I wake up and I can hear my phone alarm blaring on my nightstand. I groan as I get up and switch it off, I can't believe it's Monday already. I quickly get ready and its too late to make anything so I eat cereal for breakfast as I contemplate my weekend. All I did was laze around the apartment, watch anime and eat junk food, at least yesterday I washed my hair and tided the apartment a bit.
Just before I leave, I use Google maps to find the route to the nearest bus stop, only a 10 minute walk from the apartment. Uber is only for emergencies or if I don't know where I am going, and the taxi rank is too far from my apartment. I lock my door leaving my apartment building behind me.
I am halfway to the bus stop when my phone starts ringing, the ring tone is the Venom by Eminem, I roll my eyes because I know who is phoning, I insert my earphones and press answer " Wenzeni?" (What did you do?).
"Ah, can't a brother call his favorite sister to ask her how she is?", "Boy! I will drop this call if get to the point!", "yazi, I if we weren't related I would swear you hate me. Anyways, since you asked I kinda need you to calmtheparentsdownIsnuckoutandhaventgonehomeyet", "Angzwanga, awuphinde" (I didn't hear you, repeat that).
"I said I need you to calm the parents down, I snuck out and haven't gone home yet"
I switch off the phone, I can see the bus stop, with a few people standing there I greet them and wait for the bus to come.
That boy must have lost his mind. I love him really, but sneaking out! He calls me again, which I let ring to voicemail, enjoying the ringtone every time, on his 3rd call I answer.
"Sisi!" , I don't let him get a word in "No, you listen to me, Of all the stupid, irresponsible things you could do, not only did you sneak out which you knew would get you into trouble in the first place, you were dumb enough to stay out late enough for them to know and now have the nerve to call me asking for help, call the people you decided were worth sneaking out for!"
I drop the call again as the bus pulls in and I walk in. This child is going to give me a stroke so early in the morning, I pay the driver and stand in the isle since there aren't anymore seats available. I set my phone to vibrate just before he calls again, I cancel the call and try to listen to my music in peace. I cancel four more calls from him before he gets the message that I don't want to talk to him.
As the bus moves, I try to calm myself down, I am not worried about my parents. I am sure they saw he was gone and called his partner in crime, my so called twin. They know I would never condone such reckless behaviour and even though I wouldn't snitch I wouldn't cover for him either. They probably tried calling him, and I highly doubt he answered their call just makings matters worse. How am I related to someone so dense!
I'm sure he has 101 miss calls from the which is why he is spooked enough to call me.
20 minutes later I get off at the bus stop closest to the firm and I put away my earphones,l because crime is real in these parts. I walk the rest of the way without incident, thinking about why Carol encourages our brother's reckless behaviour, it's like they have a death wish. I am not getting in between him and the beating Baba will no doubt unleash on him.
As I walk into the firm's lobby I see David kissing yet another conquest up against the wall. I cringe as I walk past them to the elevators, my phobia has gotten a bit better, but if too many people are in the elevator I think I would rather take the stairs. I get in and head straight to my cubical, I haven't seen Alka yet so my guess is she hasn't arrived yet.
I am excited for this week, we are going to observe our supervising attorney in court. Each attorney can only take two of us at a time, I'm with David...kill me now. I don't know what it is but something about that guy just rubs me the wrong way.
As I begin starting up my computer, I see Geraldine walk in, she walks over to me and greets me. We still aren't friends at this point, I don't think we will ever be but she is a good colleague so I don't mind her presence. She walks to her cubical which is behind mine and starts talking about her weekend. I am really not interested but I try to avoid being rude to people unless I absolutely have to, so I "mhmm" and "aha" in the approriate places mainly letting her continue.
I hear the elevator ding and pray its Alka, and the heavens must be smiling down on me because I see her strolling to the cubicals. I get up and give her a hug, she is surprised but hugs me back. She gives me a funny look and I tell her I'm starving and have to go to the cafeteria now. I grab her wrist as we head back towards the elevators, once inside she laughs at me, "Geraldine?", she asks I nod, she continues laughing at me and I just roll my eyes.
