Friend Request

Chapter1

“So, want to share with me what happened?” said Ms Smith, my therapist. OH, before I get deep into this let me tell you a bit about myself. My name is Joy Masango, female obviously and I come from a family of four, my parents and my older brother John. I have never really been in a romantic relationship with anyone as old as I am,18 years old, I’m introverted, I like my personal space, which other people may interpret as “boring’ ’or “pride’ ’Mind you, I don’t really care.

“Sorry Ms Smith, did you say something?” this was after she called my name several times. I am lost in my own thoughts, staring into space, okay, one thing about me is that I like pretending to be strong whereas I am not or people perceive me as strong. But inside I am soft, well maybe a cry-baby and I have been struggling with my weight for most of my life and the people close to me don’t make it easy for me either. “OH my god, where do I even start? ’I said nervously. I have never been to a therapy session before, this was my first time. “How about from the beginning “she said, must say Ms Smith is good looking. She has long, beautifully shaved legs. Her smile is the best and she has short hair like Zozibini Tunzi, she has her legs crossed and a small handbook, for taking notes, which is necessary she says

“well…” I started, “it all started with a friend request, stupid right? This boy Noah, sent me a friend request on Facebook and before I accept anyone’s request, I always check their profile first, so I did and we were good to go.” “If I may ask…” jumped in Ms Smith “why do you check their profiles?” “Well, there are a lot of creeps out there posting nasty stuff and I don’t want that on my timeline.” Social media was not my thing okay? But boredom made download these apps. Now back to my therapy session, “I liked some of his pictures, randomly, then boom: he sent me a direct message telling me to comment on his pictures, with a winking emoji on the message. And I thought to myself “well, well, well has got guts.” Our conversation was flowing smoothly and I think I was smitten by him but I couldn’t show him that obviously. I told him where I live and so did he, he was from Mbabane, the capital city of eSwatini and I from a small town called Siteki, which other people from the city refer it to as a village. Ms Smith jumped in with a smile which showed her white teeth “that’s a beautiful thing, making friends already.” If only she knew the disaster that was coming. “yeah I guess it was a start, making friends and all that, coming out of my shell. I think its best we continue tomorrow Ms Smith I’m kind of exhausted right now.’’ Oh that’s fine with me, tomorrow it is then” she replied. We parted ways that day and I went home, I needed to recharge, it had been a long day.

Home sweet home. Well my mother is a housewife and my father a manager of a construction company, and my older brother john is in college, so I am the only child at home and it’s kind of boring, but I love my peeps a lot. I love my brother a lot, there is no other person like him, he always has my back and so do I. He always comes to my room and looks at himself in the mirror and tells me that there is no one as handsome as him in the family, he likes to praise himself. He likes to brush my hair and he even steals my food. Coming home to a home cooked meal is such a blessing and I appreciate that, I never take it for granted because some people are not that privileged. I was welcomed by the smell of beef stew and dumplings; my favourite dish, accompanied with lettuce salad and boiled butternut. My mom is a very good cook and I learnt everything from her and my dream is to be a chef so its best I learn from someone experienced.

“Hey sweetie…how was school? “mom asked, she always asks me and always gets the same answer: it was fine, “school was fine mom and before you ask, yes I went to my therapy session and it wasn’t so bad, I was active throughout the whole session.” “That’s good baby, and I’m glad you went to your therapy session, your father and I want you to get better, we don’t want a repeat of last time.” She said, I told her that I’ll be fine in no time and I’m not going to do what I did last time, no matter the circumstances, EVER. I went to my room to get changed and wash my school shirt for tomorrow then came to the dining room to eat, as expected, the food was amazing and I had lemonade after the meal. Around 7.pm I went to my room to do my homework and packed my timetable for school the next day. I went to the sitting room and found mom and dad watching documentaries, I greeted dad and told them that I was going to sleep. Dad comes late almost every night and mom waits up for him the whole night and sometimes falls asleep on the couch. I set my alarm for 5:30am and went on to sleep, falling asleep is difficult for me because I am an over thinker, don’t judge me okay, I overthink and overanalyse everything.

My alarm rang at exactly 5:30am and I made my bed and ran myself a bath while I went out to take out the trash, I was so sleepy such that I kept rubbing my eyes. There is this boy, Patrick, our neighbour, I have noticed that I take out the trash he is always passing by or just outside with a smile on his face greeting me. I went back inside took a bath and got ready for school, I just grabbed an apple and left, mom doesn’t like this habit but I can’t stomach food in the morning, I just throw up. I just know that it’s going to be a long day surrounded by fake people who pretend to be friends with each other and love each other. I don’t really love school, I just go there because I have to and it’s a stage I have to undergo, but I do my best and work hard because many kids don’t have the opportunity to go there. I walked to school and saw the big sign by the gate “Lubombo Central High School” and thought to myself “well, it’s time to put my fake face on for the day” and I breathed in and walked in. I arrived in class with a smile on my face and as usual I found my classmates copying each other’s work. It’s always chaos in the morning, “did you write question two? Guys I’m not sure about my answers, I’m not showing anyone my work, why didn’t you write at home?” this is all one can hear on a normal morning.

