5th of February 2023🥀
"Hey Olivia!-Gosh no I sound like I'm Barney, way too much excitement" I groan holding my dark eyes in the mirror.
"Hey Olivia" I practice , staring at myself in the mirror while flexing my muscles. "Didn't see you there" I add, deepening my voice.
I pull off my shirt and throw it across the room- only left in my grey sweatpants as I stare back at my lean body.
"Hi Olive bean" I try but it sounds bad, groaning frustratedly I throw myself on my bed.
It's been a week and I haven't been able to say a word to Olivia. A week!
Everytime I open my mouth nothing but air comes out and believe me that is not how I roll. I mean she's just a girl.
She's just Olivia.
She keeps her eyes focused on the board or her books the whole time. She's caught me staring tons of times but all she does is look, raise her arched brows and quickly look away.
A few days ago, I had hoped that maybe she would start hiccuping again and then I would pull out my water bottle with a smug look on my face.
"Thirsty?" I'd ask.
But of course that didn't happen.
In fact Olivia's pink bag had two bottles filled with water on the sides of it. If that's a sign then I'm boldly not paying attention to it.
6th of February 2023🥀
The next day at school while Olivia quietly writes down her notes I try to practice how I'll jumpstart a great conversation that will make her laugh.
A way to a woman's heart is laughter.
The teacher babbles on about how this will be in our exam but I'm not stressed. I'll just do intense studying the night after and somehow still get great marks.
Olivia on the other hand looks worried as she scribbles almost everything the teacher says in her little notebook.
I clear my throat a little and Olivia looks up at me. My heart does a victory dance for getting her attention and I'm about to say "Hey Olivia do you happen to know the muffin man?"
But!!!
Mrs Jones slams her books on the desk loudly, stealing Olivia's attention.
"That's it!" She shouts, her chest heaving up and down.
"Dominique, why can't you stop talking! You're always disrupting my class! Always so bothersome. I've had enough , not even sending you to the principal's office can fix you!"
"Just please for all that is holy" she clasps her hands together like she's in prayer, making the class chuckle.
"Switch seats with Olivia I don't want you in front anymore!"
When Olivia starts slowly packing her things I finally realize what the heck just happened! She puts her pink bag on her shoulders but before she gets up she looks back up at me with a small smile on her face.
How can this be goodbye? I didn't even say hello!
She gets up to leave and sits in the front row where Dominique once was.
The lesson continues and Dominique, a light skinned coloured boy sits next to me with a huge grin on his face.
"At Least I get to sit with my best friend!" he cheers ,his green eyes glinting with mischief.
He hits my back like we just won an award or something and I roll my eyes.
"Dominique just shut up" I grunt.
For some reason this makes him laugh and just like Mrs Jones I feel like slamming something. Better yet, I feel like flipping this desk.
"If I didn't know any better. I'd think you're not exactly happy about my whole plan of finally getting to sit next to you in this class"
"This was your plan?" I ask, baffled.
He looks at me with a face that says duh .I groan ,writing down my notes.
"Just try to not give me the urge to punch your face"
"I'll try but I make no promises " he says, raising his hands.
Rolling my eyes I look down at my book, sighing.
Dominique is miraculously silent for a while until, " You like her don't you!" he says,a little too loudly.
Mrs Jones glares at Dominique and if looks could kill- my friend would be six feet deep.
He whispers this time, a crooked smile on his face. "You like Olivia! You like Olivia! You like Olivia! " he chants, making me mad.
"How are you 18? There must be something wrong with your brain?"
"Avoid the question all you want but you like the quiet girl"
I grunt, looking out the window.
"Whatever man" I mutter.
"Whatever indeed"he says, writing the notes on the board.
"I wonder what you see in her?" he adds, after a moment, "-she's so simple."
❄️❄️❄️
After a month, Olivia had stopped looking my way every time she entered the classroom. I guess she gave up on me ever talking to her.
After three months, I didn't even catch her looking my way by mistake; it's like I was invisible. She stayed in her group of friends and I stayed with mine. It was like she was telling me that we were too different every time she hung out with the school's geeks.
