The North

Chapter 1: The Precipice

The car came to a quiet stop as Kabelo parked between two black Golf GTIs in the underground parking lot. The addition of his made it three, except his GTI was not black like the other two, but rather a much lighter silver color, "silver leaf" as the salesman at the dealership had described it. He pulled hard on the handbrake and looked up into the rear-view mirror, assessing the damage behind him.

Senzo and Thato were both passed out against each door in the back of the vehicle, half-eaten burgers and empty beer cans scattered at their feet, and they were seated perfectly still except for the rhythmic rise and fall of their sleeping bodies.

They had started drinking long before Kabelo picked them up from the Dainfern estate where Thato lived, so it was no surprise to him when they passed out during the drive to the club, where only a short while before they had been acting up the way they usually did before a night out.

"This bitch is fucking gorgeous" said the girl seated in the passenger seat of the car. She spoke in a soft voice, as if she was reading her own thoughts out loud to herself.

It surprised Kabelo, the sound of her voice, because he had forgotten that Mbali was even in the car. She had been glued to her phone since being picked up from her parents' house in the South of Johannesburg, flicking through various Instagram and Twitter posts with such focus that she had simply drifted out of notice. Not that Kabelo minded. Their friendship was a special one, the kind that was oblivious to the moments of silence that seemed to make other people uncomfortable.

"Are you thirsting over girls again?" Kabelo asked, smiling at how predictable Mbali was with her behavior "Let me see the hunnie you're looking at."

"Mind your business...birthday boy" Mbali giggled, playing with the black curls that framed her face. She coiled thick tufts of hair around her index finger before letting them fall, angry and disturbed, down to her shoulders where they settled.

"The birthday boy just wants a little peek" Kabelo said, looking at the picture after taking the phone from her hand.

A girl and guy stood side-by-side in the Instagram post; their hands intimately locked together, both of them exquisitely dressed. And there was a caption beneath the picture, "Mine <3" it read.

But it was the guy in the picture who caught Kabelo's attention more than anything: the one wearing a maroon suit with the deep burgundy color of an expensive red wine; the one whose entire appearance felt like the embodiment of power and everything that comes with it; the one with the unmistakable air of someone in control. He was everything Kabelo wanted to be.

"That's Lesedi and her boyfriend Tau." Mbali said matter-of-factly, "Joburg's 'it' couple."

"The gent's suit is hella fresh" Kabelo responded, returning the phone to Mbali.

He turned his body to face her before continuing. "Even though you're not into guys, would you still let him hit it?" he finished, smiling as he spoke.

"So I'm just gonna stop you right there, nigga. Men are trash, have always been trash, and will always be trash! Done and dusted" Mbali declared. She laughed as she spoke.

"My bad, my bad." Kabelo replied, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender. He was laughing too.

"How are you feeling about everything?" Mbali asked, suddenly sounding serious.

"Everything?" Kabelo questioned. He sighed, and then wiped his face with his hand as if trying to refresh his memory before answering.

He did not feel good at all. He had been academically excluded from two universities, his father had abandoned his family, his mother was depressed, and he only added to her worries by further disappointing her.