Xanthous Feelings[ONC 2023]

V

SEEING YEMI AGAIN WAS LIKE WATCHING THE SUNRISE__ she was beautiful every time he gazed at her.  And no matter how many times he saw her, he just could not get enough. And it wasn't just looking at her that got his heart pumping, the feeling that came with watching her was beyond anything he had ever felt.

And that scared him shitless.

No way could he ever imagine that the universe would throw them together like this. When he  opened the door, he was expecting a storage room or something else__not the girl that made his heart ache. Then he just stood there stupidly,  staring like a deer in headlights.

She had a pen and a little book in her hands__a diary maybe? Dara wasn't much of a reader, he preferred watching the food channel than a dusty old book, but that little black book, he wanted to read. He wanted to know what she wrote about in there.

Yemi didn't peg him for a  "dear diary" kind of girl, she seemed like she wrote down very heavy words__the kind that scared people and pulled on their heart strings.  He wanted to know what went on in that beautiful head of hers.But  the way she clutched it close to her chest suggested that she would rather drink ogogoro than have someone else read it.
And that was fine with Dara. He had secrets  he would rather eat hot iron than tell anyone. __His JAMB score for example. Papa Dara made him swear not to tell a single soul. Not even auntie Kemi. The family's reputation was on the line and Dara was apparently supposed  to take this secret to the grave if he was ever going to save it.

And what was up with Jola this evening? she was behaving extra clingy and... witchy. Cough. Dara had seen Jola being mean  before but never outright like this. And the absolutely worst part was that he was still a little shaken by seeing Yemi, he didn't even try to stop Jola from speaking to her like that. Hearing Jola speak to her like that made him snap out of his shock and he pried Jolas fingers from his arm. She wasn't usually this touchy.  Seriously though_what was her problem?.

And Yemi looked like she would rather eat snails than have to stay with him and his friends. But christ,  the way Jola snapped at her, she didn't even flinch or bite back, she just acted like whatever Jola had  said did not matter in the slightest. Yemi seemed to have grown a backbone since he had since her  because everyone knew that  there was nothing Jola hated more than being ignored.

Yemi one. Jola zero.

Jola was pissed to say the least, but she hid it well plastering on a fake smile, and he mentally applauded Yemi for not gravelling under Jolas feet. Not many people would have done that, hell he'd even seen someone burst into tears when Jola stared too much.

Dara knew he  probably should have let her go, he shouldn't have asked her to stay  but watching her leave was like watching the only good thing he has had in a really long time walk out the door.

Sam! (Hell no)

Dara  was selfish and he knew it.

So he tugged at her dress to get her attention and when she eventually turned towards him, his mouth must have switched reigns because his heart took over and he said the only thing his sad touchy feely heart could muster.... "please".

He wasn't even sure what he was pleading for but at the time, he could barely express his tornado of emotions and the word hardly did any justice to the storm going on inside of him but he had to try.

She looked at him like she couldn't quite understand him and that was alright because more than half of the time he couldn't understand himself too.

Dara was scared she would say no. And then she looked at his eyes like she was searching for the truth in them and oh God her eyes. He remembered that they were never really black, no they were a shade of the sweetest  caramel and Dara could stare all day, picking out the million shades of brown from them.