Mommy ✓

if i could fly : (v)

VERY IMPORTANT AUTHORNOTE AT THE END!!

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P A R T   V

BRAMFONTEIN, 2020 

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Friday the 22nd of May for Amanda Ncube went like this:

It started with a 09:00 lecture in calculus and ended in a 13:00 tutorial for actuarial financial management. Then at 13:10, she got a text message from Asanda:

Hey, won't be able to hang with you in the afternoon, something came up. See you later tonight though, yeah?

Amanda should've felt a little disappointed; she'd been looking forward to spending an afternoon on one of the many spacious lawns in the sunspots on campus with the new girl she was seeing.

They would've shared a blanket, fruit, juice, sweets and perhaps she'd get to lay her head on Asanda's lap, while the girl rubbed her head with her long, glittery manicured nails.

Amanda liked that; she also liked being able to feel comfortable on her soft, large thighs. And things had been going well with her.

For the first time in years, she considered that she could build something worthwhile with the girl... so when she cancelled, with no real reason, Amanda was not sad. Instead, she opened her iMessage, to her conversation with Paiten earlier that day at 10:45:

Paitee💕✨: hey. gonna be done for the day at 14:00, then i'm going to starbucks at rosebank to study. i'll be at your res by 17:00, so we can meet Asanda at 18:00 will you be free by then?

Manda🖤: Yeah I will.

She set her fingers to typing her follow-up text:

Manda🖤: Actually, I'm done now. Don't mind going with you to Rosebank. Come pick me up? We're still meeting Asanda at 18:00 for sure.

Paitee💕✨: you're a nightmare to study around you don't shut up tho.

Manda🖤: I promise this time i will. listen, first freezo is on me, okay?

Paitee💕✨: you don't have to say that twice! omw!

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It would take Paiten less than twenty minutes to get to her, fifteen with no traffic. And when she finally arrived, Amanda assumed her designated seat in the passenger side.

Paiten was dressed in a cute, earth tone winter outfit, with her hair fashioned into two tight ponytails- a protective hairstyle to keep her hair from any damage done by the chilly late May wind. 

Amanda scarcely remembered teaching the other girl how to take care of her hair years before and she'd come a long way since then, especially since she could now tell the difference between a conditioner and a deep conditioner, a wash-and-go versus a full wash. It was the little things, but it made Amanda feel a little nostalgic for the awkward, impatient girl that had been her best friend in their adolescence.

Once they got to Rosebank, everything else followed like clockwork: the short trek to the Starbucks store where Amanda would ridicule Paiten for insisting on studying at a coffee shop like the protagonist in a cheesy rom-com, versus studying at the library; Paiten emphasising that the vibes in the university library were off and Starbucks was cute, quiet and made her want to do her best. 

Paiten would always choose the leather booth seats inside the store, where it was the quietest, with her Lenovo poised on the rustic wood table, a sheaf of notes all around her side of the desk, some spilling over to where Amanda sat. It would be Amanda's job to gather their cards to buy them coffees and to collect the refills because when Paiten was engrossed in her work, it took a lot to get her attention.