Jamal's POV

I honked and the gate man noticing it was me, ran to open the gate. This wouldn't be the first time I'd be coming to this house so I was pretty familiar here. I was more or less family anyway.

I drove in and parked my car under the pavelon right beside the others and walked out, moving towards the house. I pressed the door bell twice before I waited. I heard shuffles before the door knob turned and I came face to face with Uncle Taju.

"Jamal." He smiled in recognition and I smiled back, bowing my head in respect.

"Good morning uncle Taju." I greeted.

"Good morning boy. It's been a while. How are you?" He asked me.

"I'm fine, sir. I actually came by to see Mateo..." I trailed when off when I heard footsteps.

"Dad, who is..." He also stopped short when I turned my head to look past uncle Taju and at him. He was surprised to see me and I smirked. Uncle Taju looked between both of us in confusion.

"Jamal..." Mateo muttered.

"Hey, Mateo." I gave him a curt wave.

******

I parked the car, turned off the ignition and got down. I looked behind me and saw Mateo had already gotten here, parking right behind me. We could have taken the same car but I had somewhere to be immediately after this. He walked up to me, putting off his shades and looking at the very familiar surrounding before he looked at me with a frown.

"What are we doing here?" He asked me and I kept a straight face.

"I told you, we are here to talk." I replied ignorantly, knowing fully well what he meant. He rolled his eyes.

"I know we are here to talk. I meant, what are we doing at a play ground." He gestured to the surrounding and I chuckled. This was the playground Mateo and I used to come to while growing before we decided we had outgrown it.

"Just wanted us to talk somewhere that has memories. Come on." I nudged my head and started walking. I heard him mutter some incoherent words before he started to followed me.

We made our way to the open space at the corner of the play ground where parents were seated, watching their kids. We moved to a remote side and took out sit. I could feel Mateo's eyes on me, scrutinizing me. He was still very surprised I had come over to his house and asked him to take a drive with me.

"You know it's impolite to stare." I told him, sparing him just a glance and looking straight ahead at the children playing on the seesaw.

"Well forgive me for trying to figure you out." He stated curtly and I smirked, looking at him.

"You can never figure me out Mateo, and vice versa. So there is really no use trying." I replied and he rolled his eyes, squinting as the sun shone bright and the ray affected his eyes.

"Why then did you bring me out here? To point out your anger, disappointment, hatred for me. You don't have to point them out, Jamal. I know already." He said in a displeased tone and I frowned.

"I'm not like you, Mateo. I don't hold a grudge." I pointed out and he looked away. I sighed and looked back at the children on the seesaw.

"Why are we here?" He asked again in a tone I didn't appreciate one bit. I looked at him, he was looking at me and could clearly see the displeased look on my face.

"I didn't expect that tone from you, knowing fully well that you talked with my sister two nights ago about me." I said, my voice raising a notch. He looked surprised when he heard that.

"She told you about that night?" He asked in awe and I scoffed.

"She didn't need to tell me, I saw you guys." I replied and he kept quiet looking away. I sighed. "Mateo, if there is something going on, you can tell me about it. What happened to not hiding anything from each other. We are best friends." I calmly said.

"What is going on with me is nothing you don't already know, Jamal. My family is broken. My dad is trying to make time for me but sometimes it's not enough and to top it up, my best friend took the girl I like." He muttered the last part but I heard and it enraged me.

"I didn't take Elyon from you! I hate it when you say that. She made her choice and she chose not to be with you, why can't you just accept that fact and move on!" I snapped and he shot me a look.

"Move on? Move on! That girl is the only thing that keeps me sane! Whereas, she just makes you sleep." He snapped back.

"That's so unfair, Mateo. I'll keep saying the same thing. She made her choice. Funny how, nothing is going on between Elyon and I." I told him, at the same time trying to convince myself. Mateo rolled his eyes.

"Of course there isn't." He said with sarcasm. I puffed out air from my mouth in frustration.

"Okay, let's say I did steal Elyon from you, which I didn't. That didn't warrant all the bullshit you did back in school." I told him.

"It was a mistake..." He started.

"You broke my leg, dude. That wasn't a mistake." I growled out.

"I was fücking pissed, okay?!!!" He yelled, catching the attention of a parent near by who shot us a glare as their daughter asked what "fücking" meant. I could have laughed if this wasn't a serious situation. I looked at Mateo and he was heaving. I folded my hand, expecting him to continue.

"I was jealous. I like Elyon, I like her so much but she never stopped talking or asking about you. It was infuriating and annoying but I had to tolerate it because I wanted to be caring, maybe if I was, she would see me the way I saw her. But it didn't work that way..." He trailed off and I exhaled.

"The way you guys grew so close over night scared the shit out of me. I saw the way you looked at her every time and I couldn't help me. I tried to be the best friend but I couldn't let her go, not when she holds the key to my sanity." He looked at me with bloodshot eyes.

