When Lucas and I were done studying, I walked to my room and he to his. My roommates were already sleeping when I entered in the room. I switched on the lights and looked at the time from my phone, and it was 21:07. I woke LTN and she moved to her bedside and I laid flat on my back. I spent half of my night thinking about Lucas and everything he said. For a moment, I thought I was falling for him, but something told me I was only feeling sorry for him. Truth is, I never had feelings for Lucas. Sympathizing with a person doesn't necessarily mean you have feelings for them, right? It's okay to feel sorry for a person after all. I am a person who cares for other people. As I laid flat on the bed, my phone beeped from the table and when I looked, it was a message from Lucas thanking me for the day and for giving him an ear. I typed him a very short message wishing him a goodnight but I never got a reply back. I pushed my phone on the table and dozed off.
EARLY IN THE MORNING, I saw sunlight flare through the curtains from the window. My eyes were still blur, so I rubbed them and noticed there was no one in the room. I took my phone that was on the table next to me, I switched it on and I found a message from Lucas.'Hey thank you for a wonderful message. I did have a great night and I hope you did too. I was already asleep when you sent your message.'I put back the phone on the table without replying to his message and sat on the bed. After a few minutes, my phone rang and it was him."Hey," I answered."Hey, how are you?""I am good and yourself?""Sorry for last night, I only got your message in the morning," he said over the phone."It's okay..." I replied in a hope that he'll end the call, but he continued to ask me questions. "How did you sleep?" he asked and I just threw myself on the bed before I could answer his foolish question. I don't know, you fool. I said to myself inside. I am a girl but I don't like dizzy questions. I'm not sure if he was trying to flirt, but it was definitely not working. I hate being asked how I slept because, honestly, I don't know how to answer that. I was asleep, so how am I supposed to know?"I slept well, I guess," I answered bored."I know today we don't have a session, but can we meet?""Today? Sorry can't do. I already made plans with my friends," I said."Please, I am struggling with Math question and I need your assistance," he begged. I knew he was lying about the Math thing. There was no way a genius like him would ever need help from me, unless if it was about clothes and fashion. I guess this was his way of asking to meet with me. Instead of arguing with him about the matter, I agreed to meet him in the next hour at the hall. I hanged the call and I did my bed. My roommates were still not back from wherever they were, including Lucia.In an hour, I was ready to meet with Lucas and I headed to the hall. I found him prepared the set-up, all I did was sit on the chair and he went over the opposite chair. We studied and I helped him with whatever Math problem he was struggling with, which seemed easy. If I can do it, he can do it better. His excuse was just for seeing me I could tell."You now good, hey," he complimented me after I solved the problem.We exchanged looks and I replied, "What can I say, I learnt from the best," and we both smiled. My eyes could not help but stare at a man sitting next to me. There was something about him I didn't understand. Something very - when he noticed me staring at him, he looked away. I could see he was uncomfortable with me looking at him. I was searching for something in him that will help me understand the person he was, but there was nothing. He chinned up and found me still staring at him. He plastered a smile on his face and said, "You looking at me the wrong way.""What's the right way of looking at you? I asked."The way that won't make me feel uncomfortable," he said looking away and back to me."I just enjoy staring at people. It makes me laugh," I put my hands over my mouth to keep myself from laughing out loud"Why, do I look like a crazy comedian?" he giggled."More than that," I said with my eyes moving away from him in a laughter. I focused them on the book and he held my hand that was holding a pen on the table, and said, "Thank you." His soft and gentle hand was still holding mine. I looked at my hand and back to him and I slowly removed my hand from his because the moment was uncomfortable. We both cleared our throat after the awkward moment. When his hand was still on the desk, it's when I noticed a ring on his finger. I was shocked and confused to how can a twenty-something-year old boy have a ring? Was he engaged, or married? Isn't he too young? I thought to myself. I tried passing the thought, but something told me to comment on it."Nice ring. It's beautiful," I said."Oh, thank you," he said tossing his hand to admire it. "It was my mother's," he added."If it's your mother's, why is it on your finger though? Are you married to her?" I jokingly asked.He first laughed, "She gave it to me," he finished laughing and continued, "she told me to keep it on my finger until she tells me to remove it," he said through the laughs. "She told me I should hold on tight to it and if I'm lucky, it will lead me to the right person, so that's why it's here," he said