The final day of exams had come and all the students were relieved to say the least. Nozie and Thulani had been fighting a lot and he just thought it was the stress of the exams. Nozuko was mighty tough on the outside, well at least she put up a good front and Thulani saw right through it. He was worried about her state of mind, her moods were more unpredictable than the P.E. weather and that was always dangerous. Just like the winds of the friendly city Nozie could on one day be as gentle as a summer breeze and the very next moment she’ll be a twirling violent gale. It was like that at home too, she would snap at her mother for no apparent reason and a few times her father almost gave her a hiding. Her friends were worried about her and they feared it may affect her performance and her results won’t be as great as she expected.

“I think she’s suffering from PTS and it’s affecting everyone around her.” Thulani said to Jabu when they were chilling at Ndebe’s after their final paper.

“PT what?” Jabu wasn’t familiar with the term.

“Post-Traumatic Stress, it’s a disorder. She really needs help.” He was staring at his bottle of Amstel just peeling the label off it, absentmindedly.

“Sounds hectic bro, does it like… infect others too?” clearly Jabu had no clue what his friend was talking about, it was a wonder how he managed school. Thulani looked at him with that ‘you’re joking right?’ look and he saw nothing but seriousness on Jabu’s face.

“No Jay, dude. It’s not contagious so you don’t have to worry about infection.” He took a gulp of his beer, rolling his eyes at his friend’s ignorance.

“So what will you do then, how will she get better? You don’t want her turning into Chuckie’s bride before you even tap that.”

“Are you insane? Do you seriously have a sex-infested brain? I don’t even know why I’m friends with you.” Clearly Jabu had hit a nerve.

“Tools chillax boy, I was only joking. Obviously your girl needs help and you gonna help her through this. All I’m saying is the reward…” he didn’t finish that sentence; he was silenced by a surprise fist on his right cheek. He fell over on his chair and looked up at Thulani shocked.

“She was almost raped! The girl I love was almost raped because you were busy forcing me to bang some brain dead chick!” he was fuming. Jabu was on his back and Thulani had jumped on top of him and was holding him by the neck of his shirt banging his head on the concrete floor as he spoke – yelled. A man who knows the boys tried to pull Thulani off Jabu but he wouldn’t budge, so another man came, stronger and younger he picked him up in one easy swoop and landed him on his feet far away from his target. Jabu was still shocked as the old man helped him up and Thulani was already making his way out the door.

They had never had a fight before and most times it was Thulani’s anger management skills that protected Jabu from a serious beat down, but today he had crossed the line. He found him sitting at the park on the swings and went to sit next to him in silience.

“I’m sorry.” Thulani apologised. Jabu rubbed his hand on his check where the fist had visited and he winced from the pain, they chuckled. They were cool again and Thulani knew that Jabu would probably repeat the damn thing in a couple of days; he had the attention span of a five-year-old. As they sat Thulani’s mind was filled with an intervention he was planning for Nozuko. She had to get help from a professional but she had to be willing to go otherwise it would be pointless.