STILL BY HL'S POV:
"King said that you were only shot on the arm" says Amir gently taking care of my wounds. "I must have forgotten to mention that I was shot twice on the leg" I say in annoyance flipping him off. "Would you calm down" he says calmly but I ignore him. "Ouch!" I cry out in pain when he purposely presses my thigh to aggravate my wound. "The fuck..." I'm about to hail insults at him but he interrupts me. "What's wrong Wiz?" Its his concerned voice that slightly calms me down.
"A lot could have gone wrong today" as I say this,my eyes are stuck on the door and thinking of the person who's on the other side of it. "But it didn't and you are okay...you are pretty fucked up but okay" Amir tries to joke but I'm dead serious. "Hey I gave her some alcohol so she will be okay" he casually says when he sees that my eyes are still stuck on the door and my mind is elsewhere.
"You did what?" I snap my head in his direction and he only laughs. "Relax I didn't tho I was tempted to sedate her" mxm he's amused. I'm just going to ignore him hopefully that will make him speed it up and quickly get done.
"Why is Zero still alive again?" Amir questions,"I can't track down his location." I answer him. "Can't?" He scoffs before adding "the old Wiz would be painting the streets red,turning everything upside down just to fish him out." He reminds me of the "good old days" and I can't help but to smile at the memories.
"You were fucken reckless man but you did what needed to be done." He says that's true however "yah I was reckless and high remember?" I ask him,90% of the time when I needed to do such "duties" I was high on coke.
"And besides I can't be reckless now,I have someone to live for" I tell him nodding my head towards the door. "King must be so proud of you" he says speaking of my brother,Akani. Yah Akani has always wanted to see a sober version of me.
A Hlanganani who cares about consequences and a Hlanganani who's in love and is responsible. "I'm sure he is" I speak in a somber tone and that's because I already know that my elder brother is proud of me. I want my dad to be proud of me,yah most of the time I may act like his opinion of me means shit to me but really all I want is my father's validation.
"I like the influence that she has on you" he says finishing up to wrap a bandage over my last wound. "You,me and everyone else" I say smirking. "Take good care of her or else I'm snatching her" he says now packing his bag. "Eww old man get someone your age" I joke and we both share a good laugh. Amir is in his forties but he still looks good. Anyways all gangsters in suits or rather scrubs like him and King do look good yet deadly.
I open my bedroom door and limp inside to find my wife laying on her side facing the door. I limp to where her Maxwell is at,i grab "him" and walk to her uhm correction...I limp. I throw the teddy on the bed next to her for her to cuddle it since she's feeling down and shit.
Yah I still hate the fucken thing but if cuddling with it makes her feel better than I'm team fucken Maxwell. To my surprise she tosses it down,I raise up my eyebrow in question and she pats the empty bedside where I usually sleep. "I want to cuddle with my man" she speaks in a sweet voice tho hurt can still be heard in her voice.
"I thought Maxwell was your man" I tease her,"I want to cuddle with my real man" she says this time around. I happily throw myself on the bed next to her. "Ouch!" Yeah I just hurt myself. "Sorry,uright?" She asks helping me to sleep properly on the bed. "Yah I'm okay wanga" I say seeing her worried yet cute face. She lays down,her head on my chest and her hand on top of my chest drawing circles.
We sit like this in silence for a while. "Are you okay?" Its my turn to ask her now,"yeah" she speaks in a low tone. And because I'm not convinced I lift her chin so she can look up at me. "Nomzamo uright?" I ask again. "Yebo ngiright" this time she says a bit loudly and she smiles.
Okay I'm convinced now. "What happened today?" She question,her tone giving it away that she's in disbelieve of the events that took place. "Car hijacking gone wrong" the lie slides off my tongue easily. "Will you stop lying to me!" She angrily spits. Nope,if its for your safety and sanity then I will forever be lying to you.
"Hlanganani haven't you learned your lesson?" She shouts but what I appreciate is that she's still in my arms. "What lesson?" I question her. "That lying to me is never a good idea, your lies nearly broke our marriage and your lies are the reason why we are in this exact mess." Now she moves away from me.
I suddenly feel cold from her lack of affection. "This is exactly why I would believe anyone...everyone over you. Because you are always lying!" Her voice is high and filled with anger. Okay I guess that now is the time that I realise that lying is not always the solution. Especially in my marriage. I humbly lower myself before my wife and apologise for my mistakes.
"What happens now?" She asks after a minute of saying nothing. "From now onwards you will have two body guards following you and driving you around." I tell her expecting her to fight me on this. However she puts me to shame when she accepts without arguing. "I hope that they are not your typical scary,ugly and mute body guards. They must be friendly and talkative." She says giving me a description of the kind of body guards that she wants.
