Will
I stood outside, leaning on my car and watched as Mari walked out. The light from the restaurant was reflecting on her tears and I palmed my face. I can’t believe I had to do that.
She entered her car and didn’t drive out immediately. She spent close to ten minutes in there and if my guess is correct, she was crying her eyes sore. I felt like running to her car and pulling her out, then tell her it was all a silly prank.
“nice job. Now go home” a voice I recognize as Derulo said behind me. I scoffed and turned to look at him standing with three other men
“what are you? Demon?” I asked and he laughed
“I wish” he said and brought out his hands from his pocket
“I’ve done what you said I should do, now I hope you stay away from her.” I said
“you know we don’t fail promises. We promised we’d kill her if you didn’t leave her and since you left her, we’ll let her be.” he said and smirked
Something really tells me that there’s more to this. I know they want me to abide by the stupid oath we made that we would never love a woman, but I feel they’re taking it too far. And there’s a reason for their actions.
“I bet you’re thinking why we’re doing this” he said as if he read my mind. He walked to me and placed a hand on my shoulder
“Willie, come back to us” he stated. I looked at his face for close to ten seconds before I burst into laughter.
“you said what? I should do what? Come back what?” I asked and laughed again. He stepped back and waited for me to finish laughing
“look Derulo, we’re done! Done and done for real! I’m never coming back to that stupid gang, not even in my next life!” I said
I was really angry because they made me break up with Mari so they could make up with me. They wanted me to return to being gay. Do they think I’m that teenage and timid Will that they order about as if they’ve got my remote control?
“I’ll give you enough time to think it through. For now we’re leaving you, but we’ll be back for you.” he said and turned to leave with his men. I wanted to say something else but it hung in my throat. I exhaled and looked behind me to where Mari was earlier, unfortunately she was already gone.
***
Fred 🔰
Before I walked into the class, I called Coloy
📲hello Coloy
📲you’re there already?
📲yes and I’m about to walk into the classroom. I think she’d be in since it’s a combined class
📲good. Make your move today and make sure you get her within the next two weeks. We can’t afford a delay in our plans
📲you can count on me
I hung up and smiled then walked into the class. The professor was teaching already and that was perfect because I needed to announce my entrance.
He stopped teaching and looked at me. Everyone else did too
“Mr Buenos, you’re late” he said with a soft face.
“I’m just flying in from Europe today, that’s why?” I lied. I had been in town for about two weeks now
“class he’s Fred Buenos, a transfer student from Birmingham City College. I hope you all get friendly with him” the professor announced
“you can take a seat Mr Buenos” he said
I looked up and saw the girl, I climbed the stairs to her seat and sat down beside her on the bench but not too close. She was sitting over the desk which was on the fifth stair.
Mari🍁
“uhm… Is there something I can help you with?” I asked the new guy who was standing in front of me
“give me your number” he answered with a flirty voice.
“my number? Why?” I asked looking away from his face
He placed his hands on my desk and lowered his face to mine, like he was gonna kiss me. I was taken aback and I shivered slightly.
“hey! What do you think you’re doing? Shift back!” I yelled at him. He chuckled softly and locked eyes with mine. His eyes were beautiful and I couldn’t stop staring into them. They were hypnotizing me
“you’re sad” he whispered. I gulped down and tried to look away but his hand gently pushed my face back to him
“why?” he asked, still in a whisper.
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t speak up. This stranger was mesmerizing me in a way I couldn’t understand
I then remembered him. He was the guy who paid for my ice cream that day.
“Marigold?”
We both turned to see a confused looking Eliza staring at us. I was glad she showed up, she just helped breaking a spell off me.
“I’m sorry. I was just about to come” I apologized and hurriedly backed up my books. I didn’t even mind putting them into my bag
I stood up and walked to her
“let’s go” I said and began to pull her along before she said anything about the new boy
“Mari” he called me but I totally ignored and just pulled her along. He must have read my name from my ID card tagged on my collar.
When we got to the parking lot, she stopped walking and looked at me
“what?” I asked. I however knew what she was gonna say
“who’s he? Got yourself a new crusher?” she asked and winked
“and he’s so damn cute. Why do you always get the cute ones? Gosh” she said and literally fanned herself.
“do you want to get a sunburn?” I asked
“no. Why?” she asked
“because you seem to forget that the sun is really hot today and you’re standing under it” I said and proceeded to open the door to the car
I heard her hiss and she trailed behind me slowly. I had opened the door, sat in, and even started the car before she reached it. She opened the door and sat in and I drove out immediately. I didn’t want him to follow us just in case he thought to do so, I decided to go to a fast food restaurant so we could have lunch instead of going straight home.