On the other hand, when I hung out with the guys in my soccer team, a few beautiful girls would flock around us, sometimes placing their hands on my shoulder. It was at that moment -Olivia would lift her eyes off her book and they would land on me.
Then on the girls around my friends and I . Then the soccer guys and then she'd look back at me again and there would be this coded message swimming in her coffee brown eyes that I couldn't understand.
Even though I gave up, my eyes never stopped straying to her whenever she entered the room. I guess you could say I loved her from afar not having the courage to come close but I felt that it was something else.
Something else stopping me from truly letting myself love Olivia.
11th of October 2023🥀
" Tell me you aren't nervous for our last official soccer game today? " Dominique asks.
We're walking through the food court pushing past the crowd of hungry teenagers with our pies in hand.
"It's soccer. I'm never nervous" I answer, and easy smile on my face.
" Did you see the team we're playing against?! I mean those guys look like they eat bricks for breakfast. They look like grown men?!" Dominique babbles, making me laugh.
When we reach the courtyard a group of my soccer teammates wave at us to come chill with them.
" Ayo Leonardo!" Oratile, a brown skinned boy with a toothy smile shouts.
When we reach the table Oratile bro hugs me and Dominique while the others greet us with nods.
Dominique and I share a glance and the both of us hold our pies together as if to toast.
"Cheers" he says, eyes glinting.
"Cheers" I agree, then open the wrapper and take a bite of the delicious steak and kidney pie.
We both groan in satisfaction.
" This is heaven" he says with his mouth full.
" 'You excited for the game ?'' Oratile, who sits across from me, asks.
"Yes and no" I reply, gaining the attention of most of the boys at the table.
" We've been training for months to compete against this team so I really just want to get it over and done with"
" In other words-you're nervous," Nathi, a dark skinned boy with slitted eyes, says.
He rubs his hands together like some villain while looking at me with a challenging look in his eyes.
With my silence as an answer he raises his brow and smirks,the table going quiet.
"I'm not some little girl, I don't get nervous,"
" Okay that was very sexist" Oratile interrupts, breaking the tension.
"Sorry" I apologize.
Then the easy chatter begins again but Nathi's dark eyes always pull me in and his jealousy is just reaching limits I never thought it could. I get it I'm the captain of the soccer team and you're not-Get over it!
I know that today his goal isn't to make the team win but it's to let everyone know that he's a better player than me.
" I can't believe highschool is gonna be over in about a month " Dominique says.
" I know right. I wish I could just go back to the eighth grade and go on this journey all over again" Oratile adds.
" What are you smoking Oratile?" Siya, one of the guys asked, making everyone chuckle.
We all disagree with Oratile's statement ; completely baffled that he would want to do this all over again.
"I feel like it won't be real to me until my grandfather doesn't wake me up at 6am to prepare for school next year," I add, everyone agrees with me.
"We're officially gonna be unemployed in just two months "Oratile adds, looking stressed.
"Don't get me started on that...let's just focus on tonight's game. It's our last so let's go out with a bang" I suggest, hyping up my friends
"That's the spirit!" Dominique cheers, slapping my back-painfully.
Later on the guys start talking about girls and yes- I chip in here and there. I don't fully agree on all the things they are saying. I know Mkhulu wouldn't be proud of me having these types of conversations but we're just talking.
Right?
The guys start admiring the girls' qualities, all of them being physical.
Believe me , none of them are saying: "I just love how smart Rebecca is. That girl! Woah! She's so intelligent she makes my heart race!"
Instead the conversation goes something like this: " Did you see Rebecca these days! Nah man that girl is glowing up! That body! True zulu girl! If only I could have her!"
And that's just the clean version of all they're saying. I'm not making myself holier than thou because a year ago I would probably be joining in on the conversation but...
The Holy spirit would convict me, reminding me that's someone's daughter. And ever since my encounter with Olivia I can't talk about other girls like that. I know that if I bring up Olivia in this table of rowdy boys most of them would laugh or ask me what am I smoking.
They would say something like: "There's nothing to see there" Or " Are you blind?!"
