Azalea The Queen

Azalea

"Oh. My. God!" Alungile exclaimed as she stared at something on her phone, her facial expression one of shook. "Sis, this is you right?" she got up and made her way over to me as I stirred up the pap in the pot.

"What?" I asked, turning around after placing the lid on. My younger sister tilted her phone toward me. As soon as I saw the escalating video of myself on social media saving the prince, I rolled my eyes. "Oh that," I wiped my hands with the dishcloth.

It's been two days since I found out I was trending on social media. It was appalling how people seemed to only care about how I saved the prince instead of how the man was doing.
I sighed anyway.

" 'Oh that', is that all? Haibo wena, you are a celeb now. I can't wait to tell my friends that my sister saved a prince. Zwane is gonna be so jealous, omg!" She squealed. I shook my head, choosing to just ignore her.

It was a Friday today, I usually have Fridays off so today was one of those lucky Fridays of my life. "Where is Abo?" I asked my now-beaming sister. Were these the things that made her happy? Unwanted fame?

"He went to play at Zuko's house," I hated how she was always so glued to that damn cell phone. I wish I could just snatch and throw it away. But I knew if I did that, it wouldn't end well.

"Help me chop the peppers, and onion Alu and put that phone away." I rolled my eyes at her.
She didn't put up a fight, instead just got up and helped me. I looked at her in horror.

"What?" she smiled at me.

"It's just weird that you didn't give me any attitude," I told her honestly.

"Oh, I can't do that to my celebrity of a sister."
I rolled my eyes. Of course, that was why the young female would give respect to her older sister as if she was some big shot. "So, when are you going to the palace? Have you met the prince yet, you know besides from that day? You should take advantage of this you know."

By the time she had stopped with her chatter, I had already had enough. I didn't bother to pay attention to her as I zoned her out. My mind drifted to the man I met at the dry cleaner, the prince.

His pictures on these socials did him no justice. He was a handsome man. All macho and masculine. A black stubble coating his face. A nice fade cut on top of his head. Tall, dark, and brooding. I didn't even have to talk about his voice, God it was enticing. But of course, he had to have eyes as cold as Antarctica.

I shook my head, I had to rid the prince out of my mind. Hopefully, we never have to meet again, he was causing havoc in my life as it was.
A knock came at the door.

I didn't expect to see a beautiful woman standing behind my door as I yanked the door open. Was she lost? She didn't look like she belonged to this side of town if her clothes and demeanor had anything to do with it.
"Can I help you?" I politely asked.

She smiled, seeming like she was impressed with something. She didn't say anything for a few seconds just staring at me. "Mam, is there something I can help you with? Are you perhaps lost?" I tried to see if she could even hear me.

"Can I come in?" Her voice was smooth and gentle. I looked around outside, not far from my house there was a slick black SUV parked and a man dressed in all black standing still.
"Oh, I won't take a lot of your time dear," she smiled. God, her smile.

I opened the door wide for her to come in.

___

I made her tea, and she sat comfortably on our worn-out sofa, making me quite embarrassed. She looked like she was from money, not small money but real money. Everything about my house made me feel small.

I had told Alungile to go to my room I would finish up with the cooking. The woman was staring at me. It made me uncomfortable and self-conscious at the way she was staring at me. "Oh dear, you are beautiful." It was like she knew how I was feeling.

"T-thank you," I don't know why I was so nervous. Maybe it was the way her aura demanded attention yet was also elegant at the same time. I looked down at my hands.

Her compliment did nothing to ease my nerves. I knew how I looked, average. I wasn't thin, but I wasn't fat either. My thighs were big, my curves were big, and my behind was also big. I didn't have a figure, I had handles, but they weren't too much that I couldn't feel comfortable in crop tops. My breasts were normal size cups, not too large and not too small.

My skin color was light, I was so light-skinned, I hated it sometimes. Everyone in my family was light-skinned, courtesy of my mother's genes. I was thankful for those genes because I was far from being ugly. I didn't mean to sound arrogant but I was actually a sore sight to behold. Just my body I was conscious about.

"I should probably introduce myself." she put her cup of tea on the table and sat back. "My name is Thembeka, Thembeka Zulu. I'm the mother of the man you saved a few days ago,"
She looked straight at me.

My eyes probably looked like I had seen a ghost. Did that mean I was in the presence of the queen? Holy shit, the queen was literally at my house, sitting on my sofa. I opened my mouth to say something but nothing came out.

"I'm sorry to have just barged into your home, but I needed to see you," she took on a serious look. "I want you to be my son's wife." I choked on air. I choked literally on nothing but air.
I started coughing uncontrollably.

After coming down as the queen rubbed my back. I didn't even notice she had stood up and come up to me. "There, there. Oh my, I'm so sorry." she soothingly calmed me down.

"I'm sorry, what?" I croaked out. My voice was hoarse from the coughing.

Thembeka went to sit back down. "I know it sounds ridiculous but I'm desperate. I came to find you after I saw the video on social media. Something drew me to you and I just couldn't ignore it. Please marry my son." She took out her card and placed it on the table. "I'll let you think about it-"

"No," I said at last. "There's nothing to think about, I'm sorry your Highness but I won't marry your son." I took the card and held it out to her. She pushed it back to me.

"Keep it. In case you change your mind, I'll be waiting for your call." She looked so assertive after having said all that. She looked so sure that I was going to call her.

She went to the door and opened it. "It was nice to meet you," she smiled. Unfortunately, I couldn't say the same about her.