"Tell me you're joking?", Mxo said as he stood up from his chair, carelessly placing the pencil on the table that it came rolling down. Rori picked it up with her eyes on him, filled with concern.
"I wish I was. Call her and ask"
"I can't. She gave me the phone back remember?", he was now pacing the room with his palm on his forehead.
"Then you'll have to find your way here", Melo said and Mxo cut the call so he can think properly.
"Bathong Mxo what's wrong?", she questioned.
He took two steps to the desk to go pack up her things.
"Eish Rori retla bua kgantele I need to attend to something real quick"(We'll talk later), he then handed her stuff to her and she saw it best to let him be. She packed them into her bag and zipped it up. When she stepped out of the room, she saw Betso coming in her direction on the corridor, all her concentration engulfed by her phone screen, dragging her feet in her slippers.
"Oh shit", she whispered to herself and turned back to look at Mxo.
"And then?", Betso sharply asked when she finally raised her face.
"Uhm hi Mrs Khumalo. I know what you said about not coming up here but--"
"I'm the one who insisted we study in here. Nothing happened ma", Mxo informed when he appeared.
"Di kae ditsebe?"(Where are your ears?), she asked, fuelled by fury.
"NOTHING HAPPENED! Jeez...", he snapped.
"You're speaking to me, like that?"-Betso.
Lwandile came out of his room, obviously irritated from his sleep gwtting cut short by the noise.
"What's going on?", he asked.
"I think... I think should get going...", Rori said and gently pushed her specs back, then tightly held on to the straps of her school bag.
"I think you should!", Betso shot out and Lwandile lowly said,"But ma..."
Rori took urgent steps, trying to get out of there as fast as possible. Mxolisi banged the door and locked it, giving no opportunity for Betso to shout in his ear any further.
"Ngwana ke yo!!"(This child doesn't listen!), she yelled before marching to her room in her short purple dress and black leggings. Lwandile heaved a sigh and knocked on Mxo's door.
"It's me. Open up", he softly said. Mxo unlocked the door, opened it slightly and left him there to decide whether he still wanted to come in or not. Lwa walked in and closed it again. He went over to sit on the bed next to him.
"I know for a fact that, that wasn't just about Rori being in here"-Lwa.
"What are you talking about?"
"If it was, you would've just laughed it off when mom overreacted and tried to smooth talk her. You wouldn't have reacted like that", Lwandile probed into the matter and Mxo kept staring ahead. If solutions came from looking at walls, his would've probably been demolished from that stare.
"Ndalo is pregnant", he notified.
"Chile wait. What?", Lwandile's shook pulled his hands to both his cheeks. Mxo nodded.
"You're a giving new meaning to the word messy"
"Can you not?"-Mxo
"Askiies. So what, you're gonna tell mom and dad?"
"I first need to confirm this. I don't even know how and where I'm going to find her"
"You don't know where her house is?", Lwandile asked in a confused tone.
"She doesn't live there anymore. Apparently her mom kicked her out"
"And she doesn't have a phone. Shxt. Is your source reliable?"-Lwandile.
"Melo bumped into her KwaDiliza"
"And Melo wouldn't lie. So she told him herself that she's pregnant?"
"Nah. She didn't want to speak to him. He got the info from Zee"
"If I'm calculating correctly, she must be two months pregnant now? Unless if you fxcked her at the thanksgiving ceremony last month"
Mxo ran his palm down his stressed face, braking it on his mouth.
"I never spoke to her since she gave me the phone back"
"So what are you going to do?"
"I don't know. I just know I can't turn my back on her when she needs me the most"
"It doesn't sound like she had any plans of letting you know otherwise she would've found a way to"
"I made a mistake by letting her go the first time. I'm not doing it again"
"You're gonna force your love down her throat?"
"No. I'm gonna fight for her. Like I should've in the first place. If I fail then I'd have failed but my kid is not going to grow up with false knowledge that I abandoned him or her"
"So you want this kid?"
"I didn't plan ukum'gqwalisa isusu but it happened"
"She's so innocent yaz. And l like her. I kinda hate you for this"
Mxolisi tucked his upper lip into his teeth, distressed to centre of his core.
