Protected
By Bebe Ernest
Episode 23 & 24
MAGIC.
“Ok let me get this straight, she fell right on her face, like on her face on her face?”
Julliet asks.
And I nod.
She bur-sts out laughing again, well they bur-st out laughing.
Tamara and Sandra are here too.
Sage is too.
It’s the morning after the p@rty blast last night.
We are having breakfast, we have a full house.
Tamara didn’t go home last night and Sandra sle-pt over.
We are having breakfast and rehashing, they seem to find it amusing.
Well I know I found it amusing.
“Man, you’ve gotten weak, that b!ow was too small, kill her more”
Sage says and am surprised.
Ruining a girls life and her relationsh!pwith her parents was not enough?
What was their definition of enough?
“You should know me better than that sage, that was the beginning”
He says meaningfully at sage and sage nods.
Seems sage knows about Selene’s folly.
He has a dark look in his eyes. Sage.
I almost shiver.
Poor selene.
“Just as long as you don’t kill her, that’s all am asking”
“Trust me lil bro”
Justice says and turns To me..
“Hey baby, you got chocolate on your l!pright there”
He says.
I wipe with a serviette.
“Now?”
He leans forward and cleans my l!pwith his thumb .
I smile.
“Thanks”
I turn to my meal and I see everyone watching us.
Opps..
“I can never get used to a softer side of justice”
Sandra says.
“It’s because you only like soft guys br@t”.
He says affectionately and everyone gro-an s.
“Burnnnnn”
She sticks her ton-gue out at him and I smile.
“So what are we doing today?”
Julliet asks.
“Am going to the office”
Justice and sage say simultaneously.
Julliet shakes her head.
“Nope, nada, zilch, we are having a pool p@rty”
She says with glee.
“Yay! p@rtay!”
Alec shouts and I smile.
“Ok if you guys nee-d anything let me know, I will be in my room”
Justice turns severe eyes to me?
“Why?”
He asks.
Am sorry am I invited?
I smile nervously.
“Am I invited?”
“Hells yeah”
Julliet says and I smile.
Justice just shakes his head at me.
Opps again.
*****
After breakfast I change into a bikini and one of justice white sleeves.
My bikini is in pink and it’s perfect.
I make my way down stairs and i gr-ab the drinks cooler with one hand, I was going to get the other one but my gauze.
“Let me help you with that”
I turn and I see sage.
I smile at him and I thank him.
I st©p at his next words.
“I like you magic, I really do and i like the way you make justice feel”
I smile.
“But let me get this straight, if you hurt him or I find out out you are here for any other reason than you said in the first place,
I promise you, I will destroy you, I will ruin you and you won’t know where you start and where pain ends.
Are we clear?”
My smile drops.
Well that answers my question about Sage knowing.
He sure knows and he has misgivings about me.
“Sage, I promise…..”
“For you and for me I hope your promise mean something magic.”
He says and I un-derstand, he I scared for his Friend.
He loves his friend.
I drop my cooler and I hvg him.
He looks surprised.
“Thank you Sage”
I say.
This big dangerous man is scared for his friend.
I can see it.
I lean up and k-s his cheek.
“I promise to let you when it all get too much Sage”.
He nods.
He has lost some of his severe look.
I pick my cooler and I leave.
I walk to the pool and I see Alec pla-ying with another little boy.
I turn in a 360 degree and I see sage settle behind julliet.
She looks like an angel in a white bikini.
Sandra looks like devil impersonation in her blood red bikini.
She is in the water with Tamara who is in a blue bikini.
And here I am in pink.
I must look like Barbie.
Ugh.
I see a man discussing with Justin.
Am confused, do I know him?
I drop the cooler and I sit on a chair .
“Do I have to tell you to get your a-s here magic?”
I hear justice holler .
I blus-h.
“Get your a-s over there magic”
Sandra shouts and I stick my ton-gue out at her.
I stand and I make my way to justice.
When I settle beside him he pu-lls me into his l@p.
He settles a big sunglas-s on my face and i smile.
After a while I ask.
“Who is that?”
I nod at the man.
