Siza



For the past two weeks, I have been picking Ntobeko up and letting her out some steam, even though she was far from healing I could see the anger leave her body.

I liked watching her open up a little bit towards me and letting me in little by little. She dabbed the sweat from her face with the towel and sat on the couch that I eventually decided to put in here so that Ntobeko would not have to sit down on the floor.

“Why are you doing all this?” She asked, looking at me with those small eyes of hers that seemed to always hold me hostage “What do you mean Nkosazana?”

“I mean this, you abducting girls. Why are you doing it?”

The question took me off guard; it was not something I had been expected. I shrugged my shoulders. “At first I did it for money, it was the easiest way for me to get money but now I just do it for the sake of doing it.”

I watched as her eyebrows creased with confusion and shook her head “I think it’s cruel for you to have do this to all those girls. Their parents have to be worried sick about their kids.”

I would have never let anyone talk to me like that but I was fascinated by Ntobeko that I let her continue .

“This is cruel, you could do a lot of things with this place without having to abduct people and make them your slaves.”

I sat next to her “Will you give me a chance if I do so?” Ntobeko rolled her eyes and sighed “This is not about me.”

A grin pulled on the sides of my lips up and nodded “I’m asking, would you give me a chance? “

“Yes.” She said as if she wanted to shut me up

“Let’s go back to letting off some steam.” She put on her gloves and went to the punching bag.

***

“I’ll see you tonight,” I said to Ntobeko when I dropped her home. She had been battling to sleep lately and besides that I liked our moments of me coming here every night and watched movie with her, while she enjoyed her snacks, it was the only time I got to enjoy and relaxe. When I was with her.

It was such an intimate moment where we would sometimes just talk about anything and everything no matter how mundane it was instead of watching a movie, watching her fall asleep was the best part for me to ever witness. It beat every wonderful thing I thought was precious.

Watching her eyes lazily close shut, with her sleeping on top of her arm, her leg would be over the blanket and her silk pyjama top would sometimes show a bit of her skin just to tease the eye. I could watch her fall asleep and never get bored.

The conversation that I had with Ntobeko rang in my mind when I drove back to the warehouse.

“What’s going on?” Ntando asked when he saw me come in. I rarely called in a meeting and when I did it meant that I had some serious news. I ignored Ntando when I climbed the stairs, I could feel Ntando’s impatience when I shrugged off my jacket and sat down. “I want to change this whole business.” Ntando looked at me not even blinking, there was nothing but silence, not even the loud music coming from downstairs cracked through the soundproofed walls.

“Is this because of that girl?”

Anyone wouldn’t dare challenge me or call me out like this but Ntando and I have been friends for far too long and he deserved a little bit of honesty from me. “If I want to stand a chance to be with her I must change my ways.”

Ntando let out a chuckle “You don’t need to change for nobody, there are many bi*tches that you can be with.” I stood up and stormed my way towards him, I pinned him against the glass wall “She’s worth everything to me,” My voice was now dangerously low, slicing through the thick tension that was bubbling “She’s different.” I pushed myself away from Ntando and paced the floor with my hands on my head, fu*ck it Ntobeko has messed up with my brain, how was it possible that such a small person can have such a hold on me.

Being far away from her was a challenge, I wanted her here, next to me in this room, I wanted to smell that lavender perfume of hers and listen to that wonderful angelic voice of hers that always made my heart twist a little and if it meant that I have to lose everything that I have built just for her that was exactly what I would do.