“Can this day be over already”’ I thought to myself. I can say that I’m anti-social, I always have my head buried in my books and music, oh boy, is sort of my therapy. Thinking about therapy, I have a session afterschool with Ms Smith and I am dragging myself there. School went on as usual and I went to Ms Smiths office and she offered me a glass of water and as usual she had a smile on her face which made me wonder what keeps her going because she deals with different patients with terrifying experiences. Anyway back to the session, we did the formalities “how are you, how was your day…” As a continuation from yesterday’s conversation, I got straight into It. “well Ms Smith, Noah, my Facebook friend kept texting me and we formed a strong bond, well maybe I did, but still. He told me his likes and dislikes, his likes being soccer, top of the list, having a good time surrounded by people who love him. He didn’t keep it a secret that he smoked weed and drank alcohol, I didn’t mind because that’s his lifestyle, and who was I to have a problem with it, has bubbly and loves people”, “And…I’m guessing that’s what attracted you to him?” asked Ms Smith.

“Oh yes!” I said with a smile. “His dislikes being left on seen while texting, someone who won’t understand and support his dreams. He also mentioned that he has a hot temper and can hold a grudge, well we had something in common, didn’t we? He texted me his number and said we will talk more on WhatsApp and I was like “okay, he’s not playing games”’’. Ms Smith asked “how did it feel when he gave you his number?’’ I replied with a smile while at the well cared for flower on the table “it felt good…it felt good, no guy had ever given me his number so I was looking forward to getting to know him more and this thing of ours was going somewhere, right?

Chapter2

“You can continue Joy “I had been quiet for a minute, so I did. “I quickly saved his number but didn’t text him immediately, I didn’t want to come off as desperate okay. I texted him after an hour and he was like “who’s this”, who’s this really? my heart sank, don’t get me wrong I’m fragile okay? He then remembered and we clicked, he became my daily chat person and I started developing feelings for him. There was something about him and I was yet to find out. We exchanged pictures and boy was he fine! He was my ideal guy, tall, dark, bow legs, the works man. He wrote me sweet messages and said he wants to be more than friends and boy did I scream! I was down for that. I played hard to get, I didn’t want to seem like an easy target, I then agreed and it was red hearts and kisses all the way. He told me he loves me and my heart skipped a bit, don’t blame me, no guy had ever said those words to me. He seemed so sincere and I fell for him deeply, there was one thing about him I hated: HE NEVER TEXTED FIRST, I always had to take the first step and he took a long time to reply even if he was online or he wouldn’t reply at all. That really hurt me and made me come off as desperate”. I then asked if we can continue tomorrow because it was getting late.

I got home, changed and had a sandwich with juice then helped mom with dinner and she asked how my sessions are going so far. “well….” I said “they are going pretty well, it feels good talking to someone who’s not going to judge me” she replied “that’s great baby, we all care and love you so much and we want you to be better. I love my mom so much man, she’s everything to me. My dad came back from work and we watched some TV together, had dinner while we were at it. I went to bed earlier than them and I didn’t set an alarm because it was Saturday the next day. I slept like a baby throughout and didn’t have any nightmares or wake up in the middle of the night. I did my chores in the morning, cleaning, washing my clothes and cooking. I took a bath and went out to the store to get some snacks. Just outside the gate I bumped into Patrick, he walked me to the store, we chatted casually and he offered to pay for my snacks, in fact he insisted. He is such a nice guy y and he is the first person to have a long conversation with me, the others think that I’m a weirdo and I don’t want to clear anything up. One thing about Patrick is that he doesn’t ask me questions which may come off as offensive or rude, like, “why are you always indoors? you never get out of the house.” These may be rude because I’m an introvert and I like my personal space and I don’t like going out if not necessary.

I noticed that he is kind of cute and looks so innocent and has a beautiful smile, he’s also tall. We spoke about anything: school, family and how I’m personally doing, ME! No one asks me that except my family and my therapist. We reached my house and smiled at each other without saying anything, I said “thank you for accompanying me to the shops and walking me home, “shyly. He replied “it was no trouble at all and I enjoyed spending that little time with you” showing his beautiful bright teeth. “and I will pay you back for covering the costs of my snacks” I said. “Oh, you’d better” he said teasingly and we both laughed. We both said our goodbyes and he waited for me until I entered the house, I was looking over my shoulder. I was all smiles in the house and I peeped through the window to watch him leave. The snacks tasted even better and they were special because he paid for them, my mood went from 20% to 100% in an instant that day, and I couldn’t help but think about him the whole day.

Mom was happy to see her daughter happy and asked me why I’m all smiles. I just told her that I ran into old friend and we went down memory lane. In the evening I couldn’t sleep so I did a little reading, then all of a sudden Patrick came into my mind. He is tall and not so dark just fair, has curly hair and to top it off he has dimples! Every girl’s weakness. I kept why I hadn’t met such an innocent soul, I must say, I slept peacefully and I’m pretty sure I was smiling the whole night. The following day I got up early to get ready for church. I wore a peach dress with matching shoes and my mom wore a white dress and pumps and sad wore a black suit. We got into the car and left. We arrived and went in, I saw Patrick with his mom seated on the left and us on the right