"That's so sexist of you, girls aren't weaklings that need constant protection okay? If I'd been involved in the plan from day one, this wouldn't had happened, I wouldn't had had a reason to go up there to say yes to date him-"

"-God! Are you that naive? Fuck, you dated Rooney and you didn't learn shit?! Why on Earth would a guy call you up to a deserted class block after night prep just so you could accept or reject his proposal? It's past 10Munachi, why the fuck did you g-"

"-Even I'd like to know. " It was night and it was dark-the street lamps that were beside the walkway weren't on- and a voice had just unexpectedly spoke.

A yet to be recognized voice, Nonso grabbed my hand and shoved me behind him in a protective manner.

But I doubt if anything that was going to attack us both would be stopped by his small act of chivalry.

"Munachi it's me.. "The voice said again and slowly it began to register in my head.

Silvana?

How'd she get here?

What was she doing here?

"And me oh, I'm here too... I know it's dark but I'm not invisible. " A peep squeak voice said too and I sighed in relief.

"I swear, it's dark oh. This stupid school self don't have sense, why would they turn off the walk way street light by this time? I know it's because we're all usually in hostel now, but didn't the person in charge of this stuff know that SS3 are prepping eh? Do you know how many times this mumu girl beside me called Jasmine fell down and sha I'm blaming her, because I clearly said.. 'Jasmine bring torch light oh, just incase they do light out when were still outside' but what did she day? 'No Silva, they won't do jor. Let's just try and go fast! ' 'Let's just try and go fast!' " Silvana rapped out quickly and ended her speech in a mimicking-Jasmine volume.

Nonso chuckled beside me and dropped my hand.

A bright light suddenly blinded my eyes- temporarily- I winced and stumbled back.

"Blind her oh! Blind her! " Silvana shouted and I giggled, I felt grateful I had a friend like her...

She was lifting off the tension.. Even though it was definitely only temporarily, I liked it.

"Shut up oh! Did I tell you I didn't bring torch light?" Jasmine rolled her eyes.

Silvana on the other hand glared at her and spoke angrily,

"Ehhnnn! Yes oh, yes.. You told me that you didn't bring torchlight so better explain where this one came out from. "

"First of all, this isn't a torchlight.. It's a LED lantern-"

"-You're mad! Jasmine I said you are mad!" Silvana exclaimed and Nonso laughed loudly,

Silvana and Jasmine childish squabble was put on hold.

Silvana turned slowly to look at Nonso and for the first time to my knowledge.. Since their break up, she maintained eye contact for a minute before she broke it and looked at Jasmine,

Jasmine was also staring at her.

"I'll deal with you soon, back to you, Munachi... We've been waiting in the hostel for close to an hour and now we're hearing that you went to SS3's floor because a guy called you up after night prep oh, night prep for that matter! Is the guy Ebuka? " Jasmine asked me.

Ebuka...

God, I have to find those pictures!

Silvana frowned, " You went up to talk to Ebuka? Are you his girlfriend now? But why are you wearing Arthur's house wear?"

We all looked at her with raised brows.

"Yes, I know how Arthur's house wear looks like... And yes, I can tell how it looks like even in a poorly illuminated area because his own, the front side and the back side of his shirt are separated that's why he can tuck in only the front part of his shirt, it's showing now self that it's separated. " Silvana sounded sad, she sounded like she already had a hint of what had happened.

She also looked sad.

Hmm, in all honesty.. This was actually her fault.

But then again, she didn't put a gun to my head to say yes to him.

"I tried to be less self centered tonight but, things didn't work out. " I told her and her eyes widened slowly,

"You're not self centered... At all! Who told you that one now? " Nonso asked and I shrugged then continued walking towards the auditorium.

Jasmine grabbed my arm, "Munachi, where are you going to?"

I shrugged on reflex and she pushed her LED Lantern into my right hand then let go of me.

"Maybe she wants to go through the shortcut to you guy's hostel. Munachi's been through hell tonight, she needs rest. " Nonso said and I couldn't agree more.

More not without doing everything I needed to do.

"Una still dey here? " Dominique's deep bass voice was unmistakable, we all turned our head backwards and even in the darkness we could all make out figures walking towards us.

They all stepped into the Jasmine's light and I was surprised to notice that Arthur wasn't here, neither was Kenelum nor Kenneth... It was just Dominique and Segun.

"Where Arthur dem? " Nonso switched into fluent pigin.

