A Song Of Shadows

THREE

When we got back to our regular classroom, the history teacher, Mr. Dube, had left. The voices in the room were kept just above a loud whisper, which almost made it sound like there was a swarm of bees buzzing around room. In the corner diagonally opposite the door, Daniel sat on his desk with his left foot resting on his chair, and four of his friends sat around him listening to him speak. It wasn't easy to pick up what he was saying with the noise in the classroom, but his hand gestures suggested it had nothing to do with this morning's incident. He was probably revising today's history lesson.

In the other corner of the classroom, a few boys, and girls were also engaged in a conversation. Ruva was one of the girls, and she appeared to be leading whatever conversation it was. Right next to the door, Tsitsi had already settled down and Humphrey had dragged a chair next her desk and was probably trying to woo her. I couldn't tell if he was winning, but seeing them I thought, poor Nathan.

Nathan and I had closed our conversation about today's exercise the minute we had walked into the room and he had retreated to his desk next to another sciences pupil called Brian Ndlovu. Yes, I was related to him. My grandmother and his grandfather were siblings. The reason I had her surname was because my father was also a Ndlovu, but from a completely different family. Matthew often laughed about how such things could happen in the world.

Matthew, when I had walked into the room, had been sitting alone, his desk next to mine somewhere near the middle of the classroom, his note book open in front of him and his hands clasped together under the desk.

"Hey," I had said to him when I had sat down next to him.

"Hey," he had replied, not looking away from notes.

Matthew and I hadn't gotten to speak earlier because he had walked in late for his first period. Less than thirty minutes later, the maths class had had to leave the room for our lesson, meaning the only interaction he and I had managed, had be the simple wave.

"How have you been?" I asked him.

He turned to look at me, "Hard to say. Everything today has just been...far from normal."

I sighed, "Tell me about it."

"I missed you," he said.

I smiled. "So what was today's history lesson about."

He chuckled, "You've never asked that before."

"Do you really pay that much attention to everything I say?"

He shrugged, "Shouldn't I?"

I didn't respond. He didn't say anything either. He just held my gaze, not really smiling, but not really frowning either. A few seconds -maybe a minute- went by before I turned my head away. There was something I to ask him. It made me ache when I thought about it, so I knew I would have to ask him sooner or later, even if he didn't want me to.

"Matt," I said, clearing my throat.

"Bells," he said.

"I you okay?"

"Uh huh," he said.

I turned to face him, "I mean seriously though. Are you okay?"

"I'm great," he said. "Amazing, you could say."

"Well," I said. "You look like you could use a hug from everyone in lower six."

He pursed his lips, then his eyes drifted to floor. I don't know exactly what went through his mind in that moment, but I could tell he knew I was right.

"I'm okay," he said. "But I know people back at home won't be."

"People at home?"

"Yeah," he said. "I'm sure they've heard the news already. We received a few calls from his parents last night. See, Mike and I had this habit of not following curfew rules. He's expected him to always be home by seven. He'd show up around ten, but never after eleven, so when it went past midnight without him showing up, his parents started calling. I remember last night saying to his mom not to worry, he'd be back. Wherever he was, he was fine. So basically...I..." He cleared his throat. "I lied to her..."