of watching me deal with my second order since he was done eating, Cleo looked through my jotter and was quite impressed with the idea I came up with. Then a few minutes later, he suggested that we make the story fully African and I agreed with him.

"I can't believe that!" Shola screamed in our homeroom after I told her what transpired between me and Cleo over the weekend. But the contest part still remained a secret between the two of us.

"But it's the truth", I sat on my chair.

"Cleo is no woman wrapper. What did you do to him?", We later found out Rose was eavesdropping our conversation.

"Your families are very close. Why don't you invite him over for dinner and ask him yourself?" Shola decided to mess around with her.

As Rose was about to speak, a happy-go-lucky student interrupted our conversation. He must be your favorite character in this book.

"I'd like Kelly Junior to organize the carol for this year. It's gonna be super lit if he does", DJ Freaki showed us a video of another popular Playboy in Marie's high stating his intentions for the Carol on the school's website.

All that video did was made shake vehemently and feel inadequate to help Cleo win the contest because it was very good!

When the video was done playing, photos of I and Cleo having breakfast at the local restaurant also appeared. At first, I thought it was Shola trying to prove to me that she was capable of getting any information about me, even if I didn't tell but I was surprised to find out she knew nothing about it. Besides, she was disappointed at me for not informing her about our relationship, but I quickly countered her claim.

"Hey, what's up", A tall dark guy with small beards said to me, as I made my way to the infirmary on Wednesday for a medical checkup because I was feeling feverish.

" Hi", I forced myself to say.

"Are you the Nifemi Adeoye everyone seems to be talking about lately?" He asked.

"Yes", I confirmed." Is there a problem?"

"Not really", he laughed." I see no reason why a pretty girl like you roll with an asshole like Cleo".

"Excuse me?" I got angry and yelled at him.

"Yh. The only place he could afford to take you is a restaurant that sells ogi and akara", he kept on laughing."Who does that?"

"That's not for you to worry about", I continued my journey so he would give up, but he kept following me.

"We don't even know he's sexually active. He's never been with a girl. Stop wasting your time!"The guy spat bitterly and disappeared into thin air.

Geez! I shouldn't have been surprised that Marie's high student could say something like that but I was. I don't know why most of them chose to remain a bunch of imbeciles who bully and badmouth people for fun!

"Hey, ma'am", I thought the guy came back but realized it was Cleo who came to look for me probably because Shola told him I was here.

Dropping me home after school became his habit but he didn't do that the previous day. I tried calling him twice but he didn't pick up either so I stopped, thinking he was having an important class.

"What're you doing here?", we said at the same time, heading to the Doctor's office.

"I've been feeling feverish", I told him.

"Is that really true? You're supposed to be receiving a math lecture. Is that why you ran away?" He teased me.

"Of course not", We both laughed.

"I'm sorry you're going through all sorts of things because of me", he placed his right hand on my neck to check my body temperature.

"Oh, stop it. This is clearly not your fault. We're all bound to fall sick at some point in our life. I'll be fine", I didn't want him to worry about me too much.

"I'd rather not say anything", he says when it was his turn to tell me why he's at the infirmary." I don't want you to force any weird-looking capsule down my throat".

"Would you prefer me worrying about you without knowing the cause?"I pouted.

"Of course not", He looked into my eyes."You have to promise that you won't worry about me, regardless of what happens".

Words were clamoring on me to let them out of my lips yet I just stood there dumbfounded till the receptionist informed me that the doctor was ready to attend to me. At the doctor's office, I got some medical prescriptions and was advised to take enough rest for a speedy recovery. So, I had to take a nap at the sleeping room before heading to Marketing Class which is the last for the day.

Cleo couldn't wait for me to finish. He only left me a note behind, telling me to stay strong and hearty because I was his source of strength.

That made me very happy.

Uncle B got a new decoder remote but I wish he waited a bit before doing so. My silly siblings still needed to suffer a little more for what they did. Still, I couldn't tell him to return it so I simply ordered them to stay away from it!

"When are you going to finish this script of yours", Bola came to check on me at our backyard, where I sat to keep working on the Christmas play. There was a bowl of prawn crackers keeping me company and my handsome dog watching over me. It also kept starring at my jotter like he understood what was being written in there.

"Soon", I took a little break to stretch my hands and eat little from my snacks.

"You said it will be about African culture alone.." She looked through it. "Won't that be boring for twenty-first century students?"

"Let's see", I pondered on what she said."

"Oh my goodness!", Bola screamed all of a sudden. She left me to continue with my writing a while ago, so I wondered what made her return with that alarming noise.

