Nonhlanhla - Fortunate

Seven

7.5 years ago

Nonhlanhla

"Have you ever watched the reality tv show, the undateables?", Warren grunts behind her not sure where this conversation is headed and confused as to what the show had to do with anything.

"I've never seen it, my friends in high school used to talk about all their favorite reality tv shows, and I could only imagine based on how they would describe the shows."

The pair were sitting back to back at the fountain close to the main building on campus. The sun had already set but the sky hadn't completely succumbed to darkness, the light hues of pink and purple filled the sky. Besides, the lights around campus had come on making it easy to navigate and the fountain had lights inside illuminating the water beautifully. It was a chilly evening but the discussion between the young adults was long overdue...

It had been three months since the second semester had begun. What seemed to have been the beginnings of a blossoming friendship over the June holidays, had been reduced to occasional greetings whenever they would see each other on campus.

Nhlanhla had been avoiding Warren, without warning or explanation for weeks. Against her better judgment, Nhlanhla found herself deeply infatuated, or at the very least she was past the stage where what she felt, could still be categorized as a crush on Warren.

The first time they saw each other after the holidays, Nhlanhla was walking alone from class to res. Warren had shocked her by calling out her name, not caring about the people around campus staring at him, as he ran to her with the widest smile and engulfed her in a warm tight hug .... and that was all it took for her to know she was in deep trouble.

She could still remember how good his hoodie smelled as he wrapped his arms around her and how his chest rumbled as he laughed when she complained about being unable to breathe. When he finally let go of her, he told her he missed her, and she couldn't look him in the eye for fear they would give her away. However, that didn't stop the feeling of butterflies fluttering all inside her stomach.

He genuinely seemed happy to see her and she sighed and smiled back. Internally she resigned to shove her feelings for him in the deepest darkest part of herself and keep this amazing friendship she had gained.

Unfortunately for her, Warren became even more affectionate towards her. He hugged her whenever he saw her, offered her his hoodie when she got cold even shared his snacks and warm drinks with her. He seemed to be this endless pit of kindness just waiting to brighten up her day. Instead of her feelings for him going away they simply grew stronger, causing her even more pain.

After a month of her self-imposed torture, Nhlanhla couldn't take it anymore and in an attempt to control the feelings before they took over her life, which had become a trainwreck waiting to happen, Nhlanhla began to slowly limit her interactions with Warren.

It would hurt them at first but she couldn't tell him how she felt. She reasoned that he would simply spend more time with his myriad of friends and soon forget about her ... she convinced herself that there was no use delaying the inevitable so she had to find other friends and other things to occupy her time.

That's how Nhlanhla ended up joining her residence's female basketball team. Although a predominantly male sport, Nhlanhla found she enjoyed watching it and had decided to join to actively expand her social circle.

If the first semester had taught her anything, it was that no matter how hard you work, in school and in life apparently, who you know will determine how successful you are as much as what you know, sometimes even more so.