Unathi could not believe the words that were coming out of her mouth. She thought of running back to Alice and Grace who were staring in utter shock at her sudden move. She stood in front of Pedro in silence and waited for his reply. Suddenly he turned towards her and removed his ear phones.

“Can I help you with something?” Pedro said with his masculine voice.

“Oh, Uhm! Can I… do you have a pen I could borrow?” Unathi said shyly. She could not believe that after all the courage it took for her to approach him all he could say was ‘Can I help you with something?’

Pedro reached into his bag, took out a pen, handed it to her and slowly put back on his ear phones as if nothing had happened.

When Unathi returned to her sit all she could think was how stupid can she get. Grace was not helping either. Grace laughed so loud that Mrs Taylor gave her a warning to stop or she would be put outside of the classroom almost as if Mrs Taylor knew what had happened to Unathi.

“Sorry Mrs Taylor,” Grace said.

“I can’t believe you did it, OMG what did he say?” Alice as Unathi sat down.

“He, he didn’t even hear what I had to say,” Unathi said. She could feel her eyes building up with tears.

“Oh no, I’m so sorry,” Alice gave her a hug.

“Hahaha, serves her right for thinking a guy like him would even look at her,” Grace shouted at Unathi.

“Grace stop being rude. Can’t you see she is hurt and really liked him? That jerk! Who does he think he is ignoring her like that,” Alice said in defence to Unathi who now looked like she would burst out in tears.

“It’s ok Alice, I mean it’s not like he was listening. He had earphones on and I’m the stupid one who didn’t realize it until it was too late. Anyway at least I got his pen and now he has to come to me to get it back, so I guess it worked out fine,” Unathi said trying to rebuild her self-esteem.

When the last school bell rang Alice and Unathi started walking home when suddenly they noticed Thabo getting out of a taxi in front of the school.

“Hey, look it’s Thabo maybe he’s come to take you home,” Unathi shouted.

“I can’t believe he came,” Alice was so surprised.

“Go and see him, look his waiting and I don’t think he has seen you yet,” Unathi pushed Alice towards his direction.

Before Alice could cross the road, she noticed a girl run towards him and then give him a big hug. They got into another taxi and left. Just before she had time to catch her breath, she turned so fast to avoid contact and didn’t realize that Pedro was standing behind her. She fell into his arms.

“Oh no, why is this happening to me?” Alice pushed him away and ran as fast as she could towards Unathi.

“Gosh! What’s happening to me, how could he do that to me?” Alice shouted.

“Hey, it’s fine maybe there is a logical explanation to this,” Unathi said trying to comfort her friend.

“Sorry, but I have to get out of here, I’ll call you later,” Alice cried, running home. When she got there breathless she fell straight onto her bed face down. She could not understand what was happening to her. Her mind was filled with so many unanswered questions and all she felt like doing was crying and letting it all out.

“How could he? Who is she? Do I even want to know?” Alice could not stop thinking about what she saw at school.