Gently setting him down in the backseat, Nova tucked Abeo inside like a baby, taking off his jacket to drape it over his shoulders as he snored off.
The moment was strangely intimate and I felt like I was intruding on a private moment. If Abeo was in his senses, he would've cursed Nova to hell and told him to stay away, like how it was always in his vocabulary when he saw him.
Nova turned to me. "Are you drunk? Do I need to drive?"
I shook my head. "I'm sober. And I thought you were coming with me to drop him off?"
"I'm following you on my motorbike."
"Oh, okay. You do that. I'll drive," I said, thankful he wasn't going to be in the car. Even thinking about driving Abeo home which would take about an hour and being with Nova in the car seemed awkward. I imagined we won't have anything to talk about and the silence would just annoy me, meanwhile accompanied by Abeo's snores from the backseat.
Once Nova brought his bike, I started driving and he followed me, sometimes overtaking me but he mostly stayed behind. I wondered if he even knew where Abeo lived.
Seeing Nova tonight, so caring and protective towards Abeo, he didn't seem like the scary monster I thought he was anymore. I even felt more comfortable to be around him, although not to the extent where I'd trust him with me alone.
Briefly I wondered how he ended up mute. Was it since birth or had something happened? There was no doubt that where drugs were involved, there was danger as well.
An hour later, I pulled up in the Oluwa's massive driveway. Nova pulled up next to me and got off the bike, taking off his helmet and shaking his head, then he looked up at the house which was not short of a mansion in amazement with his mouth open.
"This house is so big and beautiful."
I let slip a small smile at his excited face. I was a billionaire's daughter. I had grown up in a far bigger and grander mansion than this one so I was used to it but watching Nova's reaction was amusing. I felt a little bad that he probably never experienced living in such a house but maybe he believed home was more than a big house. Home was where family was and right now I was very far away from that.
"Let's get him inside," I said. "We should tell his parents what happened."
"Don't."
"What, why?"
"I'll tell them. Later. There's not much they can do at this time. Plus they won't be able to sleep after that."
I shrugged. "They deserve to know. Make sure you tell them."
He nodded then took his eyes off the house and looked into the car and watching Abeo, his eyes softened and I felt even more of my fear of him melt away.
He quietly opened the door and I assisted him in pulling Abeo out until he was again draped in his strong arms.
I knocked on the door and was let in by a maid. Nova couldn't keep his eyes off his surroundings as he took everything in. The elegance, the utmost cleanliness he was awestruck by the simplest of things.
He took his time observing everything slowly on our way to Abeo's room, not affected by Abeo's weight.
Footsteps sounded on the hallway and we looked at each other in alarm before turning towards the source at the same time.
A middle aged woman and a man emerged from round the corner, talking about something that we couldn't decipher from here. They were Abeo's parents, I was sure of it. They looked like they just got out of bed. Given the time, they most definitely did. The woman looked worried and a little angry as she walked towards us, the man a couple steps behind her.
"Honey, he's a teenager. Give him a break. You know we also used to sneak off to parties when we were his age." Abeo's father tried to placate his wife. He hadn't looked at us yet.
"But this is too much!" She said. "It's two in the morning. Jesus, look how he's passed out drunk! This is not acceptable," she said and they reached us.
Mr. Oluwa looked up then and his smile froze on his lips as he saw us. I saw Nova's eyes positively light up as he looked Mr. Oluwa. He moved his lips then when no sound came out, he stopped and realized he couldn't speak. I felt a stab of pity at him.
He turned to me for help.
"Hello, I'm Julia and this is Nova. We are friends with Abeo. We brought him home," I said to them.
"Good lord, he's reeking of alcohol!" Mrs. Oluwa said, plugging his nose with her fingers. "Where was he this time?"
"Just a friend's party," I replied. "Nothing to worry, Mrs. Oluwa. He just had a bit to drink but he's not usually like this," I added, feeling like I should stick up for Abeo when he couldn't speak for himself. After all, it was my fault for getting him drunk in the first place and on top of that he was sexually assaulted without even knowing it.
