Carved in the Heart

09

As the days turned into weeks and weeks to months, my relationship with Desmond kept on being strained, he was seeing other girls thinking I've not noticed it. Whenever I'm passing by and he's with a different girl, his friends meet me halfway and engage me in conversation trying to divert my attention from them but I always see them.

We're now in our final year of Junior high School and it's been two and a half years since we've been going out. Desmond still sits beside me in class and fights anyone who tries to take his place.

Today is another day of school, I'm expecting to get the daily dose of pain and heart break that will be presented by Dee to me. Sherry decided to sit behind Dee and I, and she still flirts with him but he doesn't feel comfortable with me being there so he normally ignores her.

'How are you doing Mrs. Darling?' Desmond asked me in a whisper behind my ear, giving me a kiss on my cheek as well.

'I'm fine.' I replied and continued reading my notebook, I was annoyed with him and I also wanted him to apologise for what he's done, but it seems he still wasn't aware I knew about his other girlfriends.

'Babe what is wrong? You've been acting weird towards me lately.' He said while placing a kiss on the back of my hand that he's been holding since he sat down.

I didn't answer him and I can see he was feeling frustrated because he kept passing his hands through his cropped hair. I wanted to save him from his dilemma but I decided against it and kept reading.

'Natalie, I'm sorry if I've done anything that has wronged you in any way. Please forgive me and talk to me.' he said still holding my hand in hand. I was happy though and I decided to save him.

'Apology accepted, now get your head off my laps the teacher is almost in.' He's developed the habit of sleeping on my lap whenever we're in class and at times, I also sleep on his. It's our little ritual that we've developed.

Lessons has begun and the class is in full swing, at my Junior high school, once you're in your final year, you're supposed to have early morning classes which starts at 6:00am to 7:30am and evening classes which starts from 16:30 to 18:30 every day.

Its fun especially the evening classes because I get to spend time with Mr. Dee before the day ends. These classes also helps us to prepare in advance for our B. E. C. E (Basic Education Certificate Examination).

Evening class has started for about thirty minutes now and Desmond is still not back from break. His friends are back but he didn't come with them. I tried to ask them if his whereabouts but they avoided my eyes. Ellis came to sit in front of me and I asked him but he told me he didn't go out with him.

I kept looking at the empty seat beside me till he came back. He was sweaty and in a rush so I waited for him to get settled before I ask him any question, because I was truly worried.
'What is the topic about and where have you reached?' he asked me before I could ask him any questions. I answered him  and after sometime, decided to ask why he was late, but he ignored me.

'Why were you late, what happened? Is everything alright?' he still ignored me so I decided to leave him alone.

On our way home, I asked him the same question again and he told me it's nothing but he went to talk to his mom when she came to pick up his siblings. I didn't think much about it and let it go.

After that day, all the days that followed were the same, he comes to evening class thirty minutes late or an hour late and he always asks me the same questions. Whenever I ask of the reason, I get the same answer and his friends always avoid me whenever he's late.

I realized there might be something fishy but I didn't dwell on it. I decided to trust him, but unfortunately, one day after evening class, I couldn't find him and I decided to go check outside. I got there only to find him with my friend standing in a promiscuous position. My friend, Laura was against the wall and he was pressed against her with his arm securing her and they were laughing.

I saw him give her a kiss on the cheek and I turned away from them. They never noticed my presence because they were too busy to even see me. I left there once I saw one of his friends approaching me. 'Did you see him?' he asked me.

'No I didn't' I replied. Immediately, I saw him release a breath.

That day, I didn't ask him any question and he was behaving indifferent towards me. I was feeling very down but he was happy.

The next day was the same at evening class, I pretended not to care about him and I've also stopped asking him why he is always late. I'm tired of being lied to straight in the face.

The week after I've witnessed that scene, I also got to find out the reason for his lateness. It was break before the start of evening class and I went out to buy food. As I was coming back, I saw him with a junior. He was going to escort her home and they were holding hands and talking. He again didn't see me.

I was so hurt and I just watched them. As I was standing there, Olsen came to stand in front of me blocking my view of them.

'I guess you've seen it for yourself. We didn't want to make you aware but since you've seen it, you have to know. She's the reason why he's always late for class. He goes to escort her to her house before he comes to class everyday.'

'Thank you Olsen.' I didn't know what to say again so I just nodded and left for class.

After sometime, as usual, he came to class and again asked the question he always asks when late. 'What is the topic about and where have you reached?' I answered him.

'You know, you can escort her to the junction and come back on time for class before lessons begin.' I told him because I was getting fed up of answering the same questions everyday. I expected an "ok" from him but instead, the reply he gave me left me speeches.

'You're a stumbling block in my life.'

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Love
Anything gold.