Promised To Another

ALL WORK AND NO FUN MAKES A GIRL VERY BORING

I was barely on time as I rushed into class and scanned the room for empty seats. Calculus classes were always packed despite the fact that the class started at 7AM. It was a module taken by most first year students across the different faculties. And because of the number of students who have to take the module, there were multiple classes of the same course running concurrently in different lecture rooms across the campus. I chose this particular one because it was the one closest to my dorm. I dropped on a seat towards the back of the class and threw a quick smile towards a girl on the seat beside me. She had a smooth golden skin and her long and thick black afro hair was pulled up in a ponytail. She had on one of those baggy sweaters with the UCT logo printed on in bold letters on the front, the kind sold in the school souvenirs shop. She was definitely beautiful without even trying. She returned my smile before turning back to scrolling on her phone, her smile seemed sincere enough.

A few moments later our lecturer walked in and the whole lecture room hushed as the class commenced.

"Hey, I am Arielle", I turned to the girl seated beside me with what I hoped passed for a sincere smile on my face. The class just ended and we were gathering our stuff getting ready to leave.

"I am Sibahle, nice to meet you Arielle", she said as she smiled brightly at me. How could anyone be this happy so early in the morning when some of us were barely alive. I noticed the carefree and friendly aura about her, I decided then that I liked her.

"So what is your major? "I asked, trying to make small talk.

"Pre-med, you?"

"Computer science."

"Ooh, brainy I see. That's cool", she said as she playfully wiggled her eyebrows at me.

"You are the one to talk when you are studying to literally save people's lives, that's beyond "cool "", I said air quoting cool, "it's damn impressive".

"What can I say, impressive is my middle name", she said as she gave an exaggerated bow and waved as if there was an invisible crowd cheering her on.

I bursted out in laughter at her antics, her energy was infectious.

"Do you have a class now?", she turned to me .

"No, I am free until after lunch. I am actually headed back to my room, I am going to catch up on my sleep after having almost none last night trying to complete an assignment that is due today ", I said.

"Ooh, I see. I don't have classes until 3pm and I stay off campus so I guess I have to find something to keep me busy until then.", she said with a bit of disappointment on her face.

"Or...we could grab coffee at the cafeteria if you don't mind", I offered, unable to contain the guilt I felt , because seeing her face without her bright smile made me feel like I just kicked a puppy or something.

Sibahle turned out to be very interesting, I learnt that she was from Swaziland and her mother was a very successful high profile lawyer who spent the majority of her time advocating for the rights of people of Eswatini. Her father was a businessman whose main focus was real estate and he owned properties across most African countries.

She was currently staying in a beachfront house which her parents bought for her and her brother who also went to UCT and was doing his third year majoring in Math of Finance and Economics.

"By the way, we throw thee coolest parties in town!" , she said.

"We are throwing one this weekend, you should definitely come", she gushed breathlessly looking at me expectantly.

"Ummh... I thought pre-med students had zero social life and did nothing but eat and breathe books".

"Well, don't believe everything you hear dear", she said with a smile.