I’m never going to be yours

Mandy was thrilled to be able to spend time with her best friend. They spent the whole afternoon in Mandy’s room. They chatted the whole evening about school, friends and family.

Mandy’s room was on the second floor of the house. Thandi was thirsty so she went downstairs to drink water. She got into the kitchen and drank water. When she turned around to leave she bumped into S’bu.

“MaDlamini, what a pleasant surprise” he said looking at her in the eyes. He already knew that she was around and had patiently waited to meet her.

Thandi blushed, before she knew it S’bu was hugging her.

“I have missed you” he whispered on her ear still holding her.

“Are you crazy? there are elders around” Thandi said pushing him away.

“If you let me kiss you then I will let you go” he said teasing her.

“Shameless!” she said running out of the kitchen to Mandy’s room.

“S’busiso Jobe, what do you think you are doing?”asked Mrs J who saw the interaction between S’bu and Thandi.

“Ma, it’s not what you think. I really like her” S’bu babbled.

“I’m busy right now, we will talk about this tomorrow. Until then, you stay away from Thandi” she commanded.

In Mandy’s room Thandi and Mandy talked about a lot of things screaming and giggling. That night Mandy told her about the many girls that were hooking up with her brothers. She complained about how some were coercing her into giving them S’bu and Menzi’s phone numbers.

“This happens every time they are back, I can’t wait for universities to open so they can go again” Mandy said sulking.

Thandi listened attentively and decided in her heart that she can never give S’bu a chance. She was a fool to even consider it at the first place.

In the morning they were dressed for school. The two friends walked to the kitchen to prepare their breakfast. Halfway Mandy discovered that she left her tie and ran back up to her room. Before opening her door she shouted for her friend who was in the kitchen. “ Thandi, you can have anything in the fridge except the smoked beef sandwiches, those belong to G&G”. Mandy did not realise that her brothers were in the sitting room next to the kitchen when she said that.

Menzi raised his eyebrows and S’bu responded by saying “ that’s Gebbie and Gibberish AKA us”.

“You know?” Thandi asked him surprised. Only her and Mandy knew about those names, Mandy must have told him.

“Yes I know that my lovely sister and my future wife have such horrible names for us” he said pretending to be hurt.

Thandi blushed, did he just call her his future wife? but she remembered the many girls he was hooking up with and concluded that he must say the same thing to them.

S’bu was paying attention to Thandi’ expressing and noticed that at first she was blushing then suddenly became indifferent. Somehow this sent a chilling feeling down his spine. He went close to her and whispered “after school please meet me at the park, we need to talk”. She remained indifferent, did not respond to him and just walked back to the kitchen.

“Did you two fight?” Menzi asked seeing that Thandi was suddenly cold towards S’bu.

“Honestly, I have no idea what just happened” responded S’bu worried.

At school pupils were laughing and shouting with excitement as they chatted and happy to see friends again. When the bell rang everyone gathered for assembly. The pupils were standing in rooms dedicated for different grades and all teachers were standing in front. The principal gave a speech thanking everyone for working hard that year and wished everyone happy festive season. Teachers from each grade come to the front to announce overall performer and second overall performer from each grade. Names were called for grade 8,9,10. Mr Q came forward to announce the names for grade 11.

Thandiswa Dlamini overall performer

Mandi Jobe second overall performer

Applause followed after that.

“Mandy, we did it!, we did it!”Thandi couldn’t believe it. They did not have to see their reports, it was obvious that they did well.

No announcement were made for grade 12 because they wrote a national paper and their results were not out yet. As pupils dispersed to different directions Thandi and Mandy stood still hugging excitement written all over their faces.

Pretty came to join them and was jealous at the accomplishment and decided to get attention for herself as well.

“Oh Mandy, we could be sisters soon or should I say I could be your sister in law”Pretty said hugging Mandy.

“What are you talking about?” Mandy asked confused.

“Well, you know I’ve liked S’bu for a long time now. It turns out he likes me too, we even made love last week” Pretty responded with pride.

Thandi’s jaw dropped and her heart started pounding. How foolish she was for almost believing that S’bu really liked her. It turns out he tells all the girls he wants to the same thing. Thandi thought all this in her head and was furious.

“Pretty aren’t you too young to give sexual consent” Thandi asked using all her strength to remain calm. In South Africa you must be 18 years old to give consent for sexual intercourse.

“Not everyone is 17 year old like the two of you, I’m turning 19 end of this year” boasted Pretty.

Thandi could not listen to Pretty and S’bu’s love stories anymore so she excused herself as she was going back to her village. She had no idea that Pretty did hook up with S’bu but made up all the love stories to look good and get attention.

On her way to the taxi rank Thandi received a message from S’bu reminding her to meet his at the park. She decided to go give S’bu a piece of her mind.

S’bu was happy that Thandi came to meet him and thought he would use this opportunity to confess his real feelings and explain the virgin hearts to her. He took her hand but she pulled it away from him. When he looked at her he noticed that she looked displeased with him.

“MaDlamini, why do I feel like I offended you?” he asked her worried. Thandi had the same expression she has this morning but several times worse and he could not think of anyway he offended her.

Thandi felt like S’bu was making a fool of her and became so furious her eyes looked like they were burning.

“Do you find pleasure in fooling girls?, are other people’s feelings something you can play with whenever you feel like?, do you think girls are objects for you to use to certify your desires? You know what, don’t bother answering any of that. You are despicable, I’m never going to be yours!” She got off his car, slammed the door and walked away.