still looking at the ring."Okay...." I commented. His relationship with his mother seemed pretty amazing. I could tell from the way he spoke about her that they shared a strong bond. His face brightened every time he spoke about her. I admired the ring from the position of his hand and it was indeed beautiful. Whoever picked the ring for her knew a lot about jewellery. It was a fine piece of jewellery. "Oh, and I finished reading InTheDawn, and I'm impressed," I paused, "I loved the debate part and the Pinkie Pinkie story. It sounded true."He smiled, "I told you you'd like it," he paused to breathe. "Who do you think had strong the points between Ben and Isabel?""In a debate, I think Isabel had more strong points compared to Ben. The reality between true love and infatuation is that one lives to carve the path for the other. Infatuation cannot exist without the presence of love. Wait, Lucas, do you believe in love?""I think it exists," he replied. "What did you think of the relationship between Sarah and Cedric," he added."I have nothing more to comment about the book. The book was simply the collection of great words. If I add anything now, I'd be killing the author's creativity, hey."InTheDawn – Cedric & Sarah is a well written novel that I've ever read in a longest time. It's a story that takes place during apartheid era in South Africa. It's a story about a twenty nine year old black teacher by the name Cedric, whom according to the author, is arrogant and a white hater. This black fellow struggles to find a job until his mom organized him a job at a white school. When he arrived at the school, he was subjected to teach grade 12 English class, which he nailed it, given the fact that the students started participating more in his classes. He proposed a debate to his students between the existence of true love and infatuation. He took two students, Isabel and Ben to debate on the matter. Ben claimed that true love does not exists, people are just mistaking being fascinated and interested by someone with true love, while Isabell debated that true love exists in every form. Both the students made quite interesting facts that left people with many questions if whether true love exists or not.Cedric later meets a young beautiful white girl who is introduced to us by the name Sarah. Sarah is a goal driven woman who has strong love for black culture. She is married to a twenty-eight-year old businessman, Jon. She describes her husband as fun and caring. Sarah met up with Cedric and asked him to help her with a school research that focused on black culture. Cedric rejects her request until she convinces him to see good reasons. He agrees to help her under one condition that they do not discuss their personal lives. Both Cedric and Sarah met every after school to discuss matters and cultures of South Africa. They continued to learn about each other's interests and beliefs, which made Cedric fall in love with Sarah, though he did not tell her due to their different social and economic backgrounds. Cedric is a poor black man in a white dominant city and Sarah is a privileged white girl, who's married to a rich entrepreneur, so he thought there was no chance.One day Cedric was ill treated at his job and he resigned. He packed his clothes to go back to his black hometown and Sarah came announced at his rented apartment and asked to tag along. He first refused to go with her at his hometown fearing for her life but she insisted that she'd be okay. Cedric reluctantly agreed and they drove to (village) in Sarah's car. Along the way, they break the promise they made to each other that they would not discuss personal questions. They get personal with each other and this led to Cedric loving Sarah even more, seeing how different she was from her fellow race that he hated.They get to the village and Cedric learns that his favorite uncle was jailed. He goes to a place he used to go to as a child to relax and Sarah joins him. There, they continue to get personal, which led them to a moment. They ended up having unprotected sex. Few weeks after Sarah had left for her place in the suburbs, she tells Cedric that she's pregnant with his child. Cedric tells her to abort the child but she says she will pin the pregnancy on her husband. Eight months later, she remembers that it wouldn't make sense to give birth to a colored child when she and the husband are white, but she keeps the pregnancy anyway.Thirteen months later, Sarah brings her baby boy to his father (Cedric) and she tells him this would be the last day he sees him. Cedric asks her why, and she told him because the birth of their son is collapsing her marriage, that's why she decided it's a best solution to kill the child. As he sees him (Romeo) now, he has been fed with slow poison. He will die any hour from now. Cedric breaks down, but there's nothing he can do. Sarah takes the baby back home and two weeks later, Cedric reads on a newspaper that Sarah committed suicide and left a note for him.There's a lot that happened in the story that I cannot disclose in few lines.23rd July arrived; it was our last day at the camp. The last past weeks had been nothing but best to me. I was beginning to like camp and its people. The early joggings and late meetings with Lucas.
Chapter 5
Start from the beginning