So instead I keep the name Olivia in my heart because I know they'll probably never see what I see. Olivia's beauty is only to be beheld by those who have the hearts to see it.
Don't ask me why I'm getting all poetic. Girls like Olivia will just do that to you sometimes. To prove my point from the corner of my eye I see her walking in the courtyard with a friend of hers.
Her head is down but the way her braids are pinned up into a bun still makes her look like a Queen. Her friend -whose name I should really know, says something and it makes her laugh.
Her coffee brown eyes crinkle into crescent moons and her pink lips curve into the best thing I've seen all day.
I don't care what the guys think or say.
Olivia is beautiful.
❄️❄️❄️
It's 4:30 pm.
The sun shines down on Vistelia highs' huge field filled with sweaty soccer players. The bleachers are filled with students and teachers who cheer louder than my ears can bear.
The school we're playing against is Chesterfield High and they're dressed in green. They're taller and slightly more buff then any other teenager and let's just say, it hasn't been easy passing the ball when you can't even see past their shoulders.
Or when they mug the ball with so much force you land harshly on the ground.
The navy blue soccer kit I'm wearing sticks to my skin
It's half time and Dominique gulps the water down like he was in a dessert.He gets on his knees gasping for air. " Those guys are machines!" he complains.
Oratile runs towards us, sweat dripping down his forehead. " Leo we have to win, my Dad came to watch. I don't want him to see us fail" he says in one breath.
" Calm down, " I say, grasping his shoulders.
The team surrounds me and I know that they need some encouragement. I look back at the strong boys we're playing against dressed in green and it's like there's no hope. Until...
"Look" I say, holding my teammates eyes.
" Those guys are like killing machines I admit and they have the stamina of a cheetah but we're light on our feet. But there's one thing I've noticed the whole team isn't as strong as they seem"
" Oh no Leo, now's not the best time to be in denial" Dominique worries, still slightly panting.
" It's not denial. It's a fact. They're using their stronger members against us, so all we have to do is pin point the weak links and focus on them"
" So what you're saying is we should work as a team" Nathi, surprisingly says.
I smile, my dimples prominent. " I'd thought you'd never understand but yes! Now let's go out there and show them what Vestalia High is made of!!!"
"Yeah!!!" They shout back,fists pumping in the air.
The team runs off with big smiles on their faces before I can join them. Nathi pulls me aside.
"You've been a good captain" he says, emotionless.
"Thank you and you've -nah come on let's be honest with each other you've been a terrible teammate."
He scratches his head, avoiding eye contact until he pulls out his hand.
"High school's almost over so how about this little feud of ours ends too"
I shake his hand and decide to not tell him that I was never feuding with him. He was fighting alone. I don't know why he had a problem with me to begin with.
"Truce" I say instead.
To cut to the chase we won against these gorillas who are probably on steroids. Scoring that last goal came with such a rush and I couldn't help the broad smile that came on my face.It all became real to me when Dominique and Oratile lifted me on their shoulders and the whole team gathered to hype me up for scoring the winning goal. They chanted my name with huge smiles on their faces making my heart soar.
" Leo!"
" Leo!"
" Leo!"
The smile stayed etched on my face as the school ran from the bleachers, everybody celebrating on the field. I was finally brought down and engulfed in a sweaty hug.
Victory does taste sweet but it also smells really bad.
" You need to take a shower! " Dominique and I said to each other, simultaneously.
We laugh.
"Don't look now but the girl you've been eye stalking for this whole year is here" Dominique says,his green eyes glinting with mischief.
"Which girl have I been stalking?" I asked, baffled.
"Don't play dumb with me Mr Lovey dovey eyes I've seen you watching her like a hawk" Dominique continues, a crooked smile on his face.
"Whatever man. I'm gonna go " I say, running off the field.
Walking past the rowdy crowd, I'm finally off the field but something catches my eye.
That pink school bag.
She's walking into the school building and I find myself running after her. My heart races as fast as I tread my feet.
The reasonable parts of me are reminding me how I haven't actually spoken to her in months and that this would be our second conversation.
But still...
I'm sweaty and I'm motivated so before I can overthink it any more I call her name.
"Olivia!"
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
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