“what do you want to eat for lunch?” I asked as I drove out of our department.
“something light. How about McDonald’s?” she asked and I nodded.
My mind drifted off to the first time I entered there. It was Will who teased me for not tasting their burgers before. So I just went there to taste it.
Oh how I miss Will!
My eyes turned teary and I expected myself to break down in the nearest minutes
“that guy. Don’t you think he looks like a celebrity? He’s got these huge arms and this perfect masculine jawline. Damn! He turns the flirt in me” Eliza echoed in my head.
I blinked my eyes repeatedly and heaved a sigh
“but I leave him for you. I don’t want to snatch your man. Hahahaha” she added. Those words hit the wrong spot though she meant it as a joke.
I burst into tears and screamed out “no… No I don’t want him! I don’t want nobody else! I want Will. Will is the man I want!”
“oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! Mari! You’re driving! Please stop crying. You’re gonna get us killed!” she panicked
I sniffed and she hurriedly pulled out a tissue for me. I collected it and dabbed on the tears.
“I’ve told you to forget about him. It’s been two weeks already! Be strong please!” Eliza’s yelling didn’t make anything better. But her yell had anger. Not at me but at herself. She was really regretting making me go through this pain. If not for her persuasion, I wouldn’t have accepted him.
“I want to cry over a bowl of ice-cream” I whimpered
“chocolate ice-cream?” she asked and I nodded
“then let’s go eat some burgers and fries first. Then we’d stay up all night watching a sad movie and scooping ice-cream in our mouths” she said and I pouted
“now be a good girl and concentrate on driving. Thank you” she then pinched my cheek and I smiled and sighed softly.
The McDonald’s was close by so we got there in no time. We went to a booth and ordered our fries and burgers with smoothies each.
“do you know I got an A in History?” Eliza started out as she picked a piece of fry
“an A? How did you do it?” I asked with amusement. Eliza was a C student, the average but I was the A and sometimes B student.
“I stayed up all night reading because the new professor is so good looking. With his locks that curl down to his ears” she closed her eyes and smiled. My mouth went agape, she open her eyes and chuckled
“you’re crazy Eliza. You’re crazy” I said and she laughed
“I know right? But I find him so attractive. Why don’t I hit on him?”
“oh my goodness! Are you seriously saying this? Gosh!”
“Hahahahaha. Come on it’s not that bad. They are people who get married to teachers who TAUGHT THEM!” she said firmly
“yeah whatever. Do as you wish.” I said with a giggle
“I’m sorry to bring this up but that guy, why didn’t you tell me you had a guy as good looking as him” she said and put the straw from the smoothie cup into her mouth
“I had a guy?” I asked emphatically
“sorry. I meant, you knew someone like that. Why didn’t you tell me you knew someone like that?” she asked
“well he just resumed today” I said
“resumed today?”
“yeah. A transfer student from a European university” I said and shrugged
“man! Hook us up. How is his accent? Which country? Is it Italy? France? Ireland? Scotland? Wales? Wait… Is it England? It has to be England right?”
I sighed and brushed my hair with my fingers
“just ask him yourself, okay?” I said
She glared at me and I smirked at her. We were silent and eating for just three seconds before I remembered what I wanted to tell her
“do you know he was the one who paid for my ice cream? The one I gave you?”
“you don’t mean it? He was the one? Why did he pay for it?” she asked and I shrugged
“why I’m I thinking he’s trying to hit on you? He paid for your ice-cream and asked for your number today”
“he shouldn’t dare. I’ll so kill him”
“kill me too so I can be with him”
I laughed and hit her head playfully
“be serious for once Elizabeth” I said and she laughed
“that reminds me, I’m going home after this semester is over and you’re coming with me. It’s been awhile you saw your aunt”
“yeah. I actually do need a change of environment” I said and sighed softly
“there’s something I think I want to do” Eliza said and I looked up at her from the table that I was just looking at for no reason
“yeah?”
“baking. I want to learn how to bake different things” she announced with bright eyes
“why the sudden interest?”
“it’s fun both as a pre-vocational skill and as a mouth skill. Yum yum!”
I giggled “you know you’re very lucky Eliza. You’ve got a nice body that doesn’t get fat” I said and she chuckled. I looked left and saw that guy standing at the entrance
“what the heck is he doing here?” I just asked. Eliza followed my gaze and saw him
“hmm, maybe he followed us. Don’t you think?” she asked
“Eish” I muttered
He was looking around as if to find me or someone else
“look down, don’t let him see us” I said and Eliza was reluctant to do so
“come on” I urged her and pulled down her ear
“ouch ouch. Okay okay” she uttered and bent her head
“why don’t you like that guy?” she asked
“he seems like a flirt” I answered
“hey!” a masculine voice echoed at our booth
“damn” I mumbled and we both slowly raised our heads
“hi” Eliza said with a smile
I almost scoffed out loud but thank God I didn’t.
