chapter 7

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Tebogo's pov

I was at my apartment watching Tyler Perry movies eating some snacks and ice cream , they were my favorite movies because they related to what we as women went through regardless of your skin colour we still go through the same shit but the difference is how we react to certain things according to our race and culture.

My phone begins to ring, and I wonder who is calling me because let's face it, no one ever calls me. I see an unknown caller .
"Hello, it's Tebogo, and I'm speaking to "

I wait for a few minutes for the person at the end of the other line to speak ."um its mandla."

"Mandla who," I say, having my suspicions on who the person might be .

"Mandla, your brother ,I got your numbers from our mother." I start to jump around. Oh my God, after all those years he called me, I thought I would never hear from him again .
Mandla is my brother from the home I grew
Up in, we were best friends, but he was three years older than me, so when I was doing my final year in high school, he kind of got kicked out because he was too old .

And ever since then, I've never heard from him. "Oh my God, where are you? How are you? I'm taking a cab to wherever you are," I say, overly excited .

I remember all those years I used to have a crush on him but he kept on calling himself my brother, he was very handsome and every girl in the hostel was crazy about him . We used to sneak into the boys' hostel, me and my friends, just to see him he was the only boy I ever felt a thing for .

After he left I decided to focus more on my studies so I can get out of this place and live my dream but I missed him a lot especially when the boys from the hostel used to bully me he used to stand up for me and I would go to him crying he would hug me and say they all are jealous of my beauty.

Girls used to envy me I felt like a queen because I had access to the most beautiful guy at school , girls would give me their numbers to give to him and I would throw them in the trash can because I like him for myself don't get me wrong he had many girlfriends and some of them were way out of my league I couldn't compete with them.

"Slow down, Tebo one question at a time," he says with his sweet voice still having an effect on me.

"It's just that I'm so excited to hear from you after all these years," I say in a sad tone, tears threatening to come out .

"Okay let's do , let's met tomorrow for lunch I'll send you the location so we can catch up " I agreed to meet mandla and from then I kept looking at the clock begging time to run so I can see my mandla

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It's now lunchtime and I'm sad that I'm leaving Lindy to spend it by herself but this was a little bit too personal .I needed to be on my own when I met mandla , today I put on the best clothes to show mandla that I've grown I was hoping he would stop seeing me as his sister but a potential lover .

I called an Uber cab to take me to the corner spur .When I got there, I walked like I was about to see my matric results in the newspaper. I saw him sitting in the booth patiently waiting for me .He was always on time while I was on the other hand, and I was never early for anything unless it was work.

He was looking as handsome as ever with his pink lips and handsome green eyes,he was not tall but he was definitely taller than me, a dream honestly my dream everything I wanted in a man I didn't even care if he doesn't have much because I know how life can affect you especially as an orphan.

He lost his parents when he was ten years and no one knows his family was willing to take him in but they were more then willing to take in his parent's business which was a multi million rand company.

As soon as he sees me, he stands up and gives me the tightest hug and kisses me on my forehead."Tebo, you have grown so much, and you look beautiful more than ever."

"Thanks." we sat down and waiting for our orders to be taken. I ordered calamari and fries his favourite dish with a big bar-one milkshake, and he ordered the same, but he ordered a bottle of wine .

"So how are things, Tebo?" I wanted to say horrible and tell him that I've been lonely after he left and drowned myself in books .

"Life is great I pursued my life long dream and became a lawyer , I started working recently I got my dream job and everything has been wonderful " I say ranting about my life but I felt sorry because things might not be going as good as how things are going in my life .

" What about you?"

" well after I left I had nothing I literally had to start from zero eating from hand to mouth , few months I met a person whose story was similar to mine and he told me all they did to get everything back so I followed his advice and filed a lawsuit against my greedy family , they gave me everything that belonged to my parents and which I sold " I can't believe he was rich but all I knew is he deserved every penny his parents worked hard for.

"I continued with the business but I sold everything else to invest in the business because it was almost bankrupt , and I found out that I had a trust fund but was not given to me because i was declared dead, a whole death certificate was taken to the lawyers " People are evil hearted I mean these were things that were happening around us but some of us choose to have a blind eye and look away not reporting those who are evil .

"Whoa, man, I don't know what I would have done if I were you . People are so cruel," i honestly said, looking at my current situation.

"Well, let's talk about how we were things after I left. I hope no one dared to touch you," he said, being protective of me .

"After you left I felt alone and buried myself in books because I wanted to get into law school to one day help you with your situation, I pushed myself so hard hoping that one day you were going to come through the door but you never did so when I realized you were never coming back I shut the whole world outside " I say with tears running down my cheeks . He gave me a tight hug, looking really concerned.

I was a very strong person emotionally but when your pillar of strength just ups and leave you become dead ,he was what kept me going in the orphanage even though I had everything I could dream of but it hit me hard that no one wanted to adopt me .I kept asking myself what was different about me .

I can't say I really got over that feeling of rejection, but all I can say is that I've grown, and all that happened in the past were ugly scars that were healed but still very visible.

"I did not know you felt this way, I wanted to come back, but after a year you were gone and Sister mary had even moved, they said she went back home . No one had a trace of where you were. Even the sisters that lived there had no idea where you were . So I gave up untill I saw sister mary in town ,I didn't know we lived in the same town for all these years" wow I should have tried my best to locate him but I didn't I was selfish thinking about myself .

"I'm sorry to hear all that. I should have honestly maybe also tried to look for you, but I didn't know where I would have started," I say, wiping my tears away .

"Well, don't worry, we family and we will always find each other no matter where we are." The word family hurt me more than it should have. I gave a fake smile .

"So what's going on in your life have you found the one or are you still looking " I ask no matter how hurt I was and the answer I wanted to hear I made sure to keep a straight face .

" well about that its part of the reasons why I looked harder then before for you I'm getting married " my whole world stopped there and I felt myself forgetting how to breath I had a mini panic attack .

"Tebo, are you alright?" he said by my side, giving me a paper bag to breathe into .I did just that, and I felt myself regaining my breath .

"Yeah, I'm fine." I looked into his eyes, looking for something ,anything at all, but I couldn't find it .

" I need to leave." I took my bag.

" Wait, what? Why do you want a leave? " I got out without answering him. I needed to be by myself .

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