... Here we go again.

Merry Christmas. ❤️

...

I walked into the kitchen with tea on my mind. I was nervous. I shouldn't be but I couldn't help but be nervous. I mindlessly poured some water into the kettle, aimlessly walking up and down the kitchen. A habit I picked up from Anele. I haven't even made the phone call yet but I already knew she was going to say no. Just thinking about the whole ordeal left a bad taste in my mouth.

I sighed looking for my favourite cup for tea, groaning when I spotted it on the upper shelf of the top cabinet. My friend, Anele must have put it there the last time she was here. I hated when she would use something and not put it back where she found it, now I had to suffer. I jumped quickly grabbing it before landing safely on my feet dismissing the thought of just getting the chair to help me.

I could literally hear my heart racing as I sat down with my phone in my hand and the tea in the other. Truth be told I respected my sister more than anything in this world but she was impossible. Serenity could be so mean and stubborn at times. She calls it being protective but I call it not being able to let go. And she was the kind of person who was hot and cold so no one knew what to expect.

At the age of 23 I still needed my sisters permission to visit my friend. Anele and I have known each other for more than seven years and I've only been to her house twice. She didn't have a problem with that because she knew my sister and she was welcomed to come over at any time. But to be fair this visit wouldn't be a normal one. For a second I thought about abondonning this plan.

My sister and I have been through a lot together and I respected her every decision but she just had to understand that I was all grown up now. I could take care of myself. Anele my only friend was living her life to the fullest while I had to sit back and be patient because Serenity did not play. And when Serenity made up her mind about something it was very hard next to impossible to change it.

For my birthday last month she allowed my friend and I to vacation to three places of our choice. Money was not a problem. I was surprised. I recall pinching myself to see if I was dreaming. My favorite of the three was Mosi-oa-Tunya, the 'Smoke that Thunders' also known as Victoria falls on the Zimbezi River at the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. I've never seen something so scary yet beautiful at the same time. I took so many pictures that Anele ended up being fed up and hid my camera.

I think she only agreed to the trip because she knows how much I had missed my friend. The Zungu's, Anele's family which consisted of just her and her mom and dad were filthy rich. There wasn't a thing that she wanted that she wouldn't get. She was daddy's little girl, she had her dad wrapped around her finger. I've seen her tricks live, up close and I was very impressed.

My friend decided she didn't want to go to university, she just wanted to see the world. We finished school at seventeen together while I was off to university, she was off to see the world. She has mansions in some of her favourite countries and for some reason she has been staying in Ireland for the past year. When I try and ask her why she simply says she love the weather.

Anele came back three months ago to see me. Pretoria was honestly dull without her. I wasn't a very out going person as I mentioned before she was my only friend and I had no problem with that. My books and drafts kept me going. Even though it had been a while since we were in the same country our bond never faltered because when she came back it was as if nothing has changed.

I looked down at the vibrating phone. I quickly swipped the message ignoring it before shooting Anele a text asking her to grab me some Nando's on the way here because I just really wanted some. I slowly stood up with my half filled cup in my hand. I made my way to the sink pouring down the now cold tea before washing my cup and putting it away. I looked at the picture of my sister and I across the hall.

Serenity was beyond over-protective. But I understood. We have had a very rough childhood and it has been just the two of us since forever. We lost our mom to cancer at a very young age and my dad died in a plane crash. Serenity had to step up. I was only nine at the time and she was twelve. The things that my sister has done for me are countless and I am truly grateful I would do anything for that stubborn woman.

I think I was six when we took that picture. That was before everything went down hill. That was before our so called family robbed us of everything leaving us with nothing. Before we had been on the streets with nothing but ourselves for comfort. I slight jumped at the sound of my ringing phone. I looked at the caller I.D before swiping left.

I looked at Anele walking in the house with grocery bags, I knew it was all filled with junk food that we would stuff ourselves with until we couldn't anymore. I was already in my onesie so I was more than ready. She walked in not saying a word unpacking the loads of junk food onto the coffee table that was in front of the massive L-shaped couch. I could tell she was nervous.

"Stop shaking your leg, you are making me more nervous." she said placing her hands on her waist, anxiously bitting her lip. Another habit of hers.