“hi” he replied with another smile
“do you girls mind if I join you?” he asked
“sure you—”
“—there are other booths. You can go and eat in any one but ours” I said as a matter-of-factly.
“Mari?” Eliza said
“I was thinking maybe you could be a little friendly to a new student in your school but I thought wrong” he said and angrily walked away
We both watched him leave the eatery. Eliza heaved a long sigh “well there he goes” she said and I bit my lip. She looked at me as if she wanted me to say something
“you’re not gonna say anything?!”she asked. I was right, she did want me to say something.
“okaaay. Maybe I went too far” I said and she rolled her eyes
“I thought you wouldn’t attest to it” she said
“maybe I’ll apologize to him at school” I said
“not maybe! You will apologize to him!”
“why yell? You just added another headache to my head. Gosh” I said and rubbed my temples
***
I held my books firmly to my chest and gulped down nothing as I stared at Fred Buenos who was sitting on a bench under the mild sun with his head looking down on something I cannot see.
“should I apologize?” I asked myself. It’s true I was quite harsh on him.
“but he wanted to flirt with me” I protested against my conscience that was trying to force me to talk to him
“I won’t apologize to him. It was his fault. He crossed his boundaries” I said and stamped my feet on the ground.
I huffed and turned away. I barely took three steps before someone pulled my hand and pushed me forward
“heeey!” I yelled at the person
“do it now” Eliza said and pushed me again. I groaned and sluggishly moved forward till I reached him
“good afternoon” I greeted with my books still hugging my chest, maybe even tighter this time.
He looked up at me and stared at me as if he was waiting for me to start talking. He didn’t even reply my greeting
“I… I’m… I came to apologize… For how I treated… No, for what I said to you at the eatery. That was yesterday” I stammered and he raised a brow
“wait no! It wasn’t yesterday. It was three sorry, two days ago” I corrected myself and he chuckled and stood up. Gosh this guy is so tall.
“I’m sorry” I added and looked down. He raised my head up with his index finger and my eyes widened.
Flirt! I almost screamed
“I’ll forgive you only on one condition” he said in a voice that was so low, almost sounding like a whisper.
“you’ll let me eat with you. At McDonald’s” he said
“what? No” I said, removing my head from on top of his finger and stepping two steps back
“okay. Apology not accepted” he said with a shrug and sat down. I scoffed
“arrogant prick” I muttered very low so he wouldn’t hear
“I heard you” he said
“ugh!” I groaned and turned back to go. I saw Eliza standing afar looking at me with eyes that could kill me. I stopped walking and turned back to him
“okay I’ll eat with you” I said and he looked up
“what made you change your mind?” he asked with a smirk
“excuse me, that is not for you to know” I said and rolled my eyes then sighed. I so don’t want to do this
He stood up again but I moved back to keep a clear distance between us before he lifts my head again.
“are you done with classes?” he asked
“yes” I answered
“then let’s go eat. I’ll take you”
“I have my car” I said and turned to go but he grabbed my wrist and turned me back. He also pulled me and covered the distance I made
“your friend would take that car home” he said and used his head to point to Eliza’s direction. I looked at her and she was smiling sheepishly and waving my keys at me. I thought those keys were with me. And how did she know we were talking about the car.
I turned to the guy and frowned
“did you plan this out with my friend?” I asked
“she came to me” he said and pulled me
“hey hey. Careful, I’ll fall” I said as he pulled me along
***
We finished eating a long, tiring and freakish lunch at the McDonald’s. I didn’t like eating with a guy who’s not Wilbur. I was still going through heart break and I just wanted to crawl into my shell, well that’s exactly what Eliza hates and is trying to make me avoid.
“I’ll drop you off at home” Fred said
“I’ll take a taxi” I said and opened the exit door and walked out
“uhm, here. Take these home” he said and brought two takeaway bags to my front
“what’s it?” I asked
“it’s for Eliza.” he said. I sighed and took it because I knew she personally asked him to get it for her and I not bringing it home would be war especially if she finds out he gave me but I refused to collect it.
“thanks” he said as I collected them
“taxi!” I heard him call out
“hey don’t call a taxi for me. I can do it” I protested. A taxi parked in front of us
“will you take it or you’d call yours?” he asked with a smirk that looked more like a smile.
I frowned at him and opened the door to the taxi.
“bye. See you at school tomorrow” he said and I didn’t reply. I don’t even have classes tomorrow. I told the driver my address and he drove into the road
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To Be Continued
