Although, sometimes I found myself enjoying the sound of her laughter or watching her little habit of picking at her afro.

❦︎

~[VICTORIA]~

I adjusted my grey face cap on my head, looking around for any sign of Tracy. I was waiting outside the 3K store we had agreed to meet at and Tracy was already about twenty minutes late.

Given how excited she sounded over the phone, I'd expected her to be here probably an hour before our agreed time. Alas, I was wrong.

“Victoria?”

I jerked at the mention of my name, almost spilling the cup of coffee in my hand. I spun around with a frown, looking to see who had mentioned my name with a slight baritone voice.

“Jude?” My frown deepened as I took him in, looking at him from head to toe. “What are you doing here?”

“The last time I checked, I also had the right to freedom of movement like any other citizen.” He cockily responded, I rolled my eyes. “I observed you're waiting for someone.”

“Yeah, Tracy.” I nodded and took a quick sip of my coffee. “You're waiting for someone too?”

“No,” he shrugged. “Came to get some clothes for my mom, it’s her birthday. It’s a good thing I met you here, you and Tracy could help?”

“Of course,” I nodded again. “Just hope Tracy gets here on time.”

“Speak of the devil!” he chuckled, nodding towards the direction behind me.

I looked back and sure enough, Tracy was approaching us in only a baggy, white tee-shirt and matching white sneakers.

“Sorry I'm late, Ria.” She apologized once she reached us and pulled me into a hug, it wasn’t one of her bone crushing hugs this time. “I came across some unplanned events earlier.”

“It’s fine,” I shrugged in the hug. “Jude kept me company.”

She abruptly pulled out of the hug, a scowl etched on her face. “Jude?” she looked over my shoulder and her scowl became even more prominent. “Now, what are you doing here?”

“Utilizing my freedom of movement as a true and crime free citizen of Nigeria.” I could not see him but I heard the laughter in his voice. “And I hope you have something on under that.” He referred to Tracy's shirt.

She groaned, turning to look at me, “Did you invite him?”

“No,” I shook my head, shrugging. “He found me waiting here, but he needs help getting a dress for his mom—”

“It’s her birthday.” He completed from behind me.

“Fine, I'm not kicking you out because your mom is involved.” Tracy took my wrist and we began entering the store.

“You can’t kick me out because it’s not your store—” he stopped short when Tracy turned back, sending a death glare his way. “I mean, thanks.” He quickly changed his words, laughed nervously.

°°°°°

Tracy had suggested that we first help Jude choose clothes to get his mom so we could get him on his way and enjoy the rest of our ‘girls’ day out’, in her own words.

“Now we can finally have our own time.” She sighed in satisfaction, dusting her hands like she had just finished some kind of manual labour. “C’mon,” she grabbed my upper arm, dragging me out of the women’s section. “There are always great finds in the men’s section.”

We rummaged through the aisles of clothes, occasionally cooed at some.

Tracy picked up a black tee-shirt with a graphic design on it, scanned it with a grin. “This’ll look good on Tega,” she murmured, “She likes things like this.”

“Tega, huh?” I raised a brow, feigning ignorance. “Who’s she?”

“Oh,” she smiled, looked at me. “Tega’s my sister.”

“And she’s a twin, right?”

She shook her head, chuckling.“I see you’ve been hearing your own fair share of gist.”

"Well, yes." Was all I said to her.

"But the boys don't know that though. Nobody at school does." She dumped a few tee shirts in the cart. "My father married their mom before I got into SH in JSS1, so they're actually my step sisters."

My eyes widened in surprise. That meant her parents were divorced or she lived in a polygamous home or one of her parents was dead.

“None of my parents are dead, in case you're beginning to think so,” she clarified. “My mom’s alive, she just...
doesn’t live with us anymore.”

“Oh,” I nodded. Noticing that her mood was dampening, I attempted to lighten the tense atmosphere. “Well, we don’t want rapture to happen while we’re still shopping, let’s get on with it.”