"Kilotun de oo(What's going on)?"I sighed because I knew she was capable of making a fuss over petty things.

"Nifemi, how could you do this?" She showed me a video on my Twitter account.

I couldn't believe what I saw but that didn't change the fact that it was Cleo masturbating in an unfamiliar place.

If Bola wasn't alert, her IPhone would have fallen to the ground, in the manner in which I did.

What happened really made me devastated. I couldn't figure out how the video on to my account. I didn't know whether to believe it or not because it seemed very real. Still, I was worried that I won't even get the chance to ask Cleo what happened because he would be very disappointed at me.

Then, I remembered Mrs. Martins. Would she ever forgive me for what happened? Would she ever let me be near her son again? Would she ever treat me like her daughter again?

I felt like my life was going to come to an end after seeing that video. I tried hard to find someone who perfectly understood me and I was about to lose him. I felt like my heart was stabbed with a knife. Still, I was worried about how hurt Cleo must feel even though I had no right to do that because I was the cause of his problem.

Though I knew nothing about the video.

"You should at least have an energy drink", Bola kept pestering me to take something, because I refused to do so since the incident happened." You need energy if you plan to keep on crying".

"You're so mean", Gbemi frowned at her. Resting on her shoulders gave me the warmth and comfort I needed but it didn't stop me from crying.

"I'm not. You just misunderstood me because yours is a chicken brain", she laughed.

"Have you tried to explaining to him?"Uncle B asked. He also showed great concern towards me since Bola told him what happened.

"He's not picking my calls, nor replying any of my messages", I told him with tearful eyes and shaky lips."I'm sure he hates me. I would have done worse if I were in his shoes".

"Oh my! Will you stop acting this way?"Bola says calmly. "The most important thing is you didn't do it on purpose to tarnish his imagine right?"

"Yes..", my body trembled."Cleo means a lot to me. I wouldn't do anything to hurt him on purpose"

"Do you know where he lives?"Uncle B told Tominwa to get his car keys on his bedside table even before I answered.

"Yes. I can take you there", I sniffed.

"Alright. Let's go", We took off.

The Martin's residence seemed farther than ever because I was eager to get there and explain things to Cleo. I couldn't wait to get on my knees and tell him how sorry I was. Though I wasn't sure if I'll be able to stand him hurl insulting words at me, or hit me. I was also scared that he would bluntly refuse to see me or hurt himself because of me.

"You have to be strong. Everything will be alright okay?"Uncle B rang the doorbell on my behalf.

"Yes", Cleo's mum appeared on the screen of their security camera as I talked to Uncle B." Good evening, ma", I said to her slowly.

"You have the nerve to show up here after all you've done!" She said angrily."What kind of a person are you?"

"I'm very sorry", I apologized with tears in my eyes." It wasn't me who uploaded that video...I don't know how...", I tried to explain things to her but she didn't let me.

"Leave my house right now with that bullshit story of yours! I don't wanna see you near my family again!" She left and I fell into Uncle B's arms.

"It's alright", he patted my back.

I couldn't close my eyes one bit because I spent all night thinking about what happened especially how much it will hurt Cleo.

Using my fever as an excuse, I decided to stay at home the next day and watch online classes avoid being a subject of ridicule for the whole of Marie's high again. I didn't even plan to return to school till the end If the year.

"Are you sure you'll be fine being alone by yourself?" Gbemi felt bad for me.

"Sure", I gave her a hug.

"Take good care of yourself, and don't cry too much", Bola hugged as well and took the kids downstairs. They've all offered to stay home with me but I refused to put their careers in jeopardy

So, I stayed in our huge mansion all by myself. Instead of watching movies that will comfort me, I went for the likes of "midnight sun" which worsened my mood. During this period, the window curtains in my bedroom were drawn together and my light switches were turned off.

Just like the state of my room, my life was in utter darkness. I needed to find the light but I didn't have the strength to pursue it.

A/N
Hello, guys. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing and editing it. Truth be told, it was really awkward for me to write the part where that awful video was seen on Nifemi's twitter account but I had to do that for a reason which you'll discover soon enough.

For me, this is the saddest chapter in Marie's high. What do you think? Who do you think is behind this madness? Do you think the relationship between Cleo and Nifemi can ever be the same again?

I would like to hear your view in the comment section, so please say something(no matter how small it is), and don't forget to vote for this book by clicking on the star icon beneath this post. Thank you very much😍😁 Remain blessed!
Yours teenfictionly,
Eniola Oluwamuyiwa

Theyuuu