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"𝑨 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒕, 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒖𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒑𝒕𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆."

_𝑼𝒏𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒏.

𝕂ℍ𝔸𝕃𝕀𝕃

"... I don't agree that it's option C. I am very much certain that it's option D. Just look at my calculations." Tolani argued, shoving her work book over to my side. I sighed, picking it up and looked through her calculations. Then, I shook my head.

This girl just doesn't want to accept that she's wrong.

"You are very wrong, my queen." I stated absentmindedly, moving closer to her to show her the correct calculations and formulae to use. "When you get an equation like this, you need to start evaluating from the bottom, not the top. Look..." I showed her, putting her through every step of the calculation till she understood it.

Even though she had a scowl on her face at every single moment.

"Fine. You were right and I was less right." She said, rolling her eyes when I laughed at her use of words. Trust Tolani not to accept defeat just like that.

Less right? Really?

"Why can't you just admit that you were wrong? It really won't do much to you." I smirked at her, wiggling my eyebrows at her and she rolled her eyes at me again.

"That's because I am never wrong, Khalil." She maintained adamantly, still not wanting to accept the fact that I was better than her at mathematics.

Mock exams had started and even though it wasn't JAMB or WAEC, everyone was taking it serious because apparently, school was recording it. So far, science and technical students have had four papers out of nine, remaining five. Tolani and I have been seated in at a corner of Love garden all day, away from all the noise with noses buried inside our books, preparing for Mathematics which was the next day.

God knows, my head is hot.

"If I read anymore, I am honestly going to throw up." Tolani said, groaning out in frustration and throwing her head back over the head rest of the chair. I laughed at her expression.

"Reading and throwing up in the same sentence isn't exactly efficient." I told her and she scoffed at me, eyeing me with mock disdain.

"Don't try to school me in English, this boy. I am way better than you at it." She said, her voice laced with pride and sass, causing me to laugh again

Typical Tolani.

"Yes ma'am. You are the boss." I offered her a mock bow, earning an eye roll from her that had me doubling up again in laughter.

"I heard what you called me though." She muttered.

I rose my head from the book I was flipping to look at her. She was staring at me, eyes clouded with what seemed like admiration. I knew what she was talking about. I had thought she didn't notice when I called her that but I feigned ignorance, furrowing my brows like I didn't understand what she was talking about.

"What did I call you?" I asked her, shrugging my shoulders and she sighed, sagging her shoulders just as a lazy smile appeared on her lips.

"You called me your queen." She revealed and my lips quirked just a little bit, a small smile tugging at the corners of my lips. "I also noticed that it was what you wrote as the caption of the picture you posted on Instagram on my birthday." She added, her eyes intently trained on mine. I corked my head to the side, staring at her with my lips still tugged in a smile

"Well, am I wrong?" I asked her and she shrugged, looking away from me for a slight second.

"I am no queen, Khalil." She shook her head, her voice laced with self doubt and zero confidence. I chuckled, wondering how the most confident girl I have ever met became... this.

"You are no queen, Tolani." I agreed with her and she stared at me, her brows furrowed together on confusion. "You are my queen. There is a difference." I stated, winking with my lips stretched in a grin when her eyes widened at my words.

"Stop doing that, Khalil." Her voice was in a warning tone, her eyes just portraying the same message and I frowned.

"Stop doing what? Reminding you of how special you are? No, I won't stop. It's my duty to remind you." I replied adamantly, going back to flipping the pages of my text book. I heard her sigh and mutter some incohesive words, making me turn to her.

"I am not even special." She said and my frown deepened, my mind hazy with confusion.

Ever since she got back from her modeling tour, I have noticed something off about her. She was less chirpy, except when around me. Normally, Tolani loved all the attention she got, good or bad but lately, it seemed like she didn't even want to be noticed at all. The Tolani I know would always speak highly of herself, was always confident in herself, walking like the world was under her feet.

Now, it was all just strange.

"What's going on?" I asked and she shrugged, putting her attention on her book just to avoid looking at me. Not liking that she was avoiding me, I moved closer to her and stretched my hand so that I could touch her face, then tilted her face to the side so that she could look at me.

"You can't wave that question off with just a shrug, Tolani. I know you. Something is up and I want to hear it." I said, my eyes unwavering from hers.

"Nothing is going on. I'm fine, maybe I'm just stressed." She replied, shrugging nonchalantly again. As much as I wanted to pretend with her, act like everything was actually okay, I couldn't just let that pass. Especially after her entire break down last year, I didn't want to take any chances when it came to Tolani's wellbeing.

That's how much she mattered to me.