"Oh, sweetheart. You don't need to defend him. He's going to get an earful for this tomorrow no matter what. This has happened way too many times. Imagine his grades if he had invested all this time in studying!" She said, looking at Abeo in disappointment. "But thank you so much for bringing him here. I was afraid no one would do that for him and I don't exactly feel like he's safe to stay the night at whatever party he goes to." Then she looked at Nova, her eyes lingering on his massive built and the tattoos and lip ring and I knew exactly what she was thinking. She did not want him here any longer. "You can put him on his bed. You must be tired holding him up all this time." She said, pointing us in the direction of his bedroom.
Mr. Oluwa had not said anything to us the whole time and he was just looking down at Abeo in Nova's arms with what I recognized as disdain and disgust. I was sure it wasn't directed towards Abeo but rather who he was carried by.
"Yes. We're sorry we disturbed your sleep," I said, then grabbed Nova's bicep. "Nova, this way."
Nova followed me as I led the way, throwing back glances at the parents still stood there. I pushed open the door and ushered him inside. Nova went to the bed and set Abeo down, adjusting the pillow under his head until he was satisfied. I covered him with the duvet and Nova spent another minute fussing over it and making sure Abeo wasn't cold.
When he was done, he slowly scanned the room with a small wistful smile.
"It's so nice here."
"Yeah," I said. My eyes stung from sleep and I let out a yawn. Nova looked at me.
"You sleepy?"
I nodded.
"We should leave."
I nodded again.
Shutting off the lights, Nova gently closed the door behind him and we were back in the hallway. His parents were still standing there.
Nova hurried to them, typing on his device on the way. "Your house is so beautiful. We won't keep you up any longer. Sorry for disturbing. Good night Mr. and Mrs. Oluwa."
Mr. Oluwa cleared his throat, refusing to meet our eyes for longer than a few seconds. "Good night," he said gruffly.
"Yes, good night you two. Get home safe!" Mrs. Oluwa said.
We walked out. Nova was still looking back at the house. We reached his bike when I realized I didn't have a ride. Nova seemed to realize the same thing because he looked at me uncertainly.
"I can drop you home."
I contemplated whether it was wise to accept a ride at two in the morning from a drug peddler who can easily scare you shitless. The answer was an obvious no.
"Yes, thank you. I'd like that," I said instead. "I hope it's not a trouble? Or I can call a cab."
He shook his head, picking up his helmet and holding it out to me. I accepted it.
I strapped it on and Nova waited for me to get on. "If you get any ideas-" I began, sounding a little threatening, "-I think you should know that I'm well trained in taekwondo, boxing, sword fighting and calisthenics."
Nova looked surprised, at the fact that I was trained or that I thought he'd do something to me, I'd never know. Then he nodded slowly.
With a warning look, I swung a leg over his bike and sat closely to Nova. Knowing exactly what kind of bike this was, I wrapped my arms around his waist because I didn't want to fall or fly off the bike.
I felt his shoulders tense up at my move. Then he took his device and typed. Expecting him to ask me to take my hands off of him, I was surprised when the machine said, "If your hands get cold, you can put it in my jacket's pockets."
"Alright, thanks." I said but didn't put my hands in the pockets of his jacket which he had retrieved from Abeo after tucking him into bed.
He pulled away from the house and I gave him directions. It was a twenty minute ride to my house. Nova rode fast, faster than me. In fact so fast that I could barely breathe but that was the kind of thing I liked. The speed, the roar of the engine on a quite deserted road and no one around but me...and Nova. It was thrilling.
I rested my cheek on his leather clad back and enjoyed the wind in my air, the sound of us whooshing past and the changing surroundings.
But all too soon it was over. Nova had parked in front of my house and we had stopped-no wind or sound anymore, just still and dead silent houses around.
"Well, I got here safe," I said.
I saw his cheeks lift up in what I noticed was a smile. He was amused but he didn't say anything.
I stiffly got off the bike and stood in front of him, unstrapping the helmet and handing it to him. He extended a hand to take it and in the streetlight I saw the wounds and blood on his hand and arm from where the girl had scratched and clawed at him when he was strangling her. Owing to her long nails she had managed to do some damage.
"You should get that looked after," I said.
Nova looked down at his wounds and shrugged. "It'll heal."
"Yeah, maybe if it doesn't get infected first," I said.
He shrugged again.
"Do you want to come inside? I'll do what I can for that," I said, pointing at some of the deep cuts.
He looked at me skeptically, then at my house which showed no sign of activity. Everyone must have long gone to bed. "I don't think it's a good idea. Your parents wouldn't want to see me."
