She woke up at 06:15am stretching her left arm, she could feel the left side of her bed devoid of her sister. Squinting her eyes to the brightly lit room, thanks to her sister who had fully opened the curtains, she also smelt the very sweet scent of Anele’s perfume that had taken over the room. She just laid quietly in bed thinking of the best way to put her plans of distributing their CVs to fruition. Amanda heard her phone vibrate and read the text.

Surely you can get your crushee, Mr X, to organise you a nice holiday job.

Buyiswa had joked on WhatsApp, yet she was the one who had convinced them to get a job.

Amanda giggled nodding her head, though her big smile, along with her facial expression slowly began fading as the thought of the young man in red overalls crept at the back her head budging through her other thoughts. The more she thought about that young man’s creepiness the faster her heartbeat and the more curious she got. Maybe he was a stalker, or worse, a ghost — given the way he mysteriously vanished. Could he have jumped in the taxi as fast as it was going? No way, unless he was a ninja.

At last her phone rang, vibrating above her chest, interrupting her deep thoughts. She quickly switched off the alarm and slid off her cushy comfortable bed. She dawdled in that illuminated room towards the windows and quickly looked at the nearby wall as it now had her name faintly carved into it, how strange? She then headed to the kitchen and looked through the window to check outside for any sign of that mysterious guy in red overalls.

Whilst still in the kitchen she thought about opening the windows. She finally did at the thought that he might just be her ex Kabelo, who used to have an orange overall. She felt a breath of fresh air jumping in the kitchen alongside the lively sounds of cars driving and hooting, people running and shouting and kids screaming and playing in the busy road in front of her house. Turning back and heading to the bedroom, she reached for her clothes and headed to the bathroom for a quick shower.

Minutes later the sweet scent of her body lotion jumped into her nostrils as she slowly applied it to her thick thighs, the ones that boys in her hood, and even pupils at school craved for. She looked in the mirror in admiration of her beauty, the same beauty that had once made her the 14th victim of sexual assault by a student teacher.

By now she could hear Nandi and Buyi’s voice getting louder and louder, she hastily put on her revealing black skirt and her new crop top and hurried to the bedroom to get her yellow folder with her confidential files; which had several copies of her CV. Amanda then headed to the kitchen for a quick snack, just in time to welcome her two friends inside.

“Mmmm! Looking this sexy and smelling this good, Mr X will definitely find you today,” Nandi softly teased, mocking Mr X as she looked around jokingly.

“That’s if Mr X doesn’t get to you first yah,” Buyi added to Nandipha’s funny statement.

“He even had the guts to ask me for your number yesterday,” Nandipha smilingly blurted out, before quickly covering her mouth with her hand, in slight shame.

“Hayi Nandi, don’t tell me you gave it to him?”

“Obviously not, I just gave him mine.”

Amanda nodded her head and smiled before loudly laughing at her best friends in a ratchet manner, regardless of the cornflakes in her mouth. They exited the house on their way to the taxi rank the warm summer sun awaiting them outside.

“But guys, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you,” and slowly Amanda began telling her friends about that mysterious guy in red overalls.

“Maybe it’s Kabelo, I told you not to dump him,” Nandi jokingly spat out.

“Maybe it’s one of Mr X’s goons, he has spies and eyes everywhere,” Buyi speculated as she checked around for any suspicious guys in overalls, almost pointing to a nearby black beamer or Benz, in search of Mr X.

***

Tell us: Who do you think of the mysterious boy in red overalls?