I show Rubi Pretty’s pic on my phone, thinking how impressed she’ll be. Her face pinches up like she’s eaten lemon.
“Ag man, Magcina!” she says.
“Ag man what?”
“Why do you have to be such a stupid?”
“Why am I stupid?”
“Don’t you know when you’re being played?”
“What are you talking about?”
“This girl is fake, uyaz. Pretty isn’t even her real name. She’s catfishing, same as you.”
My neck feels like a big cold hand has just got hold of it.
“That’s not true! Why would you say that?”
“Because I know her. Everybody at school knows her. Her name is Princess.”
I still don’t believe her. I think maybe she is just jealous, you know, making this up to hurt me because she’s still mad at me for lying on FB.
“Maybe you’ve got the wrong girl,” I say.
“I haven’t.”
“Why would she put up a fake profile? She’s beautiful enough to be herself.”
“Why do you think? Because she’s already involved. She doesn’t want her guy to find out that she’s on FB talking to other guys.”
“She told me she doesn’t have a guy.”
“Well she has. And he’s not just any guy. He’s a blesser.”
My heart hits the floor and bounces up to knock itself out on the ceiling.
“Are you saying … that she’s a prostitute?”
Rubi looks away. “Lots of people think she is. That’s why they talk about her like that.”
“What do you think?”
She shrugs. “People shouldn’t judge. Not unless they know.”
“Know what?”
“What it’s like to be desperate. How easy it is to fall into the blesser trap. When these men go after you, it’s hard to say no. They’re so charming at first. And they’re so generous with their money. They make all your troubles go away. And all they want from you is to be nice to them. So you kiss the snake. And by the time you wake up to reality it’s too late. You’re caught.”
The way she says it makes me think she knows more about the subject than she should. I realise there is a lot about my friend that I don’t know.
“Blessers are like fire,” she goes on. “When you play with fire you always think you can control the fire. But the fire is more powerful than you. It only wants one thing. To eat you up.”
She sees the way I am looking at her and shrugs.
“Not me,” she says. “My stepsister, Nothando.”
“What happened with her?”
“She was homeless and desperate and she needed money fast. A friend of hers, who had a blesser, persuaded her to go onto the blesser site. Luckily for her, she got out while she still could. Once they sleep with you they think they own you. They think because they’ve paid for you, they’ve bought you. You never get away until he decides to throw you.”
I can’t find anything to say.
“I’m telling you this because I’m worried about you, Magcina,” Rubi says. “These blessers can be dangerous. They don’t like other men going after their women and they’re used to getting their way. You need to be very careful.”
I spend the rest of the day in misery, trying to work out what my next step should be. I only half believed what Rubi had told me about Pretty being a blessee. But why would she make up such serious lies unless there was truth in them? And if it was true? If Pretty was involved with some older man with enough money and power to buy her life? I didn’t even want to think about that. It didn’t seem possible. Not the Pretty I loved.
I try to think what Prinz would do in such a situation. He wouldn’t listen to rumours, he wouldn’t be so easily scared off. He’d want to find out the truth from Pretty so that he could help her. But I am not Prinz. I am a face she’s never seen. Why would she trust me when I’ve already lied about who I am?
I message her on WhatsApp:
Nd 2 tlk. Its serias
Lts mt tday 3 @ Gym Machin. w8 @ juice bar
No answer. Probably scared off already. Maybe just as well.
***
Tell us: What do you think of blessers?