"This was your idea." I said plopping down on the couch in the process unintentionally hurting my hand. I hissed pulling it back.

"Too much training again?" she asked knowingly taking the remote while placing her feet on the table and browsing through the T.V.

"Yeah, where is my Nando's?" I asked not seeing the Nando's bag.

"You texted me when I was just outside the gate."she said not removing her gaze from the big screen.

"But you could have made a u-turn. "I whined laying my head on her lap watching the screen. Her hand immediately went to my long braids playing with them. They were new so when her hand gently pressed in between them as she gently drags it up and down, I closed my eyes in bliss, it felt nice.

"We can go there later. When do we call her?"

"I'm not sure." I sighed not seeing any hope in our plan.

"When is she coming back?" she asked looking down at me even though my eye were still closed I could feel her eyes on me.

"I don't know." I truthfully said.

It's been a month since I've seen my sister and I knew it would be a while before she came back. My aunt took us in from the streets after spending a night under a bridge but just like every one else she completely dissappeared. We lived in a dangerous neighborhood with no one to take care of us. We still had to go to school and I had no idea where the little food we had came from.

To make matters worse even though I was young at the time I could see the small bruises on my sisters arms here and there when I asked about them she would just say work. A lot of things happened that I would cry about, things that I didn't understand, my sister was there with me through everything. Those were the hardest years of my life.

At seventeen she dropped out of school and started a job that I still had no knowledge of. She was determined to get us out of that neighborhood after a tragic incident. In that night she vowed to me that she would get us out of there and she did. Although we moved to an upscale neighborhood where I met Anele I still worried about my sister. Her job took a lot from her.

At first she would leave for four days in a week and the three would be completely dedicated to me. She would do whatever I wanted to do, we did everything together. She raised me all alone. When I asked about her work she would dismiss it until I just didn't ask anymore. As I grew older the longer she was away. The longest she has been away from me was six months. Ever since we moved here money was never a problem and I grew tired of asking questions so I just stopped.

It's not that I didn't care, it's because I knew my sister. Everytime she went through that door, the only worry I had was if she would properly take care of herself, never if she would return because I knew she would. She was amazing at everything that she did.

In all these years even with her demanding job she has never missed an important day in my life. She was always there, through every award, graduation, birthday. She made sure to never miss it. I didn't have issues neither was I mad at her for being away I knew she had to do what she had to do. At the beginning, when we were young was the last time I ever worried about her coming back, I knew my sister well enough to know she could take care of herself.

"Whose calls are you ignoring, do you have a secret side piece that I know not off." Anele peeking at my phone.

"Yes and his name is Casper." I said matter of fact.

"No seriously whose that?"she asked getting serious for a minute.

"Chris."I replied dryly.

"I thought you said you liked him. "

"No point of correction, I said I liked his smile. "

"Just give the guy a chance, maybe he could be the one."

"I'm sorry but no he is not. I told you the first sight of my future husband alone will give my vagina a heart beat."

"You may be a virgin physically but mentally you are not. You are too freaky to be not having sex." she said laughing.

"-Why do you hate your vigina?!"

"I don't, matter of fact I love her!" I said sitting up looking at her, she had paused the movie.

"No you don't, if you did you would let her get some." she said pausing the movie.

"I will, and when I do let her have some, it will be worth the wait."

"That's what you said two years ago!" she said groaning into the pillow.

"Don't act like an expect you only lost your virginity this year!"

"I know but I'm just saying we have been missing out. " she said bringing one of the small pillows into her arms and moaning with her eyes on the ceiling.

"No- no put the damn pillow down." I said laughing at her scrunched up face.

"I'm just trying to lead you to a piece of heaven." she said sitting up properly looking at me.

"I know, I know but you know if he doesn't give my vagina a thump thump on sight then he ain the one." I said, maybe I read a lot of erotica but I was a grown woman who had a wild vivid imagination.

"You are impossible, I'm just saying give Chris a chance."

"I gave him a chance. "

"You have been texting him for two weeks!"

