She Who Stole His Heart

21

August did not come back to the hospital. He video called and texted when he was free.

She was discharged two days later. August came to see her then, knowing that Mzamo still did not like him, but tried to win his favour by carrying everything that needed to be carried. Mzamo was not complaining. Less work for him.

August only helped out for an hour, and then had to return home to try and solve the current problem. He wanted to see Kholwa as much as he could but knew that it would upset her, as well as Veronica, so he stayed away. They were all important to him, so he was still trying to find the middle ground in all of it.

But as the time went by and his debut showcase drew closer the problem was still not getting solved quick enough, he stopped having the free time to even send her a good night text. He'd usually pass out on his bed before it even registered that he was back home. He'd wake up early and somehow manage to text her during breakfast.

And finally, after the many weeks that they could barely see each other, she called.

"Kholwa!" He sounded too excited. He looked at both of his roommates, who were looking at him. He bashfully smiled and walked to his bedroom for more privacy.

"I'm not disturbing you, am I?" Kholwa carefully asked on the other end.

"No, of course not. I'm free for now."

"Great!" She laughed on the other end. "You said that tomorrow you'll be coming over since it will be your first day off in a while, right?"

"Yeah."

"I thought about it, and I was wondering if I shouldn't just come to you and meet your friends. Sounds great, right?" She was excited, August could hear, but would she really be comfortable?

"Come here?" He hummed thoughtfully, trying to phrase what he wanted to say next properly. "We can't do that."

"Why not?" Her tone fell.

"I'm just... I'm not ready to introduce you to them yet." They saw her as a bad influence. "Next time."

She was silent. "You're embarrassed of me." Her voice was low and dejected.

"No, no. How could I...?"

"Forget I said anything. We'll talk later then."

"Wait!" But the line went dead. She was upset. He was not so dense that he did not understand that much. He would have felt the same way if she said that.