Tisetso



During the car ride I was quiet, contemplating on how I should tell Makukhanye that I could no longer see her. It was something I didn’t want to do, but I had no other choice. It didn’t matter that I really liked her and that I didn’t want to break her heart. I was given an ultimatum and if I didn’t do as I was told my life would completely be destroyed.

If I were to be honest I liked Makukhanye, I liked her a lot but I could no longer do this with her and that broke my heart, which made it even hard because I never wanted hurt her.

I should have known that her father would do a background check on me, I bet it didn’t take him that long to find out that I was messing around with 2 other girls but they didn’t mean anything to me. I tried explaining that to them but they didn’t care. I was planning on ending things with those girls and be serious with Makukhanye but his father had beat me to it.

“You’ll break up with her, if you know what’s good for you.” Makukhanye’s father had said. I knew about him. I knew about the great Melusi Xaba, everyone knew about him and how he had no heart and no remorse and his son Menzi took after him, he was just as ruthless as his father and treated his sister like a princess even though she was older than him.

I knew that they would beat me and turn me into a pulp if I carried on with Makukhanye. Who was I even fooling thinking that I could go in the lion’s den and not come out ruffled and shaken.

I looked at Makukhanye who seemed happy, as she talked about how wonderful it was that her father let her go out with me. If only she knew that the smile plastered on her face will soon vanish, I could have saved us the trip and tell her now but I couldn’t bring myself to do that.

We arrived at the Italian restaurant, I opened the door and led Makukhanye in, once we were seated I took a deep breath getting ready to break Makukhanye’s heart but then the waiter came and took our orders.

“This is a beautiful place.” Makukhanye said looking around “And cosy too.”

I nodded, it was hard for me to open my mouth and speak. My heart was thudding on my chest. Our food arrived and I welcomed it as a needed distraction. At least now my mind was focused on something else other than what I was supposed to do.

But instead of me eating the food I stared at it, the food looked delicious and mouth watering but I could not bring make myself to eat it. Makukhanye on the other hand was eating, oblivious to the tug of war I was having with my emotions.

I cleared my throat, if I was going to rip the bandaid I might as well do it now. “I think we should stop seeing each other.” There I said it, the weight on my shoulders felt lighter, I could now breath.

Makukhanye froze with a fork full of pasta halfway to her mouth. She looked me in confusion and lowered the fork, set up straight and with no emotions displayed on her face she nodded.

She had a good poker face, I could not tell if my words had left a dent on her or not. She took out her purse and settled for her food. “Okay.” She finally spoke, she swiftly stood up and walked out. Not once did she ever turn around to look at me maybe because she didn’t want me to see the sadness engraved on her face.

I wanted to run after her and try to explain to her what had truly happened but I didn’t instead I sat here alone, feeling torn.