Nokuzola

“Lubabalo, I need to talk to you,” I say to him nervously as we sit down on a grassy patch in the school grounds.

“Shoot baby, I am all ears.” he says looking me straight in the eyes.

“I g..g.. got the note you left in my locker,” I stutter.

“Come on Nolhalha s’thandwa sam – Nohlahla, my love, I am sure that is not what you wanted to talk to me about,” he says gently stroking my hand.

“Ok, I went with my dad to see a sangoma.”

“Hold it girlfriend, are you a witch now?” Lubabalo shouts and jumps up and moves away from me.

“No,” I plead, “please sit back down.” But I can see he is furious. His whole attitude toward me has changed with one sentence.

“Nokuzola, why did you have to tell me that? You mean I have wasted my time on you for this long?” he says violently, grabbing his backpack and walking away.

“Buya Lubabalo baby, please come back,” I call after him as he waves, signaling he does not want to hear anymore from me. I don’t say anything. I don’t want him to shout at me so everyone can hear. I didn’t believe that things could get worse. But they have. Why did I tell him? But I can’t take the words back.

***

Lubabalo

I am not spending one more day with Nokuzola, and I am not listening to one more thing she has to say. How could she? No wonder her face has become ugly with pimples. My friends were right about her all along. I must move on, find a new girlfriend. What a waste of time. I do not care how she must be feeling about me now. I have my life to live and she almost spoiled it for me. How can she believe in that rubbish? She deserves what has happened to her.

In the evening my cellphone lights up. There is an incoming call and it is Nokuzola. Okay, we will let that ring go. On her fourth attempt to reach me I ask my sister to pick up and pretend to be my new girlfriend. The phone is on loudspeaker.

“Luba’s phone, hello.”

“Hi, is Lubabalo around?”

“Who wants to know?”

“I am his girlfriend, Nokuzola.”

“What, since when? You’ve got a nerve to be calling him. He is my man.”

“Since when, dear?”

“It is none of your business. And don’t ‘dear’ me. I do not want you calling him again, do you hear me?”

“Loud and clear, sisi. Now I would like to speak to him.”

“What don’t you understand? You have no right to speak to him again. Or do you want me and my girlfriends to come and find you?”

“Ndivile, sisi – I hear you sisi. You don’t have to come find me”

“Good, now put the phone down and don’t you ever call him again.”

Tell us what you think: What do you think about what Lubabalo and his sister did?