"I honestly don't want to hurt him, which is why I'm trying to just let him lose interest in me. I don't want to waste his time and mine by lying to him, he just doesn't make me feel all tingly inside. Chris is a nice guy but he is just not the guy for me. Plus I prefer him as a friend. "

"No man will ever satisfy you unless he's one those psychopaths-"

"Actually It's a sociopath, difference is they know the messed up things they do are messed up but they just don't care." I said correcting her. The word psychopath didn't sit right with me.

"- As I was saying sociopaths with power that you read about." she said, I kept quiet twisting my mouth and looking at the ceiling and lightly scratched my head.

"I mean I am a power hungry ho-"

"Isla!" she shouted cutting me off by throwing a pillow at my face. I loved messing with her. She sometimes took everything way to seriously.

"What?! Don't judge me!" I said feigning hurt.

"You read too much of the Dark shit, it's not real in real life, shit is hectic." she said seriously.

"You don't say! -I'm joking damn Anele no one wants a psychopath in real life, some of us just like reading about it but we would never wish for it ourselves."I said rolling my eyes. We both love reading but she doesn't read the kind of books I read she says they freak her out, I try and tell her it's not real to just relax hence she looks at me like I'm a freak which humorlessly kills me.

"Well I'm glad you aren't that crazy. If you are a misochist you can tell me I won't judge." she said looking at me.

"Anele! Damn it, what the hell dude whoa that's too far even for me." I said laughing at her. Why would she even think of that.

"I'm just checking, I mean we all have our kinks. I like being chocked a little and bent over the knee." she said wiggling her eyebrows.

"You don't see me commenting on your taste of erotica books baby girl." I couldn't help but laugh at her facial expression. Her light skin was turning red which made me laugh harder.

"That was so uncalled for."

"Then stop coming for my messed up books, I have a very complex mind."

"Funny you say that because you only read about it but you are too scared to write about it." I rolled my eyes at how truthful her words were.

"You know I'm a sucka for romance. That's just not my cup of tea when it comes to writing it, it's too scary for me. It makes it feel real. I only like it because it's not too real, when it becomes real then it becomes messed up and scary."

"Romance!"

"Yes Romance. Is it too much to ask to be chased at the beach." I asked trying to hold a straight face, at how ridiculous I sounded.

"Sis you think Spha's will chase you at the beach, you must be living in another world." I couldn't hold a straight face any longer as I started laughing, she joined me pushing me not pleased at my antics. She could be easily convincable at times. I loved pulling her leg from time to time.

"But honestly speaking. I don't know how I feel about virginity, half of society is pressuring us to give it up like it's nothing and just not think about it too much because it doesn't define you but I still feel like you know it's mine to give and no one has the right to tell me how to think and the other half are pressuring us to keep it and with that pure bullshit which I from the bottom of my heart hate, because they are basically saying when you give it up you are no longer pure or some shit which is fucked up. I hate the world. I just want to burn it up sometimes. "

"First of all wow, second of all don't think about the so called world. People will forever have opinions about things that they have no business having opinions about. It's up to you. Whatever you may decide you know I will support and hype you up at every step of the way."

"Anele I know and I will tell you if anything changes."

"Of course you will tell me, I'm your only friend." she said laughing. I rolled my eyes shaking my head at her. I missed her so much.

"So should we call her."

"U- maybe tomorrow."

"Yeah tomorrow sounds great. But we said that yesterday. You should just ask her, you and Serenity are very close so maybe we are over thinking this and we should just rip the band aid off." I looked at her tilting my head to the side, saying nothing at all.

"-Yeah you are probably right. Tomorrow it is. " she said finally coming to her senses.

"Exactly." I said getting comfortable as she snuggled into me and pressed play. We spent the entire night watching movies and talking. Everything just felt right, I couldn't help but be happy when she was around. Aside from Serenity she was my all. We fell asleep on the couch in each other arms, content with how we spent half the day.

...

I looked at the mirror, I couldn't even remember the last time I was in a night club. I pushed my braids back trying to get a clear vision of myself. I wasn't drunk I just wanted to make sure I still looked decent when I drag Anele out of here with her ear in hand. This was not the initial plan. I couldn't stand being in here anymore.