“That’s Tamara’s b©yfri£ndpetr and her son Daniel”
I nod as I pu-ll close to him.
He k-ses my shoulder.
“So Sage gave me the talk”
I say as I lean to gr-ab a pop drink.
“The talk?”
“The ‘if you hurt him talk'”
I say with a sm-irk.
He gro-an s.
“That sappy Fool”
He calls at sage who is talking to Alec.
“Yo, fool”
Sage lifts and turns his head as if he is really a fool.
“Yes moron?”
“You love me don’t you?”
Justice asks.
And I giggled.
“You sure you still a man, you sappy moron?”
He asks and justice fli-ps him the bird.
“I will appreciate if you st©p calling the father of my unborn children names brother”.
Julliet says and I almost bur-st out laughing.
“And I will appreciate it sister if you don’t refer to that A-hole as the father of your unborn children sister”.
Now i laugh.
This family, even though dysfunctional, they love themselves.
“Yes julliet, just because I know it doesn’t mean i want to hear it, or think it.”
Justin hollers as he takes a swig of his drink.
“JJ, you are siding with justice?”
She asks indignantly.
“That’s what it is sister kin”
Justin says and she fli-ps him the bird.
Wo.
I laugh real ha-rd .
Sandra laughs too.
Tamara just shakes her head as she snuggle close to petr.
Am sure she is used to this..
Justice k-ses my shoulder again as Justin and julliet continue bantering.
“So tell me itty bitty, do you want anything?”
I decide to be a little mischievous.
I open a bu-tton of my sleeve.
“Hmm, I want a lot of things”
He sm-irks.
“You sure you re-ady for where you are going with that?”
He asks as I un-bu-tton the sleeve and throw it up.
“Wow!, You go girl!”
Julliet shouts and I blus-h.
Justice just continue watching me.
“The question big guy is if you are re-ady for this package”
I say loudly for the others to hear.
“Burnnnnn”
Sage and Justin and Petr shout.
Alec and Daniel just gorge themselves on apples and chocolate.
“Challenge! Challenge! Challenge!”
Every b©dy shouts.
And I try to raise an eyebrow like him, I fail, I just raise both.
“So, watcha gonna do about it big guy?”
I didn’t see it coming, i swear I did not..
He rolls me over and lifts his hand.
“Tickle monster!”
The others shout .
I am below him.
I frown.
What’s that?
I soon find out.
He raises his hands and descends on my ribs.
I squeal.
Oh my God.
This was tickle monster.
I laugh so ha-rd .
“St©p, plea-se st©p,”
I beg him.
“You want me to?”
I nod.
He countinues.
“You really want me to?”
I nod.
“K-s me”
He says.
“Justice!”
I yell.
“Oh well”
He countinues.
“plea-se st©p”
“You know what I want, itty bitty”
“Just k-s the man sister”
Tamara says.
Oh hell.
I mash myl-ips with his and he instantly st©ps, pu-lls my head to him and de-epens the k-s.
I raise my hand to his shoulder and I hold him to me.
He breaks the k-s and whispers in my ear.
“Taste good baby”
I blus-h and I close my eyes as he nuzzles my n£¢k.
When I open my eyes I connect eyes with….
Kele?
I pu-ll away as i sit up, justice rolls up with a frown.
“Baby?…..”
He says with a question, he follows my gaze, they all do.
He stands up.
“Who the hell are you?”
He asks with the coldness of the former justice.
I stand and I hold his arm.
“It’s alright justice, that’s my friend, kelechi.”
MAGIC.
Am still frozen.
I dont know why I can’t seem to sum up enough excitement.
Don’t get me wrong, we’ve been talking on the phone, texting each other.
I have enough upd@t£s on her to be safely sure that our relationsh!pis on the good track
I remember texting her my address one night.
But am so surprised she is here.
“So, I c@m£ all the way to Lagos just to make sure you were not added to a local b©dy peddling society
And all I get is you standing over there like you just saw a car wreck”
She says with here kele attitude and I finally get my self.
Justice dr@p£s my sleeve over my shoulders and I wear it and bu-tton.
Kele watches this speculatively.
