Mid-March I met this wonderful guy on my way home from school. His name was Blessing, but he had insisted on me calling him “Bless”. He was short (just like me), light in complexion and cute, with a scar on the right side of his cheek, which gave him a more matured look. He was also doing his first year in Tourism at Boston College.
He was amazing! We got to know each other very well. I always made sure I used the same street we had met on frequently on my way back from school, just so that I could bump into him by chance and see him again. And indeed I did. “Lesego, can I please get your number, if you don’t mind?” he asked. Why of course I wanted to give it to him, with pleasure even! So, I gave it to him with no fuss, and from that day forward, I believe we fell hopelessly in love.
His sweet words, his adorable smile, the way he liked to shake his body as if he were shaking butterflies off of me, were the least of the things that made me fall in love with him. Well, his ambitions were more admirable. Then there was a twist to our story. Bless was offered a chance to go to the Netherlands to further his studies for three whole years and he had to leave on Christmas day this year.
After telling me that, I felt like crying. Was I not deserving enough to get my Blessing and keep it? I asked myself. But he promised me that we’ll keep in touch, that “A little distance can’t keep such strong hearts apart.” He said that I was the motivation behind him accepting the offer. He promised that he’d leave me with something I would never forget, this very thing he kept constantly reminding me about. I always imagined it would be an engagement ring (blame a girl for dreaming).
On the 24th of June I met with Bless and we talked and enjoyed each other’s company like we always did. He hugged me after accompanying me home, little did I know that this would be the last time I saw the love of my life, my soulmate!
When I got back home I took my phone and logged onto my Facebook account, I searched for Bless there, if only I knew what I would find I would’ve never tried. I didn’t just find Bless, I also discovered some skeletons in his closet…
Bless had a GIRLFRIEND!!! A girlfriend with whom he had been in a relationship with for the past three years. I went into the girl’s profile and Bless was all over her wall, she even called herself “BLESSNAY”. At that very moment I felt like a very sharp knife was engraved in my heart.
I called him and asked him angrily about this girl. He admitted to her being his girlfriend. “I was going to tell you, I just didn’t know how to tell you,” he said. He was able to tell me he loved me, but he was unable to utter the simple words, “Lesego I have a girlfriend?! He just had to leave out the most crucial information. I lashed out at him then he hung up on me.
After a couple of days I tried calling him again to no avail. I then decided to leave him alone and threw in the towel. I gave up. I guess he did truly leave me with something so that I’d never forget, mhm the irony. Even though all I ever wanted was an explanation, he didn’t even bother to get back to me. Instead of being a blessing in my life like his name implied, he became a curse I would never forget. But with all that he taught me the biggest lesson in life which is to “never judge a book by its cover “.