It was that night that solidified our relationship, though him and I never saw each other for a while as we both got caught in exams. Visiting him on his campus grounds was a no no because I just couldn't risk running into Lilitha. Passing my last year of my high school career was very important to me; the reason which motivated me to stash my feelings for him aside just so I could pass and finally follow my sister into varsity. Due to Carl's death which had a delirious impact on me and left me in an emotional maze, making me take a schooling break, I still didn't regret being a year behind Audrey... Though I certainly did regret the fact that I was the reason the we had couldn't fulfil our promise of getting into University of Cape Town together together.
After that , Cassidy, Zoey Mia and I began attempting to settle our differences and resume our friendship, but trust issues were just vigorously present and threatening to stand between us. We tried opening up to each other plus they supported me whenever they could, trying to help me distress about my varsity and college applications. They were good, but Cassidy and Zoey's love for me could no longer touch my heart like the way it used.
Plus, after the exams, I seldom found myself stressing about UCT's response regarding my acceptance, I would find myself deluged in thoughts. This all until I got a visit from Jordan Machill, where he soon surprised me with his blue VW Golf Citi. This meant that him and I no longer had to depend on Uber rides to get across the City, go to the beach, to Century City, to table mountain or even Sea Point and V&A Waterfront.
As safe as I felt around him, being in his passenger's seat felt like indulging in a roller coaster ride due to how fast he loved to ride. Maybe he wanted to impress me, maybe he just wanted to seem absolutely cool and courageous in front of Cayla, Tom and Mia. Or, maybe he just wanted us to get there on time. The only time I'd see him drive slowly, calmly and cautiously was when I waited for in the St. James Church parking lot, before he'd park the car, get out and walk towards Audrey and I with decency, genuinely greeting church members as his slim fit suit neatly complimented his body. His blue tie matching with his then blue dyed fade, even though he would end end his heads to toe look with some black or white Nike AF1's, Jordan was a sneaker junkie.
This was the 3rd time I'd watched him pull up, but it was the first time he'd been present for the Youthful Sunday, which was a Sunday dedicated to the youth, who also planned, organised and ran the whole service. Youthful Sundays were held on the 3rd week of the of every month, to give the youth a chance to express and empower themselves. This particular Sunday, Jordan had just joined the youth, and had spent the Saturday practicing in the choir with the rest of the youth, he thought thought he was doing this for me, but he was wrong...
Hence, after we'd gotten inside and sat in front, for the front seats/section had been specifically reserved for the youth, and sang our hearts out in praise and worship, the choir's turn to sing soon came about. When they began singing I couldn't help but smile and release my blush fueled dimples as he smiled candidly. It was in the end when he took a few seconds to give a grateful speech to the church for welcoming him and giving him a platform to sing for the Lord. His bluish hair was glowing while dancing to the wind imposed by the big fans near him, his nose piercing shining as the sparkle in his smile accentuated my wonder just before apologized to Pastor Michael & Michelle Brill before professing his love for me before inciting a long round of applause as he came to join me... An unforgettable moment indeed.
By now i had even told the pastor about her and my intentions to marry her. After the service i would wait until we got outside before changing the hand holding my bible and holding hands with him as we walked to his car.
This was something that mother and aunt clearly didn't like, for it had become a habit of mine to come home late every Sunday. I would then arrive home to an anxiously waiting mother and father, for dad that i had become head over heels over him, maybe i had. Love was blind, but so was my father's dislike for him. It always got to me how dad never liked him for my pastor and the church elders had already approved of our relationship. It was until Christmas Eve, at our 19th birthday and family gathering, when Jordan brought my dad 4 bottles of Jack Daniels that my father finally accepted him as his potential son-in-law. He never bothered me about Jordan again ever since.
Good for me that was, but as for my sister her relation plane with Nigel finally crash landed before leaving her engulfed in flames, burnt by the flames of her heartbreak's heartburn. After that, she decided to take a break from the Mother City and enrolled in the University of Johannesburg for her second year.
By March the following year Audrey had successfully moved to Jo'burg but had begun pressuring me to move in with her at the apartment she she stayed, insisting that with my 4 distinctions I could easily get into Univesity of Johannesburg. Alas, that pressure only led me elsewhere, and soon enough I was staying in Mitchell's Plain with Aunt Anastasia, near the MP campus of the University of Western Cape; I didn't want to serve as Audrey's replacement at UCT.
I began complaining to my father that she attending school in Mitchell's Plain was too distracting, due to the weekly Gang fights and Gunshots which eyes and ears bore witness to and endured in, respectively.
Nevertheless, i became very lonely in the the colored, suburb township of Mitchell's Plain and kept persuading Jordan to move there too, for he was now starting his second year of college and had the option of enrolling at the Mitchell's Plain's Rose Bank College campus regardless of how wild, rachet and ghetto-ish he found it; because Jordan could speak Afrikaans anyways and there were many whites in Mitchell's Plain even though they'd become more of colored than whites. Lilitha's mother, Deputy Principal Zozi Blayi was certainly make Jordan's life hell, deluging his classes with heavy assignments, projects and weekly tests. Maybe she'd felt the small heartbreak that Jordan had inflicted Lilitha's heart.
By April everything had been sorted and he was finally granted permission to move to the MP campus, so i helped him find a place to move into. A place close to where i stayed even though his Landlords, Mr and Mrs Mthembu, were pretty problematic. They would only allow me to visit Jordan's dorm room only if i told them that I was his cousin sister.
My first first time visiting him, at the Mthembu's 3-star student residence, was filled with drama. It was a cold, rainy morning when i'd arrived. Only for the security guards to stand me in the rain, leaving my bloodstream tepid, and my throat filled with a tenuous twinge of rage.
