“Hi! Zizipho.” Loyiso waved at me the following day as he passed by my workstation at the lab.

“Hi!” I replied.

“Wow! He’s cute isn’t he?” Sive winked at me. I kept quiet. Avela noticed I was still angry at them.

“Ok, look Zee, we’re sorry about yesterday. We didn’t mean to offend you. It’s just that we have never heard you mentioning boys, ever. And we thought as your friends we deserved to know if you had had a boyfriend … you know … even if you like boys,” Avela said.

I latched onto one word in what she said: friends. I had always wanted to be called ‘friend’.

“Ok, I forgive you. Just don’t talk about me behind my back again.”

They smiled and jumped up to give me hugs.

“So where were we?” I asked, looking at the set of instructions on my lab manual. I felt the weight of someone’s eyes behind me. I turned around and Loyiso looked away quickly. During the lab session I stole  a look at him. I watched him helping his lab partners. Just like me, he was the brains in his group.

“Hey! Zizipho, wait for me please,” Loyiso called me as we left the lab. Avela, Sive and I had just finished our experiment. I had another lecture to get to but they had stayed behind, making plans for the following weekend’s party.

“Hi, Loyiso,” I stopped.

“I don’t know where to start. Please don’t be too hard on me – I’m not good at this,” he said nervously.

“I am listening,” I said. I felt confident. It was a strange new feeling.

“It took me months to build courage to say ‘hi’ to you. I … I like you,” Loyiso blurted out.

“Thanks,” was all I could say. He hesitated, then went on.

“I mean, I really, really like you, Zizipho.”

“Are you … asking me out?” I risked a smile.

“Yes, yes I am. So, Zizipho, will you go out with me?” Loyiso asked.

“How’s 1 pm on Saturday for you?” I said. It sounded so abrupt and formal but I didn’t know how to do this – talk to boys, go on a date. But I had put it out there. If he really wanted to go out with me he would accept my invitation.

“Great! Great! I mean, yeah Saturday at 1 pm.” He could hardly control his excitement.

He asked for my cell phone number and I gave it to him.

“I’ll send you a WhatsApp,” he said walking away.

As he walked away the old Zizipho rushed back.

I had a few more minutes before my next lecture started so I found myself a bench and sat down. What if Loyiso was not being real with me? What if this was a set-up he had with his friends to make a fool out of me? I had seen movies where boys pull elaborate pranks on nerdy girls with low self-esteem like me. I looked in all directions expecting to find a group of students laughing at me. I watched Loyiso disappearing into a crowd of students who had just come out of a lecture.

***

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