"Jamal, you have done a lot of things for me in the past and in the present. I was unfair to you. You didn't deserve my attitude and my toxicity. It would be hard getting over Elyon, it would be hard seeing you two together, but I'll try to be civil." He stood up, I stood up as well.

"Mateo, I never took Elyon from you. She made her choice." I repeated to him, he gave me a small smile and nodded.

"I know." With that, he turned around and left. I sighed and threw my head back.

Well that went quite well. At least we didn't throw punches.

******

I pressed the door bell and the doorknob rattled before the finally opener and Aunt Lyla opened the door. She beamed when she saw me. I smiled back.

"Jamal, what are surprise. How are you?" She asked me as she stepped aside and allowed me to walk in.

"I'm very fine, thank you ma. I actually came here to get Elyon. I don't know if she's in." I looked around the house and up the stairs that led to Elyon's room and back to Aunt Lyla.

"Is she expecting you?" She asked me but I shook my head.

"No, it's actually a..." I started

"Jamal." I heard my name from a familiarly alluring voice and looked up, my eyes meeting Elyon's own as she descended from the stairs.

"....surprise." I whispered the last part of my sentence as I stared at her. She grinned at me but I couldn't grin back. She wasn't even fancily dressed. She had a dark face mask on even. She was dressed in a tank top and shorts and her hair was all over the place.

Damn. I'd never get used to seeing her in shorts.

I heard Aunt Lyla clear her throat loudly which also cut me out of my thoughts. I looked at her with an embarrassed smile and she looked back at me with a teasing look. It's pretty embarrassing for a mother to catch a guy ogling her daughter.

"I'll give you guys some space." She while throwing a not so subtle wink at Elyon who in turn rolled her eyes. Soon she was out of eye and ear shot.

"I'm sorry about that. My mum can be pretty overbearing." Elyon said, folding her hand across her chest. I tried to look anywhere but her chest, or her legs.

Oh jeez, her legs...

"I don't want to imagine what's going on in her head right now." I chuckled and she laughed.

"No you don't. My mum has a pretty wild imagination. Let's sit." She gestured but I held her hand to stop her. She looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"There is no need for that because I'm here to take you out." I told her and she widened her eyes. I cringed.

Did It sound bad?

"Take me out? Are the guys around? Are we all going out?" She asked and I shook my head.

"No, it's just the two of us. Except you don't want to..." She shook her head vigorously.

"No, that's not what I meant. I just...I've never been on a date. That's if this is a date." She let out a nervous laugh and I joined her, trying to ease her nerves.

"Yes, we can classify this as a date. So, you're up?" I asked her and she chuckled.

"Of course. But, I have to freshen up. I look like an orgar." She said with a nervous laughter before skipping away and me staring at her.

A beautiful, beautiful orgar.

You are hopeless. My subconscious mocked and I chuckled.

I agree.

I settled down on the chair and began to surf through my phone and check my messages. I saw a message from Tolani and hissed. What she wanted, I didn't know. I opened the message and cringed in utmost disgust. She actually sent me nudes. She sent a message after.

Tolani.

I need you babe 😓🤤🍆🍆.

I hissed and blocked her immediately. I cannot deal with all this bad energy in my life. I went back to checking my messages. Few had come in from Somadina. He wanted to be sure what to say to Vanessa. I chuckled and helped him.

"I'm ready." I heard Elyon's and I looked up.

Fuck me...

She was dressed in an orange baggy sweatshirt, faded thigh length jeans and white convase. Her hair was parked in a low bun and her shades hung in it. She had a black Cross bag and her phone in her hands.

"Damn." I muttered but she certainly heard me because she chuckled and flashed me a teasing smirk.

"How do I look?" She asked me, giving a swift spin.

"Are you really asking me? You look amazing. Though, Won't you catch a cold in that." My eyes gestured to her legs and she shrugged.

"You once told me not to hide all this, so I'm taking your advice. We had best start moving." She sashayed past me, calling to her mum that we were living.

"Oh, so now you are using my words to punish me." I smirked as I followed her out of the house and to the car.

"Punish you?" She dramatically gasped, pressing her palm against her chest. "I'd never do that on purpose." She added with a pout. I groaned inaudibly, reading meaning to her words.

"Oh I think you are doing it on purpose." I murmured. She heard me and giggled, opening the door of the passengers seat and going in. I sighed and entered the car as well.

This girl will soon kee me. I thought.

This is a very good case of 'Elyon, ma pa mi na'
My subconscious mocked me and I chuckled.

Today is going to be a great day. I can feel it.

****

We came out of the Cinema where we just watched Black Widow. I was pretty skeptical about picking the movie. I didn't know if it was the kind of movie Elyon liked but turns out, she's just a huge fan of Marvel like I was. Coming out of the Cinema, we kept arguing on who the strongest avenger was, Thor or Hawk.  She chose Thor, I chose Hawk.

