•••

“Falling in love isn't a crime, but falling for the wrong person can 

make one commit 

a crime.”

ⓣⓞⓛⓐ ⓐⓘⓢⓗ. 

•••

Dedication:- ihotu2 and to my dearest Opurum_ (happy birthday dear 💚)

(Warning:- The mature scenes approaches soon. Thanks for understanding.)

And just in case y'all haven't noticed; Chase isn't a nice person, at all. He isn't friendly. He isn't the best person out there. He tends to think with his heart and not his brain. When I painted a picture of Chase in my mind I didn't want him to be perfect at all, and now he is far from being perfect. He also isn't the best choice for Lily (I just dropped a major spoiler, that's if anyone is still reading this book.) At the end y'all might come to despise him or maybe sympathize with him.

••••

~LILY~

If I could pluck out my heart, I would do that. Gladly.

Since Chase entered the class at nine in the morning I couldn't stop staring at him. During assembly, I kept glancing towards where he stood. During class, my eyes were glued to his seat and what made it all weird to me was how my heart and stomach kept reacting. It felt as though worms were creeping around in my stomach, and it didn't stop grumbling like I hadn't eaten -— which I had done. And regarding my heart, it wouldn't stop beating faster than usual. Especially when Chase was next to me.

In all honesty, I was scared with the way my heart and stomach were acting and flipping up. It made me think about stuff which I prayed desperately that wouldn't be true. Stuffs like; I, having a heart disease, or having ulcer, appendix, cervical cancer and all sorts of other stuff.

It was the last period already and Mrs Belle — the account teacher and my favorite teacher was in class teaching, yet, I wasn't paying attention to all she was teaching. In-between her class, my gaze kept on drifting to Chase's seat, watching him as he carried out all his actions, like write down on his note, blink, yawn, scratch his hair, and I even noticed how he kept on drawing in oxygen. I felt really weird watching him like that.

And it all began after the incident in the hallway. When Chase stood up for me, and defended me against my classmate. That act of his made me think about him while I slept that night. Even when I eventually slept, I dreamt about him and the detail of the dream was. . .it was really weird because I couldn't exactly interpret my dream.

Chase was writing as I continuously stared at him, suddenly, he stopped writing and dropped his pen in his notebook. He ran his hand across his face then turned his head to my side, meeting my gaze.

My heart stopped beating. The worms in my stomach were creeping really fast, passing some sort of electricity through me. All In all, I found myself in a discomforting state because I found it difficult to break the gaze which we both shared.

I also found it difficult to breathe and his impassive face made it worse. 

"Stop staring at me." That was what he told me before he took his apathetic and colorless gaze back to his book.

My eyes still didn't leave him. Those four words he'd said to me, for some reasons, they did hurt me. I didn't know what I was expecting him to say to me, but it was definitely not that. And that fact that he had a poker face as he said those words was what made me feel hurt the most. 

"I am being nice, Lily," he began to write, his voice quiet yet withholding command.. "I hate it when people stare at me."

I blinked once, then twice, before taking my gaze away from him, wondering if I'd offended him by staring at him too much. I took my gaze back to the board and tried my best to listen to the rest of the class, even though I was tempted to glance over at Chase. 

The bell eventually rang, signaling the end of the class and before Miss Belle left the class she told me to come over to her office because she needed to speak to me. I decided to go to her office immediately because I knew Mr Uche could arrive at any time. I parked my books into my backpack and left the class without saying anything to anyone. Even though Pink, Rayo and Chase were my friends I still found it difficult to start a conversation with them. 

I walked, a bit freely, to the administrative building towards Miss Belle's office. I knocked on her door twice before I heard a response from her. I bowed my head down to greet as I walked into the office to the desk she was seated on. "You wanted to see me, ma." I went straight to the point as I played with the rope of my backpack.

"Yes, I do," she cleared some documents from her table, taking a remote to turn on the air conditioner. "Take your seat and feel comfortable."

Taking my bag off, I took my seat opposite her as I waited with sweaty hands to know what she wanted to say to me. 

"So, talk to me Lily," she clasped her hands together and stared at me in the eyes, which made me look down at the table. "I heard from a student that something happened in the hallway, and whatever happened involved you. Should I be worried or something?"

I shook my head. "No, Miss Belle. It's nothing to worry about." I told her and a smile made its way to my face as the memories of what happened at the hallway invaded my mind. Just the thought of it made my heart flutter. 

"Then what happened?"

"Uh-ehm," I stuttered, unsure of how to tell her everything that had gone down in the hallway. "It's a long story-"

"And thankfully, I have all the time in the world."

I didn't bother to argue and the next thing I did was to divulge all the info about what went down in the hallway. And when I was done, she had an unreadable expression before it was masked by a wide grin. "I am so happy that you've finally gotten your revolution," She chuckled and moved forward in her seat. "So now you have friends?"