"This isn't stress." I stated matter-of-factly, not buying her excuse one bit. "You have not really being yourself lately and I can't pretend like I didn't notice, Tolani. You are suddenly speaking down on yourself and the Tolani I know won't speak down on herself." I queried, searching her eyes for answers, if at all she won't let me in on it herself.

"You have seen me in my most vulnerable, lowest state, Khalil. There is really no use pretending in front of you anymore." Was her reply, her voice low and calm.

In her most vulnerable and lowest state.

She was referring to her birthday.

The funny thing was that, I never thought she was pretending, especially when it came to me. She has always been her true self.

Or has she?

"I never thought you were pretending for one second." I told her, earning a slight chuckle from her.

"I am not who you think I am, Khalil." She started and I looked on, ready to listen to every word she was about to utter. "All that bad bitch attitude, all that attention seeking, it's not me. It's who I made myself to be and it's suffocating. Right now, I'm just counting down to the day I leave this school so I can start afresh, away from all these toxicity."

"Away from me too?" I asked her, my lips turned up in a smirk as I tried to lessen the tension that was already beginning to rise from her words. Fortunately, it worked because she giggled, causing my lips to stretch further in smile.

"Now why would I want to stay away from you?" She asked rhetorically, her eyes trained intently on mine. That simple question had goosebumps appearing on my skin and my chest swelling with tons of emotions I couldn't even place. The way she looked at me wasn't helping matters as well.

She was looking at me like...

...You are basically the only factor in my life keeping me sane, Khalil...

Her words from last year came rushing back to my mind, accompanied with a tidal wave of emotions, flooding my entire being like a storm.

A beautiful storm.

"You are wrong." I started, my voice suddenly breathless and deeper. Tolani looked at m, a slight confusion marrying her face.

"You are everything I think you are, and more." I said, my eyes not leaving hers as I stretched over and took her hands in mine. I could feel them trembling and I clasped them tightly in mine.

"You are beautiful. You are strong. You are smart, I mean..." I chuckled, shaking my head. "You are better than me in every other subject, apart from Mathematics. I schooled you in that one." She let out an hearty laughter when I said that, the beautiful rumbling very much contagious that it had me chuckling as well.

"You are an amazing girl, Tolani. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise." I took my words carefully, making sure to hit them in the right way so that they would stick to her memory, so that it would keep ringing in her memory. The fact that she was smiling made me happy, because I wanted to be reason she was smiling.

But, it didn't last very long because her smile turned upside down and a look of sadness, mixed with self pity married her face immediately, confusing me.

"I don't think you'd see me that way if I told you somethings about me." She said, her voice quirking just a little bit. She slipped her hands away from mine and I let her, watching her as she struggled a bit, fidgeting and playing with her fingers nervously.

I have never seen Tolani this nervous before. It sort of scared me.

"Nothing you tell me will change the way I see you, Tolani." I maintained and a scoff like laugh escaped her lips, followed by a shaking of her head.

"What if I told you I was raped?"

It was like ice cold water had been poured on me when she made that statement. Several alarm bells went off in my head and my eyes widened in shock, cold chills running down my spine. Goosebumps appeared on my skin and no, it wasn't the good kind. I replayed her words in my head, trying to wrap my head around it.

"What?" Was all I could say, all I could mutter. Tolani looked away from me but I noticed the expression of shame she had on her face. It broke my heart into million pieces.

"You wanted to know what made me break down on my birthday. Or at least, what made me not to like my birthday." She started again, her voice quivering and shaking, her fingers still trembling so hard that I could see them them. I gulped then nodded, urging her to continue as I didn't even know what to say.

"I was raped, eleven years ago, on my birthday." She revealed, knocking the breath right out of me again, shocking me to my wits. But she wasn't even done and I was scared for the things she'd still reveal.

I wasn't sure I could handle it.

"That was what led to me being this way." She stated and I got a bit confused.

"W-what way?" I asked her, more like stuttered because the news was still shaking me. She sighed, shaking her head like she was trying to get rid of the memories she fought so hard to bury but they just kept coming back.

"Tolani, you don't have to." I told her, not wanting her to tell me something she wasn't ready to tell me. I also wasn't even sure I was ready to hear it, even after I said I wanted to. This seemed like too much to even hear.

Rape...

It left a bitter taste in my mouth.

My mum had told me of something similar that happened to Aunt Zaria when she was much younger. Aunt Zaria had also confirmed it. Since then, any talk about rape, molestation or sexual violence of any sort had me recoiling in sadness and pity for the victims but also anger and rage for the perpetrators of such acts.

At that point, speaking with Tolani about it had my emotions running wild.

