A fading knock is heard on the door, then followed by retreating footsteps. Then faraway voices. I lazily jolt myself awake and yawn. I roll over on the bed and blindly look for my phone. I slowly open my heavy eyes. I am feeling so tired, this nap did not help at all, but worsen things. Right now I feel like I have been hit by a bus. My eyes were met with the flashing light of my screen's phone, the room was dark. "Oh, my world!" I exclaim. I jump out of the bed. "Damn it! My date. I missed it. He must be disappointed". I think to myself how did I oversleep. I heard thumps on my door, but so far away, I thought it was the other room. I grab my phone. I dial Musa's contact. It rings. It gets picked. "Hey. I am sorry...." I apologize. "you were asleep, I am assuming...." the male husky voice replies. "Yah... Eish man. My body is so tired... But I still want the free ice cream. I mean I can just dress up and we leave" I suggest. "No bathing?" he asks. "yes, quick dress up, 30 minutes" I convince him. "20 minutes. It's 18:10. By 18:30 we are out", "okay". I hang up the call.
I quickly pull my luggage bag from the corner, open it wide open on the floor. What to wear I think to myself. Nothing fancy, inviting, just casual. I scan my clothes, avoiding ruining my neat pattern. I spent four hours packing this bag, I can't mess it up in a minute. I take off my tight Jean. I pull my dark grey jogger by the side of the bag. I take off my top and throw it on the bed. I start wearing my jogger. Search for a noble tee that I can wear. I spot a long sleeve grey t-shirt. I take it out and wear it. I close the bag and pull it back to the corner.
I hear the knock on the door. "I am coming....". I look underneath the bed I see my shoes and wonder what to wear with this kind of boyish look, sneakers will do. I open the door. "Almost done. I am here to help you hurry so that we can make it for 18:30," he says. I walk away from the door leaving him standing by the door. I kneel on the floor and pull my Mr Price sneakers from the bed and sit on the bed while I wear my socks. "You are just bored. A bored creature" I protest his statement. He walks in slowly into the room, scanning and scrutinizing my every move. He looks at his wristwatch. "18:25. Time is almost up". "Ugh give me a break. I am trying here. If it wasn't for the ice cream I would not go. Anyway why is your voice so... Husky or is it horsey?" I ask. "Uhm... I don't know why nature" he replies. "Does nature involve smoking which damaged your voice box?" I ask. He chuckles. "As in nature I was born like this. There's no day in my life when I had a clear voice" he answers me in confidence.
I get up and take my phone and keys, and we walk out of the room. "Oh, so you are just like this?", "Yes Dee". "To think about it, you are a little bit too different and eye-catching. Low, lazy, husky voice; light brown skin with dark full lips; big eyes with cognac brown pupils; dark gums, dark knuckles but your knees are not dark. Brown soft curly hair....are you a mixed breed, hybrid? " I ask him." Someone has been paying attention to detail ne. Nope, pure black man. Mom and dad very black people, and a bit traditional. All that you said it's genes from my mom and dad. There was a mutual sharing when they made me " he looks at me with a straight line smile.
We walk in silence. I hope I didn't upset him. I was just curious. I wanted to hear it from the horse's mouth, not from other people." Where are we going? " I ask him to break the cold piercing silence. " KFC, by Game. That's the only best KFC in this town. They have better food and customer service". "So... Bama why do you have black long straight hair?" he grins at me. I laugh at him. "nice joke. Uhm... It's not my real hair. It's a weave. My real hair.... Is black afro hair" I reply. And he gives me a dirty look. "I love messing with afro hair. Especially.... When...." he smirks. "when what?" I ask knowing the answer. "You know, let me show". He gets closer to me. And my heart just froze in astonishment. He grabs my hand, places it on his hand, our hands intertwine, he squeezes my hand. "Ah!" I mumble the sound out. He lets go of my hand and smirks. "When something like that happens" he concludes. "Oh, that," I say sheepishly. We walk into the KFC.
