Read Online Untitled by Kgebetli Moele - Free Book Online

that through the choices she was making she had outgrown me.
    â€œI cannot have a friend like you. Birds of a feather flock together and I do not ever want to be what you are.”
    She had been quiet the whole time, but then:
    â€œLook who is talking! You think that you are so holy? You think you can judge people? Wow! Today I discovered an angel of God on earth. What do you know anyway? What do you know, Mokgethi?”
    â€œNothing, but ...”
    â€œYes. That is all you know. Nothing.” She paused. “Mokgethi, there is nothing you can tell me. You know nothing. Nothing. You are not holy, you are not an angel from the heavens above; you are a girl, no better than I am. Just as I am no better than you. And if you see me as a whore, know that I don’t think of myself as a whore. And, one day, when you are walking the same path, remember to remind me who is the whore.”
    â€œLebo, I was not picking a fight with you.”
    â€œWho said that I am fighting?”
    Then, before I got very angry, I chose to walk away from her.
    After that, Lebo started saying things behind my back:
    â€œLebo said that you are jealous of her because you are living a dull life and she is enjoying hers.”
    â€œLebo said that you are jealous of her because all the boys want her over you.”
    â€œLebo said that you slept with all the teachers at your fancy private school and that is why they chased you away.”
    I tried to ignore what they were saying but one day I couldn’t take it any more. I got very angry and confronted Lebo with the intention of beating her. But before I could say anything, James jumped between us.
    â€œTalk is cheap,” he said, giving me a big hug and pulling me away. “Let them talk; we know the truth.”
    I cried as I told James all the things that Lebo had been saying about me. I had told him all of them before, but for some reason I needed to tell him again.
    â€œTalk is cheap,” he said again, after I had finished. “Let them talk; we know the truth.”
    But the jibes kept coming and coming:
    â€œLebo broke up with Tumelo because she wanted to give you a chance with him.”
    â€œLebo said that you are just pretending to be a virgin – you are a big whore just having a big whore holiday and you cannot fool her.”
    And, funnily enough, many people I had come to think of as friends slowly distanced themselves from me.
    Finally she said something true, though she had twisted it at the end, and I got really mad. She said that I watched pornography with James and Mamafa. This was true – Mamafa has pornographic movies that we sometimes watched and still do watch together – but she twisted it, saying that afterwards the three of us had sex, copying whatever we had watched. This was a lie – we never copied anything we had watched and I have never had sex with either of them. True, I sleep at Mamafa’s house sometimes, and if James is not there I sleep in Mamafa’s bed with him, but we never do anything sexual. The truth plus the twist got to me. I was so mad that I wanted to deny even the truth and this time James was not there to stop me.
    Looked at her in the eyes. “Lebo, what are you saying behind my back? What did I do to you?”
    She looked back as if she had not been expecting this to happen. The whole class paused.
    â€œDid I do something to you? Did I do anything?” she said, smiling a mocking smile.
    With that she received three of the hottest slaps across her face. The whole class went “Hoo! Haa!” I, too, was amazed that I had done what I had done.
    When she recovered, Lebo gave me a hot one back and then we were fighting. I cannot say that either of us won because we were holding and pushing each other around, trying to kick each other as the whole class became a stadium full of fans, doing their thing to support Banyana Banyana.
    I spent less than two minutes in the principal’s