5 Weeks later

I made sure to avoid Thami the best way I could and at least the gossip has died down, people have other news to gossip about now. What I’m mostly glad about is that my mother didn’t find out about that video.

I decided to focus on my books and nothing else.

“I bought you a sandwich,” Buhle said.

Once the smell hit me I pushed the sandwich away from me.

“Is that a Tuna sandwich?” I ask looking at Buhle.

“Yeah why?” I almost throw up just looking at it.

“I don’t want it.” Just the smell has my stomach rolling. I felt like throwing up.

“But it’s your favourite,” she says putting it in her bag and giving me her chips and bread instead.

Just after school Buhle drags me to the pharmacy to go and buy a pregnancy test just to be sure. The lady gives us dirty looks. It’s as if Buhle is immune to all of this.

After paying I put the test in my bag and hold Buhle’s hand.

“I’m scared,” I finally say when we are about part ways.

“I’m still young and in school I can’t be pregnant.”

“Don’t think far ahead. It might be nothing, just stay calm,” she says giving me a hug.

I try not to think too hard about all this, but it is so hard which makes it difficult to block it from my mind. I try to remember when I was supposed to get my period. At the beginning of the month? I’m not so sure.

I arrive home earlier than my usual time and quickly take out the pregnancy test from my bag and go to the toilet where I pee on the stick.

I walk back in the bedroom and place the pregnancy stick besides me. Waiting for two minutes felt like hours. My hand automatically went to my stomach. Before my mind took me any further my phone buzzes letting me know that two minutes is finally over. I hesitantly pick up the test with shaky hands and look at it.

It perfectly indicates two lines. I’m pregnant.

The test slips from my shaky hands and lands on the floor.

Tears stream down my cheeks as I think about all the promises I made to my mother; promising to take her out of this shack and buying her a big house. I think about how I wanted to become a lawyer and how my scholarship will slip from my hands when they hear I’m pregnant. How I will become a single parent knowing full well how difficult it is having to see my mother struggle with me.

It’s like a curse. I curse the day I laid my eyes on Thami who made me a laughing stock in the whole school and now he made me a single parent at such a young age.

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