Tamiloore groaned as she placed the ice on her face again.

"Careful" Theo said as Tamiloore nodded. She removed the ice after a while and stared at Theo.

"I'm gonna ask you a question and I want an honest answer" Tamiloore said and Theo nodded.

"You got it"

"What do you think of me?"

"Huh?"

"As a lady, what do you think of me?"

Theo swallowed his saliva as he rubbed his hands together. "You want an honest answer?"

"Yes,an honest answer"

"Well, I think you are a very pretty girl,you are fun to be with and pure at heart. You care a great deal for everyone around you and at times I think you are very adorable. Any man would be blessed to have you"

Tamiloore smiled as she looked down "One more question"

"Okay"

"Theo..............do you by any chance,any slightest chance like me?"

Theo froze on his seat as he dropped his head. "Why do you want to know that?"

"I just want to know"

"Aren't you scared my answer might hurt you?"

Tamiloore swallowed her saliva.

Theo sighed loudly "Yes, I like you, like shouldn't be the word right?"

Tamiloore raised her head to look at him "Why didn't you tell me?"

"We were good friends and even if you wouldn't glance at me I was okay"

"You weren't okay Theo"

"Then Snr Akin came into the picture, you really liked him then and what could I do? I wanted you to be happy and you were happy"

"I didn't love him, I was just delusional"

"You weren't delusional"

"Hell I was. I was seriously fantasizing over him and I wanted attention and which he gave me on a gold platter"

"Why are you asking all these questions all of a sudden?"

"How long were you planning to hide your feelings behind those glasses?"

Theo laughed a little "Maybe forever, us being friends was okay for me"

"I see you are an expert at hiding feelings"

"I am not. I'm just good at adapting to situations very fast. So why asking all these questions now? What's the significance?"

"Semiloore said a lot of people fall in love without realizing it. Sometimes events trigger the realisation, sometimes people do and sometimes death does. That day I heard Snr Akin already had a girlfriend, I finally realized. The time you carried me,. the time you hugged me and stopped me from punching that mannequin, my eyes, they opened and I didn't want to believe it"

"Believe what?"

"That I love you. That I would do anything to keep you safe, that you were the only person I could tease and get away with it and first love is real"

Theo opened and closed his mouth but no words came out.

"I know I sound very weird, after all these while, why am I just knowing these?"

"Its okay"

"I am so sorry Theo"

Theo dragged her into his arms and hugged her. "I said its okay" he whispered to her as he rubbed circles on her back.

Semiloore opened her eyes slowly. She had asked everyone to take a break and rest and almost everyone had slept.

She turned her head and discovered her head was on Nathaniel's lap. He was still scribbling on his book and noticed her movement immediately.

"Awake?"

"You didn't take a break?"

"I need to know how this works and I have little time"

"Still don't over work yourself"

"I'm not. Just testing my boundaries and it seems like I've been slacking off. I haven't reached my boundaries yet"

Semiloore shook her head as she stared at the sprawled bodies on the floor. At least Deji had acted like his pompous self and climbed onto the long sofa to sleep.

Tara was sleeping peacefully on the floor using the chair cushion as pillow. Joshua too was sleeping his hands covering his eyes and Semiloore stopped before laughing.

"Whoa!"

"What?"

Jerry had lied on his back also using a chair cushion as pillow and Rolake beside him except that her head was on his chest and Jerry had an arm around her.

Nathaniel had his own fit of laughter as Semiloore brought out her phone and took a few pictures before giggling.

"How long have we slept?"

"Close to an hour"

"Not long"

"Hmm"

"You should rest Nathan"

Nath smiled at her "I will"

"When?"

"Soon"

"Soon can't be determined. It might mean right now or tomorrow or even next year. So tell me how soon is your soon?"

Nath laughed as his laughter ringed in her ears "How soon is my soon?"

"Exactly"

"How soon do you want it to be?" He asked pulling Semiloore unto his laps.

"Right now"

"Okay"

Joshua was the one who stood up first. He yawned as he glanced at Semiloore who was already reading.

"How long have you been awake?"

"Almost 40 minutes"

"Mehn! Why didn't you wake anybody up?"

"You guys are working harder than usual,you needed the rest"

"I see"

"Don't wake anyone else up, just continue reading and let them wake up themselves"

"Okay" Joshua burst into laughter when he saw Jerry and Rolake.

"Oh my god! Jerry gonna freak out when he wakes up"

"Seems like he's enjoying his sleep to me"

"Rolake who is scared wits of him will prolly pass out when she wakes up"

Semiloore laughed "Stop freaking out and start reading"

Tara and Deji almost woke up at the same time too.

"Jeez... I feel refreshed"

Tara yawned and immediately sat down to get to her work. She glanced beside her and gave a weird look. Deji saw the position Jerry and Rolake were and burst into laughter.

"This is the biggest irony of this month"

"Today is 30th sha"

"Basically, Christmas starts tomorrow"

"Don't tell me you want to start whining your parents for Christmas clothes and shoes"

"Why not?"

"Because you aren't a five year old".

They all burst into laughter.

"And why is Jerry and Rolake sleeping like this?"

Semiloore laughed "Now that am looking at them closely, they look really cute"

"Cute ni kini? Jerry and Rolake aren't anything close to cute. Jerry is like ice king and Rolake is like parrot queen. How could them be cute?"

They roared with laughter at Deji's explanation.
"Rolake isn't parrot queen anymore. She's more or less than a shy queen and yes she still has the parrot queen features"

They laughed again

"But do you know that the weirdest combinations are the cutest?"

"Eh?"

"Imagine icy Jerry talking to Rolake is a sweet low tone huh? Doesn't it look cute in your imagination?"

"Unfortunately,It does"

"Told ya"

"Let's see who opens their eyes first and see his or her reaction"

"I bet Jerry is going to push her away if he's the first"

"I bet Rolake is gonna yell if she wakes us first"

"I bet Jerry is going to jerk her awake and yell at her"

"I bet Rolake who want to die"

Semiloore glanced at all of them.

"You aren't betting?"

"I bet.......they would both do something unexpected"

"Huh?"

"Get ready to lose your 1k" Deji said with a grin as he dropped his  money and also others. as Semiloore stared at the figures sleeping peacefully, she smiled slightly.

She didn't know what either what do but what she did know is Jerry was never going to push her away and Rolake? She probably would crawl away and want to hide herself underground.

Jerry was the one who woke up first. He opened his eye and stared at the room. Everyone turned to him almost immediately but he barely noticed their curious gazes.

He then turned to the sleeping figure with her head on his chest. She hadn't packed her hair, so it was sprawled on his chest. Noticing that he had an arm round her; he laughed slightly.

How badly had he wanted to hold her that he was holding her in his dreams.

Dreams are very crazy.

"Jeez, I don't enjoy weird dreams" he murmured but loud enough for others to hear. He closed his eyes and opened it again and when he found out their position, his eyes widened.

As he tried standing up and as he realized that standing up would wake her up;he removed the chair cushion from his head and lay it beside him. He slowly shifted her and put her head on the cushion.

He unconsciously removed her hair from her eyes and tried to stand up before meeting the surprised gazes of others. He groaned and frowned immediately.

"What is it?" He asked and Deji's jaw dropped in shock.