"You know..." She started again like I hadn't said anything, staring ahead at the trees situated at the centre of the garden. "Most times, when a girl is raped, she grows up hating sex or the male specie in general, right?" I nodded, even though it was more of rhetorical question.

"That's not always the case, you know." She scoffed out a short humorless laugh. My heart clenched as I prepared myself for what I was about to hear.

"At rare cases, the girl turns out to be a sex starved, sex crazed slut. In other words, a nymphomaniac." She deadpan, causing my mind to go into overdrive. My entire body was on fire and I didn't even know exactly what I was feeling, especially with this extremely new theory.

...a sex starved and sex craved slut...

... A Nymphomaniac...

It all made perfect sense.

Why she was always...oh no!

"Oh my God..." I muttered, utterly speechless with no idea of what to say, or what to do. I knew I wanted to hug her, hold her, my level of protectiveness for her skyrocketing. But I was also feeling rage, anger, murderous.

Who the hell did this to her...

I looked at Tolani and noticed that she wasn't even close to me anymore. She had shifted away, to the corner of the seat, hugging her arms around herself like some sort of shield. I moved closer to her, noticing how she recoiled even more. It pained me to see her like this.

In her most vulnerable state.

I cupped her face in my hand, making her look at me. Her eyes were blood shot. I didn't even notice that she's been crying.The rage I was feeling for whoever had done this to her intensified a hundred fold.

"Who did this to you?" I asked, trying to make my voice as calm as I could. Tolani shook her head, removing my hands from where they were situated on her face.

"It doesn't matter." She replied dismissively, getting me even more confused and more angry. I frowned, looking at her like she had suddenly grown horns on her head.

"It doesn't matter?!" I was trying not to snap but I was failing miserably. "You can't just tell something as delicate, something as huge as this and then say it doesn't matter. Of course it matters, Tolani!"

"Don't shout at me!" She snapped back, standing up to her feet and glaring at me, startling me. At that point, I was glad that it was only the both of us in love garden, out of earshots.

"Even if I told you who did it, what can you do about it, ehn? It was eleven fucking years ago, Khalil! If my parents didn't do anything about it then..." She trailed off, realizing what she had just said. I looked on in disbelief.

Her parents knew? And they didn't do anything about it?

"Your parents knew?! And they didn't do anything about it?!" I yelled out in disbelief. Tolani sniffed, cleaning her running nose with the back of her hand before she began to shuffle for her books. I watched her in confusion as she began to pack them into her bag.

"Are you seriously going to leave? Just like that?" I asked her but she didn't respond. She just kept doing what she was doing. I was angry, not at her but I knew I was angry. Standing up, I clasped unto her hand to stop her from picking her books any further but she jerked her hand from my grasp like my touch suddenly burned her

"Leave me alone, Khalil." She growled out, her tone daring me to do otherwise.

Just before I was about to let go off her hand, a figure passed by and we both looked up to see Elyon staring at us, a confused expression on her face. When her eyes met mine, she looked away immediately and walked away. I furrowed my brows in confusion.

"You should go after her." Tolani said suddenly and I turned to look at her. "She and Jamal just broke up." She revealed, shocking me with another news for the umpteenth time in the last two hours.

Elyon and Jamal?

Broke up?

Is that even possible?

"They broke up?" I asked, not masking my shock and disbelief.

"And I'm pretty sure it has something to do with you. So you should go after her." Tolani sneered. Frowning, I stared off in the direct Elyon had gone off too. By the time I looked back...

Tolani was gone.

A/N

I know I said I won't be updating till the end of the week but, let's just say God touched my heart because yesterday was Sunday😌😌. Praise the Lord Somebody. All of you that threatened me, E ku'se o. Weldon o (Riri, Favour and Ko).

In the last update, it seemed like everyone blamed Elyon for what went down and that she didn't have the right to ask for a break 😂😂. I even conducted a survey on IG and everyone still maintained that it was all Elyon's fault. Only a few people had Elyon's back and honestly, I like it like that. Makes it even sweeter for me (if you know what I mean 😌😏.)

I like to dedicate an entire chapter to Khalil because I honestly enjoy writing in his POV, especially when he is with Tolani. Speaking of Tolani, you have gotten a tiny hint of her back story, what made her the way she is.

Truth be told, there is more to that story than she's letting on but the thing is, she will be very scarce from now on. You'll get to know the rest of her story sha, but... Don't let me talk 🤐.

We are drawing closer and closer to the climax and also, we'll soon start counting down to the end of this book and to the end of the BTS FAMILY SERIES🥺🥺💔💔.

Don't forget to VOTE , COMMENT AND SHARE ❤️❤️.

See you when I see you.