CHAPTER 3
1830 Words
In The Classroom
The classroom buzzed. Everyone had drifted to their friends’ desks, and most of the chatter was about one person: Desmond.
Isabel burst through the door in a hurry, breathless. She was late, but luck was on her side — the maths teacher was absent. She slid into her seat just as Chantel and Nadia appeared beside her.
“Hey! You’re late!” Chantel said.
“Yeah,” Isabel muttered, dropping her bag.
Nadia studied her face. “Isabel, you look pissed. What happened?”
Isabel rolled her eyes. “Just some annoying guy.”
Nadia’s eyes lit up. “Spill it!”
So Isabel told them everything. The whole mess from the previous night.
Chantel gasped. “Ah! Who does that?”
Nadia leaned in. “So what are you gonna do with the money?”
“Return it, of course!” Isabel said without hesitation.
Chantel raised an eyebrow. “What if you don’t see that guy ever again?”
“I will,” Isabel said, her eyes scanning the room. “And when I see him, I’ll make him regret disrespecting me”
Isabel leaned across her desk, confused by the buzz in the room. “Let me ask! Why is everyone so excited?”
Nadia glanced at her. “Sorry we didn’t tell you. Desmond is back.”
Isabel frowned. “Who?”
“Desmond!” Nadia said, like the name should mean everything. “The son of the Proprietor.”
Chantel grinned. “The hot bad boy we told you about.”
Isabel’s brow lifted. “Oh. Yeah, that guy?”
Chantel shook her head, still amused. “Can you believe he was sent to the principal’s office on his return for celebrating noisily?”
Isabel shrugged. “Well. None of my business.”
Just then, a voice rang out from the doorway.
“Desmond!!!” Kate squealed.
The whole class turned as one.
Isabel’s heart stopped.
It was him. The annoying guy from last night. Standing in the doorway like he owned the school.
Desmond sauntered in and dropped into his seat. Daniel and Kate rushed over to him immediately.
Chantel noticed Isabel’s face. “Isabel, are you okay?”
“That’s the guy,” Isabel whispered, her voice shaking. “I met yesterday!”
“Huh?!” Nadia and Chantel said in unison.
Isabel nodded, determination hardening her face. “Yeah. And I am going to him right now”
She pushed up from her seat, ready to march over and return his money, ready to tell him exactly what she thought of him.
But before she could take a step, Bianca crossed the room. She slid into the seat beside Desmond and draped her arm around his neck like she belonged there.
Isabel froze, then sank back down.
“What is going on?” she breathed.
Nadia and Chantel just stared at Isabel. “No idea!” they said in unison.
Across the room, Bianca pecked Desmond on the cheek and pulled him into a hug.
“I missed you so much!” Bianca said, her voice loud enough for everyone to hear.
Desmond broke the hug with a lazy grin. “I missed you more.”
Daniel frowned, looking between them. “Des, what’s going on here?”
Bianca straightened up, wrapping her arm back around Desmond’s shoulders possessively. “Well guys, we’re dating.”
Kate’s jaw dropped. “Oh my God. Since when?”
“For a year now,” Bianca said, like she was announcing she’d won a prize.
Kate blinked. “That’s long”
“It is!” Bianca cut in, smug.
A wave of surprise rolled through the classroom. Mostly the girls. Whispers broke out instantly.
Nadia leaned toward Chantel. “What! So they’re lovers.”
Chantel shook her head, impressed. “Wow. Desmond really came back to surprise us indeed.”
They were still buzzing when the door opened.
The teacher walked in, took one look at the crowd around Desmond’s desk, and sighed. “I can see Mr. Adjei is more important than submitting your homeworks.”
Panic. Chairs scraped. Everyone rushed to their seats and yanked out homework sheets, pretending they’d been working this whole time.
The teacher’s voice cut through the chaos. Homework landed on desks with guilty thuds.
The teacher ignored them and started teaching the days topic.
One hour passed.
The bell for break rang, and Rashford Academy exploded. Lockers slammed. Chairs scraped. The compound filled with noise .
Desmond didn’t hurry. He never did. He moved through the crowd like it parted for him because it usually did. Daniel fell into step beside him, basketball tucked under his arm.
They were heading to the court. Same routine as every other day Desmond had been back . He shows up, mess around, remind everyone who owned the place without saying it.
Daniel bounced the ball once, caught it. “So,” he said, keeping his voice casual. Too casual. “You’re really dating Bianca.”
It wasn’t a question.
Desmond didn’t break stride. Didn’t look at him. Just slid his sunglasses down his nose enough to glance at Daniel over the rims, then pushed them back up.
“What I do isn’t dating, Danny. It’s business.”
he said. Then he walked onto the court, leaving Daniel standing there, connecting dots he didn’t like.
Daniel wasn’t done. He jogged to catch up as Desmond stepped onto the court, ignoring the shouts of girls waiting for a game.
