"Mary."

"Mary!"

I groaned in annoyance as I tried to cover my ears up to block out the annoying voice that was calling my name and giving me an unnecessary headache. I curled my knees up to touch my chin as I tried to get back to continuing my beauty sleep.

"Mary!" This time around, the voice came with a tap on my shoulders. I turned around to behold my roommate, staring down at him in annoyance. "Wake up, we have class in the next one and half hour."

I grunted as I sat up, rubbing my head with my palm, while also wondering why I had this massive headache this morning. Then I remembered the fact that I had cried to sleep last night. Just perfect! Back to the same old routine of crying to bed all because of Ademide. This only proves a huge fact that I'm really better off without him, am I, though?

"You should go and take your bath," Chuwen said, putting on a denim Jean shirt. "I boiled water for you."

My eyes went wide at what she said. "You did what? Are you sure everything is fine with you?"

"Shut up, joor," she shunned me. "I only did it because I know waking up this morning would be a headache for you with how much you cried yesterday."

And this was indeed true, I started crying immediately I got into the room yesterday, and when Chuwen came back, she still met me in the same position. God! I was really pathetic, wasn't I? I cried for someone who was practically having a laugh over how gullible I was. I made to get off my bed before my eyes caught a white polythene bag seated gracefully on the floor, beside my bed.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Ohh that." Chuwen turned to look at the bag as a look of uncertainty filled up her face. "A delivery man came to drop it off for you this morning, said it was from you know who."

Anger swelled within me as I got up immediately and picked up the polythene bag, heading out.

"Mary, calm down now," Chuwen called behind me, but all I did was head for the door.

Just as I got to the door, it was thrown open as my two babies, Mercy and Zainab, walked into the room with sheepish smile on their faces. They were freshers at my department, and somehow we found ourselves at the same house, so it wasn't a surprise that the four of us hit it off fast.

"Good morning, Mary," both Mercy and Zainab greeted.

"Morning, excuse me," I said, still not forgetting that the mission was to rid my house of Ademide's belongings.

"We heard your boyfriend came to deliver food to you this morning," Mercy teased. She and Zainab laughed, but when they saw that I wasn't smiling, they both became serious. "Sorry, what's wrong?"

I stretched forward the bag to them. "You can eat it if you want to." When they both hesitated, I forced it into Zainab's hand and turned on my heels to go prepare for class.

"Mary, is everything okay?" Zainab asked.

"Are you still angry at your boyfriend?" Mercy asked, sounding pretty much surprised. I ignored her and pulled off my nightdress. "How can you still be angry with him, I heard he's very handsome, and he drove one fine car to the department. I didn't want to believe it, like, so Mary has a boyfriend."

"Mercy, please, he is not my boyfriend, not anymore," I explained as I picked up my towel and wrapped it around me.

"What did he do? Oya, we're pleading on his behalf," Zainab said in a cajoling tone, which nearly had me pulling out my hair, but thankfully, I didn't have any hair to pull out.

"You guys should stop. Can't you see that it's a pretty sensitive topic," Chuwen said from where she was now seated at her desk, having her breakfast.

"It's not a sensitive topic," I said between gritted teeth.

"Ohh, it's not, and you were crying your eyes out last night. You both had better settle your issues," Chuwen said in a frustrated tone. "Because I can't spend the rest of my school years listening to you cry."

"Just shut up!" I snapped.

"But seriously Mary, you cried because of man, I thought you said you didn't believe in love and heartbreak," Mercy said, staring at me like I've grown extra heads.

"I thought she said she can't have a boyfriend because love doesn't exist, but you have one," Zainab said in the same tone.

Okay, I do love these girls, but it was at times like this that I desperately wished they would shut up. And it is at times like this that I actually wonder why I never told anyone of them about Ademide in the first place, my deep affection for him, and heartbreak, at least it would have saved me this whole drama instead of pretending to be some macho female who didn't care about men.

"Regardless of me having a boyfriend, it doesn't change the fact that love doesn't exist," I deadpanned, while also wondering to myself if I actually believe what I just said.

"So you don't love your boyfriend," Mercy said with sarcasm.

"You guys should leave her alone. We have class. You'll continue your interview later," Chuwen called in a pleading tone.

I threw her a grateful look before I headed out to the bathroom, thinking about what Mercy said. I really couldn't pinpoint how I felt about Ademide now, I was too hurt and angry at him to think about anything else. But even before he left for Cotonou, I really couldn't say I was in love with him, neither can I say he was in love with me. Love must definitely be far out of his dictionary, although he only ever had two girlfriends before me, but I really couldn't say now.

We both had great affection for each other, maybe I more than him, and I still do for him, painfully enough. And there was the heady attraction between us that always ended us all up in each other's body. Aside from this, I can't really say there was ever any mention of the L word between us, but he atleast liked me enough to be ready to work things out just so we can achieve that forever. And look where that got us.

