Siphiwe was wounded, but before he went back to his whistling friends, he apologised to Nthabiseng.

“Excuse my rude friends, ey.”

“Excuse them for what?”

“For all the whistling and out-of-place comments they said when you appeared.”

“But, Siphiwe, you were with them, right?” Nthabiseng threw the rhetorical question. She was embarrassed at the realisation that she had called him by his name. She cannot be giving in now.

“Yeah but I didn’t whistle. It makes me cringe every time I see my gender mates do that. It’s degrading. I know some women think it’s harmless, but why would one whistle when calling girls? Girls are not dogs. Only dogs are summoned using a whistle.”

Nthabiseng was quiet. She had not analysed things the way her rejected suitor had. Siphiwe said his goodbye and went to the corner of African Supermarket. She watched him drag his feet, obviously hurt and disappointed, back to his mates.

While going back home, she was surprised to notice she was near Prem’s General Dealer. She had travelled the wrong way because of Siphiwe. Boys can be such a distraction, or even worse, a destruction.

A week went by without Nthabiseng thinking about Siphiwe, the very same suitor she had brutally rejected. She longed for his call, but felt anxious at remembering that she had refused to give him her number. As a matter of fact, she had liked him but refused him nonetheless. She had vowed to herself never to fall in love again. Her instincts convinced her Siphiwe wasn’t like any of her previous lovers, but he seemed to have met her at the wrong time. He had surfaced when she had lost all hope in love. Her consolation was that he would take his rejection as an indication to try harder. Pursuing her again would show his consistency and seriousness. After all, girls don’t usually reciprocate their suitors’ feelings on the first attempt.

However, Nthabiseng couldn’t avoid the thought that things nowadays had changed. More and more boys do not try again after they’d been refused. They, rather, took vengeance for their wounded feelings and embarrassment caused by ruthless rejection. And so girls have a dilemma of either being prejudiced as “loose” when they reciprocate their suitors’ love on the first attempt, or forever losing their potential lovers. Perhaps the latter must be her fate.

She couldn’t get Siphiwe out of her mind, though. She should have at least given him her numbers. She went to African Supermarket with the hope of bumping into him again. But on every occasion, there was no Siphiwe to be seen. She was tempted to ask the “whistling” boys about his whereabouts, but she held herself. If it was meant to be, then it will be.

Weeks went by without Nthabiseng seeing Siphiwe. She missed him dearly, but was slowly relinquishing the thought of ever finding him again. “True love” had passed her by. She had been so caught up in the past that she couldn’t notice a diamond before her eyes. As she walked past Bhutiza’s Barbershop, she saw her long lost prince from afar. Her heart skipped a beat. However, her excitement was short-lived when she spotted a girl with him. They were too caught up in their business, and it stung her violently seeing them holding hands. He had obviously moved on. She must have been erased from his memory. Her soul was so perturbed that she went the opposite direction. The wound of witnessing her potential lover with another girl was unbearable.

Tell us: Have you ever seen your crush with someone else and how did it make you feel?