"Halo djy baie pragtige kind... jou moet jy nommer vir my gee asseblief (pretty girl give me your digits)," insisted one of the guards with a tone and that was gaam, Afrikaans for ghetto and ratchet; while the other guard just shot me a smile short of front teeth.
"Thanks, I know I'm pretty, but I won't give you my number."The anger which dwelled within my voice, had also left my eyes feeling slightly tepid too.
"Asseblief pretty girlie, ek hou van jou. Baie...!" (I like you very much) The guard with the red beanie continued, telling me in Afrikaans that he liked me...
His irritating voice continuously intensified my rage, enticing my burning eyes to melt, though the tears were soon camouflaged in the rain, from the grey pregnant clouds which were something sort if unusual, besides being short of thunder.
Upon being granted entrance, after giving them a false number and blowing them a kiss I walked in with a bunch of students and soon i arrived at his dorm room, only to find cups of coffee waiting for me. Turned out he had been the one who'd ordered the guards to stall me. He soon smiled as worry showed on his face, making me think that he wanted to do the deed.
Until he finally confessed that one of the other reasons for his decision to come to Mitchell's Plain was...
"Was what...? Babes tell me," i asked curiously, as his thumbs brushed my cheeks.
"Remember what they say about the closest people to you," his voice softened.
"Are the ones who hurt you."
"Yeah i know, just tell me what's up," I insisted, my voice gripped with anxiety, my eardrums ready to accommodate his next words.
"You sister Ashleigh... She asked me out, just before she and Nigel broke up," she said.
"How could she do that?", I was truly baffled, I didn't want to believe it but the the faraway look in his eyes convinced me otherwise.
Jordan had to spend the rest of the night calming me down, as well as those that came after it I began suffering from insomnia. 'Till Audrey flew over from Jo'burg to celebrate a long weekend. As soon as she landed, I didn't waste no time before stealing Aunt Anastasia's car, leaving her a poetic note in the kitchen and taking the 90 minutes drive back to Constantia 'cause i really wanted to hear it from the accused horse's mouth. I left aunt behind because I didn't want her to hear what I had to say to Audrey, for ever since we were toddlers she'd always been the one to resolve our little conflicts. We were no longer toddlers, we were now almost 20 and in first, and second, year of varsity.
"How could she pull such a disrespectful stunt," I asked myself as I finally arrived home and parked behind my mother's blue Mini Cooper's parking spot. The fact that it wasn't there meant that they'd gone to the airport to pick Audrey.
"Ree, you really shouldn't have, i thought you were my ride or die... He's told me everything", said I, looking at her as I squeezed the air in search of relief.
"I couldn't help it, plus I was doing you a favour by testing his loyalty... I was playing sis," she muttered as guilt, that hung in her shadow liner, complemented her greenish eyes.
"Don't lie to yourself. Maybe this is why you were so willing to help me defend him from Cassidy and Lilitha; you just wanted to keep him closer to you hey? You sly, backstabbing..." I mocked her.
"All that I did for you 'Leigh, but it seems you're also choosing him over me. I guess he's indeed poisonous after all." Her tenacious arrogance showed.
"I suppose for him I wouldn't mind cutting off our blood ties...Like, what have i ever done for you to stab me in the back like this Ree?." yelled I, wondering about how deeply she'd become infatuated over him.
"Problem is you only care 'bout the two of you... I mean, I sacrificed my friendship with Cassie and Zoey, helping you defend your little pride!." Her expression had suddenly grown more serious now.
But no matter how angry we were we still could not afford to be caught arguing... So just like we'd always done whenever we argued, we would suppress our yells into whispers whenever we heard footsteps behind her door, walking in the passage, we would then whisper as though we were engaging in a profound gossip session.
That's when we spent the whole evening arguing as I reminded her that just because she and I were identical didn't give her the right to chase after what was mine; and that our mother would not be able to help her get away with the situation, no matter what sort of therapeutical session that mom would present would help me forgive her and rid my heart of the puny little grudge which I now had against her.
"So this is you stole my car?" Aunt Anastasia startled us as she barged into the room, mom shuffling behind her, a puzzled expression shared between their faces.
"You two better not be arguing again!" mom demanded, as the sharpness of her voice cut through the thick tension that had filled the room.
"And hi to you Audrey love," said aunt as she moulded her expression to lovingly cater for Audrey, as they hugged
"Care to explain what's going on?"
"It's Ree."
"Not it's you 'Leigh," Audrey contradicted me...
As close as we were she finally admitted her wrong, and I finally forgave her, with our mother's help of course. Despite the seriousness of the matter, the fact remains that she had had sacrificed her study time and travelled all the way just so she and I, as well as mom, dad and aunt Anastasia.
"I honestly didn't think you'd forgive, once I'm sorry," Audrey said gloomily, as we stood in the presence of my mother and aunt.
"Can't hold a grudge against you for too long..." I announced, "I can't waste my time doing that," burying my face in my hands, and giggling, I then felt Audrey's familiar touch before she took me into her embrace.
"Ncooow! It's just like when they 12."
"Don't you mean when they were 13...," mom contradicted aunt's statement, "after losing each other's barbie dolls." Mom's giggles followed
Looking back to them, Audrey and I saw them walking to us, whispering without moving their lips, candidly beaming.
That's when she called Jordan and apologized, after which, we buried the hatchet. God knows what kind of dirty looks she would have given him had that apologetic conversation been face to face. We'd avoided a household civil war I suppose, though this was just another episode of our sister rivalry.