ONYIYE THAT GIRL

SISIPHO MAZIBUKO

She drops the line and holds her phone onto her chest. She feels lighter after talking to her sister. Imagine such a grateful bond that she almost destroyed just because of her selfishness. That reminds her – she will have to go home this week to prepare for the arrival of her sister. She cannot wait for her to be here.
“I did not know that you gossip about me this much.” She half screams and turns to face him. She shamefully looks down with her heart drumming against her chest. This is what she was not prepared for. How will she face him after this? She cannot read his facial expression.
“Gerald… it's not like that.” She tilts her head to face him.
“So, how it's like?” He asks folding his shirt.
“Gerld…”
He grabs her neck and smashes his lips against her trembling soft lips.
“Look me in the eyes and tell me what you just said over that phone call.”
“My sister is coming this weekend and I need to go clean the house. I'm sure she will be coming with the kids.” She is shy. No hell way will she be declaring her love to this man right in front of her.
A knock on the door disturbs their moment.
“Come in.” he shouts. They are still standing in the same position facing one another. He smirks looking at her looking all uncomfortable.
“Hei, Gerald.” The smirk on his face dissolves. He slightly turns his head to the right. His body hardens as he clenched his jaws taking a deep breath.
“Cici, what are you doing here?” He calmly asks, still standing in the same position.
“I got a promotion and was offered a job on this side. I saw that it was your company and I thought I should accept.” The woman responds. She is so pretty. Way out of the league. She clears her throat and steps back.
“I will go back to work.” Sisipho.
“We were still talking. When is the doctor's appointment?”
He asks. Sisipho frowns looking at him. Why is he bluntly ignoring the poor girl?
“G, you have a guest.” She whispers.
“So? My family comes first - every other thing can wait.”
“It's okay, I will come back later on.”
The girl says. She looks at Gerald who has his eyes fixed on Sisipho. She walks out of his office shutting the door behind her.
“Sipho,” he smiles revealing his devilish smile. “Will see you at home.” He winks at her and walks past her smiling. He sits on his desk and smiles opening his laptop.
She gathers herself and steps out of his office…

Day went pretty fast and before she knew it – it was knock off time. All day she tried by her all means to avoid a man called Gerld. She changed her routine time. Talk about deeper insecurities. She is so insecure and feels like she isn't enough for him at the status he is in.
And to her favor avoiding him, it worked. She gathers her things and walks out bumping into her colleague.
“Awu mageliza,”
“Nandi,” she smiles greeting her back.
“Look at you glowing. You are even starting to show and you are even gaining weight. Look at your skin. Our hard labor was not really healthy for you.”
She would really love to stand and have a chit chat but her bed is calling her.
“Already my back is giving me pains. The doctor said I should take it easy.” She lies.
“Awu bantu. Let me leave you. Take care.”
Jeez! Now that she is showing people are going to be on her case!
She walks out and heads to the parking lot. Today she is wearing an Oakridge maternity long sleeve dress. Crew all over floral print with the sandles. Her curly weave bouncing to the length of her shoulders. Gerald is in the car already waiting for her. The girl comes out running to Geralds car and takes the front seat. She can see through the window that they are arguing. She opens the backseat and throws herself inside. There is nothing that she needs other than having a warm bath and sleeping. Hopefully there are still some left overs of lasagna from last night. Without saying anything Gerald drives out with the girl talking non-stop and complimenting everything. Sisipho secretively rolls her eyes. They pass by intersection and she notices a woman selling chicken feet. Her mouth salivates…
“G, stop the car!” Without asking he stops the car and parks at the side of the road.
She jumps out of the car and hurries towards the lady's table. G also jumps out of the car with a huge frown on his face. He rushes behind her and notices her standing in front of a bistro table.
“Hei, can I have 10.”
The woman stands up, wears a plastic in her hand and take out 10 chicken feet from her container and put in a transparent packet. She takes out R50 from her breasts and hands it to a woman.
“I don’t have change; can you wait while I go look for change?”
“How much?” She asks.
“R2 each.”
“No need. You can keep the change.”
“Thank you.”
They look sourcey and the smell is divine even though they are cold. She takes a bite and God damn it is was what she has anticipated.

