Denver grinned mischievously. He looked at Sazi like there was something amusing crawling up Sazi’s face.

“You’re not the first guy I’ve taught how to get a girl, sani. I’m like a principal when it comes to that.”

Sazi turned to look at Denver, barely keeping a straight face. The laughter felt like it would explode out of him at any moment. “Since when do you teach me anything?” he scoffed. “You like acting like the master wena.”

He couldn’t keep the laughter in any longer and it came roaring out of him. Denver had a way of getting this reaction out of Sazi (and many others at their school). Their walks home were usually filled with this kind of fun.

“You know it’s true,” fired Denver back. “That’s why you’re laughing. You’re my number one student.”

True or not, Sazi was never going to give Denver the satisfaction. Yes, Sazi had learned a few things from Denver. But admitting to it? He’d never hear the end of it from Denver (or from Denver’s Facebook posts).

Whatever the truth was, at least Sazi had the Denver he preferred, the Denver he could share harmless jokes with, walk home from school with: friendly Denver. He didn’t like the other Denver. The one who showed up around the other guys at school.

The two of them were now standing near the top of the bridge between Heinz Park and Philippi. Denver stopped and looked at his digital wristwatch. The afternoon sun continued beating down on them, slowly milking sweat from Sazi’s every pore. Denver’s expression had become slightly more contemplative; like he was working something out in his mind.

The Khayelitsha train, Sazi thought to himself. It usually comes around this time.

Denver confirmed Sazi’s thoughts. “I’m going to miss the quarter-to-four train. It’s 20 to now. I’ll have to catch the next one.”

Sazi looked out from the bridge (a bridge everyone just called the Heinz Park Bridge) to the Philippi Train Station in the distance. It was to the left of the bridge when someone was coming from Heinz Park and Mitchell’s Plain, going up New Eisleben Road. Sazi’s house wasn’t far away from where they stood.

Their walk from here was clearly mapped out in their minds. It always took them from the bridge, across the train tracks running under the bridge, past the crowded shacks of the Cosovo informal settlement, onto a dirt road on the other side and along the train tracks.

They set off on the short journey.

“What are you going to get up to when you get home?” asked Sazi

“Washing my stuff. Need to wash this shirt I’m wearing and some other stuff … You know how my old man is.”

“Same thing waits for me at home,” replied Sazi, the energy draining from his voice as he thought of his sister. “She’s always shouting for some reason.”

“Ya, your sister can talk. She was asking me everything about everything on Monday.”

Sazi clearly remembered his sister’s interrogation of Denver at the house last week. She cornered Denver like he was there to take Sazi to a tavern. Yet he was just there to fetch Sazi so they could walk to school together, as they always did. His mistake was not calling Sazi from outside the yard.

To ask the guy where he lives, who he lives with, whether or not he goes to church, and the marks he passed Grade 9 with the previous year – it was too much! Sazi still felt sick with embarrassment just thinking about it. A part of him felt like he should’ve seen it coming. She’d always been like this. What would make her suddenly change in the new year? January 2020 was no different. Nothing would make her suddenly go out of her way to understand him, and so make life easier for him.

“Does she even know you’re a normal guy; that you like girls? That you’ve gotten drunk before?”

“It’s better if she doesn’t. She’d call a family meeting.”

Denver smiled, patting Sazi consolingly on the back. “If she does find out, just make sure she doesn’t know you’re getting your lessons from me.”

“What exactly are you teaching me about girls?”

Denver laughed. “You’re getting some big balls now nhe? Tell me, how would you go up to a girl? What would you say to her?”

“Who doesn’t know what to say to a girl?” Sazi fired in return , not completely convinced it would get Denver to back off. “It’s easy!”

Denver looked at Sazi, defiant in his stance. “Talk. What would you say?”

Sazi wanted to follow up with more, but Denver was right. What Sazi knew was mostly things he’d milked from Denver and the others at school. For every story Denver ever told about girls, Sazi took in all the details. And when his sister wasn’t there, when he had the house all to himself, he stood in front of the mirror and practised.

They arrived at the station. The conversation had to pause. Sazi waited outside, on the dirt road, and watched Denver enter.

He disappeared into the vastness of the station, which had ongoing construction to add a shopping centre. Sazi tried to track his friend through the maze of bodies entering and leaving … passing the ticket checkpoint, up the stairs, onto the bridge-like structure taking passengers to their different platforms.

Denver’s Khayelitsha platform was the one closest to the dirt road that Sazi was patiently waiting on, behind the security fence that ran along the length of the train track from one end of the platform to the other. Once Denver had made his way down the stairs onto the Khayelitsha platform, Sazi walked towards the fence and eventually, Denver came to stand on the edge of the platform, only a few metres away.

“I am still waiting for you to finish talking,” he said.

Sazi smiled sheepishly. He didn’t have an immediate answer. He couldn’t remember his best lines, the ones he’d spent all those hours practising. And, besides, there were other people on the platform. They’d hear him shout out his stupid way of talking to girls, and then join Denver in laughing at him.

The voice of the station announcer came abruptly over the intercom: “The 9-3-1-9 train from Cape Town to Chris Hani is …”

Denver and Sazi both stopped talking and listened intently until they confirmed that the announcement was about the Denver’s Khayelitsha train being a minute or two away.

“Metrorail doesn’t want us to finish talking about this right n–”

Denver broke off, distracted. Something behind Sazi had caught his eye. “It’s time for action now, sani,” he said, pointing away from the station. “Show us what you’ve got.”

When Sazi looked back, he saw what Denver was pointing at. It was a girl. Sazi took a moment to appreciate the sight. He couldn’t see her face. She was walking away from them. She must live somewhere near the bridge, Sazi thought. The way she walked, her black braids neatly tied behind, the poise she had with every step … and her blue checked skirt that revealed just enough of her.

Sazi felt drawn to her.

But … what if she says no …

“Go after her,” Denver said, giggling. “She’s going the same way as you. You can walk with her.”

Show me you’re not scared of her! is what Sazi imagined Denver saying. Say no, he thought in response. His mind raced on: But she looks so …

He was sure she was beautiful. No girl walked like that if she wasn’t.

The train pulled into the station and Denver disappeared on the other side of it. But Sazi knew Denver would be watching from inside the train, as it pulled away towards Stock Road station.

He felt a toxic mix of excitement and fear. He looked down at his grey school pants. They were thankfully not torn or dirty. His school shoes, though, were a cheap imitation of the brand he’d always wanted – the Toughees one. He wished he could hide them. His school shirt was also not torn or dirty, but it was an off-white colour nowadays. He’d worn it too often.

What if she took one look at him and laughed in his face?

***

Tell us: Are you confident about approaching someone you like, or full of doubts and fears, like Sazi?