“I cant believe they left without us,” Sihle said out of breath

She slowly fell behind Sipho who had his right hand in the air hoping one of the cars passing through the road would spot them. It was the early hours of the morning, after being left behind at a party by friends who had their only transport home .

They were walking along a freeway, hoping that somebody would stop and pick them up in the middle of the night but it looked like nobody was seeing them. Even those few cars left were seemingly passing through them like they were never even there.

“Come on Sipho, I’m freezing out her, I want to go home,”s houted Sihle,putting her hands inside the pockets of her jeans.

“Calm down babe, somebody will see us,” shouted Sipho.

Like a toddler taking his first step, they could not learn this lesson without falling flat on the ground. They were walking a dangerous road and all the potholes were finally catching up with them. She would follow him to every night party there was and he proudly held her hand and took her all kinds of parties.

They were often warned about all the dangers of the nightlife but labelled those who opposed their lifestyle as party spoilers. He lured her to all of it. The booze, drugs, loud music and all the bad company which came with it.

She had decided against her mother’s advice and went ahead thinking about her nightlife party with her boyfriend Sipho. She was too naïve to listen to reason.

“Don’t leave with that bastard!” her mother would often shout at her. But she did not care about other people’s opinions. She adored him so much. She hated those who resented him and like a warrior on a battlefield, she fought for him. They shot arrows at him and she shielded him away from the attackers. She was prepared to go anywhere with him no matter how late it was. She thought of him like this fuzzy feeling in her stomach. The kind of feeling that made her blind to the fact that she was in love with a party animal. A night lifer, somebody who had no respect for the dark time.

”Somebody will see us and give us a ride home don’t you worry,” he said moving towards her.

He held both her hands and hugged her. She removed his arms around her back, looked at him in the eyes and made him swear to her he would protect her no matter what happened.

“Promise me that we will get home safely,” she said, as tension slowly grew between them like a wildfire burning through their eyes.
“I swear on my mother’s grave. I will get you home safely” he replied, kneeling down on his knees as if he was in church confessing his sins to God.”

“By the way, where exactly are we?” she asked, taking her cellphone out of her back pocket.

The phone was switched off, the battery was dead. As frustration reappeared on her face, she smashed the phone on the ground.

“What is wrong with you? What did you do that for?” asked Sipho, looking at her with glowing surprised eyes.

“I’m sick and tired of this, I want to go home!” shouted Sihle, dropping on the ground in tears.

Sipho quickly bent down, held her hand and pulled her up from the ground.

“Don’t do this to me okay, we need to be strong, this will pass, we will be home in no time I promise,” he said.

All of the sudden a car approached the spot where the couple was standing, brightening the lights and blinding their eyes.

“Hello there, do you need a ride?” asked the driver, opening the front door of the car.

“Oh thank you very much sir, you are a life saver,” Sihle said, quickly rushing into the car, carelessly leaving Sipho behind.

He went towards the car in an attempt to open the passenger door. He realised that the passenger door was locked.

“Excuse me sir, please unlock the door, I want to get in.” Sipho said, looking at Sihle who was inside the car, slowly dosing off on the passenger front seat by that time. She was so exhausted she did not even look to see if Sipho was also inside the car.

“No, no, you are not coming with. She looks like good money,” smirked the driver.

“What do you mean?” Sipho asked, confused.

“I’m about to traffic her to the highest bidder!” shouted the driver, with a sinister look on his face.

“What the hell are you talking about? I said open this door damn it!” screamed Sipho, starting to panic.

He tried to force open the passenger door but was unsuccessful. The driver quickly drove off speedily, leaving Sipho alone on the freeway looking stunned.

***

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