"Excuse me", said the cashier, "you didn't pay".
The shame, the humiliation...
"I'm sorry, I was distrac..."
"Just pay bhuti"
I swiped my student card and left red faced, they say black people don't blush but I could have sworn my cheeks were crimson like ripe tomatoes. I was feeling everyone's eyes on me and I heard a few giggles from the girls who were standing behind me but I'd beat myself up about that later, for now I needed to catch up with you and that would happen in about 20 seconds or so. "Besides, those girls looked painfully ugly anyway", I thought, trying to console myself.
From the till you can see outside, it was a quiet Wednesday afternoon on campus, people walking lazily to and from their classes.
I was slowly catching up with you while trying to be inconspicuous and that's when it happened, I felt like I had just noticed that I forgot to convert my airtime into data while browsing carelessly through Instagram. You know that feeling when you pour cereal in a bowl and realise the milk isn't enough and there's absolutely nothing you can do? I'm talking about that cold and disturbing feeling when one of your earphones stops working when you really need music for a long journey in a taxi blasting Maskandi music? Yes, that's the one.
That's exactly how I felt when I saw your boyfriend approaching and giving you a kiss, you walked hand in hand. I stood there, mouth agape, egg on my face, my stomach lurched and the warm day suddenly turned into a cold winter's evening, I took the L. My pie didn't even taste good anymore as I walked in the opposite direction; in fact it tasted like mud if anything, cold mud with a topping of despair and a side of "congratulations, you played yourself". I walked back to my res disappointed and embarrassed that people thought I was shoplifting, not to mention the fact that the girl of my dreams has her dream man already. It was a bad day to say the least.
Little did I know that it was about to get even worse. The events that would follow felt like cut scenes from Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events and I was the unpaid extra everyone treated like an intern.
As I was walking back to my res, groaning and mumbling under my breath, I ran into a few couples, they were holding hands, kissing and reminding me how miserable I was. One couple in particular got on my nerves because the boyfriend asked me to take a picture of them and I was tempted to aim the camera at their feet but decided against it.
When I finally arrived in my room, after what felt like an eternity of walking through the set of All You Need Is Love, the bad luck didn't stop. My internet wasn't working because of maintenance and only my favourite YouTube channels could cheer me up and if that wasn't bad enough, there was a power outage a few minutes later. I just decided to sleep otherwise I'd end up crying.
Months would pass and I wouldn't see you again, it was recess in a few days and the exams would follow a week after we open, I needed the rest. The day I saw you was a distant memory now, I'd giggle about it occasionally when I was alone because you wouldn't stray far from my mind. I wished you'd break up with your boyfriend, come to think of it, I had seen Mr Buff In Tight Clothes a few times but never with you by his side. A warm feeling of excitement suddenly washed over me.
Perhaps you broke up and maybe I still had a chance but how when I didn't even know your name or where to find you? Should I ask him the next time I bump into him? Maybe I should pretend you're my classmate and give him a book with my number in it? What would I say your name is though? You'd both probably think it's stupid. What if he sees through my lie and chokeslams me into the pavement? This is too stressful.
I woke up on Saturday morning and logged in to check the rest of my marks. I had qualified for all my exams, although my participation mark for Administrative Law wasn't too impressive, it was better than not writing at all. I spent the rest of my morning preparing to leave, having given up on finding my perfect stranger. Home is two taxis away so I caught the first one outside campus that would take me to the taxi rank then a second one would take me home to Ikageng. Funny enough, I woke up thinking about you, maybe it's because of the dream I had; we met at the library and you were pregnant with twins, it broke my heart when your boyfriend asked me to be the godfather of your kids.
I was confused, sad and angry and I woke up with a start before I could even respond to that bizarre request. It was a weird dream I thought to myself as I boarded the first taxi to town and headed straight to the backseat, greeting the passengers who blue ticked me except for one elderly man who mumbled something that sounded like "hello son". The dream made me think about you quite a lot again, flooding my mind with questions and impossible scenarios from that day, I was so distracted I almost paid double my taxi fare.
What if you dropped out? What if you were pregnant by that oversized muscle bound steroid enthusiast? God, I would hope not... Or... What if you were about to catch the same taxi I'm in? As the taxi came to a halt, my heart was pounding like a Distruction Boyz baseline, my eyes widened. It really was you...