I shut off every thought of him the same time I shut the bathroom door, I wasn't going to think of him, even though seeing him yesterday had made eased off an unknown ache in my heart. But with the easing of that ache, another one had grown. I couldn't bear the fact that he had just decided to shut me off without any tangible reason, and then came back as though he knew I would always be pinning for him.

I did pin, even if I was able to hide this so well from my friends, I couldn't deny the fact that I pinned for him every single time. For his calmness even when I was angry, his soothing smile, his kiss, his touch, everything that just made him who he was.

I quickly wiped off the stray tears that had somehow trickled down my eyes. So much for not thinking about him.

I tried my best to have my bath without having another thought of Ademide, although it was proving to be hard. Within minutes I was done, and made my way back into my room to find Glory fully dressed, and Mercy and Zainab gone, along with the food, but a single note was laying on my bed. I walked over to my bed and picked up the note to see a neat handwriting that looked absolutely familiar scribbled over it.

Good morning, Mary.
I thought it'd be a good thing for you to wake up to this meal. I hope you had a lovely night and that you'd give me a chance to explain things to you better today.
Your black Adonis.

Oh really! My black Adonis!

I squeezed the paper in my hand and threw into the waste bin in anger. How hypocritical of him to hope that I had a lovely night after everything. I took in a deep breath, trying to calm myself. I needed to figure out what this guy was trying to achieve. Was this a game to him?

Knowing Ademide, he didn't play cruel games on people, but what can I say? People do change, and there's the added fact that he was a fully bred Yoruba demon. Nah, I can't get fooled by him only to get pushed out of his life once again.

"Mary, be fast," Chuwen hurried me up. "Stella already called your phone too. She said she's waiting."

I quickly picked out a blue jean trousers and white chiffon top and did all the necessary things I needed to do.

Within the next few minutes, I was ready. I picked up my phone to find a text message from a strange number. I opened the message as I and Chuwen made out way out of the room to see a good morning text that ended with 'from your black Adonis.'

I scoffed in annoyance. Seeing as he still happens to have my number only proves the fact that he ghosted me intentionally, I blinked back the tears that threatened to fall at the realization of this.

"Is everything okay?" Chuwen asked in a concerned voice.

"Yeah, it's fine," I answered, shoving my phone into my bag.

Stepping out of the house, I came across a not so pleasing sight, a sight that would have made me happy if it was a different situation. But this didn't stop my heart from jumping at the sight of him, I felt that curling need to just go over to the man who was leaning against my wall, looking lonely as he stared at his feet.

"What do you want?"

"Good morning to you too." Ademide looked up, a smile appearing on his features as he pushed himself off the wall. "Hello." He waved at Chuwen, who returned his smile.

"What are you doing here this morning?" I asked, telling myself to calm down.

"Waiting...what does it look like?"

"I don't have time for all this, Ademide. Just stay away from me!" I snapped and headed off. It didn't take long before I heard his footsteps following closely behind I and Chuwen.

"Mary, I only want you to give me a chance. Give us a second chance, and I promise everything will be okay."

I stopped in my tracks and motioned for Chuwen to head on without me when she gave me an impatient look. I took my time before looking at the annoying and clueless man who did nothing but hurt me and then pretended nothing happened.

"You want me to give you a second chance, give us a chance, right?" I folded my arms across my chest. "So tell me, why did you do that? Why did you ignore me for the past five months?"

I watched the conflicted look on his face as he struggled for words. This was wrong! Ademide doesn't struggle for words. If he does, it only means he was hiding something or lying.

"I kept on calling you. At first, I was getting your voicemail, then later it wasn't reachable. I texted, "I emailed, I did everything, but nothing." I got no reply from you. And you want me to just let go of that, give you a second chance when you wouldn't even provide me with a tangible reason why that happened." How I managed to say all this without telling or crying was something of wonder to him because it really hurt. "If you had given me a silly excuse like your house caught fire, or you were in an accident, or probably died and just came back to life, it would be better than all this. But you won't do any of that because it's against your principle to lie, and you and I both know none of those things happened. That only leaves us to one explanation."

"And what do you think that is?" Ademide asked in a deadly quiet voice. His face is an emotionless mask.

"Ohh, it's simple. You figured out you're better off without me, or you met some other girl that you someone can also recognize her face and now you're with her," I explained in a cold voice, trying hard to mask the pain I felt behind every word.

"If all that is true, then why would I be back here?" Don't diminish..."

"You're probably back because you feel you'd have one last fun with me," I cut him off cleanly. I saw a look of pain flash across his face. He clearly didn't like being called out. "Do me a favor, Ademide. Stay away from me, I can't bear it. I can't."

I turned on my heels and walked the rest of the way to the junction to meet up with Stella without glancing back at him, promising myself that I wasn't going to fall for his games. Whatever we had then, it was obviously gone now, at least for him. This time around, I didn't try to stop the tears as it fell, I just let it fall.

What is Ademide hiding?

Do you all think Mary is overreacting?

Let's all calm down for our lovelies.

See ya later, guys.

MARY ADEN