I almost cried for myself at my lame joke, mentally chastising myself for thinking of such rubbish. But she laughed and relief washed all over me as I watched her go into a fit of giggles.

“Ria, you're just crazy.” She laughed a little more before we continued with our shopping.

I don’t know how long we spent in the store, trying on clothes, talking about irrelevant topics—which, to us, was beyond important. It was wholesome and sometime during those moments, I realized that I had somehow found a friend in Tracy.

°°°°°
                                  

We had gotten quite a lot of clothes, a number of them ones that Tracy insisted would look good on me. Although they were not quite my style, I agreed to get them.

I was now in my room, about to sleep when Dad badged in, a mischievous look on his face.

“I see you now have a boyfriend, huh?” he folded his arms, squinting at me as he tried to hold back his smile. “And his name is Jude?”

“I could have been naked, Dad,” I deadpanned. “And how on earth do you even know Jude? How’s he now my boyfriend?”

“Oh, come on, it’s all over the internet,” he walked over to my bed and sat beside me. “But I thought you had something going with Fiona’s son though.” His brows furrowed and his forehead creased.

“You thought wrong, Dad. And you're wrong now too, I have no boyfriend.” I defended. “I have no idea what you're saying.”

“Then explain these,” he unlocked his phone and gave it to me. “You told me you were going to meet up with that girl from the other day, Tracy. How come this shows up on the internet?”

It was a photo of Jude and I waiting outside the 3K store earlier, me in my dark-washed jeans, grey shirt, sneakers and face cap and Jude in his cream, cashmere sweater, black jeans and black loafers. We only stood opposite each other, talking. It was very innocent, our position not compromising, hence, I was struggling to grasp why people thought we were dating.

“Dad, he met me there while I was waiting for Tracy,” I explained. “If I had a boyfriend, you'd be the first to know.”

“Sure?” he looked skeptical as he eyed me with narrowed eyes.

“Of course.” I nodded, giving a small smile.

“Okay…” he mirrored my expression, leaned forward and placed a peck on my forehead. “I came here for another reason though.”

“What?”

“I want us to go to church tomorrow… together.” He said softly, his eyes held mine.

“What happened to nobody knowing that—”

“I don’t want to do that anymore,” he shook his head. “You don’t know how much I’ve been itching to show you to the world and have everyone know I'm your father.”

I was happy, I swear I was. But this one question had been bugging my mind for as long as I could remember, and I had to let it out.

“Why did you keep it a secret, Dad?”

He sighed, looked away and murmured, “You won’t understand, Vicky. But—”

“When the time comes, I’ll understand.” I completed, already used to that statement. I’ve always known that there were many things I did not know about Dad. With time, I’ve learned to control my curiousity... at least, I’ve tried to.

“Please, bear with me.” he pleaded, took my hand in his and squeezed it gently. “I promise, I’ll tell you everything you need to know in due time, when you're prepared enough.”

“Okay.” I nodded, just like I always did when he said those words. “I need to catch some sleep now if I’ll wake up early enough tomorrow for church.”

He smiled, but it was a pensive one. And his eyes bore guilt, just like they have since Mom died. Sometimes, I wondered if he blamed himself for her death like I did. Although, I didn’t just blame myself, I was convinced that I was the cause of her death. She always said that I ruined her life, turns out I lead to its end too.

“Goodnight, baby.” He tucked me into bed properly, kissed my forehead. “Don’t let the night bugs bite.”

I giggled, watching him turn of the lamp. “Goodnight, Dad.”

My eyes followed his figure walk out of my room and then I closed my eyes after I heard the soft click of the door.

I wanted to sleep but it wasn't even forth coming. My mind was spiraling, unable to be in one place. I thought of what school would be like now that everyone thought Jude and I were dating, what Dad could have possibly been hiding and even more of what tomorrow would be like, when everyone would find out that the famous Kevin Kanayo is the father of The Nigerian Einstein, Victoria Kanayo.

°°°°°

 ~[JASON]~

The Nigerian Einstein has been spotted with Jude Akinola.

