Chapter 52

"Sorry I came unannounced. I have been wanting to come check up on you after what happened in Yola. How have you been?" She glanced at him for less than two seconds and looked away. "I'm fine, I'm okay now." She smiled sheepishly. He did most of the talking while she only nodded her head or spoke when it was necessary. He kept the leather bags beside her leg as he announced he was leaving. She looked at it an looked at him before she shook her head. "I'm sorry but I can't accept this," she mouthed softly. "Why not?" He smiled at her. "It's just a gift so please don't say no else I'll get unhappy." She nodded her head and thanked him. She walked him to the door and went back to the living room. She took the bags and headed to Mommy's room with it. She knocked and waited till she was given permission to enter. "What is this?" Mommy asked looking at her to what she kept beside her. "I don't know, mommy. He was the one that brought it," she spoke innocently and deep down, she was terrified of the woman sitting majestically on her coffee table chair. "And your small brain didn't tell you it's meant for you? Will you pack this things and leave my room before I knock your head." Dalia quickly packed everything and quickened her pace out of the room. She took deep breathes as she closed her door before she slumped on her bed. She sat upright and opened the first white nylon. It was two beautiful handbags and two set of jewelries. She opened the other one. She saw two packs of pain reliever, a heating pad and two boxes of perfumes. They walked side by side out of the hall as they discussed about their previous test. "Well this woman is so.... Urgh.... She haven't thought us that but yet she decided to set a question on it. So unfair." Amina pouted as she slumped her shoulders. Dalia giggled while she wrapped her arm around Amina's shoulders. "Don't worry mommy na, we will definitely ace that test by Allah's will. Now let's go pray." They started walking to the mosque. They met hamida and Asiya heading out of the mosque. "You guys have to wait for us to pray then we can leave together, please." Dalia handed her bag and rushed to the tap to avoid hamida's complains. They prayed Asr before they left the mosque. On their way, abdulwahab showed up from nowhere and started approaching them. Dalia glanced at hamida and gave her a puppy face. "You owe me lunch tomorrow," she uttered before walking ahead of them. She stopped him as she welcomed him with a smile. He looked at dalia inches away from them. "Why does your friend dislikes me please? I really like her and I can do anything for that girl." He sounded tormented and forlorn. Hamida looked behind her to see the girls looking at them except dalia who was busy using her phone. "Look, I wish I could help you out with Dalia but I don't think she would ever be interested, no offense though but she is just here to study and nothing more." He searched her eyes as if seeking an answer to something. Then he smiled and shook his head, "you can't be so sure, miss?" "Hamida, and I am oh so sure that she isn't interested." He looked at hamida again and looked at dalia. He charges forward to dalia, as if she knew, she raised her head to see him walking up to her. Run, she mused to herself but she did otherwise. "Sorry please give us a minute." He smiled apologetically to her friends. They glanced at dalia and she shook her head. He pleaded with them again. Asiya pulled Amina by the arm and they stepped away from them. He gives her a long, loving look then sighed. "I know I have been such a pain in the neck for the past several months..." She wanted to roll her eyes but it would be so disrespectful to do that. So he knew he had been interrupting her peace? "And I am sorry about it. I just want to make sure of what your friend told me now. Are you going to give me a chance to prove my love to you or not?" He was hoping for a positive answer but when he scanned her eyes, he knew it was otherwise. "Aliyu, I am sorry but I can't start any sort of relationship with you. Where would it even lead..." "Marriage of course," he gave her a gratifying simper. "No! It won't. You are still in school and you have a long way to go before you consider settling down and we both know what you want us to do isn't right.... Just..." She let out a sigh as she rub the bridge of her nose tiredly. "Just leave me alone, please." She walked passed him to meet up with her friends. He looked at her retreating back and heaved a sigh. She always called him with his father's name, he thought. He hissed slightly and walked away hoping nobody saw them. It's her lost, if she knew the ladies drooling over him, she wouldn't have said no to him the first time he confessed. "Well I am going home now, I can't stay in this school for another thirty minutes," Hamida spoke as they walked around the school garden. "I have to stay a little bit and study  before I go home. I'll see you guys tomorrow, in sha Allah." They headed to the parking lot while Dalia went to a nearby bench and settled down. She brought out her books and spread them on the table before she started with her study.