Little Lina was only sixteen when she met the ‘charming’ Thando. They had a little affair, you know teenage love, high school sweethearts. Every girl envied Lina because of her beauty, structure, beautiful hair and dimpled face and mostly for the fact that she had the most handsome guy at school.

Lina was a virgin when she met Thando, coming from the rural areas where it was a girl’s pride to remain a virgin and the parent’s joy and assurance of raising a child well. It was Lina’s second year in high school and Thando just changed schools. He was so nice towards Lina and showed interest in different aspects of her life. He was always there to support her as she was a sports person and an aspiring model. She was beautiful and yet naive; she was always willing to believe that someone was telling the truth and that people were innocent with good intentions. Lina was a friendly human with a beautiful smile that left every guy she came across wondering.

It was barely six months into the relationship, Lina got pregnant and things started getting sour. Thando showed his true colours and the red flags that Lina saw were now becoming a reality. As obvious as it was to everyone that Thando was the only guy that Lina was seeing, he denied being the father.

“Lina, I’m not ready to be a father. Can you please do the right and get rid of it?” he asked.

“How dare you tell me what to do with the baby if you’re not the baby? Forget it, you are so selfish!”

After nine months Lina gave birth to a beautiful baby boy who bore resemblance of Thando. Thando had moved on with someone else in the same school and everybody knew about it. You can now imagine the embarrassment Lina had felt and how it messed up her emotions but life went on. She finished with her matric and went to university.

Eight years later and Thando is still not interested in being involved in his baby boy’s life. She is now a sad young mom who is still learning to appreciate her scars and is also forced to act strong for her son. She cannot have functional relationships but is willing to share her story to young people not to make the same mistakes. The focus should be school and not boys.

Tell us: What do you think of Lina’s story?