Scattered Stars

Chapter 20

*There will be violence in this chapter but it will happen at the end of the chapter. I will mark the beginning of the violence scene with ***... So yeah happy reading 😋 it's going to be a long one. Please don't skip the authors note at the end.

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Naledi

"Chommie, are you okay? You look like you are about to skin the flesh off your wrists with that shirt," Palesa said in her annoying voice.

I just rolled my eyes at her as I continued to aggressively wash the white shirt in my hands. We were sitting outside my shack, I was doing my laundry while Palesa sat on a brick doodling in her sketchbook.

She was babbling about her newest designs that she wanted me to fit and something about Johan and her trying to make a collaboration and something about Noah. But I had managed to drown out her whiney voice with my thoughts and the sound of splashing water as my school uniform rubbed sorely against my wrist but I was so out of it that the pain didn't register until Palesa pulled me out of my thoughts.

My wrists were an alarming shade of red going along the lines of purple and I hissed as the washing detergent made contact with my raw skin. "Chommie, ganti keng?"

At first, I thought it was a hiccup but I soon realized it was a sob when I felt a thrumming wetness roll down my cheeks. "Friend, it hurts, I didn't think it would hurt but it does."

Palesa quickly stood up and placed her book on the brick and wrapped me in a hug, squishing my face against her soft pillow-like breast, " Chommie, it's okay we will just rub some ointment on it." Palesa says trying to soothe my crying.

"I'm not talking about my wrists, yeah sure they hurt too but I'm talking about Dian."

"What about Dian, did you guys fight? What's going on friend?" She questions, I could see the worry on her face especially in the way her forehead creased and her lips were pursed in sympathy.

"He found out about the newspaper article."

"What newspaper article? Oh, the one where you had to... Oh, I see but wasn't that interview like a month ago?"

"Yeah, apparently they were flooded with juicy stories and the story of a young black girl being glorified wasn't so important, but now they ran out of juicy stories so they published it this week."

"Sorry, Chommie... But you knew it was coming."

"Friend I had forgotten about it for so long that when I saw the newspaper I felt like a deer caught in headlights," I confessed feeling hopeless.

"Shame man, what did he say?"

"He told me to get out, Friend, he was so hurt I didn't know what to do. Chommie, I swear I could see his heartbreak. He cried. Gosh, I'm such a horrible person," I groaned shaking my head.

She rubbed her hand on my back and I felt myself calm down. I pulled out of her hug and wiped the few tears left on my face using my shoulder.

"Chommie, what about your heart, how do you feel?"

How do I feel?

"I don't know, I feel bad and kind of hurt obviously... I just don't know how to feel about this, I need a hell lot of time to process all of this, but it's okay, you know why?"

"Why?" She asks warily.

"Because I'm going to talk to him and I'm going to fix things, it was just a misunderstanding."

"A misunderstanding? Friend, you basically hung the guy's dirty laundry for the entire town to see!" I think she was just being a tad bit too dramatic. Sure I said he was depressed and going through a tough time, but it was nothing major, I didn't even go into details about his life.