Andile and Lumkile sat together in Lumikle’s room. He was filling his friend in about Koketso and what was happening between them. Lumkile listened attentively to his friend’s talk of love as if it were sweet. He made sure not to disturb his friend but in his mind he thought that this glamorizing and glorifying of a woman was a man’s path to a downfall.

He knew this feeling and its dangers; he had walked down this path too. He listened to Andile ranting on about how Koketso made her feel, Andile was almost poetic. It has been six months now, Andile told him.

“We’ve walked hand-in-hand mfethu, her hand…” he said.

“Sucks to you dragging your feet, are you waiting for the poor girl to make the first move?” Lumkile snapped. “Shame on you mfondini, awuyondoda,”

“Strategy, Buddy. I am strategizing and getting to know her better…” Andile sounded unconvincing even to himself. He didn’t have a strategy but had lost a girl he really liked, yet again.

“Sucks to knowing her. Two weeks was enough, but six months is just… just…” he struggled to find the right word to describe it.

“Just what?”

“Absurd,” Lumkile said. “Look now you’ve been buddy-zoned and friend-zoned a long time ago,” he added.

“What’s the difference between the two?” Andile was being sarcastic.

“Sucks to the difference bra,” he said almost instinctively. “But if you do not get your act together you will lose her to that white boy I am telling you, trust me,” he warned. Andile considered this for a moment. Lumkile had a point, he thought, six months was way too much time wasted.

But don’t good things come to those who wait? He was about to say this but then thought of the response that would come from Lumkile: “Sucks to waiting…” he decided against it and chose something that he knew would silence Lumkile for good.

Well, not for good but for a moment. Nothing could silence Lumkile. He always had a ready answer like a lawyer, but Andile was now opening a can of worms that Lumkile detested.

“Well, Slujah, bra I do not want what happened to you and Princess to…”

“Sucks to you bra!” Lumkile interrupted. “Can’t you just forget it already,” he said with a glimpse of hurt in his voice and stormed out of the room, banging the door.

Andile, instead of responding, thought to himself about how some words can just not be evaded. Sucks, sucks, sucks! Everything sucks, he thought.

As he sat in that room all by himself, memories of a past that was now forgotten came back and stabbed at his heart till he felt weak and resigned to Lumkile’s bed. It was now not difficult not to remember Mbali, his ex-girlfriend.

They had dated since Grade 10 and she cheated on him in Grade 12. He had been disappointed when he found out, but when he discovered who she was cheating on him with he was dumbfounded and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. A taxi driver! What a joke, he thought.

Back then his hands were tied. There was nothing he could do. He couldn’t compete with a taxi driver so he allowed her to go and put more energy in his studies. As a result he passed his Matric with flying colours and got a scholarship. He went away from the whispers and humiliation that had followed him at home. But now here he was again, stuck in the same situation, almost; losing a girl he loves, the same way he lost Mbali.

He thought of such a disgrace and what people who had seen them together, walking hand-in-hand around campus, would say.

“No I will win her over, come hay or sunshine she is mine,” he vowed to.

Thabang was no help and neither was Lumkile, he was on his own, he thought. He thought of all the possible options but couldn’t find ways to win her back. He thought of Koketso and her beautiful eyes and was sad again. Suddenly Thabang’s eyes, always red, came to his mind and he focused on them, he smiled.

“That’s it…” he said as he walked out of the room a happy man with a plan!

***

Let’s chat: What do you think Andile’s plan is?