Benjamin walked briskly towards us with a murderous look on his face, and that made Wema flinch away from me. I mean, who wouldn't be scared of the daggers he was throwing at her. As a matter of fact, I had never seen Benjamin this mad before. And even despite his annoyed state, he still looked as handsome as ever.

In a flash, Benjamin got to us.

"Don't you dare touch her again!" He bawled.

"Ehen, is she your property?" Wema was miles away from him. She couldn't possibly say it close to him, except she wanted to be killed. 

"I'm just warning you." He retorted with a deadly glare.

"Like you would do anything!" She mumbled, before exiting.

Shortly after she left, Benjamin turned to look at me with a concerned look on his face. "Did she hurt you?" He reached out to hold my arm.

As soon as I felt his hand touch mine, the blood in my body started to jubilate and I went numb. I mean, my crush was my savior and he was also standing in front of me with a concerned look on his face. As if that wasn't enough, he was holding my arm firmly but lovingly. I guess my dreams were finally coming to reality.

"Ruby?" He looked straight into my eyes and I could clearly see his thick chocolate eyes. It looked so divine. "Are you all right?" He didn't just look concerned now, he also looked worried.

"Er...sure, I am." I stuttered.

"I was asking if she hurt you." He kept on looking at me squarely.

"N...no, she did not. I'm fine, thank you." I removed his hands from my arm abruptly and walked away.

He stood there perplexed as to how I suddenly reacted. I also didn't know why I reacted like that, but I had to just leave, probably not to invite attentions or if I kept on staring at him, anything could happen. Just saying.

Closing time came and everyone were marching to their homes. I on the other hand was still in class, packing my books into my bag.

"Hey Ruby." I looked at Benjamin strutting to me. "Um...do you wanna...maybe hangout out wi...with me?" I could clearly hear his nervous tone.

He was nervous!

That made my heart leap for Joy anyways. Don't ask why.

I sheepishly smiled at him and he returned the gesture. "I...I'm not sure I can."

"Why?" He asked almost immediately.

"I...I gat to go." Immediately, I walked out of the class and I knew for sure that he was behind me, 'cause I heard footsteps walking after me.

"Wait Ruby," I halted at the sound of his enthralling voice. "I'm sorry if...if I've offended. I wanna make it up to you." He sounded apologetic and I immediately felt bad that I was letting him apologise for nothing.

I turned to look at his charming face. "Benjamin, you haven't done anything wrong. I just can't...I just can't go with you. My parent would be worried sick about me." I tried making him understand. I couldn't possibly go with someone my heart yearns for, alone. I'd choke with discomfort and love percolating in the air.

"Okay. Maybe some other time." He sounded hurt, and walked away from me with his head slightly bowed. I watched him leave, without turning to spare a glance.

I sighed heavily. I couldn't believe I had just declined his proposal. But what could I have done?

My thoughts were cut short by a voice. A male's voice in particular. I turned back to see a smiling Chuka staring at me.

He stood still, with his hands in his pocket. He was putting on a denim jacket with a white polo inside and a black tight pant. He also had a white face cap on. I must confess, he looked dashingly cute.

"Wh...how...you're here?!" I was shocked to the brim to see him.

He chucked boyishly. "Surprised?" He asked sarcastically.

"Obviously!" I rolled my eyes.

In a blink of an eye, he laughed heartily. "You should see your face."

"Whatever! So what are you doing here?"

"Let me rephrase that, why am I here. To ask you the same question Benji asked you, do you mind hanging out with me?" He smirked.

I scoffed. "After declining Benji's, what makes you think that I would accept you?"

He answered immediately. "Because I'm not Benji, I'm Chuka and I'll always have my way." He smirked devilishly. 

I rolled my eyes at him. "Don't dream it. You might have your way with other girls but, not with me Chuka." I turned back and began to walk away.

"Wait," He ran up to me. "Common, we won't take much time. Let's just go grab lunch someplace and we are done. I'll pay all expenses." He said pleadingly.

I mentally rolled my eyes and thought about accepting his proposal.

I think I should accept. After all, he decided that all expenses would be on him. Besides, my feeling for him is neutral unlike Benji's.

I looked at me in a way that's not so pleasing. "Please?" He smiled boyishly.