"The aim is for them to protect you not make friends with you. So yah they won't talk to you unless its necessary and as for scary and ugly? I don't know about that but they will have facially challenged faces." That's one way of describing an ugly person. She's in stitches,I was about to join in but I won't. Today I just want to listen to her laughter after the day that we had,I want her to keep on giggling and laughing.
"So you are scared of blood huh?" I ask her,she's now back to where she belongs. Laying down on my chest with her hands and legs wrapped around me. "I'm terrified of blood" she admits. I keep quiet as I wait for her to tell me more about her fear. "A mere nose bleed scares me now you can imagine how a gun shoot wound terrifies me. Whenever I see blood,I start panicking and thinking the worst." She says and I silently nod my head. "So what was going through your mind today?" I finally ask her.
"I thought that you were going to die" she says. Upon seeing that she's now silent,I try to lighten up the mood. "Uma ngifa,ngik'shiya nobani wena?" I add a short chuckle at the end hoping that she too will find my statement amusing. However she doesn't so I move on to asking her about work just to get her talking and laughing again.
NOMZAMO'S POV:
"And I must say,you guys have a beautiful home" Pearl says facing Hlanganani and I. "Thank you" "thanks" my husband and I both say in unison. She then starts with her interview.
Its a couple of weeks after the incident, Hlanganani is doing better,I bet that he would have healed up now if he had followed the doctor's instructions. He was given a walking crutche,did he ever use it? Nope...he would rather limp around the house like a disabled bird than to be a tripod. Anyways today By HL has an interview or is it a podcast? Hai it doesn't matter,idk what's the difference.
So this lady uPearl,she came with her crew and their camaras as the interview is happening in the comfort of our lounge. I'm not sure if its because of the whole Zero situation or they asked for it to happen at By HL's home. As the wife I'm sitting besides my husband and Pearl in front of us. "Congratulations on hitting your millionaire status" she congratulates Hlanganani and before I can clap along with her,a confetti machine which I had not noticed before blows out some confetti and that "popopoo" sound rings.
We have a moment talking about my millionaire husband. "So besides music, what's keeping By HL busy?" She asks "my wife" he answers making Pearl and I crack up. "Stop joking around" I lightly hit his chest. "Yes please,on a serious note tho we would like to know what are you busy with?" That's Pearl steering the ship back. "I'm launching a new fashion line for my brand" he says. "A new fashion line for men and women." I phrase his answer properly. "Yah that" he jumps in and Pearl looks amused. He's so unserious.
He's asked more question on that,then we speak of our wedding day. Pearl compliments how beautiful we looked and stuff like that. Idk how we got here but we did "is there anyone,any girl for that matter who doesn't know who By HL is?" Pearl curiously questions but she's also joking. Hlanganani gives me a side eye instead of answering and Pearl catches on. "She didn't?" In a surprised tone she asks and I laugh. "No Nomzamo you can't be serious!" Pearl exclaims and By HL is here acting hurt,mxm. How did we get here vele?
"Whoa I can explain" I say trying to defend myself. "Please do" and that's how we get into it,how we met and stuff. I must say so far I'm enjoying the interview. When he told me about it I didn't see why my presence was needed but now I don't regret being part of it. Although its about By HL I'm also asked a few questions regarding my life. I'm also thankful to Pearl for not invading my space by asking uncomfortable questions or private ones.
"By HL I'm sure that by now you know that you are one of the celebrities that like avoiding certain questions. In fact you like ignoring questions" Pearl says. "I don't think so" he defends himself. "Baby do you think so?" He asks me and I have to agree with Pearl here,man can brush you off without saying much. "Okay fine maybe thats true where are you going with this question?" He asks with a knowing smile. "We would like to know how the name By HL came about" she says and come to think of it I also don't know.
After clearing his throat he looks at Pearl and says "growing up my little sister would either bully me into doing her chores or her homework for her. So her way of giving me credit was to say "it was done by HL" since my real name is Hlanganani she took the first two letters of it. After doing her homework for her she would sign By HL on her book." He cracks up at that memory and I smile. Speaking about it must have been hard but he did it and I'm proud of him. Pearl seems to find it funny as well because her laughter joins the chat.
"You have a sister?" She asks surprised. "Had" thats all he says stopping her from asking more questions. The interview continues smoothly. "Another topic which has you trending is Lily's pregnancy" Pearl announce. HL relaxes into the couch before asking "what about it?" "Did you even know that she is pregnant?" She asks him,by now I'm confused. "Nope" he simply answers. "Heee banna well I hate to break it to you but she claims that its your baby" say whaaat!? We both turn to look at each other,who is Lily!?
Hlanganani only clears his throat before nervously saying "I didn't know."