WARNING! THIS CHAPTER IS SENSITIVE
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"DILI?" I stared dumbfounded at the male sitting opposite me.
"Hi" was his response with a nervous smile. I have to say he actually cleaned up nice. He wore a black fitted suit, it looked like an Armani brand and his hair was nicely styled. All in all he looked quite edible. But forget all that, right now I was beyond the boundaries of pissed.
"Hi? Hi?!!" I blew up. Was this guy actually serious? From all the things he could say it was 'hi' that he could mumble out.
"Rica I'm sorry, please calm down I can explain" he said nervously. Oh I was so going to kill this boy.
"Explain what ehn? Explain what na? That you tricked me? That you made a fool of me?" I said full on glaring my hardest at him.
"It wasn't my intention to do so" he muttered looking down, probably too ashamed to look me in the eyes.
"Oh my God I'm so stupid" I mumbled out in realization. "Today when I was telling you all about how my parents engaged me to a stranger you pretended like you didn't know a thing about it, when apparently" I used my hand to gesture all around us "You knew all to well about it" I finished.
He raised his head back up "Rica I'm...."
"What, sorry?" I cut him short "Yeah you've said that already" I rolled my eyes.
"And sorry unfortunately won't cut it"
"I know I messed up big time but please would you at least listen to what I have to say" He said giving me pleading eyes. I sighed. Being someone that was never given the chance to be heard, I just knew I had to give him a chance to explain himself before I jumped into more conclusions.
Releasing yet another sigh I said "Fine" though a frown was still present on my face.
He gave me a relived smile "Thank you"
"Now to explain myself" He started.
"I recently also found out about it, a few days before you did" I interrupted.
"And you didn't bother to oh I don't know, tell me" I said with immense sarcasm.
"I know that was a mistake on my part, but I just didn't know how to break the news to you" I could sense the sincerity in his tone so I believe him.
"Ok then I'll forgive you for that, but why didn't you say anything today when I was telling you about it?" I arched my eyebrows in his direction.
"Uhm when you where busy talking about hitting me on my nuts when you first meet me? yeah I don't think so" he nervously chuckled like he actually believed I would really go through with my words. I was obviously joking I didn't have that kind of confidence to do something like that.
"I'm not going to go through with that anymore" I said.
"Why? Because you found out that your fiance to be is me?" Dili said with a grin, I guess his annoying confidence was back.
With a sarcastic smile I responded "No, now that I know it's you, I've changed my mind to putting you in a body bag" He gulped.
"You're joking right?" His nervous voice asked.
I shrugged "Maybe I am or maybe I'm not, the point is that you can never know" I smirked.
It was quite funny how I was pissed at him seconds ago and now we were bantering like little kids. What is this boy doing to me for goodness sake.
"So is that why you've been so desperately asking me to be your friend?" I suddenly spoke after few minutes of silence.
"Desperately? Rica haba you wound my man pride" He joked. I gave him a look making him to sigh.
"No Rica, this was not the reason"
"Then what is?" I tried again to get him to tell me what the reason was, I mean someone can't just wake up one day and decide that they want to be friends with me after three years of ignoring my existence. I just don't get it.
"Like I said, it's not the right time yet for me to tell you, when it is I will" The pleading look in his eyes made me to sigh.
"Ok fine. But you do know you are annoying right?" I joked.
"Only for you" he winked. My heart oddly skipped a bit. Weird I'm pretty sure I took my prescribed pills today.
"Yeah sure" I said with a chuckle.
...
"Aren't you going to eat?" Dili asked me.
After we had settled our little issue, our food was brought in for us and I've been staring at it for the past five minutes now.
"No I'm okay" I gave him a tight smile. God I was such a liar, I was practically starving at the moment but I knew I couldn't eat it.
He raised a questioning eyebrow "Is the food not to your taste?" he inquired. The food was more than to my taste, it was roasted chicken breast and jollof rice with a side dish of salad.
Yet again I gave him a fake smile "No it is I'm just not hungry" Liar. Liar. Liar. Gosh I was such a liar.
He squinted his eyes at me before moving his gaze back to his food. I thought I had pretty much convinced him with what I said until he spoke.
"Don't lie to me Rica, I know an eating disorder when I see one" I automatically froze when my brain registered what he said. How on earth did he get to know about my eating disorder.
"I do-n't kn-ow wha-t... you're talking about" I gulped. When Dili raised his head up I gasped, he looked 100% angry. The fire burning in his eyes was like no other.
He clenched his jaw tightly "Don't bullshit me Rica, do I look dumb to you"
He continued "So you're going to tell me that when they brought the food you didn't start estimating the amount of calories and grams each of them contain?" I gulped again. Why and how does he know all this.
He was actually pretty much accurate, I did exactly as he assumed I did. Who was this boy really that he knew soo much like this.
"Dili..." I began but he interrupted me.
"The roasted chicken; 165 calories, protein, 31 grams, Total fat 3.6 grams" He recited like it was part of his daily mantra.
I started again "How do you..." but was interrupted once again. I felt suffocated, like the walls of the restaurant were closing in on me.
"The jollof rice; 284 calories, Total fat 11grams"
Wanting to try again I choked out "Dili that's enou..."
"Oh and let's not forget the salad; 100 Calories more or less, total fat 20grams. shabi that should be about right bah Rica?" he said in a mocking tone. I glared at him, but he too also looked pissed.
Finally I spoke more like choked "How do you know all this?"
"Does it really matter at the moment? Rica you need to stop doing this to yourself"
"What do you know Dili! you don't know anything. You know absolutely nothing!" I yelled out at him. Tears began to gather in my eyes.
"I know enough Rica! I know that you're killing yourself slowly!" He yelled back but his was way louder.
"You think I don't know that" I muttered softly, the tears I was holding back began to fall freely. His face softened a little as he saw I was crying, then he spoke barely over a whisper.
"Then why? Why are you doing this to yourself?"
Fat.
Ugly.
A waste of space.
With a smile which I was sure was sad I spoke "I don't believe I'm obligated to tell you that 'Fiance' " I stressed the last word as hard as I could, then I immediately stood up to leave.
"Dili let my hand go" I said as he held me back from going.
"No, not this time. You always leave me in situations like this. You need to learn to face your problems head on" who did he think he was, the freakin Pope? he had no right to preach to me.
"Let me go" I repeated.
"I'm sorry but I can't do that. I've left you alone all those times you ran away but this time I won't do that" in all this I didn't still face back to look at him and my tears had already dried up.
"Why are you doing this?" I muttered already tired. This boy was really a whole lot of work.
Suddenly he released my hand and used his hands to make me turn around to face him, and then he used one hand to hold a side of my cheek tenderly almost like I was made out of glass.
He then spoke with a determined glint in his eyes.
"Because I want you to get stronger Rica, because I want you to be able to fight back anytime you need to"
I couldn't hold back the emotions that suddenly engulfed me. Something in me snapped and the tears came down like endless waterfalls. With a softened look Dili removed his hand from my cheek and embraced me. I hugged him back tightly like my entire life depended on it while still sobbing like a baby, and apparently he didn't care that I was getting his suit all wet in the process.
Goodness gracious what was this boy doing to me.