Segun coughed, "Plan A's still on, we stopped Arthur before he reached Ebuka's class. "

"Stopped him from doing what? " Silvana seemed perplexed.

"Making matters worst. " Dominique shrugged then changed topic.

"Where una dey go sef?" All eyes turned to me.

There was no point in keeping them in the dark, they could all help me...

Sure, there was a huge chance of any of the guys stumbling on the pictures and seeing... Both real and fake pictures of.. Us.

But, that was one sacrifice I was ready to make..

I just needed help... And they could help me.

"He has my nudes. " I said and Silvana gasped, everyone now had bulging eyes.

"Eh? What's going on? You guys are confusing someone! Munachi, what were you still doing in school? You went up to meet Ebuka right? Why? How did Arthur and his friends get involved, who has your nudes? Ebuka? What's going on? " Jasmine sounded frustrated, her voice made me chuckle.

Even though nothing was funny right now.

She'd eased off a bit of tension from my chest.

"Earlier on today, Ebuka told me to meet him after night prep-"

"-And you went?! " Silvana exclaimed loudly and I looked at her with quirked eyebrows.

Wasn't that what you wanted?

"I didn't tell anyone, I even lied to Arthur and waited for everyone to go after night prep.. So word wouldn't get out to Arthur, but Nonso saw me.. And tried to stop me. " I gulped and continued.

I threw a glance at Silvana, "He didn't succeed, because I hurt him emotionally. " she looked down.

"I climbed up to a dark floor, he appeared and brought out a notebook... Pictures of Arthur and I were in there... We were having sex in some of them. " Dominique started coughing loudly and I hung my head low.

"Wait, when did you guys have sex? " Segun asked.

"We didn't. They're fake, but still... They look so real. Two were real though, we... Kinda made out in class today but, I tore them up-"

Dominique laughed, "-Sharp girl! "

"He has more copies. " His laughter died out.

"And I think they're in the school laptop, I'm not entirely a hundred percent sure... That's why I need you guys help. We need to find them. "I finished and paused, waiting patiently for their reaction.

"Of course we'll help. We'll call this plan B, plan A is sure to work but still-"

"-Come! What's plan A? " Jasmine interrupted Segun.

"We can't tell you. " Dominique frowned.

" Guy, what's the point? They obviously won't snitch or anything," Segun asked.

"Fine! Ebuka made plans of screwing with Skylar tonight, it's like they'd planned it since or something and it was too late to cancel, so I guess this his blackmail-Munachi-to-fuck-me plan wasn't well thought off, unless he had plans of banging you and getting rid of you before Skylar comes up. I don't really know for the sick bastard. " Dominique explained.

Unlike Nonso.

"It's like she's either Arthur's family friend or she likes him, I don't know anything. I don't even know how they made the plan but we're supposed to wait for her to come up, she'll turn the nigga on and then act like she's fighting him off, then we'll get it all on video and take a few shots. " Nonso added.

"We'll then blackmail him, either he leaves you the fuck alone-"

"-Leaves us the fuck alone, or she'll tell her dad he tried to rape her... We'll have proof and he'll be trapped but it doesn't even matter because we'd still report the video anyways and get adults involved which should guarantee his suspension. " A new voice joined us suddenly and I almost had a heart attack.

"Guy, you be ghost?!" Nonso said loudly, his hand was over his chest and he was panting.

I looked around and saw that Silvana was doing the same.

"Guy, watin una dey fear? " Kenelum's laughter surprised me,

So he could even be happy?

They all stepped into our small circle of light.

Arthur, Kenelum and Kenneth.

"Guy, una mama! Una no even fit make small noise may person know una dey come? " Dominique glared and eyed Arthur.

Arthur threw his head backward and laughed, his body vibrated and his rasp short bursts of laughter was amusing.

A smile was forming on my lips.

"See us see wahala oh, na me send una may una stand for road dey gossi-"

"-We no dey gossip, men no dey gossip." Nonso shrugged and dusted his shoulder in a show off style.

I rolled my eyes and smiled at how everyone's countenance had changed, we were all smiling now.

"So, what are you guys doing here now? " I didn't want to spoil the mood, but we still had bigger issues at hand.

"It's not yet 12. If we lurk around, it'll be suspicious. What about you? Last time I checked, you weren't even supposed to be here. You told me something entirely different when I asked you about him. So... What are you guys doing here now? " Arthur sounded angry,

Well, you did lie to him and you almost made things worst for him.

