At five o’clock Thandi was sick with nerves. “He’s going to dump me, I know,” she told Cheryl, as they walked to the taxi rank. “What am I going to do? I love him so much.”

Cheryl’s taxi had arrived. “I’ve got to run babe,” she said. “Good luck. Let me know how it turns out.”

Still nearly three hours till he comes to visit, Thandi thought as she got into her taxi. I can’t stand waiting. I wish he would just tell me what’s going on.

The taxi route went down the street where Ntobi lived. She peered out of the window as they passed his house. He was home already. His motorbike was parked in the driveway.

“Stop!” she called to the driver, on impulse.

I’ll just walk straight in and ask him what’s going on, she thought as she climbed out of the taxi. At least then I’ll know where I stand. She bit her lip. Please, don’t let him dump me, she prayed.

But the closer she got to the house the more nervous she became. Two houses away and she just couldn’t go any further. She took out her phone and dialled Cheryl’s number.

“Hey Cheryl,” she began. “I’m so scared. I’m outside his house. I’m going to talk to him now. I can’t wait another two hours.”

“You’re probably worrying about nothing,” Cheryl began.

“Hold on,” Thandi whispered, crouching behind a parked car. “Someone’s coming out. Shit man, this looks bad.”

“What?” Cheryl exclaimed. “What’s going on?”

“It’s that guy – that drug dealer – the one that hangs out at the shebeen. You know the one I mean? Smilie.”

“It can’t be,” Cheryl said. “Why would he be at Ntobi’s house?”

“It is,” Thandi hissed. “And Ntobi’s with him. I’ll take a photo so you can see for yourself.” She snapped a picture of the two men and pressed ‘Send’. A few seconds later Cheryl WhatsApped her.

U R right. Thts Smilie. WTF?

The bastard, Thandi thought. Was he using? Or even worse, had he started dealing? She texted back:

Thts it. Gonna end it. Smilie’s driving off. Black BMW

She put away her phone and stormed up to the door. She saw the curtain twitch before Ntobi opened the door a crack.

“Thandi!” he hissed. “What are you doing here?” His eyes were bloodshot.

“I came to talk to you. What the hell are you doing with a drug dealer? Are you out of your mind?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t fool with me!” Thandi shouted. “I’m not blind. I’m not stupid. I saw you with Smilie, just a moment ago. I even took a photo. And I can see how red your eyes are.”

Ntobi paled. His eyes flickered up and down the street. “Keep your voice down. Did he see you?”

“See me? I don’t think so.”

“Shit,” he said, grabbing her and pulling her inside. “Why the hell did you come here? I said I’d come to you at eight o’clock.”

Thandi’s heart sank. This was it. It was over between them. Ntobi was high, she just knew it. Her brother had started like this, with weed, and then it was tik, and before long he was stealing everything in the house and selling it for drugs.

This explained it all – why Ntobi didn’t have money anymore to take her out, why he wasn’t interested in her… And if he wasn’t going to break up with her now, she’d have to do it. She would never date a drug user.

His room was a mess: clothes everywhere, dirty dishes, and on the side table – a plastic bag of dried herbs. She grabbed it and dangled it in his face.

“You’ve been smoking dope, haven’t you?” she yelled. “You’re high. It’s over between us. Over Ntobi.”

“No!” snapped Ntobi, snatching the bag from her. “This is catnip – Mrs September gave it to me for the cats at work.”

Thandi narrowed her eyes. “You idiot, Ntobi. What do you take me for? I wasn’t born yesterday, man. This is marijuana. And you’ve been smoking it – I can tell – your eyes are all red.”

“I’ve got pink eye. I went to talk to the kids at a pre-school about animal care. The head phoned me a day later to tell me that some of the kids had come down with pink eye. Now I’ve got it. Please, my baby, listen to me.”

Thandi was torn. She desperately wanted to believe him, but it seemed so far-fetched – catnip? Pink eye? Did he take her for a fool? She glared at him – daring him to tell her another lie, but then she caught the look in his eyes. He loved her. And he didn’t look stoned. “OK,” she said, sitting on the bed. “Tell me what’s going on.”

Ntobi sank down next to her and put his head in his hands. “Where do I start?”

“You can start with why you’re hanging around with a dangerous drug dealer like Smilie.”

Ntobi shook his head. “Smilie was at school with me. We were mates. After school he started hanging around with a rough crowd, got into drugs. My dad had just lost his job and money was tight. Smilie offered to lend me money. At first I resisted – I knew that he got money from dealing drugs. But as time went on it got harder to refuse. I needed money for my studies and just to live.”

Thandi bit her lip. This was sounding bad, man. Stories that started like this never ended well. “So what did you do? Just tell me the worst.”

“At Christmas time Smilie called me. He told me his car had broken down in the city, and he was desperate. He needed someone to fetch a parcel from his house and to take it to an address in Mowbray. It was on my way anyway, so I said yes. I dropped it off. He came by my house later to say thank you. He brought me a six pack of beers, and an envelope with R1 500.”

“And you didn’t suspect anything?”

“Then I did, yes. But it was too late. I told him straight: ‘Listen man, I’m not doing that again,’ but he told me he had a video of me doing the drop-off, and that the notes had been numbered. Then two days later the police came to my house and pulled the place apart. My landlady was furious. They said I was dealing drugs. They took me to the police station and interrogated me, but they had to let me go because there wasn’t enough evidence.”

“You idiot, Ntobi,” Thandi said, shaking her head. “How could you be so bloody stupid?”

***

Tell us what you think: Is Ntobi telling the truth? Can Thandi trust him?