Everybody went quiet. I did not know what to say, I just stared at her. Buhle did the same. “Slie, Kuhle, follow me,” she said, going back to the house.

“No it’s not me, it’s Buhle,” Kuhle said.

“Whatever, I mean Buhle.”

We slowly followed her, scared as hell. I was the only one who could clearly tell the difference between Buhle and Kuhle. Buhle got in the house first. When I got in she asked me to close the door.

“Slie, what is this nonsense you are doing? Are you mad, how can you be in a relationship with a boy you live with, and kiss him in front of everybody?”

She was sweating, that was how angry she was.

“Sorry, Ma, but Slie and I are not in love, we were just playing a game, you can ask everyone,” Buhle said trying to protect me.

“Listen here and listen carefully. You are only going to talk when I ask you to talk, okay?” She was shouting. Both Buhle and I just stared at her. “Okay?” she shouted, asking again. We still kept quiet. “Okay!” she shouted louder.

“Okay,” Buhle murmured.

“Slie, what is going on between you and Buhle?” she asked.

I took a deep breath first. “We are in love, Aunty.”

Buhle opened his eyes wide in shock. “Slie, what are you doing?” he asked.

At this moment Aunty was losing it. “Slie, I want you to start packing all your things tomorrow. You are leaving, I don’t want you here anymore. Go now before I do something I’m going to regret.”

I went in the bedroom to start packing. Buhle went out. I could see he was mad and very sad at the same time. He was hurt.

After I was done packing I looked for him. I found him sitting next to the kitchen quiet as if he was not there, it was a place you would not easily find a person in. I stood in front of him and I looked at him with soft eyes full of tears. He looked at me back with same eyes. He took out his cell phone and he played me a song. The lyrics went: “How do I, get through a night without you? If I had to live without you what kind of life would that be? Oh, baby I don’t know what I would do. I’d be lost if I lost you. If you ever leave, baby you would take away everything good in my life. And tell me now how do I breathe without you, I want to know, how do I live without you?”

Tears that had filled my eyes started falling. “How do I breathe without you? I want to know,” he asked. Then tears started falling from his eyes as well. “Buhle, listen to me. Don’t you love me?”

“I love you more than love itself.” Tears were still falling both from me and him but we ignored them.

“I love you too so why should we hide it from the world. Who did we kill? What crime did we commit? Why should we hide it?” He just stared at me. “Buhle, look, where there is love there is a way. Somehow we will find our way.”

He took a deep breath. “I have to beg your aunt, I have to make her understand. You can’t go. You just can’t!”

“I also don’t want to go but that is not going to work. My aunt is not going to change from her decision.”

He went quiet for a while as if he was thinking something. “You don’t even have a cell phone, I might never see you again, in fact I’ll never see you again,” he said very sadly.

“I have to go cook, I hope we will see each other again, I don’t know how but I really hope we do.” I stood up slowly and I slowly walked away from him; it felt like I was walking away from him for good. It felt like I was leaving a better half of me behind. I knew very well that no one could make me feel the way he did. I knew I would never be completely happy without him. I walked away and I had never experienced so much pain in my whole entire life before.