Buzz cut nods. Dreads takes another swig of us drink, though neither of them remotely makes any move suggesting they would part ways with me and go on about their night.
No; instead, dreads moves his strands from his face and then points the top of his drink towards me. "Tsiamo's girl, right?"
"Nah, not Tsiamo." The friend chirps in with chuckles in his words. His eyes — despite it being fairly dark, I notice them as clear as day — takes my entire being, head to toe and then some, in a way that makes me tighten my arms. "Too sweet and innocent for him."
Maybe it's humerus. Maybe there's some sort of inside joke only they share, considering they have a round of light laughter at those words.
I don't know, it irritates me. Being preserved as something sweet and innocent, like a glass vase that needs to be catered to and taken care off in every possible way.
I simply scoff and shrug. "Yah, I'm his girl. Though, I'm not sweet or innocent, and I think it's... rude, to categorise me when you don't know me."
Like twins with some sort of telepathic enhancing, they both raise their hands up as though to surrender, chuckling yet again.
"Our bad, our bad. You're right." Buzz cut grins. "I'm Ayanda, by the way. This is Thabang. Friends of Tsiamo, some might say, though we know him through other means. You are?"
Of course I hesitate, though I can't say why. I know Tsiamo is the popular type, knowing by many though friends with a few, or at least that's what he's told me. Perhaps these two could be considered part of the few, I wouldn't know since Tsiamo doesn't speak much about his friends. Not by name, anyway.
I shrug a bit, shifting from one foot to the other. "Gertrude."
"Lovely name for a lovely woman." Ayanda smiles, perhaps politely, as he articulates this in his mother tongue, to which I understand rather fluently.
"Thanks... I guess."
"You always go to these sort of things?" Thabang points to the house behind him. "Or is this more or less of a special occasion?"
"I wasn't planning to come here but... yah, here I am."
"That's reckless of the boy."
"Very." Ayanda twists his drink in his hand, though hardly pays attention to it. No; his eyes have been on me the entire time, and despite the fact that, considering we're having somewhat of a conversation, his eyes would be on me, I feel a different vibe behind them. A different kind of energy. Uncomfortable, I'd say, though not exactly skin-crawling.
"Don't let him bring you to these. This one is cool and calm, the people are chilled in there. But, it's never always like this. Very much loud and people are drunk and high left and right. Feels kind of claustrophobic if you're not used to it."
"It's not my scenery, anyway. You could say I was accompanying him, but he knows this isn't my style."
"Makes sense." My eyes shift to Thabang who finishes his drink now. There's a slight sway in his steps, I notice as he steps towards me. "You seem like the art gallery, museum kind of girl. He's an idiot for not taking you there. Instead he brings you here."
Well, this is getting boring now.
"Weren't you guys going somewhere? Please, don't let me standing here interrupt that. You're more than welcome to continue."
"It's never good to leave a lady all by herself, outside." So, Ayanda also takes his unwanted steps towards me.
Of course, now I'm on alert. I try not to show it, how obvious they seem to be and how tense I'm starting to become, though my partial nonchalant stance seems to somehow entice them. Almost like a game, like I'm playing some sort of hard to get figure and they're simply intrigued.
