THE EXTERNALS

Chapter Twenty-Nine

When I saw Zach standing outside my bedroom window the next morning, I was dumbfounded. I vocally begged my heart to give good reasons why he was smiling at me from that spot at that time of the day but my pleading didn't work. Instead, I could only think of him being there because he failed at perpetrating an evil act until the smart guy spoke to defend himself.

"I only came in because the gate was open in and I wanted to confirm if you're safe", He spoke calmly.

"Are you serious?" I hit myself on the head, remembering that my exhausted self forgot to lock it because I slept off after we got back from the trip in the evening.

"I totally understand", He sighed."Let's thank God nothing bad happened to you".

"Abi oo...please wait for me in the living room ", I told him then quickly joined him there since the outfit I was still wearing the outfit for the broadcast visit. 

The only reason I told him to sit there was because I was sure my aunt wouldn't have come home at that time of the day. Also, the rumor mongers in our street couldn't have been awake during that period so I doubted if they saw him walking into our home.

"I figured out you wouldn't be strong enough to cook this morning after the stress you went through yesterday and brought you this since omma said you like it", He gave a shopping bag with a flask containing 'tapioca' and a tin of peak milk.

"Awwn..that's so thoughtful of you. Thank you so much", I blushed.

"Come on, you deserve it. You did very well at the radio station", He complimented me.

"Really?" I said shyly. "Thanks for listening".

"It's my pleasure, miss", He voiced and stood up."I have to be on my way now".

"Okay. Thanks for coming. My regards to Omma and I.D", I followed him to the gateside.

"I'll make sure to deliver your message to them", He said and turned back. "If it's not too much to ask, would you mind coming me for Christmas lunch at my house? My mom's coming and I want her to meet you".

"Hmm..okay", I wanted to refuse his proposal because I thought my aunt would be around that day then I remembered that year's Christmas fell on a Sunday. Aunt Tolani wouldn't have missed church for anything. Even though they closed early, she still got home late due to her church's distance.

"Oh, my God! Thank you so much!" He replied excitedly and went out. The young man was so close to hugging me to show how happy he was I accepted his proposal, but had to control himself so he doesn't end up messing things up.

After taking the breakfast Zach brought, I washed the flask he used to bring it at the backyard, bathed and took a nap. Exactly at 4:00pm, my phone's alarm woke me so I wouldn't forget about the last rehearsal for our carol competition at Halima's house and I hurried there. As expected, my classmates used half of the rehearsal time to celebrate my success and Kenny wasn't left out. He was actually the one who made the celebration more interesting by getting me soft drinks and snacks. Still, I ended up sharing them with others.

Our performance at the carol competition was awful because John strained his voice to impress the girl he had a crush on. Okay, pinning the whole thing on him was cruel because every other person also played a role in our downfall. I mean we all tried too hard to sing the Pentatonix version of "little drummer boy" the exact way they sang it, knowing fully well that we didn't have the potential. To make matters worse, the host school insisted that their instrumentalists who never rehearsed with us play for us and Halima's gorgeous voice wasn't in a good mood that day.