All in all, it was a really fun time.

We went to cold stone and got ice cream before we settled on one of the chairs, talking about everything. I wanted to tell her about Mateo but before I could even start, she best me to it.

"Did you talk to Skye about what we saw?" She asked me and two things immediately came to mind. The fact that I almost kissed her that night and my discussion with Skye. I scoped a spoon of my ice-cream and took it to my mouth.

"I did. I actually spoke to Mateo this morning anyway." I watched for her reaction and she just looked at me, her face impassive.

"Hope you didn't punch him for hugging your sister, or coming close to her even." She smiled and I laughed softly.

"No. I just needed to clear the air." I replied. She hummed in response and took a spoon of her ice cream as well.

"How did it go though?" She asked. I exhaled and shrugged.

"It went better than I expected. He poured his heart out. Told me that he still likes you and it might be hard for him to stop liking you."

I intentionally left the part where he said it would be hard for him to see both of us together. It's not certain yet that Elyon wants us to be an item. It's not also certain that she even liked me like that. Although I had my speculations because of the 'almost kiss' of last time and her body language whenever she was around me. I still wanted her to tell me herself, not to make the same mistake Mateo did.

"I had to make him understand that he's reaction to whatever he was thinking was all him. He reacted in the worst way possible and I honestly didn't expect that from my best friend of more than ten years." I scoffed out a laugh and Elyon smiled.

"Are you guys still going to be close?" She asked me and I shook my head.

"I know I give him benefits of doubt. I know there is something eating him up on the inside, even though he won't tell me. But we can never be as tight as we used to. He hurt me, a lot. In words and in actions. But no matter what, if he needs me, I'd be there." I smiled and she nodded. She leaned forward on the table and stretched her hand to rest on mine that laid against the table. I looked at her

"You are a good friend, Jamal. Mateo didn't realize that early enough. You treat you friends with so much respect and I'm lucky to have you in my life." She squeezed my hand, not taking her eyes from mine. I turned my hand around and laced my fingers through hers.

"You don't know how much your words mean to me." I told her and she chuckled.

"Now you are being so corny." She teased, taking a spoon of ice cream. She had some smeared again her lips.

"You have some..." I pointed to her lips, gesturing to her. She darted her tongue out and ran it along her lips and my eyes followed the innocent movement. It went through my eyes in a very slow and sensual motion, planting images in my head.

Omo yi ma pa mi las las. I thought as a low groan escaped my lips.

*****

Mateo's POV

I laid my head on my bed, the events of this morning flashing through my mind. He was right. He didn't take Elyon from me, it was only an image I had conjured in my mind to blame him for her rejection. I needed someone to blame apart from myself, someone to dump all my baggage on.

It was the wrong thing to do.

And it took me breaking my best friend's leg, two slaps, and several internal battles to know the admit that I've been a jackass.

I sighed.

It would be hard to let her go... I sighed in frustration.

What if she isn't exactly your redemption, but an eye opener to let you see that you need one. My mind pointed out and I sat up at the new revelation.

Before I could think about it any further, a knock came to my door and my dad popped his head in with a smile.

"There is someone here to see you." He said. I looked at him with confusion. He stepped aside and Skye popped her head in with a grin playing on her lips. I smiled back. Dad closed the door, leaving just both of us in.

"Hey! I didn't expect you to come here." I told her, standing up.

"I'm here to take you out. You've been held in like a vampire for a long time." She replied with a smirk.

"I don't feel like going out." I whined. I honestly didn't feel like going out. I just wanted to stay in door, with the lights off and the curtains down, wallowing in my misery.

"Nope, I won't hear that." She looked at me up and down before shrugging. "You are dressed well so there is no need to change or anything." She told me and I sighed. Skye was a pretty persistent person.

"You'll probably appear in my dream with a cutlass if I don't heed to your request." I stated and she grinned, wiggling her eyebrow. I groaned. "Urghh! Fine, let's go." I accepted, squealing. I laughed, picking my phone and wallet.

Even if today started off as not so great, maybe the rest of today would be okay, at least.

******

Jamal's POV

After shop rite, we found ourselves on the beach. Everything was fun. We took tons of pictures of everything. I mostly took random pictures of her at very odd times. I wanted to draw her. I didn't want her to know I intentionally made sure to be subtle. I made sure to hide those ones in my vault just in case she wanted to look through my gallery. We stayed under the shed, as the sun went down and evening came, we didn't want to leave.

I wanted to go and get us a drink and she asked for my phone to collect the pictures we took together. I handed it to her and went to get us a banana smoothie with yoghurt. When I got back, she had left my phone on the table and was staring ahead.

