Normally I double update and I will. It's kinda late here so the next part of this update will be tomorrow. Didn't wanna keep y'all waiting.

Happy reading!

🎶 God, bless me, I'm glad I got the insight
Because of you, girl, now I understand life
I need a girl (I need a girl) 🎶

Chapter Twenty Two

Severin had a crush on Solana.

He had a crush on a married woman.

Jordan Francis' wife.

It was hard to believe but it was true.

DeVante didn't know how to react.

He told him sit back down, whatcha mean?

But that was it.

It was almost 5AM in the morning right now, and it was Day 5 / 7 of the retreat.

Severin had been unconsciously dreaming about Solana throughout the whole week, and they had been spending time together mainly after the rest of them had gone to sleep because both of them had serious insomnia.

He didn't know what he was going to do.

Even worse, he didn't know what he was going to tell Jordan Francis.

Severin, DeVante and Jordan Francis were like best buddies. If Jordan Francis had found out about this then he was done for.

"I don't know what I'm gonna do, DeVante!" Severin had whined, hugging the pillow right in front of him.

Then he had kept on murmuring Jordan Francis is going to kill me, and even though it was to himself, DeVante had heard him.

He sighed.

But then something seemed off...

How could Severin have had a crush on someone he had only known for five days?

Less than a week even?

"I don't care about the time frame!" Severin had whispered, throwing the pillow he was using to brood on at DeVante when he had pointed this out. "Solana gets me in ways that Serayah doesn't."

"Does Serayah and/or Jordan Francis know you've been dreaming about Solana?"

To be fair Severin hadn't actually mentioned that they did.

Severin didn't say anything, because he wasn't planning on telling them.

Most especially Serayah.

She didn't always handle these kind of things well. Which had depended on her mood but then again not really.

Whilst he was alive anyway.

They could have found out after he died. No point being mad over a corpse.

He shook his head.

"What I don't understand is, you have a girlfriend. So why are you crushing on a married woman?" DeVante asked. "Are you not happy with Serayah or something?"

Sometimes Severin had fallen for unavailable girls, even if he was in a relationship.

Not just any unavailable girl though. She had to be pretty and nice.

Like Solana.

Serayah wasn't Severin's first girlfriend.

She was his third.

But she knew this luckily, otherwise this would have caused some more problems.

Severin shook his head.

"Does Serayah know you're unhappy?"

"Screw Serayah, man. What am I going to do about me dreaming about Solana?"

He couldn't have just "screwed" his girlfriend like that.

Serayah could have been a downright pain in the derrière sometimes but this whole thing had still concerned her.

DeVante had pointed this out but Severin had just rolled his eyes.

"Okay fine. We'll talk about Serayah later. We're still talking about her though, whether you like it or not." He ordered. "What are you doing with Solana in your dreams? I hope it's nothing bad."

"My dreams with her are more like flashbacks over what happened whilst I was talking to her. And no, nothing bad."

When DeVante wanted to know how often Severin had dreamt about Solana?

He told him for the past five days.

That was how serious this whole thing was, and Severin didn't know what to do.

DeVante did.

He had a brilliant idea.

Severin wanted to know what it was, as DeVante had explained everything.

"Okay, so I talk to Jordan Francis about Solana today. And I'll somehow indirectly get him to say the bad things about her. After he does that, I can tell you the bad things about her so that you can get over her. Is that a good plan?"

Gee, Severin didn't know.

DeVante was asking the wrong person.

It wasn't the worst plan, it could have been a lot worse for example DeVante telling Jordan Francis straight up that Severin had been dreaming about his wife.

Which he didn't want to tell him about yet, maybe after the retreat.

"I highly doubt Jordan Francis would just mention Solana's flaws like that, whether you do it explicitly or not." Severin admitted truthfully, with DeVante frowning whilst staring at him at the same time.

"Look. I don't want to dig up dirt on Solana. And I don't want you to do that for me either. It doesn't seem right. I have a better idea."

