𝓡𝓾𝓷𝔀𝓪𝔂𝓼 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓓𝓮𝓬𝓮𝓹𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷 ✔︎

Chapter 20

IRENE

Walking into the house after Theodore dropped me off, I tip toed around the house trying to make it to my room. Getting up the stairs successfully, I huffed out a breath I had no idea I had in me placing my hand across my chest.

"And where are you coming from young lady?"

Oh shit!

I turned to Mayowa with a shocked expression. "Don't even make an attempt to lie because I saw the boy that dropped you off."

The way he emphasised on the word boy caused me to cringe. I rolled my eyes mentally. "And I know it isn't Desmond in case you were contemplating telling me it was him."

"Can't I have other male friends asides Desmond?" He tilted his head staring at me and he sighed. "Yeah whatever." I was glad he let it go.

"Where were you though? I had been looking everywhere for you. Your mum had called me earlier to know how you're faring and I had to lie you were asleep."

I looked up at his worried eyes and sighed. He does care about me. Maybe he isn't so bad after all. "I'm sorry." I blurted out. "I just needed to see Theodore badly." I only realised how wrong that sounded when it left my mouth.

He looked down at me with a playful smirk.. "So it's Theodore huh?" I looked away and my eyes landed on my shoes. 

Who the fuck is this? My subconscious practically screamed.

Not the Irene Coker I know. The fuck happened to you girl?

Oh yeah, Theodore happened.

Those words burned my cheeks hard and I was aware that my complexion reddened. "It definitely is." Mayowa responded and I groaned making my way to my room.

"Are you two dating already?" He asked and I shot him a look. "No."
"So you like him." He stated and I huffed. "No, I don't know." I finally slumped on my bed as I got into my room.

He took a seat beside me on my bed and I felt him collapse beside me. "Well I'm gonna share with you a little trick. Back in the days, you know when I was younger. I used this trick to know if I liked someone."

I plopped on my elbow with interest and he smiled. "I'll clear my mind and close my eyes and then if I see her face, I know she's the one. Sometimes it's the spark you feel when you make contact with the person. Or the feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when they look at you. Sometimes it's how much you're willing to engage yourself with the things they do or you try your best to impress them. Other times, you want to look your best around them and most of all, you feel really hurt when you see them with someone else."

I blinked.

Once.

Twice.

Thrice.

And I asked the question. "Is that what you feel around my mum?" His smile widened. "It's way more than that Irene. It's way more than that. I'm in love with Tiffany." He said calling my mum by her first name.

I cringed inwardly. It was on the tip of my tongue to ask how he 'fell in love' with her but I wasn't in any way a fan of gooey and weird love stories.

I gave him a quick once over. "Aren't you like younger than she is?"

"Four years younger, yes. But love has nothing to do with that. Age just comprises of digits." I nodded my mind drifting to the time when my dad used to tell us about how he met my mum.

She slapped him at their first meeting because he mistakenly spilled his drink on her at a party they both attended and surprisingly, that slap kept him coming back.