"What do you mean?" I asked. "They'd be fine. If they woke up that is."
"You don't have to pretend like you didn't see how Abeo's Mama was looking at me. And Papa too."
"I'm not going to deny it and I won't lie when I say that my parents might react the same way but fuck them. Now are you going to get off that bike?"
"But why are you so concerned about my wounds? It's not life threatening."
"It's because you won't do anything about it and honestly, it's ugly as fuck to look at so I'm doing you a favour."
He chuckled which didn't really sound like that but maybe it was because he couldn't speak. He got off the bike.
"Okay, thank you."
I led him to the side of my house, figuring if I entered through the front door I might wake up someone. Nova followed quietly behind me, glancing at the various flowers and plants planted in the front yard. When I started living here, I noticed no one took care of it and so I took it upon myself to water them whenever I could. I could've just ordered Harper or Dan to do it but for some reason it didn't feel right. Like they had no right to do that. Another thing left behind by the stranger that was Julia who I got to know better every passing day.
I sneaked him inside from the back door of the kitchen and told him to wait there while I went and got a first aid kit.
He was looking out the window of the kitchen when I returned back. "Let's clean you up," I said, gaining his attention. The bleeding had long since stopped and the blood had dried up. Guiding him to the sink, I grabbed his arm and held the wounds out under the water to rinse it off clean.
Grabing a cloth, I patted it dry all he while he watched me silently.
"Thank you," I said. "For looking out for Abeo even if he hates you and is mean to you."
I felt him shrug.
"Can I ask you something?" I asked and looked at him for his answer.
He nodded after a second, dragging his SGD closer.
"Why do you care about Abeo so much? I wouldn't if I liked someone and that person absolutely hated me. Don't you have any self respect? Running after someone is pathetic."
Nova didn't answer me for a few minutes and I allowed him to think it over, then he reached out to his device and began typing with one hand which took longer than it could've with two hands. By the time he finished with his reply, I had applied some ointment on his wounds and remarked how long and deep cuts the girl had managed to inflict on him.
"I just want him to accept me. If I keep trying and if he eventually does then it will be worth it."
"That sounds like a total waste of time. Why does he hate you anyway?"
He shook his head.
"No, you don't know or no, you don't want to tell?"
He held up two fingers.
"So the latter one?"
He nodded.
"Fine."
Slapping a bandage on one particularly deep and serious looking wound, I turned to him. "You're good to go."
"Are you Abeo's girlfriend? He's brought you there two times. Generally he's there with a new girl every time."
"I'm not his girlfriend, just a friend...with benefits."
"But he looks at you like you mean more to him."
I waved it off. "I do but I don't return his feelings."
His eyes lit up and he excitedly tapped into his device. "Do you think if I convinced you to get together with him that he'd finally be nice to me?"
"I don't know but you'll never find out because you can't convince me."
"Please just give him a chance."
"Nope. You might be fond of wasting your time on him but I'm not. I don't like him like that and probably never will so you stop right here. All he'll ever be to me is a good fuck."
Nova looked at me in disappointment. "I'm sure you don't know everything about him so I'll keep trying. How old are you?"
"Never going to work, and I'm eighteen. You?"
"Twenty three."
Suddenly he stalked towards me, causing me to jump back and keep my fist at ready to swing at him should he try anything.
His hand went behind me and seeing my reaction he looked shocked. Slowly retracting his hand, he dangled his keys in front of me. The jingle of keys made me relax but also made me feel pretty stupid and embarassed.
"I was just getting my keys. I didn't mean to scare you."
"Yeah, don't blame me. You didn't exactly leave a nice first impression on me."
He gave me a sheepish smile. "I'll never hurt you. You're too important for Abeo."
"You mean if that wasn't the case, you'd hurt me?!" I half screeched.
He frowned. "I don't know. With all the snooping you do at the party, I would've been required to take care of you." He said with a slight smile which I didn't know if I should perceive it as scary or joking.
"Okay, that's it. Get the fuck out of here."
With a last smile and an amused twinkle in his eyes he left, twirling the keys around his finger.
I listened to the roar of his bike outside and until I could hear it no longer after which I checked every door to see if it was locked. Nova could make me feel comfortable at rare times but the other times he straight up just sent chills down my spine.
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