He had mainly talked to Solana when they were all sleeping.

Simple - he had just gone to bed earlier.

It really wasn't that hard.

Solana and Severin had been spending so much time together lately that they had been kind of expecting to hang out with each other after everyone had gone to bed.

It was kind of like a force of habit.

"And imma break that force of habit by trying to go to bed earlier," Severin had continued. "If Solana asks questions, then I'll just lie to her and tell her that I've dealt with my insomnia. Simple as."

That seemed like a good enough plan, however Severin eventually had to come clean to Jordan Francis.

When he had told DeVante that he would have done so after the retreat, DeVante had kind of had a go at him.

"What? Do it after the retreat where Jordan Francis will probably never see or talk to you again?"

Severin rolled his eyes again but he didn't say anything else because he didn't find it necessary to.

"Yes. That way no one gets hurt."

"Dammit, Severin! You're completely missing the point right now!" DeVante had barked at him, then he sighed. "Okay, look. Imma be lenient on you because you and Serayah are the youngest couple in this room. So you don't have much experience."

Said the guy that was 27 and still needed a girl but okay...

Was what Severin wanted to say but didn't, he just fake smiled instead.

"I know you don't want to but you have to come clean! Like you and Jordan Francis gave me homework a few days ago to talk to Katari by the end of the day, it's yours to tell Jordan Francis that you've been dreaming about his wife by the end of today. You understand that?"

"Yes but I feel so terrible, DeVante," Severin lamented. "Solana and I are five years apart. Not just that but having feelings for someone else even though you're in a relationship is kind of normal, I guess. Dreaming about them however? That's concerning. Very concerning. And serious."

And as Severin had mentioned that he was going to be into so much trouble by Solana if she had ever found out about this?

Speak of the devil.

There she came.

She had greeted the boys, and she too wanted to get water.

She hadn't heard about 97% of the conversation, wanting to know what they were doing up at five past five in the morning.

Severin freaked when she had asked them that, looking at DeVante.

"We were just getting water and chatting about a few things." He half lied half told the truth to.

They didn't get water, but damn.

They chatted alright.

Solana really wasn't nosy although now she couldn't help but think what they were talking about, especially how she had heard her name.

Great, what now?

Severin could have come clean...

Or lie...

He went with option B.

"We were just talking about how dope your music is."

"Really?" She asked, folding her arms slowly. "Because I didn't eavesdrop much but on the way here, I heard you saying that you were going to be in a lot of trouble by me if I found out about something."

That was the only thing she had heard.

What now?

DeVante and Severin were arguing over what they should have told her, and Severin had luckily thought of another lie.

"Yeah, you know that Chardonnay you like? I kept some in my room so you don't get addicted," he fibbed. "You said I should refill your cup with Chardonnay like 10 times yesterday."

Jordan Francis would have done the same thing so she was cool with that.

She even chuckled as she had drank her water, telling them goodnight and that she wasn't mad at him for that.

She thanked him, he was doing her a favour.

When Solana had eventually gone back to bed, telling them to do the same thing sometime as they had a pretty busy day today...

Severin had breathed a huge sigh of relief when all of that was over.

"Nice save."

"Thanks," he muttered under his breath. "I was going to talk about a tornado in the worst case scenario."

DeVante had stared at him blankly, indirectly asking him to clarify.

"As in if there was a tornado and I could only save two people in this room, then it would have been you and Jordan Francis." Severin explained. "But I'm glad I don't have to do that. I'll see you later."

If Severin wouldn't have saved his own (questionable) girlfriend during a tornado then there was honestly a problem somewhere.

Albeit DeVante had just shrugged this off as he had gone back to bed too.

None of their problems were over though, in fact: they were just beginning.

Because even though Severin didn't want DeVante to tell anyone about this... that didn't exactly happen.

The retreat was going well then...
*imitates rollercoaster going downhill and staying downhill*