"Here you go." I stretched the smoothie to her, a smile playing on my face. But she didn't return it. Instead she just looked at me. The frown whipped off my face immediately. She didn't look too happy.

She was happy right now.

"Elyon, what's wrong? Don't you like banana smoothie. I can go and change it." I told her. She shook her head.

"I'm fine. I just want to go home." She stood up, flashing me a small smile but I could see through the smile. She wasn't happy about something. She began to walk but I held her hand to stop her.

"Elyon, did I do anything wrong?" I asked her. She shook her head, removed her hand from mine and continued to walk away. I sighed as I shoved my phone into the breast pocket of my jacket and took both smoothie in my hand.

The drive home was very quiet and uncomfortable. I kept glancing at her from time to time, she had her face to the window, not stealing a glance at me. I tried to think of anything I might have done.

Am I moving too fast?

I parked right in front of her house and turned off the ignition. She didn't get down and I wasn't eager to as well. We just sat down, the air pregnant with a awkward silence. I sighed, taking my hands off the steering wheel and staring at her.

"Elyon, you've been quiet since we left the beach. Did I do anything wrong? If I did something wrong, tell me so that I'd apologize." I told her calmly.

Tolani did this a lot, getting angry and giving me the silent treatment for no reason and it was infuriating. But Elyon wasn't Tolani so I had to calm down and tackle this wisely. I heard her sigh as she looked at me.

"Can I have your phone?" Was her simple request. I frowned in confusion but fished it out of my pocket and handed it over to her. She unlocked it and began to press some buttons. I watched her silently. She got ti where she wanted but didn't give me the phone back.

"I wanted to collect the pictures from you and I kept swiping through..." She started and I looked at her, giving her the go ahead to continue.

"Okay..." I muttered. She sighed again, raising up the screen to my face and I groaned, resting my head in the steering wheel when I saw what was there.

"Why do you have a nude picture of Tolani on your phone?" She asked me, her tone was disapproving and it held a hint of hurt. I looked at her.

"Elyon, that wasn't supposed to be there, I swear. I'm sorry you had to see that." I said, trying my best to sound as sincere as possible. I forgot to delete the pictures she sent to me  this morning from my gallery and now Elyon had seen it.

"I'm not trying to act like you owe me anything, Jamal..." She started but I shook my head in disapproval.

"Don't talk that way." I told her.

"It's the truth. I know I'm not your girlfriend or anything but I'm really concerned about you. Your relationship with her took a toll on you, you didn't have to tell me, I saw the way she made you feel so inferior. Seeing that just made me to think she still has an hold over you or something." She muttered the last part, looking away. I smiled and brought my hand to her face, turning her to face me.

"She has no hold over me and I'm over her. I broke up with her, remember? She's been on my neck this days, telling me to take her back and all. This morning she set me those pictures. See..." I took the phone from her hand and opened my whatsapp, taking it to my archived chats, clicking on Tolani's chat and showing her.

"She just dumped them in my DM like that. I blocked her immediately but I didn't think to look at my gallery to check if the pictures had gotten in and that's what you saw. I'm so sorry you had to see that. I'm deleting them right now." I quickly started to click on the pictures to delete them. Elyon held my hand and I looked at her.

"You really don't have to do it in front of me. I believe you." She told me but I shook my head.

"I have to. I need to prove to you that there's nothing going on between Tolani and I. Nothing is going on and nothing will ever go on. I promise." I told her and finally deleted them. I looked up and found her looking at me, a small smile playing on her lips.

"What?" I asked her, my lips spreading into a smile of my own.

"Why do you feel to prove it to me?" She asked me, looking at me intently. I leaned closer to her, my face just centimeters away from her. She didn't lean back, instead she leaned closer as well.

Oh shit.

"Would you like to know?" I asked her, my voice coming out husky and hushed. and she gave a lopsided grin.

"Maybe..." She replied breathlessly. I knew what she was doing. She was giving me an indirect invitation to kiss her. I wanted to, God knows I wanted to hold her face in my hands and kiss her.

But I couldn't... At least not yet.

So instead, my hand went to the back of her to draw her head close, I rose my head slightly higher and pressed my lips against her forehead. I heard her sigh in contempt and somewhat in relief, so I knew I did the right thing.

Just tell her you like her. My subconscious told me but I just smiled and shook my head.

I think she already knows.

A/N
Phew... I've been writing this thing for three days Mehn! Oya clap for me na, abi I no try?

Jamal made a bold move by going over to Mateo's just to clear the air. Mateo finally admitted that he was wrong but he also admitted that he wouldn't be able to get over Elyon in a while. Though, he will make an effort to.

Do you think controversies will arise between them again?

Who agrees that Skye is a sweetheart 😍.

Things are already working out for Jamal and Elyon. Drop your shipnames.

P. S. Who remembers Taju?

Next update would be soon. Don't forget to comment, vote and share. See you next week. ❤️❤️