A Beautiful Mess.

7.

I arrived home, exhausted from the day I had had and laid down on the couch. Sindi wasn't home yet and wouldn't be home for the next few hours because she was at an event.
I rested my eyes for a bit before getting up, getting changed and getting a head start on my homework.
I went through my economics homework before going over my maths homework. I decided that it was time to break this habit of mine of doing my homework the day it's due by creating a new habit of getting it done at home the day before.

Maths went relatively quickly only because it was a trigonometry and I actually enjoyed trig. If it was anything else like graph functions I would've given up before even trying.

I had fallen asleep on the counter until I was woken up by Sindi's voice and the sound of a male voice.

"Oh, you're still up?" Sindi said both surprised and embarrassed.

I leaned my body passed her to see the man behind her. He was tall, dark skinned with a fade and well maintained beard.

So this must be the reason why Sindi all of a sudden has an interest in cooking.

"Hi" he waved and I nodded still not saying a word.

"Would you like something to drink?" She asked him.

"No I'm good I'll just head off" he said still staring at me and then there was an awkward silence.

"Okay, let me walk you out"

From outside I heard him whisper to her "I didn't know you had a daughter"

Eh?

"Yoh, hay' (gosh, no) she's my niece, I don't have any children, promise, I'm too young for that anyway ...I mean there's a 11 year age gap between us, You could've at least said she's my sister"

Silence.

"So I'll see you tomorrow at work?"

"Sure", he said.

Sindi walked back in looking somewhat embarrassed and confused.

" 'See you tomorrow at work'?" I raised an eye brow at her.

"Yoh wena nay' ndabazabantu (gosh, you and interfering in other people's business)

"And then, what's happening?"

"Ah don't even start Melo, I'm going to take a shower"

"Aren't you going to explain to me who that guy is?" I followed behind her as she walked into the room and undressed.

"Nope"

"Why not?"

"Because it's none of you're business"

"Is he the reason why you have this sudden urge to cook?"

No reply.

"Aaahhh he must be"

"Just drop it Melo, it's none of your business, I don't need to explain myself to you anyway"

"Well Sindi, it became my business the second you brought a man into my home better yet, the second you asked me to taste your food"

And she walked into the bathroom, rolled her eyes and closed the door behind her.

While Sindi showered I sat on the bed, already changed into pjs with another bag of chips and found some resources about Shaka Zulu for my meeting with Senzo tomorrow.
Can I call it a meeting? *shrug*

I didn't read much. I just saved the links of articles I thought would be helpful that Senzo and I would read over tomorrow.

I hope he's also doing his part...You know what let me just text him.

I sent him a text reminding him that he should also be doing research that we would look through and discuss tomorrow. I saw he was online but I didn't get an immediate response instead I got blue ticked.

This is what annoys me most about texting, I text you because I need an immediate response not because I want you to read it, ignore it and only answer when you feel like it.

Annoyed, I just carried on with my own research. I'm not going to get a low mark at Senzo's expense. I'm the one with the most to lose here.

Sindi was finally done showering and I was already deep in the covers, waiting for my exhaustion to overwhelm me. Sindi got into the covers too and I heard her typing away on her phone.

"Aren't you going to tell me who he is?" I asked facing away from her.

"Go to sleep Melo"

"Not until you tell me who he is "

Sindi broke away from her phone and sighed.
"His name is Rorisang, Rori for short, he's an editor for the show"

"Seems like a nice guy, rude because he didn't formally introduce himself and cause he thought I was your daughter but,nice. So how did you two meet?" I asked while slowly feeling the sleep come over me.

"Well, we met on set of course. We were at catering and we just started talking about the food and food in general and he told me how he's a total foodie and that he even had a food blog"

"Hmmmmm..." huh, so she's trying to impress him.

"We've been going out ever since. He's been taking me to all these cafes and restaurants which serve such amazing food and..." ...then I was gone. Lost in a dream state. In a far, far away land.
Completely transported into a different universe...this was always the best part of my day.

Sleep.

***

Sindi by some miracle managed to drop me off early for school,like 30 minutes before the bell rang and I must say even though it's a bit foreign to me, I guess I could get used to this. Beats running across the courtyard every morning and looking like a hot mess by first period.

I arrived before Mak and headed straight to the bench underneath the tree at the far end of the courtyard and decided to use the free time I had to read. I had been reading Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for the last week and I've actually enjoyed reading it so far. Before this I read The Help by Kathryn Stockett, after watching the movie of course and the plan was to tackle The Color Purple by Alice Walker then Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman.

After reading a decent amount of pages Mak finally arrived. I watched him get out of his parents car and wave them good bye. I stood up ready to give him a huge hug as he approached me and I noticed that he was gray and dull and not the usual bundle of happiness that he is.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked out of concern.

"Nothing" he replied as he gave me half a hug and sat down.

"I know it's not nothing. Talk to me"

"It's fine, don't worry about me, how did yesterday go, sorry I didn't text you afterwards" he asked me and I could tell that he was attempting to change the subject.

Clearly seeing that he didn't want to talk about what was bothering him I told him about yesterday's competition and then I completely went off on a tangent and started discussing what happened last night with Sindi. I could tell he was genuinely interested in the conversation and I guess that's what he wanted in the first place. To let me talk about my issues so that he could forget about his own.