What the hell just happened. Did he just portray to me his fetish? Oh wow! I need to get another friend before I fall under his spell and become his puppet of seduction. "What do you want?" he busts my bubble. "Ice cream" I give an instant answer. "Which one?", "the one you want". I am still a little bit shaken after what just happened. He comes closer to me and whispers. "Are you alright?" he asks. "Yeah..." I assure him. He is not convinced and gives me an inquisitive look. "What meal do you want? I am thinking of eating a light meal. I will have a classic twister meal, and you?" he asks. "Same but classic flavour" I reply. "Okay". He walks to the cashier and places an order. While I settle myself on the chairs in the restaurant. I start fiddling with my phone trying to snap out of the moment that just happened.
"Did I disturb or harass you with my exhibition act? I thought you would understand it better like that" Musa's voice distract me. "Uhm... I a little bit disturbed. But not a big deal" I assure him. "Did I arouse you maybe I mean...", "Oh no no, hell no. That is not it" I interrupt his sentence. "I mean... I kinda...", "Hey! I am not okay" I argue, "I am...." he bluntly says it, "A little bit" he tries to calm me. I am shocked. He is aroused just by squeezing my hand. This guy is a creep, pervert, unfortunately, I can't leave him here because it's dark outside and he has already bought the ice cream, just waiting for the order.
"Are you serious?" I pretend to chuckle. "Not hard boner. Like it sent some chills to my spine. It felt good, like an awakening of some sort. The last time I felt like that I was bathing with cold water in Gauteng last year winter". I just look at him baffled and fascinated by his openness. This for me is attractive. "Oh... Uhm now I feel better. I thought you were talking about a boner". "Order 667" "that's us". He gets up and collects the order in takeaway bags and two Sunday ice-cream in a boxed tray. He walks to me, give me the ice-cream tray and we leave KFC.
After a short distance which took almost 30 minutes of slow-paced walking from KFC by the next main road, we reached our commune. I open the entrance gate for Musa as he had two takeaway bags, and I had a boxed tray of two ice-cream cups. He enters the commune and I close the gate behind. I walk to him. While walking I eat my ice cream. "It's not fair that you are eating the ice cream by yourself. Feed me too, my mouth is watering with every swallow that you make" He gives me puppy eyes. I feed him his cup of ice cream and he eats it, then smiles. We walk.
"Deya" A female voice calls out from behind. We turn our heads to look at the voice. And the voice was Funi and Lerato. Musa's face all of a sudden collapsed into coldness and low key irritation. "Hey" I greet them. "Mmh...you are feeding each other ice cream, I thought Musa hates publicly displaying his love, he does it in secret" Lerato mocks Musa. Musa ignores her statement and portrays an emotionless face. "Come on Lerato, Let Musa console himself. He's going through a rough time. I mean the break-up wasn't easy. Give him a break" Funi low key defend Musa. "Well, you reap what you sow. Enjoy Deya while it lasts, before the Queen comes back. Oh did she tell you she's coming back this week Musa?" Lerato continues with her perpetuation. "I don't know, but now I do. Thank you for the heads up" He gives an awkward smile. "Your room or my room?" Musa cuts the conversation. "Uhm...." I reply with hesitation. "My room then" he cuts me with his low key angry tone. His voice has become more low and husky. I can sense his frustration. We walk to his room, coincidentally his room is alongside Lerato and Funi's. Funi and Musa are neighbours, Lerato is Funi's neighbour. With this tension, their living arrangement is messed up right now. "Bye lovers!" Lerato gives Musa an intimidating look and gets in Funi's room.