“Yeah, so Bianca,” Daniel pressed, lowering his voice. “That whole thing’s real?”
Desmond caught the basketball one-handed. “Yeah,” he said, dribbling once, hard. “It was planned by our parents.”
That landed between them. Planned. Like a business merger, not a marriage.
Daniel frowned. “She’s going to be your future wife, bro.”
Desmond lined up a shot and sank it without looking. The net snapped. “Yeah,” he said again, easier this time. “But that won’t stop me from having fun with other girls.”
The girls on the court cheered, thinking the shot was for them. Daniel didn’t cheer.
“Man,” Daniel said, voice dropping. “You know that’s cheating.”
Desmond caught his own rebound, spun the ball on his finger, and grinned. It wasn’t a nice grin. “Who cares? She agreed to marry me.”
It was supposed to shut Daniel up. It usually did. Nobody argued with Desmond Adjei when he used that tone.
Daniel didn’t back down. “You don’t love her!”
The ball stopped spinning. For a second, the whole court seemed to go quiet, even though the noise hadn’t actually changed.
Desmond’s jaw ticked. When he answered, his voice was flat. Stripped of the charm, the boredom, all of it.
“I have no choice but to love her. Since I’ll end up with her.”
He threw the ball at Daniel, hard. Daniel caught it against his chest with a grunt.
Desmond was already walking off the court, toward the tap where Precious was sitting under the mango tree, watching. She raised a bottle of water when he got close. Like she’d heard everything. Like she always did.
Daniel stayed under the hoop, basketball in his hands, staring at Desmond’s back.
"No choice". The words didn’t sound like Desmond. They sounded like a cage.
Daniel didn’t let it go. He followed, basketball still in his hands, voice low enough that the guys warming up couldn’t hear.
“For real,” Daniel said. “Don’t you think you’re going to hurt her feelings? She’ll be jealous if she sees you with other girls.”
Desmond stopped walking. He didn’t turn around right away. When he did, his smile was gone.
“I don’t care,” Desmond said. The word that came next was rough, careless. “f**k. Precious is always by my side despite knowing I’ll end up with Bianca.”
It hung there. The truth of it. Precious under the mango tree, watching them, knowing exactly who she was in Desmond’s life. temporary. And staying anyway.
Daniel made a sound in his throat. “Pfft. You never changed.”
“Why should I change?” Desmond snapped back, his charm slipping into something colder. “I love my life.”
Daniel looked past him, to where Precious sat, then back to Desmond. “Don’t hurt Bianca.”
That made Desmond’s eyes narrow. He stepped closer, dropping his voice. “Hey, dude. Why do you seem so concerned about Bianca?”
Daniel’s grip tightened on the basketball. “Nothing. I just care about her.”
Desmond stared at him for a beat too long. Then he laughed, sharp and disbelieving. “You’re joking, right?”
Before Daniel could answer, a shout cut through the tension.
“Desmond! My guy!”
Joel, Enoch, and Kelvin pushed through the crowd, grinning like they’d won something. Joel slapped Desmond’s shoulder, hard.
“Welcome back, bro!!!”
Desmond’s mask slid back into place .the easy grin, the bored royalty. “Thanks.”
The boys closed around him, talking over each other. Boarding school stories. Girls. Cars. The usual. Daniel got pushed to the edge of the circle, basketball forgotten at his feet.
Then a new voice, higher, cut through the boys’ noise.
“Hi, Desmond!”
Stella waved as she walked up, her uniform skirt shorter than regulation, her smile fixed right on him. Like Bianca and Precious didn’t exist. Like Daniel wasn’t standing there watching Desmond’s eyes flick to her and stay.
Stella stopped right in front of Desmond, close enough that the other boys whistled. “You don’t remember me?” She tilted her head."party?”
Desmond frowned, then recognition clicked. “Oh. Yeah.”
Stella blew him a kiss, laughing as she walked off. “See you later.”
Kelvin’s eyes were wide. “Wow. Party? What happened with her?”
Desmond shrugged, already bored with the topic. “Nothing exciting. Met her before I left town. That’s it.”
The boys groaned, disappointed. Joel elbowed him. “Bro, you never change.”
Desmond wasn’t done. “she was so annoying. I regreted going out with her”
the boys laughted.
Desmond continued" she was my worse date ever" he said casually.
"speaking of worse date. Who was your best "Enoch asked.
Joel answered before Desmond could, jerking his chin toward the mango tree where Precious was watching them. “It’ll surely be Precious, right?”
For a second, Desmond’s expression cracked. The mask slipped. “You. That girl is my spec,” he said, quiet. “I love her, as fuck.”
The boys went silent. That wasn’t the answer they expected.
Kelvin broke it. “And Bianca?”
Desmond’s jaw set. “It’s a long story.”
Joel clapped him on the back, hard enough to sting. “You’re still as bad as ever.”
They all burst into laughter.
- Writer
