Mvelo was one of the guys who did foolish things to appear as being cool, but one day reality slapped him across the face.

“Mvelo, hurry up, we will be late for the morning intercession,” Mvelo’s single mother yelled as she grabbed her black envelope purse.

“I’m almost done Magriza,” Mvelo whined.

Mvelo was one of the coolest boys at school, his single mother worked very hard just to send him to a Model C school, yet he ended up being kicked out of the school. He was currently attending a public school, where he always wanted to be.

“Uhm, Magriza, at what time will the church knock off?” Mvelo asked while he dragged his legs behind his little sister, Naledi.

“Around 4 p.m. Why?” Mvelo’s mom replied.

“Ah, my stomach,” Mvelo cried out loud.

Mvelo’s mom knew that he was lying but she played along. “Are you having a stomach-ache love?” she asked.

“Yeah but I’ll be fine. I really want to go to church,” he replied with dodgy eyes.

“You can remain dear, we will come back earlier, okay?” Mvelo’s mom replied as she got inside her car, and ordering Naledi to fasten her seatbelt.

Mvelo dragged his legs back to the house, pretending to be disappointed about not going to church. He locked the door behind him as soon as he entered the house. He matched upstairs all the way to his bedroom, where he played deep house music and looked at the pictures of his girlfriend, Lesedi, before falling asleep.

When he woke up it was a Monday morning. He prepared for school and within an hour he was ready. He took a taxi to school. He didn’t like being dropped off by his mom.

“Yebo, Mr Eater himself,” Mvelo heard a voice as he closed the taxi door. When he turned around it was his friend, Vusi.

“Howzit boy?” Mvelo replied as he fist-bumped him.

“I’m not okay at all boy,” Vusi replied.

“What’s your wrong?” Mvelo asked with curiosity.

“The whole school is laughing at you boy. Apparently your girlfriend, Lesedi, posted that she is still a virgin on Facebook,” Vusi explained.

Mvelo couldn’t believe his ears, he loved Lesedi so much and that was why he had agreed to wait until she was ready. He never wanted the whole school to know about that. He felt quite humiliating.

He didn’t reply to Vusi, they just walked to their classroom in silence. Lesedi was sitting right at the back and she gave Mvelo a warm smile when he entered. He felt his anger rise inside of him. He would show her. He never smiled back.

During the first period Lesedi asked to go to the toilet.

“It’s your chance now boy,” Vusi whispered in Mvelo’s ear.

Mvelo got up and asked be excused. He followed Lesedi and entered the girls’ toilets. He called out for Lesedi and when she replied, he entered the toilet room she was in.

Lesedi quickly got dressed. “Mvelo… What are you doing here?”

“I miss you, Lesedi, I love you so much,” Mvelo said.

Lesedi blushed and Mvelo knew how much she loved him. He tried kissing her but she pulled back.

“I’m not ready, Mvelo, with matric and everything, I really can’t,” Lesedi said with a frown on her face.

Mvelo just looked at her with his tiny brown eyes, he knew how charming he could be. Lesedi couldn’t help it. The thought of him being called a moron by the whole school drove him wild again, he had to get her.

Lesedi gave in and he took her virginity inside the school toilets without using protection.

“You thought you were gonna humiliate me and get away with it?” Mvelo said as he zipped his trousers, leaving Lesedi lying on the floor.

For two weeks, Mvelo ignored Lesedi’s phone calls. He ignored her every time he saw her at school. Mvelo was now rude to everyone because he felt like the man; “the man who took Lesedi’s virginity in the toilets”.

One day he talked back to Mrs Sbeko, the one teacher who didn’t tolerate his behaviour.

“I’m not your mate, don’t talk to me like that,” yelled Mrs Sbeko.

“Am I your mate?” Mvelo yelled back while his classmates gasped.

“That’s it, leave my class!” Shouted Mrs Sbeko.

Mvelo rolled his eyes as he dragged his legs out of the class. He went to the boys’ toilets and began smoking weed and sipping some whiskey he had poured into his squeeze bottle. He began seeing strange things, rolling on the floor and laughing by himself.

After a few minutes, Mrs Sbeko was interrupted by learners screaming outside the classroom.

Mvelo’s classmates and Mrs Sbeko rushed out of the classroom to see what was going on. They saw Mvelo was spinning Mrs Sbeko’s car. Girls went crazy and the boys whistled.

Mrs Sbeko kept begging him to stop, but he enjoyed the fame. His sister, Naledi, came running towards the car, in tears, begging her brother to stop. She knew how much trouble her brother would be in if the principal showed up. But Melo was too high and a little drunk to actually notice Naledi. He decided to do one last spin; a spin that changed his whole life.

Just when he decided to turn the wheels he turned in Naledi’s direction. The car hit her so badly that she double span before hitting the ground. When he realised something was wrong he decided to brake. That’s when he got on top of her right arm.

He ran out of the car tried lifting the car to free Naledi’s arm but it was too heavy.

After an hour there was an ambulance and a police van and Mvelo was arrested. When his mom heard about it she had a heart attack. Mvelo went to the hospital were his mom and little sister were admitted a week later after he was released. He went straight to his mom’s ward and saw that her situation had gotten worse; she couldn’t breathe on her own.

“Mama I’m sorry,” Mvelo said as he held his mother’s hand, sitting beside her bed.

She didn’t say anything, she was unconscious.

“I made a mistake Mama, I wanted to be cool, I’ve been struggling to adapt to my new school, so I became a jerk to hide it,” he began crying. “It’s never easy to growing up not having a father figure. I really didn’t mean to hurt you Mama. Please wake up, I’ll never be a bad child again, I sw…ear.”

He felt a pat on his shoulder, it was Naledi in her hospice dress and a cemented arm. He quickly wiped his tears away. Naledi held her mother’s arm too and began crying.

“Mama, it’s me, Naledi. I still need you, please don’t leave. Don’t do this to me. I’m fine, the car never hit me that hard, doctors were just exaggerating. See, I can even move my hand. Mama, why aren’t you saying something. No, you can’t betray me like that. I always agreed to wash dishes, I’ve never wronged you, Mama. Please don’t leave me,” Naledi said as she cried.

After a few minutes the machine began beeping. Mvelo rushed to get the doctor and when they arrived, the doctor checked their mother.

“I’m so sorry, we lost her,” the doctor sadly said.

“Noo!” Mvelo screamed in pain while holding his head and going down on his knees.

The door slowly opened and Lesedi walked in.

“We need to talk,” she said, she didn’t look good herself. Mvelo stepped out of the ward in tears.

“Talk,” Mvelo commanded.

“Uhm… I,” Lesedi stuttered.

“Are you going to talk or what?” Mvelo replied with irritation.

“I was born…” Lesedi started crying.

“I really don’t have time for this,” Mvelo said as he turned his back on her.

“I was born with HIV,” Lesedi cried out.

“WHAT!” Mvelo yelled.

After his mother’s funeral Mvelo’s behaviour was never the same again. He respected women with all of his being, he took his studies very seriously and took very good care of Naledi. He later graduated from medical school and married Lesedi a few years later.

The End