During class changing the following day, Samson approached Nothando and greeted her. “I have something special for you,” he said and gave her the letter.

“Thank you,” Nothando responded.

Later in class, while Mr Mhlongo was teaching Siswati, Lulu whispered to Nothando. “What’s in the paper that Samson gave you?”

“I don’t know,” Nothando responded.

“Aren’t you going to read what he wrote for you?”

After thinking for a while, Nothando took the letter out of her pocket and they both started reading it.

He had written:

Dear Nothando, laSibiya, Ndaba, Gumede.

I cannot stop singing your praises, just as I cannot stop loving you. To our love, nothing compares. With you, my eyes have witnessed eternal beauty. When I bring you into my mind, the world becomes only for us. A second without you, is like the earth without the sky. For when I look at it, I think we’ve got a tomorrow together. Nothando, just by mentioning your name, I keep falling deeper for you. And so for all of me, and all of you, please allow us to love each other as boyfriend and girlfriend?

After reading the letter, Lulu got crossed.

“He loves, me oh my god!” Nothando whispered.

“Don’t lie to yourself,” Lulu huffed.

“Sorry?” Nothando said, sounding confused.

“I can’t let you get played like this Nothando,” Lulu said. “I know how boys are, and if they love you, they don’t write letters like we’re in the nineties. He’s fooling you, because if he loved you, he would’ve told you in person.”

“It’s his own way of expressing himself,” Nothando said.

“Listen to me, don’t say anything to him,” Lulu said. “Wait for him to act and play hard to get. If he means what he wrote, he’ll be forced to tell you in person.”

While listening to her friend, Nothando got convinced. “Okay, I see that you’re protecting me after what happened, I’ll do as you say.”

“Best friend,” Lulu said.

During the day, Samson saw Nothando outside the teachers’ staff room and went to her. His tongue became ice as he got to her. “Nothando,” he said, struggling to speak.

“Samson,” Nothando responded.

After a while, Samson got himself together. “What’s your answer? I’m sorry, but I couldn’t wait till tomorrow,” he said.

“I’m still thinking, my mom asked me to give you this,” Nothando said while giving Samson two hundred Rands.

“Oh, thank you very much,” Samson said, sounding very grateful.

After speaking to Samson, Nothando left in a hurry in order to tell Lulu what had happened.

“Lulu, Samson loves me,” Nothando said as soon as she reached her friend. “I met him outside, and he asked me about my response to his profession.”

“And?” Lulu asked.

“I told him I’m still thinking.”

“Very good,” Lulu said. “Now you need to distance yourself from him. Don’t reply tomorrow, wait for him to come to you and prove that he loves you.”

“Isn’t that being too hard on him,” Nothando said. “Besides, he just provided us with proof.”

“Boys take us for fools Nothando, and it must end once and for all. I hope you consider the attention you’ll be bringing yourself if you date the same boy who saved your life. You’ll rubbish your reputation, both as a learner and as a devoted Christian, this is against your religion.”

“My religion?” Nothando wondered.

Nothando spent a countless number of days trying to find a solution for what to do and what answer to give Samson. She got trapped in a psychological cage of self-destruction, and she now had to choose between losing her friendship with Lulu and starting a relationship with Samson. Another day came, and still, nothing changed. Two days turned into three, four days into five, and six day into a week. She also stopped giving Samson money and food. Lulu studied Nothando well enough to know where to strike a nail and manipulate her, and indeed, she did it.

“Samson, what went wrong between you and Nothando?” Thami asked.

“I don’t know,” Samson responded. “She just distanced herself from me the day I told her that I loved her and wanted us to be together.”

On hearing the news, Thami let out a sigh of disappointment. “I guess all girls are the same.”

“She’s different man, Nothando is special. Something just tells me she loves me,” Samson said.

“That’s what I thought at first about Lulu. What’s too bad is that you even saved her life, but she fails to at least fall for you. Are you going to invite her to your award celebration?”

“I don’t know.”

Samson’s class was hosting a celebration for an award he had won for the school, and he didn’t invite Nothando. After that, the distance between them grew further, and it got worse when he had a birthday party celebration and he didn’t invite her to it too. Everything just happened for the worst, and a grand separation started to take shape between them.

During one night, Nothando was sitting at the dinner table eating in a slow manner. In a second, her mind crawled and she had a thought about Samson.

“Nothing makes sense, even everything Lulu said,” Nothando thought to herself. “Is it real, or she’s just caught up with Samson’s love for me? Samson loves me, but in consideration, I only go to school to study, not to date. But why did he even fall in love with me in the first place? How must I look at him now? How must I look at everyone, and how will they look at me?”

“What’s wrong Nothando?” David asked.

On hearing her father’s voice, Nothando got shaken. “Nothing,” she said. “I’m just …”

“You’re staring at nowhere,” David interrupted.

“It’s nothing really,” Nothando reassured her father.

“Stop your interrogation dear,” Thandeka interfered.

“I’m just asking,” David responded. “Anyways, your mother and I decided that you’ll all change schools next year. We want you to have the best education money can buy, and that’s at private schools.”

“What? I just made friends, and now I must make new ones again?” Vuyisile complained.

“It won’t be that bad,” David said.

“It couldn’t get any worse, everything at Sakhasonkhe high school is now useless to me,” Nothando said. “I must call Lulu and let her know that my life is a complete disaster.”

“Don’t worry dear, you’ll still communicate with her on the phone,” Thandeka said.

Tell us: What do you think needs to be done to people like Lulu, who pretend to be people’s friends when, in actual fact, they are not?