Everyone's countenance fell immediately and we all took up sulking faces.

"Nigga has you guys nude, she wants to find it and delete them. " Nonso summarized quickly and Jasmine nodded.

"So after fucking her in class, you have the mind to vex for her? " I would've laughed at Arthur's face but Silvana looked pretty serious.

"Eh? " He blurted out and we all started laughing-I was included.

His face was just so funny, wide eyes and raised up brows, spread out lips and his nose had this unique way of twitching every 2 seconds.

"Yea, fake edited nudes but she said two are real or something, guy arrange your face... We..know..you guys..didn't..fuck. " Segun laughed in between each words and I wiped a tear drop off my cheeks.

Arthur looked at me and I looked down.

"Tomorrow's assembly, he's going to display them." I muttered.

"Tomorrow's assembly? Babe, we don't have time! " Silvana spoke and everyone nodded.

I know that...

"That's why we need to move fast. " I murmured.

"Ebuka? Um. Ebuka, I think I know where he'd hide something like that. I also know how he made those fake pictures, so I think I'm 99% sure where they'd all be.. If I'm correct, the final copies are where I think they are... Since it's just been less than 12 hours, it's going to still be in the system. " Kenneth said.

"Where? " Arthur.

He took a deep breath in.

"Junior's block computer room. That's the only place where the computer with the software is... I can't explain everything now, just know that I've encountered this software before. So let's just go. " Kenneth turned to walk back in to our conjoined school buildings but entered the Junior building.

Kenelum, Segun, Dominique, Nonso, Silvana and Jasmine followed his steps and I was left alone with Arthur.

"Why'd you lie to me? " He didn't waste time to ask.

"Arthur, I'm sorry. "

He repeated his question, "Why'd you lie to me? " and I shrugged.

"What if Nonso hadn't seen you? What if he'd raped yo-"

"-I never told you he was about to rape me. "

He groaned.

"You didn't need to, you were running.. Your house wear wasn't put on well, you might think that I'm not man enough to defend you or shit, but I'm not stupid. He was going to rape you, he's Ebuka... You still have this wrong perception of him and I don't understand why but its crap, he's changed Munachi because that's what people do, they change for the good or for the better and he changed for the worst."

"I never said you're not man enough and I'm never going to say tha-"

"-Why did you lie to me!? " He shouted at me... I froze, that had never happened before.. Except for that blurred memory I had, when I was drugged.

"Exactly the same reason you lied to me weeks ago. "

"Bullshit, I lied to protect and salvage your dignity, why'd didn't you tell me you were going to meet him? Munachi, I'm mad at you okay? I'm mad at you because now I'm mad at my self, I feel like this is my fault. You were going to say yes to being that bastard's girl -I just know it· Because of me! You wanted to protect me in your own way and I understand that. But still, you shouldn't have gone up to meet a rapist at such time in a deserted place!" He yelled at me.

The thing is I didn't know! I didn't believe he could do anything, I see him everyday during rehearsals.

Rumors can always just be rumors and I would know because I've heard so much rumors about me.

Tears pooled up in my eyes, I was still holding Jasmine's lantern and it suddenly felt heavier to me.

I wanted to drop it on the floor and cry...

I already know what I did was stupid.
You didn't need to remind me.

I know I'm stupid, stop chanting it..

"Fuck, Nana. I'm sorry. " Arthur suddenly hugged me and then I broke.

The lantern fell and I sobbed into his singlet.

"He kissed me... He touched me... I'm sorry I lied to you, but I never wanted any of this to happen, there's no way I would have wanted this to happen to me... I'm sorry. "

I felt his body go stiff as my tears wet his singlet,

When last did I cry?

When last did I cry in his presence?
Never.

"You're crying? Fuck, fuck, fuck, I'm sorry, I'm sorry for yelling at you.. I'm so sorry. Please don't cry.. Please. " Arthur squeezed me and I sniffed in his intoxicating scent.

The urge to continue crying came and I succumbed, it just felt so good and so sweet to know that he cared this deeply about me.

In between sharp pants I kept murmuring, "He kissed me. I feel so dirty Arthur. So dirty. "

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't prevent that. I'm so very sorry. " Arthur rubbed my back and I felt the tight knot in my chest and the heavy load on my chest that I didn't even realize was there before, slowly loosen up.

I was slowly feeling better.

He pecked my forehead and whispered. "I love you and I'd never ever let you get hurt ever again. "

I smiled and hugged him back.