I strolled to Sage's car. She was in a passionate kiss session with Kye Roger but broke apart from it at my presence.
Ren had a stern frown plastered on her face as she leaned against the car, shooting daggers at them with her dark brown eyes.
"Bye, sweetheart." She gave Kye a peck on his lips before he took his leave after a wink at me.
"Jeez, what took you so long?" Ren asked crankily.
"Exactly what I was gonna ask." Sage stood in akimbo.
"Uh— I had something to do." I said dismissively.
"Something like what?" She smirked, tucking her wavy shoulder-length blonde hair behind her ears. "Did you go to the new teacher to beg him to be yours?"
Ren and I widened our eyes at her words. "What?! Me? Mr. Denver?" I scoffed nervously and waved my hand over my face. "No way!"
"Girl, chill. I was only kidding." She burst into laughter, placing an arm over my shoulders.
I stopped myself from heaving a sigh of relief. She opened the car door to the back seat then Ren was the first to get into it. I did the same then she followed afterwards and shut the door.
"By the way, Sarah and I made a bet." She smirked, her electric blue eyes glistened sinisterly. She was rubbing her palms together like a villain in cartoons who came up with a brilliant evil plan.
"What bet?" I asked nonchalantly.
"Since the new teacher is so hot, we decided to make a bet on who'd be the first to have him." She crossed one of her legs over the other.
"What?!" Ren and I exclaimed.
"He's too old for you, right?" Ren feigned a smile at her. "I mean, why'd you want to have him, he's not your type." She shrugged, glancing at me in worry.
"Silly, it's not a problem. That dude is damn hot and I like him. I don't have a problem with older guys, I actually prefer them to dumb and younger ones." She rolled her eyes. "Sarah and I made this bet; we'll both seduce him then the first person to date him wins the first stage of the bet."
"That's crazy!" I exclaimed, creasing my forehead. "Plus, aren't you already dating the School's badboy?"
"Kye? He's just one of the guys I choose to hook up with when I want, no big deal." She shrugged. "The second stage is even crazier. After dating him, the first person to sleep with him wins the grand stage."
"Sage!" Ren and I exclaimed again.
"That's totally crazy, you can't sleep with your teacher." Ren frowned.
"Uh, hello?" She waved a hand over her face. Her driver soon opened the car door then got into it. "There's an exception when the damn teacher is as hot as this one." She scoffed. The driver started driving the car.
"Sage dear, it's not accepted. Being in a relationship with your teacher is clearly forbidden." I explained, trying to be convincing in the best way I could.
"Girl," she patted my shoulder. "I know, but that doesn't apply to me. I can easily frame the teacher and make him lose his job, or keep the relationship a secret till I'm ready to dump him. If it's any other student who's in a relationship with a teacher, I'll definitely report it to the principal." She smiled smugly. "I'm so bad…"
"So you mean you can be in a relationship with your teacher because you think he's hot but won't permit any other student?" Ren asked crankily.
"Correct." She nodded, reaching for a bottle of water in the bottle holder, opened it and gulped half of its content in one drought.
We went silent. I couldn't stop thinking about Sage's words. This was damn crazy, she had no right to do it. I couldn't stand letting someone try to seduce my Denver for a stupid bet.
"It's crazy!" I yelled louder than I intended to, causing her to flinch.
"What is?" She drew her eyebrows in perplexion, closed the bottle and returned it to its previous position.
"You can't go on with this stupid bet." A frown appeared on my face. I was beginning to boil furiously but couldn't control it.
"Why not? Why do you have a problem with it?" She seemed more confused.
"Because it's wrong!" I snapped, clenching my fists.
"And why do you care if it's wrong. I'm the one doing it, not you,"
"I'm your best friend and I'm telling you to not do it because it's dangerous and would ruin you."
She gazed at me with a blank expression for a while before bursting into laughter, shaking her head. "You're so funny. This is why you're still single." She mocked.
"Excuse?" I screwed my face up. "What makes you think I'm single?"
"Tris, stop talking." Ren took my hand in hers, squeezing it gently.
"Oh, you're not?" She feigned a surprised expression. "Don't lie to me, baby. I know you're single. I haven't seen you go out with anyone." She waved her hand around dramatically.
"That's really because you don't know me well enough." I shook my head at her.
"Oh wait, are you seriously in a relationship?" She obviously held back the laughter that tempted to erupt from her.
"I'm—"
"She's not!" Ren cut me off, yanking me by my hand forcefully to snap me back to reality. Just because I didn't like telling people about my relationship with Denver didn't give Sage the right to be so judgemental about my relationship status. What a best friend she was; one I was too scared to tell about my relationship and child.
"Ah!" She laughed. "I knew it! Don't worry, I can seek hot guys for you." She said mockingly.
"Keep your damn guys to yourself, Sage." Ren spat venomously.
Sage shot a sinister glare at her. "You sure you don't want one too?"
"Shut the f**k up!" Ren hollered, glaring at her with so much hatred.
Sage's gaped. "You're rude. You're aware of the fact that I wouldn't ever talk to you if you weren't Tris' best friend."
"The same goes for you," she bursted.
"It's okay. Stop it." I cautioned, staring between both of them. I hated how they always ended up fighting while they were together.
***
"Tris?" Aeryn called unsurely, strolling out of her room. She scanned the entire living room then smiled. "Mom," she giggled.