"Yes, I do," I smiled and played with my fingers. "I have pink as my friends, Rayo, Jonathan, and. . .and Chase."

Miss Belle clapped lightly as she stared at me like a mother who was proud of her child after collecting first place at school. "That's progress and I really hope it continues like this."

"I also do hope," I muttered, but I was sure Mrs Belle heard me; however she said nothing in response. "Is that why you wanted to see me, ma?"

She nodded. "Yes," she rested back on her swivel chair with a grin on her face before she went ahead to ask a question I wasn't expecting. "How about that book that I gave to you? 'The six pillars of self-esteem' written by Dr Nathaniel Braden, have you read it? You should have."

My eyes widened a bit, hearing her talk about the book. I'd totally forgotten about the book she'd given to me. . . left it along with some other books I didn't read anymore on my room desk. It was bad of me to have done that, especially when I knew fully well that she'd given the book to me in order to build my self-esteem. ". . ." I didn't know what to say in response to Miss Belle, and I couldn't lie to her. "I---ehm-"

"You haven't read it, right?" As much as she still had a bright smile on her face, disappointment was evident in her tone. "I wouldn't force you to do what you don't want to, Lily. But I would really love it if you can read the book."

I nodded. "I'll read it over the weekend ma."

"Please, try to."

She dismissed me from her office immediately and I left after apologizing for not reading the book. And as expected she smiled and told me she wasn't angry, just concerned.

I walked out of the administrative building and went to stand amongst the flock of students right in front of the ss3 building. I stood with my heart in my hand as I waited for Mr Uche to come pick me up when suddenly I felt someone drag me by my hand. 

Fear engulfed my whole being as I began to wonder who it was that was dragging back into the ss3 building. I tried fighting my hand out of the person's tight grip but when I looked up and realized that it was Chase, I stopped fighting and followed him. As we walked towards the direction of the former biology lab, I couldn't help but wonder why he was dragging me roughly and if he had anything to say. 

We got to the former biology lab and after I was dragged inside, Chase locked the door and stared at me blankly. But from what I could read from his facial expressions, he seemed to be battling with himself, like he was in a debate with himself. 

I opened my mouth, wanting to ask why he'd brought over to the lab but he beat me to it. "Can I," he paused and drew in a sharp breath. "Can I hug you?"

His question took me by surprise and I didn't know what to say in response to him, or perhaps I misheard his question. So I asked, "I didn't get what you said."

He moved a bit closer to me, eyes piercing right through me as he towered above me. Funnily, I wasn't scared or intimidated by being all alone in the lab with him, I was only nervous and my sweaty palms gave that away. "I am hot. Please, can I give you a hug?" He sounded desperate, like me giving him a hug was going to win him a billion dollars. "Please, just for a few minutes."

"A hug?" I asked in a quiet voice as I tried avoiding meeting his eye. He was making me anxious and a bit fuzzy. At the same time, he seemed so different from the Chase who had spoken to me curtly in class all because I was staring at him. "You want a hug. . .a hug, from me?"

He nodded, placing both his hands on my shoulder. "Can I?"

My mouth was too heavy to speak so I took off my school bag, placed it on the floor and closed my two eyes before nodding in response. And just then, he pulled me closer to him, until my body was against his and I could inhale his scent. He smelled of men cologne missed with a certain smell I couldn't lay my hands on; but I sure knew it was a weird smell. I rested my body against his chest, and my ear could pick up his heartbeat. It was beating fast. Loudly. Just like the way mine was also beating, but I knew why my heart was pounding erratically. It was due to the fact that Chase Fayeni, the man in my dreams, was hugging me for reasons unknown to me.

We stayed like that for what seemed like two minutes, with my heart palpitating at an impulse, when I felt something hard against my skirt. Like a biro, or something bigger was poking me. I didn't want to complain or say a thing to Chase, so I remained quiet. Then a loud groan came from him and simultaneously he pulled away from me, mumbling words to himself. Words I couldn't make meaning to.

I peeled my two eyes open, and watched him turn around to the wall. He was backing me but I knew he was frustrated with the way he kept on mumbling words to himself. He rested his head on the wall and kept on hitting his fist against it, like he was trying to restrain himself from doing something — and the way he was acting scared me a bit.

My legs moved towards him on their own accord and I placed my hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?" I asked quietly, but there wasn't any response from him. At least, he stopped punching the wall. "Is there a problem?"

He heaved heavily and quite loudly, turned around and pushed me away to the floor before exiting the lab, leaving me all alone. I was perplexed and confused with his behavior.

And as I sat on the floor trying to comprehend everything that had happened between Chase and I, my eyes trailed down to the front of my skirt and I saw a patch of wetness. Like water had been poured there.

But I was sure it wasn't water.