“Busi! Wait.” Busi heard Thuli’s voice.

“What’s wrong with you, why didn’t you wait for us?” Thuli’s voice was accusatory.

“I’m so sorry I forgot to tell you,” Busi began. “Ma, asked me to come home early today.”

Lolo and Thuli exchanged looks.

“Busisiwe Lukhele, you know you cannot lie,” Lolo said, inspecting her friend closely. “Why are your eyes red? Are you crying?”

Busi hadn’t noticed the tears. When did they come? She wiped her face with the back of her hand. “It’s nothing.”

“What’s wrong, gal?” Thuli asked, hugging her friend.

Unable to contain herself Busi started to wail in front of her friends, “It’s Thabo. I have been thinking about him, I think I like him, I really do. But what chance do I have with him looking like this, like a hippo?”

Thuli and Lolo glanced at each other again; this was a first – Busi liking a boy and Busi being upset about her weight.“Busi, don’t be silly,” Thuli said. “You’re the prettiest girl in the entire school, so what if you’re carrying around extra kilograms? No one is perfect, or have you forgotten?”

“It’s easy for you to say, you’re a size twenty-eight and not forty. You don’t know what I have to deal with. People call me names; shopping for clothes is a nightmare, and getting a boyfriend? Forget it. My life sucks.”

“Gal, please,” Thuli said rolling her eyes. “We all know I’m way too skinny and that kids call me Bones and Anorexia, do you think I like that? Do you think Lolo enjoys being called the nerd and Four-Eyes?”

“What happened to the good humoured Busi who is not affected by such superficial things?” Lolo asked taken aback by her friend’s outburst. She wondered how it was possible that someone who had been content all her life with her looks would suddenly explode like that.

“That Busi is gone for good,” Busi said with a stern voice. “I want to be normal too. I hate that I’m fat, I hate it.”

“Busi…” Thuli started but Busi cut her off.

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Let’s just go.”

The rest of the walk was awkward, Lolo tried to tell a joke but nobody laughed. They reached Thuli’s house, Busi didn’t even stop, she simply waved Thuli goodbye and continued walking. Thuli shook her head as she opened the gate; it was clear to her that they would not be spending time that afternoon like they normally did.

“Busi, you’re just over-reacting,” Lolo said, quietly. She didn’t like it when one of her friends was upset, worse over something as irrelevant as a boy. “You’re a beautiful girl. If Thabo thinks your weight is a problem, then I think he’s an idiot and doesn’t deserve you.”

“I’m tired of being told I’m beautiful, I want to be slim too,” Busi snapped. “Bye, Lolo, I will see you tomorrow.”

At home Busi went straight to her room and threw herself on the bed. She didn’t fetch her little brother from the neighbour’s house nor prepare a light snack of buttered bread and jam and juice as she usually did after school. Her mother was still at the market and wouldn’t be back for another two hours. She fell asleep and dreamed she was one of those slim models in magazines.

Tell us what you think: What is difficult for Busi? Do you think her friends are right?