Victoria Kanayo reveals new boyfriend.

A match made in heaven, Victoria Kanayo and Jude Akinola.

Reliable sources have revealed that Victoria Kanayo and new boyfriend are classmates.

I had no other option, I put aside my phone. She somehow managed to hunt me in real life and the internet without even trying.

And what was I hearing? She and Jude are a thing? I scoffed, that was just ridiculous. It was very difficult and uncomfortable to picture them together. No one would be comfortable with it in fact.

Victoria and Jude? Unimaginable.

The buzz of my phone caught my attention and I checked to see that it was a WhatsApp message from an unknown number. There wasn’t even any profile photo allocated to the account. But I was glad it wasn’t another notification about how the oh-so-great Victoria Kanayo was trending.

Do you have my reply now? The message read.

I frowned. Reply for what? To who?

Who are you? I texted back.

Of course, I'm not on your contact list. I'm that insignificant, their reply came in.

I scoffed, were they trying to guilt trap me? As far as I knew, I had the contacts of the important people in my life. So, whoever it was could be rest assured that they were in fact, insignificant to me.

Who are you? I texted again, deciding to block them if I did not get a suitable response.

It’s Jemima.

I immediately choked on my saliva when I read the reply. The one person I had planned to avoid at any cost since I read the note she sneaked in my pocket.

Will you be my boyfriend? The note had read. I had almost puked reading the note. It was giving primary school crush vibes... I had cringed so damn hard.

I swallowed, my brain blank of ideas of what to do, how to reply. Finally, I typed,

No.

Don’t worry, take your time to think, she urged.

No, you don’t understand. My reply is a NO, I'm not interested. I clarified.

There was no use beating around the bush, especially since I did not want to get entangled in a relationship I had absolutely no interest in. Besides, I had planned to avoid her until she got the message but she just had to come and ask for a reply.

Several minutes passed and I had concluded that she was no longer going to respond when she her message came in.

Its because of that girl, right?

I frowned, rereading the message to make sure I was actually reading right. It didn’t change, the message was still there.

Which girl? I asked her.

Don’t play dumb, Jason. You know I'm talking about Victoria here.

My frown deepened; I became even more puzzled. How could anyone in their right senses think that I had feelings for Victoria. Of all people, Victoria?

I don’t know where you got your facts from but it’s just wrong. I feel nothing for you, Victoria or any girl at the moment. Please, we should not talk about this again. I tried my very best to make myself clear, to clarify any kind of misconceptions that may have taken place.

Oh please, I saw the way you looked at her that day in your room, you were enthralled the moment she stepped out.

That did it, I blocked her. The way I looked her? How did I look at her for crying out loud? And I was enthralled? Says who? I scoffed, shaking my head. She even came at me with that 'the way you look at her' line, cliché as hell.

Rubbish. Was my life was some kind of teen romance novel?

Once again, I put aside my phone, making up my mind not to pick it up unless it was Mom calling.

Helplessly, I wondered if others thought the same. Then I decided that they couldn't, it was very clear that I had absolutely no feelings for her. Jemima must have been running mad or something.

Although, sometimes I found myself enjoying the sound of her laughter or watching her little habit of picking at her afro. Did that count as having feelings? I doubted that, so I perished that thought.

It could never happen, not in this life. The day I would develop any sort of romantic feeling for Victoria Kanayo would never come.

•
•
•

A/N

This guy doesn't know what's up lol.

Now, I won't just come out of nowhere and pretend like all is well. My update schedule lately has been wack, I know and I apologise. Just that a whole lot of things have been going on and I just don't have too much time for myself presently.

Notwithstanding, I'll try my best to deliver. Hopefully, y'all can bear with me.❤️

More importantly, THANK YOU FOR 1K READS!!! I literally just saw it and had to finish this chapter for you guys. Words can't even express the way I'm feeling right now! Once again, THANK YOU!!!

I'm so excited, I literally started writing chapter 20 already! See you there!!!

Love ya,

Stay safe💕