Nonhlanhla - Fortunate

Three

8 years ago

Nonhlanhla

If something is too good to be true then it probably is.

Nonhlanhla's life was living proof of this saying. When she met the love of her life she was a first year student at university, it was the first month in and she was sitting in the library when he came and sat next to her. He greeted her and she greeted back and they had continued studying beside one another without incident until she left later that evening.

The next afternoon when she came into the library to study, she noticed, while walking around the library looking for a place to sit, that almost all the spaces were full.

That's when she saw his familiar face and that the seat next to him had a bag on it. So she approached him and lightly tapped on his shoulder and waved, upon lifting his head and recognising her he immediately removed his bag from the chair and she sat down.

" I'm Warren" he whispered looking at her expectantly as she settled in to her seat, "Nonhlanhla" she replied with a small smile, then proceeded take out her study materials, to put on her earphones and study.

From then on every other afternoon whenever she went to the library she would find him there, sitting alone studying, she liked that about him.

Their first real conversation was a few weeks later at the local grocery store. She saw him first but chose not to greet him but when he saw her he waved, so she obliged and waved back.

After finishing at the till she was surprised to see him waiting outside for her. It was the first time they talked beyond salutations, she had gathered from catching glimpses of his study materials that he was an accounting student, but seemingly he still hadn't figured out her exact field of study.

He was impressed when she shared that she was an Mathematics and Science major. Then they walked in silence for a bit, all the while she kept sneaking short glances at him, she couldn't tell what his ethnicity was exactly, but she could tell he was mixed just unclear a mix of what.

Not wanting to seem nosey, she told him she was from KZN and that her mother tongue was IsiZulu. He replied explaining that he was from Western Cape and that his vernacular was Afrikaans and IsiXhosa since his father was coloured and his mother was Xhosa. She laughed thinking at least he'd be able to understand her when she spoke IsiZulu.

That day he walked her back to campus, it was a cool and sunny day. The walk that usually took 10 minute from the store to the gate, took 40 minutes but it still felt too short.

They talked about getting accepted into varsity; how he found out an hour after collecting his matric results, and how she only got an email 2 weeks after the results had come out and she had started losing hope;

How they got to Pretoria - his parents had brought him and all his belongings in their van and she had taken the bus by herself with just 2 suitcases to her name.

They shared on their living arrangements, how he had a small cottage close to campus whereas she was staying in a shared room on campus and just about everything in between.

All too soon they had to part ways, promising to see each other at the library, each went their seperate ways. Nonhlanhla's roomate Hlelile noticed the change in her roomie almost immediately and began mercilessly teasing her. Although not a shy person by nature, Nonhlanhla resolved not to speak about him, as not to make a big deal out of one friendly conversation.

She decided to cook and binge watch anime for the rest of jer evening, she was determined to forget about him and the way he made her feel when he spoke to her.