Arriving at his house her mouth was full occupying all the chicken feet bones… the girl was dropped off at the rank even though she was not having any of it but Gerald put his foot down.
“Who was that girl?” she finally asks. Not that she cares, she just noticed how the girl was towards him. Who is she fooling! Maybe they once fucked and girl caught feelings along the line like her.
“I thought you would never ask. “ He asks.
He sighs and leans back against the headboard. The parents are not around, so cuddling first before they arrive will do at the moment since they cannot be intimate.
“I am going to be honest with you. Cici is my ex from hell. She was a pathological liar and I couldn’t keep up with her energy. I loved her yes, but she was just too much for me. She even lied about unnecessary things. She would lie and make up stories that fall somewhere between conscious lying and delusion. At first, I thought that maybe she was in that phase of being afraid of losing me but I was lying. She made up stories that sounded so damn real enough that other people believe them…”
“So, you broke up with her because she is a liar?” she doesn’t understand. Maybe she is too slow.
“Yes babe. I left her because I was emotionally tired of her constant lying. She went to a point where she framed her pregnancy and stupid me believed her. Yes, she was pregnant but the baby was not mine. Anything that comes out of her mouth is always the total opposite. I still need to do a follow up on the post that she is talking about. I do not want that woman next to me. I hate here with everything in me.”
“Shes pretty.” She compliments. Yes, she is beautiful and now her confidence just went from thirty and dropped down to zero.
“Without no brains – and trust me on that one.”

LINDIWE NGOBESE

She has just woken up from her sleep. She looks at her surroundings and notices that she is home. How did she forget? A small smile creeps on her face.
She remembers talking to her friend on the phone and dozed off. She gets off the bed…
Her mother is not in, still probably at work. She is all alone and bored. Maybe cooking will do. She takes the meat out of the freezer and places it on the sink, opens warm water defrosting it.
Her phone rings from her bedroom, maybe it's Onyiye wanting to give her an earful. She pushes her feet towards her bedroom...

She picks her phone up from the bed and sighs looking at Mpilo’s name flashing on top of the screen.
“Hello,” she is not in that mood to argue with him.
“Mnono, can I see you.”
“I’m not in Durban.” She responds. She is not in the mood to fight.
“I know. I’m outside.”
She knows exactly what he means. She takes a deep breath and steps out of the house, closing the door behind. There he is parked tight Infront of her father's house. She hops in the car and reclines on the seat making herself comfortable.
“Babe,” he is nervous she relaxes…
“Hei,” she turns her focus on him. “I was about to cook.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that you wanted to be home? Did you use taxis?”
“No, Melusi dropped me off.”
“Wow, so me to get hold of you I have to track your phone all the time just to know where you are. Lindiwe, can’t you see I’m trying! My life is a mess and I hate myself for what I did. Can you at least meet me half way.”
“Meet you half way while you are still living with your baby mama?”
“She was chased out of the house by her parents. She has nowhere to go.” He responds.
“Can't you rent her a flat somewhere and make it clear to her that you are in love with me and not her?”
“It's not that easy.”
“Well then consider me and you not in a relationship. Remember one thing, I'm this lonely because of you. You took the only thing that makes me happy and that makes sense to me. You took something that loved me and only me alone. Do you want to know why I loved him more? He made me feel more of a woman and he valued me very much. I never shared him and I was certainly sure that I am the one for him."
"Lindiwe…"
"It's okay Mpilo. Do what you do best. And that is crushing the little heart that's left. I need to go back before my mother finds me here."
She steps out of the car…
Mpilo is certainly is the least of her worries, she's worried because she distancing herself from people.

When she feels dead on the inside…she doesn't care if she eats too little or too much. She doesn't care if she sat at home all day. She doesn't care that she is losing friends. Not that she doesn't care but everything is just going South for her.  She just has no care for her body any longer. Except for maybe one person. Who is around her, she feels a rush of emotions. But the feeling is dead on the inside. She didn't knew that it was going to end, especially like this and this soon. Feeling dead on the inside has been her day job and a daily one. She is in that state, where she looks at people and wonder why they are happy. She noticed that, when she started feeling dead - because not even her favorite show or seeing her best friend makes her happy. Feeling dead on the inside makes her blame God for everything. She ends up asking God to just end it all some way so her family does not dwell on the fact she ended her life. She feels dead as if she don’t have a soul or that she don’t even have a heart. She feels a hole in her chest. And it sucks. It fucking sucks cause she can’t feel emotions!