We get off the elevator and head to the coffee bar, while waiting for our order, I see a white guy sitting in our usual spot. I nudge Alka and point to him, "So?", she asks, "it's a table with four chairs and there are other free tables." I respond by telling her that I like our spot and don't want to share it with anyone else, but she just grins at me and says, "be nice". I feign offence and ask, " aren't I always?", she scoffs as our names are called and I take my hot chocolate and muffin, and walk towards our table.
I sit down next to the guy, opposite the window, where I usually sit, I love the view from the window, looking at the city below. "Hi, I'm Karen, you are?"
I look straight at him, he lifts his head, thick with short curly ginger hair and faces me with his dark green eyes. He has freckles all over his face, ok, I was not expecting him to look this cute.
I blink away the thought, waiting for him to answer me. Alka sits down next to me he turns to her as well and then replies, "I'm Fredrick, Fred for short." "I'm Alka", she introduces herself giving a short wave. "I haven't seen you here before, do you work in this building?", "Yeah, I'm an actuary", "Oh, really...".
There goes Alka, my social butterfly, I love her for it though, this is how she always gets the office gossip. I've tune them out as I am enjoying muffin while it's still warm, we have ten minutes before we have to get back to work.
"...David", "What about David?", I ask, "Oh, Fred was just telling me that his brother David works at our law firm". I give a wide eyed look of surprise and pat his hand, "you poor unfortunate soul, I don't know how you've survived all this time with his over inflated ego sucking up all the oxygen in the room." He laughs, rubbing the back of his neck " yeah, he is something".
I think he is a bit shy he hasn't looked up at me since we started talking, "tell me does anyone actually call you Fredrick or Rick, or Red?", I ask, he fiddles with his hands and responds "nnno it's usually Fred or Freddie" he winces as he says the latter, I nod and I tell him we have to leave and and get up to walking to the elevators. I hear Alka tell him that we will see him around.
Alka follows me to the elevator and I just look at her, she feigns innocence. As the elevator closes and goes up she looks at me a and asks "what?", I turn my body fully facing her "DON'T WHAT ME!, we are not social welfare taking in strays and people with no friends, you're not as slick as you think!"
She looks at me in feigning shock, "you're so mean! I was just being nice and making conversation, I never said anything about adopting him."
"SEE! You've thought about it, get it out of your head, its bad enough Geraldine thinks I'm her BFF, since we're the only girls in our group, I don't want to be looking after grown ups."
The elevator dings and and opens we we alk out and go back to our cubicals, today is filled with reading, research and drafting documents in preperation for court. By the time it's lunch, I am really starving.
Alka and I sit in our cubicals since it can get crowded in the cafeteria around lunch time. We share her lunch, talk about parents that love their children. "So, outside of thinking he is a stray...what do you think of Fred?"
"What are you fishing for exactly?", I give her my distrustful look, she holds her hands up in surrender, "nothing, I swear I just want to know your impression of him", " mhmm, I don't believe you but fine, I think he's shy, probably has little to no friends, he is smart and I can't believe he is related to David."
She nods as I hear " Did someone mention my name?", I roll my eyes and reply "speak the devil's name and he will appear", Alka stifles a laugh.
"In the flesh" I turn and give him a fake smile "Cute, Alka and I were just talking about how hot your brother is and how we couldn't believe the lack of family resemblance between you two", "Argh please, don't compare me to that pansy, and he is only my half brother."
"Well that explains a lot, I doubt he is a pansy I think you're just a gorilla that needs to be caged", he then leans in towards me and says "Is that an offer sweetcheeks?", "touch me and I'll make sure your never able to reproduce", as I push him away from me. He laughs and begins to walk away, "I know when I'm not wanted", "argh disgusting ape, at least he isn't completely oblivious."
Alka looks at me and with her eyebrow raised, "Mhmm, I can't wait to hear more about how hot Fred is", I roll my eyes as she starts laughing. "Mxm, get back to work", as I walk back to my cubical. The rest of the day goes fast and soon I'm back in my apartment. I take off my heels and text Alka that I got home safe. I bought KFC for dinner and I reheat it in the microwave and dig in. I wonder if he really doesn't have any friends, I'm not the friendliest person but even I always have at least one friend.
I wash up my dishes and head to bed, "Keep your head down and keep moving forward." It's my reminder to stay out of other peoples business and don't get distracted by other peoples problems.