I couldn't resist his cuteness. "Yeah whatever."

"Thank you." He jumped gleefully, and that made me giggle.

———

I got home feeling so exhausted. Richard was in the living room doing his assignment, whilst Rachel was in the dinning room, probably chatting.

"Hey Rachel." I placed my bag on the dinning table and plopped on the chair. She was so engrossed in what she was doing that she didn't even acknowledge me.

"Hey dumb head!" I almost shouted.

"Yes goat." She kept on looking at her phone, not even sparing me a glance. Apparently, she knew I was here even before I uttered a word, 'cause she didn't even flinch or jolted, she kept on grinning as she was doing God knows what with her phone.

"Aren't you aware that I'm back?"

"And so? You are here already, so I'm absolutely aware." Her eyes were still on her phone, grinning for ear to ear.

"No greetings?" I flinched an eyebrow.

"Have you started begging for greetings?" Sarcasm laced in her voice.

"Dog!" I hissed. "Richard dear, I'm back!" I hollered, trying to disturb and at the same time, ignore Rachel.

"Okay." That was all he said.

"Wouldn't you come greet your pretty sister?"

"You didn't greet me when you got in and also, you don't greet me whenever I get back from school. Besides, has it suddenly turn to a routine for us to start greeting each other when we get back from school?" Rachel burst out laughing at what Richard had just said.

"It's meant to be a normal thing." I hissed, making Rachel laugh even harder.

That boiled my temper and I snatched her phone from her hand, which made her laugh subsided and she threw a glare at me.

"That's more like it." I smiled victoriously, before handing her phone to her.

"Why are you just coming?" She asked out of the blues.

"So now, you can pay attention to me right?" 

"Fish, answer joor."

"Well, I'm coming from your phone." I laughed dryly. It absolutely wasn't funny, not even one bit.

"Serious Ruby!"

"Fine." I raised my hands in surrender. "I'm coming from your head." I laughed a little bit, but I bet it wasn't funny to her one bit, 'cause she gave me a straight face. "Okay fine." I told her where I was coming from. In fact, I told her about Benjamin proposing first but I declined and accepted to Chuka's.

"Why did you turn down Benjamin's proposal?"

I sighed. "Rachel you of all people should know that I couldn't possibly...accept his proposal. I would just die."

"Hope he doesn't know you went out with Chuka."

I gasped. "That's true! No he doesn't." I said assuringly. "Hope not." I was skeptical.

I lazily got up from the chair and went upstairs to my room. As soon as I got there, I threw myself on the bed.

"Ah! What a day!" I sighed exasperatedly.

I soon remembered that I collected Benji's contact today. Instantly, I brought my phone out from my bag and turned on the data connection. I clicked on WhatsApp and loads of messages started popping in. Na wa oh! It quite been a while since I came online on WhatsApp so I can't fault myself for having these much messages.

I ignored the messages to search for Benji's contact on my phone. I was happy when I saw it. However, he didn't use his picture as his profile pic, he used a woman who was in her bikini.

I clicked on his thread and messaged him. Though, he wasn't online. His last seen was two minutes ago, so I was sure he would come online in no time.

Before I dropped my phone, it beeped with a message on WhatsApp. I checked who it was from and it was Benji's.

[Benjamin 17:07] Hey.

[Me 17:07] How are you doing? 😊

[Benjamin 17:09] I'm fine, you?

[Me 17:09] Very well thank you. Hope you ain't still mad that I declined your proposal.

[Benjamin 17:10] Lol. 😂 I can't be angry. I was never angry, I was online feeling guilty that you were angry with me.

I blushed when I saw his message. I wasn't angry dear.

[Me 17:11] I wasn't angry o. I just didn't want my parent to be worried about me. You know?

It took sometime before he replied and I began to wonder why he was taking much time. 'He obviously has other people to chat with.' My subconscious mind told me.

[Benjamin 17:21] Yeah. Hypocrite!

That stung my soul really bad. I was caught off guard by his message. Why would he call me such? I was devastated.

* * * *

Do you think Benjamin was being sarcastic when he called Ruby a hypocrite? Or you felt he meant it? Don't hesitate to drop your POV.

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