We get inside Musa's room. He closes the door and put everything on his table which is not so far away from the door. "Sleepover" he begs with a soft sad voice. "Okay" I give an instant answer. I feel like hugging him, after discovering that he's going through heartache. I put the ice cream on the table. I am going to be like my mom, be a hugger. I walk towards him and hug him tight. "it's going to be alright". I whisper the words. I hope he heard me because my head is lying on his chest, not above his shoulders. He chuckles. "Aren't you the sweetest". He hugs me back. Pulls me back. "Thank you. That's enough hugs for the day. I am not a hugger.. And I am fine. I am sorry I lied. I am freaking single AF. I just wanted you to be comfortable with me you know..." he explains himself. "Uhuh. Okay" I walk away and sit on the plastic chair by the study table. "sit on the floor with me". He lies a flee blanket on the floor with two cushion pillows. I watch him set up the room while I settle myself on the floor as instructed.
He places his laptop on the floor in front of the food and switches it on. "Girls trip or Logan," he asks. "Isn't Girls trip too girly for you?" I ask him. "Isn't Logan too manly for you?" he asks back. "Okay. Girls trip then", "Girls love being sexist" he retorts. "How is that? Men are the ones mostly sexist, objectifying women", "Do you want to be like them?" he asks. "I am against such" I stand my ground. "Then don't promote it," he says with a serious tone. Is this man cancelling my behaviour? I think I have involved myself with a woke black man.
He puts his ice-cream cup on the fridge which was beginning to melt away. I have already finished mine and he is putting it in the fridge. It's going to be a long night and very willing to help him eat his ice cream. He plays the Girls Trip movie. We watch it while we eating the food, I mean while I finish everything on the takeaways. He could see that I am taking these two tasks which are watching the movie and eating seriously because I am executing them with finesse. When the movie ends, the food was finished too. I pushed myself against his big bed. "Your bed is bigger than mine. I was already wondering where would I sleep" I think aloud. "Oh that. We will sleep together on the bed. Mine is bigger because I bought it, and I promise you it's new and comfortable. You will be my first... On the bed". "Your first what?" I ask with curiosity. "Sleeper". I roll my eyes at him. "So I just feel special," I ask mockingly. "No... I am just saying. It's been a while someone slept here with me," he says reminiscently. "Okay. For heads up, please don't sleep naked. Sleep with your trousers on, at least you can take off your top", "You can sleep with your undie and bra, I won't touch you", "I am not comfortable", "my boxer brief will make you uncomfortable?", "I don't want to feel your downward anger". He burst out laughing. "My what? Okay. Whatever. But if I am downward angry with or without the trousers you will feel it". He chuckles and wipes his teary eyes that welled up when he was laughing at me. " I don't care. Just keep your pants on", "it's hot", "I don't care. And... I am sleepy. I am too full. I want to rest". "it's only 23:00 it's still early" He looks at his wristwatch, then takes it off and place it inside the wooden side bed drawer next to his bed.
"Sure" I yawn. "okay fine". He switches off the laptop. Cleans the floor and throw the takeaways in the bin. I get on top of the bed and watch him move around in slumber. He switches off the room light and switches on the side lamp on top of the side bed drawer. I watch him in my half-sleep mode while he takes off his t-shirt revealing his natural ab toned upper body. His upper body is well sculptured and lean. He is not buffy neither small, but enough to grab. I see his hands pulling down his pants. The flash of that jolted me out of my sleep. "What are you doing?" I ask him and he smiles sheepishly. He pulls the pants up. I roll against the wall and place my head on his soft bed cushion pillow, resting my heavy head and closing my eyes. I feel the blanket slides off under my feet and covers my lower body. I feel Musa's body sliding inside the flee blanket I am covered with. I roll my body to face the wall. I can feel his body facing upwards releasing warm energy inside the blanket. My body starts to feel warm and tingling sensations. But I am going to ignore these feelings and sleep.
My body rolls over, and my head hits something. I quickly roll back to my original position facing the wall to continue sleeping. But something kept tucking me and when I try to pinpoint what it is, I felt Musa quickly toss his body and our backs were facing each other. I could feel the increase of his body temperature by slightly touching his feet but ignored it, and kick the blanket away to sleep comfortably and peacefully.