"Yes, it's Mom. No one's here, my smart baby." I grinned.
"I'm hungry." She said.
"What'd you like to eat, my baby?" I set my books aside and pulled her to sit on my lap.
She wrapped her arms around my neck and buried her head in my chest. "I miss Daddy." She whispered.
"Oh…" I trailed off, remembering Denver said he was coming tonight but hadn't done that.
"Is he coming again?" She asked silently.
"Yes, sweetheart." I kissed her forehead. "What'd you like to eat? You can ask Jayana to cook that for you."
"I want you to." She muttered.
I pulled her away from my chest and cupped her cheeks. "You want me to cook for you?" I asked and she nodded. "I'm sorry but I can't, I've got to study for school, baby."
She sighed but nodded and hopped off my lap, strolling away and climbed up the stairs to where I assumed was Jayana's room.
I continued with my homework but was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. I set my books aside once again then rose to my feet, scuttled to the door to open it.
Denver's figure came to full view after I opened it and a wide smile automatically appeared on my lips.
I was about to hug him but he stopped me by extending his arm, glancing around like a thief scanning for the police. "People might be watching."
I rolled my eyes at him. "No one is." I stepped backwards so he could walk in then shut the door.
"Ivy!" He shouted, calling for Aeryn.
A smile appeared on my lips when I heard loud thuds against the hard floors. Aeryn appeared on the steps, running really fast with the widest smile on.
"Be careful, you'll fall." I warned but she didn't listen to me and continued running towards us.
As I had predicted, she tripped and almost fell but she was at a short distance from Denver who quickly caught her from falling and carried her on his arm. I exhaled in relief. If she had fallen, it would've turned out to be something so terrible as a result of her endless wailing.
"Daddy!" She squealed, wrapping her arms around his neck really tight
He chuckled, "it's Denver, remember?" He corrected, grinning as well.
She ignored him but continued hugging him really tight. She only pulled away to kiss his cheek. It was obvious that Denver loved that.
We all walked up to the couch then had our seats with Aeryn on his lap.
"Where's Jayana?" He asked.
"She's sleeping." She clarified.
"Oh…" he nodded. "Anyways, I brought you a gift." He cooed. I only noticed the plastic bag in his free hand which he opened and took out a wrapped box from it.
"A gift?" She squealed. "I love you, daddy." She unwrapped the gift really fast and took out a doll from it. "Wow!"
"A doll, uh?" I smirked.
He wrapped his free arm around my waist to pull both of us into one hug. "I love you guys." He smiled.
He let go of me then we walked to take our seats on the sofa.
***
Aeryn had spent the last hour with Denver and me, mostly ignoring my presence. She kept blabbing words to him, whether or not they made sense or were necessary but Denver was attentive and smiling. They played together and ate chocolates we had in store.
I was feeling bored and left out so I went ahead and resumed my school work, leaving them both to experience their father-daughter moment, only contributing at short intervals.
After Aeryn was finally sleepy, Denver called for me then he carried her to her room and I tucked her to bed.
"She has also grown. I missed her too." He said with a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
"You obviously did." I chuckled.
We both returned to the living room, plopping ourselves on a couch. I instantly felt more alive the moment his arms embraced me.
"Gosh, I missed you so much too." He kissed my forehead.
"Did you?" I huffed.
"What's that for?" He asked in a deeper voice.
"Never mind. How was your experience with teaching for today?" I started.
"It was awesome, I loved it." He beamed. " I got to know a lot of students. Some of them were nice, some weren't. Some were crazy, emotional, weird and…" he trailed off, "some of them liked me." He admitted.
I pulled away from him, crossing my legs on the couch. "They obviously do. The same goes for my best friend, Sage. She made a bet with her friend to seduce you. Then the one who sleeps with you wins the bet." I winced.
"What?!" He exclaimed, laughing. "Are there really that highly crazy students?"
"It's not funny, she's serious about it. Sage always tries her absolute best to get what she wants and I'm sure about that. She said she'd frame you if she gets caught. Please promise me you won't fall into such sort of temptation." I pouted.
He shook his head with a small smile. "Why are you so cute? Anyway, I promise." He pulled me back to him and pecked my forehead.
I knew he had promised but I couldn't stop myself from having a bad feeling about it. I knew Sage more than she knew herself and she sounded desperate to win this stupid bet. I was going to do everything in my power to stop them.
"I'll be leaving soon since I have so much work to do and will prepare for school tomorrow."
"Oh." I moaned. "I'll miss you again."
"Me too."
We remained silent for a few seconds. "Denver, you know tomorrow's Aeryn's birthday, right?" I reminded him.
"There's no way I'd forget my princess's birthday. I definitely know that and I have a big surprise in stock for her."
***
A/N: Well, well, well, if it isn't an update to this book.
Guys, I'm soooooooooo sorry for not updating this book sooner. I finally came up with an update schedule for my ongoing books which you can check out on my f*******: group: 'Author Gift Odulesi (Gift's readers)' or by following me on i********:: @giftodulesi
Thank you so much for reading, the next chapter will be up very soon.
Don't be a silent reader, let me know your thoughts on this chapter and on this book in the comment section.
Ignore if this chapter appeared to be weird or had so many Grammatical errors because I wrote it 1:11am, I'm feeling so sleepy right now so bye~❤️