I can see as clear as day that she doesn’t like this situation.
At all.
Like at all.
I throw a smile at justice and i walk slowly to her.
Just for a moment I wonder who let her in and let her walk this far without alerting any of the Maxwells.
When I get to her I throw myself at her she catches me.
This close I feel a s-en-se of melancholy.
I smell her kele smell.
A special blend of cherry scented perfume and a cinnamon spice scented perfume.
I missed her I realize.
She k!sses my cheek and she breaks the hvg.
“How have you been?”
She asks and I nod.
Behind me I can hear the others breaking the up the p@rty.
Am so sorry one of my problems ruined things again.
Not that kele is a problem.
I feel justice walk up to us behind me.
I turn to him because kele does so as well.
“Kelechi, meet my b©yfri£ndjustice, justice meet kelechi my bestest best friend”
All throu-gh those many phone calls and texts not once did I mention I had a ro-mantic entanglement over here in Lagos.
I can see the betrayal in her eyes.
I don’t know why I never told her.
I felt like she would not approve.
Justice just raises an eyebrow at her and then turns to me with cold in his eyes.
What now?
“It’s getting chilly out side magic, bring your friend in”.
He says this, I look around and i see everyone has gone inside.
Ok…..
Seems they wanted to give us privacy.
I nod my head and I lead kelechi inside.
When we get to my room I begin to str!p the sleeve.
“When were you planning on telling me?”
She asks and I halt on my way to my closet.
“Kele…..”
“Do you know how worried I was?, I thought maybe something would have happened to you”
“Kele……”
She doesn’t let me get a word in.
“You were so naive, I was like, since am free I should come here and help you get sorted,
Imagine my surprise when I come in and I see you looking all cozy with the master of the house.”..
“Kelechi…. plea-se….”
She suddenly g@sps.
“Is he ma-king you do things? Is he forcing you to do things?”
I open my mouth but she countinues.
“gr-ab your things, we are leaving this house now, come on”.
Ok….
She countinues.
“I knew it, I knew something was wrong, I felt it, how could you be so stupid Emily?”
Now am getting angry.
“Just hold on for a minute there kele”
She st©ps at my outbur-st.
“What makes you think I want to leave? Leave and go where?
And also I would appreciate it if you don’t insinuate that my b©yfri£ndis a ra-pist.
I mean come on, is it so farfetched that I could get an handsome, rich b©yfri£nd?
These people have been nothing but a blessing and good to me.
They literally pay me to eat for them.
I have been here for 2 months and I feel better than I have felt in all of my life!
So don’t badge in and as-sume things, don’t come in here and act jealous kele.
plea-se”
I realize I raised my voice so I take a de-ep breath.
“Is that so?
If they are so good then what happened to your hand? Uh?”
We both glance at my gauze …
“Accidents happen kele, even you know that”
I say.
She laughs dubiously.
“Two months in the city and you think you know it all? You think you are a big girl now?
You are still a blind naive village girl magic, the earliest you get that the earliest we can leave here”.
“I am not leaving, you are not my bloody mother!,
You are nothing to me,
Nothing you hear me?”
She is quiet for once.
I regret the words I said as soon as I said them.
But I go on.
“Just be happy for me kele, that’s all I ask”.
She doesn’t say anything so I sigh.
“Am going to go prepare lunch now, it’s what am paid to do,
You can stay here for the night, till anytime you want,
You can use my room.
I will find somewhere else to sleep.”
I say this and I lean down to k!ssher cheek.
She is staring at the TV, she doesn’t say a word.
I sigh.
I go get a change of cloth and I walk to the bathroom.
I change.
I have to go cook but first I have to go get kelechi’s carry on from the ground floor.
I glance at her as I exit she is still standing, but now staring out the window.
I exit and I go downstairs.
I see everyone looking pensive.
Am sure it’s not for me.
I listen and I hear gr-unting coming from the work out room.
Am surprised, the room is far away.
I finally notice that justice is missing.
I glance at julliet, she doesn’t meet my eyes.
I feel the weight of sage eyes on me and I look at him.
There is disappointment in them.
Oh hell.
Today did not go as planned.