Uyangijabulisa

five

We stop outside a huge estate.

He presses a few buttons on the keypad at the gate. The speaker starts ringing until a voice comes through.

"It's me, open," he commands. I want to question him, ask him how they can identify him by him saying 'it's me' but hold my tongue when the gate opens. Clearly his friends know him that well.

The inside of the estate is grand. It's clear as day that I'm coming from a different background than everyone. This makes me queasy about who Thabo is. A taxi driver whose friends live in upstate? I mean Montana is a very expensive place to live, these guys must have money to blow.

"I can hear your brain cracking, stop thinking too much," he says when he stops the car in front of a house. There are a few cars parked there too.

"I'm not," I lie, getting out of the car after he opens the door for me. Three things have me distracted right now. The fear of the unknown, his intoxicating scent and how good he looks.

"Whatever you say," he says and then interlocks our fingers. Electricity shoots up my arm. Our chemistry is insanely charged at this point. I allow him to lead me and we go to the back of the house, where a group of people sit on some outdoor furniture, others standing around a braai stand and a couple swimming in the huge pool.

"You made it!" One of them exclaims. She's a woman, short and tiny, but her facial features look exactly like Thabo, just more feminine. They hug and then she turns to me. "You must be Rorisang, I can understand now why my brother is crazy about you, you're gorgeous and it's nice to finally meet you," she says. My eyes are wide, my cheeks are flaming and a question runs through my mind, am I meeting his friends, or his family?

"Hi, thank you. Nice to meet you too, uh?" I get stuck on the name because unlike her, I haven't heard anything about them, well except for the fact that he has three female siblings and that he's the only boy at home.

"Oh, silly me. I'm Tebello, but everyone calls me Lolo. Come in, I'll introduce you to everyone, if I leave it to my brother, he'll hog you all to himself," she says and then laughs. I look back at Thabo when Lolo starts pulling me away with a 'help' expression on my face. He just laughs and follows close behind.

Introductions are done. There's a total of ten people here, including Thabo and I. Thankfully, they are all his friends, and his sister is only here because she's engaged to his friend, something I picked up on that he didn't quiet like.

"I'm gonna help the guys braai neh? You'll be okay here?" I want to scream no, but the girls are all looking at me and I don't want to come across as someone clingy, especially to a man I can't even claim, so I just nod and watch him longingly as he leaves me out to dry. I already know I'm about to be questioned.

"So you and Thabo huh? I didn't quiet expect you to be someone to fully capture his attention like that," one of the ladies says, a name I don't care to remember now that she has spoken and her words rub me off the wrong way. I'm timid and reserved, but it would be a cold day in hell before I allow someone to disrespect me.

"When you say 'you', I'm sure you mean beautiful, elegant and truly out of this world right? Because we all know the women my brother has been with aren't close to her in class, and for him to actually introduce her to us shows how important she is. So I'd watch what I say, Candice," Lolo says, coming to my rescue. I won't even lie, that really buttered me up inside. When she looks at me, I mouth a thank you and she smiles.

"Yeah, uh, that's what I mean," the girl stutters but everyone can tell she's lying. I don't bother answering her question, instead, one of the females, her name is Ntombi, suggests we play a game as an ice breaker. Everyone is on board, including me, but Candice leaves to join the boys, and the atmosphere changes, becomes lighter.

"We're sorry about her, she's really stuck up. We have to stomach her shitty attitude because she's married to our friend and he's blind to her flaws," Dakalo, the last of the women says.

"It's okay, nothing I can't handle," I say with a smile and everyone seemingly calms down. The game to play is 30 seconds. We play in teams of two and Lolo snatches me up quick. I have never played the game before, so they do a trial run for me. Once I grab on to it, we start the game for real.

It takes us fifteen minutes to finish the board. We win by four points, thanks to Lolo and I being competitive. The vibe is so loud, I'm having so much fun. The little shell of awkwardness has broken and with Candice away with the guys, there weren't any weird vibes.

But alas we have to eat and Dakalo, she's our host, makes sure that everything is laid out perfectly for us to dig in and enjoy. As for Thabo, he squeezes in between Lolo and I, separating us and makes sure to pull me close to him.

"How am I going to eat?" I say low enough for only his ears.

"I'll feed you, don't worry," he says it like it's a no brainer. My eyes go wide, is he being serious? This guy is really something else.

"But I have hands that work, why you doing this?" I whine the second part. He chuckles, reaches for a piece of wors and hangs it close to my mouth. I can feel them watching us, my cheeks are flaming from the attention. I surprise myself by opening my mouth, and when he places it in my mouth, I take a bite.

"Tell me you didn't enjoy that," he dares, a smirk playing on his full lips.

"You didn't enjoy that," I mock him. He laughs, catching on to what I was doing.

"Okay lovebirds! That's about enough of you." Everyone joins in agreement, and my entire body flames up once I return to planet earth. This man! "Anyway Rorisang, how did you snatch up our boy?"

"We're not together, you know that right?" I point out. And this talk about snatching him up, like was he an unavailable man or something?

"Yet. Don't worry baby, I'm going to change that very soon," Thabo responds. Dakalo and Lolo swoon.

"My man!" Sihle, Ntombi's boyfriend says, dabbing Thabo up. I want the ground to open up and swallow me.

Candice remains decent throughout the night, and by decent I mean she keeps quiet for the most part and only talks when spoken to. Thabo ends up feeding me like he said he would and I get over the awkwardness after a few bites. His friends are good people, a really nice bunch. He was right, I had nothing to worry about, not even Candice.

The girls, sans Candice, make me promise that I'll meet with them again for a girls hangout. We exchange numbers and I leave with a goodie bag Dakolo prepared for everyone, including a Tupperware filled with meat and salads.

"That was fun," I say in Thabo's car.

"See? Nothing to worry about." He pulls out the parking spot, places his hand on my thigh and drives me back home. I guess the hand placement is a thing now.