I didn't like anything about this night except the red dress I had on that clung onto my curves like second skin, I liked that I could move freely in it. Even though I was mad at Anele I had to appreciate her fashion sense. I quickly took out my phone and dialed her number that I knew off by heart. I looked at the girls the came in and out looking at me weirdly. I preferred the weird stares because I was antsy than the annoying drinks being sent my way.

Rule one - Trust no one.

Anele was getting drunk so I had to be on alert, I was always on alert when out with her. Immediately after we got here we had made our way to the VIP section upstairs where some of Anele's friends were. I had nothing against them I just appreciated my own space and my own company a whole lot more.

Plus I was getting tired of Sadie. I understood that one could mispronounce my name the first time saying it but after telling her it was Isla like Island and she still called me Izla I just told her to not say my name. If you can't say it right I prefer if you didn't say it at all, my mother gave me that name and her not even trying to say it right was disrespectful.

I told her if she couldn't pronounce Isla than she should just call me Andiswa, my second name but she insists on the first hence I nicely asked her to not call my name at all. I didn't even want to be sitting anywhere near here anymore, I've had enough. Otherwise other than her, Anele's friends were not all bad. I enjoyed some of my time with them but I could only be in here for so long. I wanted to go home.

"Anele."

"Isla come on, please just two more minutes."

"What did I say? "

"30 minutes."

"And how long has it been?"

"Forty."she said her voice dropping.

"When I get out of here, you better be ready." I said ending the call before washing my hands and leaving the bathroom.

There were different toilets for the VIP section and downstairs. I was glad because there wasn't a long line outside with everyone fighting for a chance to pee. When I walked out of the toilets the music got louder. I walked into the room scouting the place even though I was just in here a few minutes ago. A habit that was drilled into me.

As I walked to my seat to drag a now sober looking Anele out of here. Time seemed to slow down as my eyes got stuck on a pair of deep light green eyes as I was scouting the place. Even with the light shade the green in them was still prominent and strong. The pair of electricuting eyes were already on me. I couldn't move my eyes. The darkness of the hue of his eyes did nothing to hide the darkness they held. I slowly analysed the man who looked like a Greek God. I couldn't find the perfect words to describe him, they didn't seem enough.

I could sense the power radiating of him in waves from a mile away. He sat on one of the seats not far from us, no trace of emotion on his face. The black expensive suit he had on accentuated his perfectly built physic. The intimidating, dark aura around him made it hard to look him in the eye even though he looked calm. He looked like there was always a storm brewing. Even the way he sat screamed power and authority. Dominance flooded around him without question.

His neatly coiffed dark red hair peeked my interest, I was in awe. My eyes slowly trailed up from his sharp jaw line to his pink plumb lips to his eyes that were protected by the long thick eyelashes. He was so beautiful. Beautiful wasn't enough to describe him. Thump thump. A very foreign heart beat overtook my senses. It wasn't from my heart.

Holy fuck it's real.

When my gaze went back to his eyes, I couldn't help but shiver at his stare. I held his gaze as he stared back. His gaze was intense but I didn't back down. I could tell he didn't like being challenged. He raised a thick brow when I wouldn't back down, a ghost of a smirk on his face. Usually I would look away when someone stared at me but with him I wanted to savour this last moment we would ever lay eyes on each other.

He didn't seem to be paying attention to the man next to him saying something to him. His eyes were still on me. Anyone with half a brain cell could tell that the man wasn't one to play with. A dark glint shone in his eyes that I couldn't make out. I drank him up one last time before turning my head, focusing on the task at hand. Even as I held my friend's hand pulling her away, I could feel him watch me walk away, his eyes never left my figure until I dissappeared from his sight.

Always trust your gut.

That night I couldn't sleep, he was all that was running through my mind. I accepted the fact that I would probably never see him again. I could definitely tell that he wasn't from here and from the looks of him he didn't look like the type to vacation, he looked like he was here on business. I wasn't sad though, this would be the story I would tell to Anele's children in the future as they rich aunt.

The story of how I let their uncle go. I have never felt like I felt tonight. No man had ever made me feel the way I felt tonight as the strange man looked at me. Things that I thought were dead became alive. I could still feel the butterflies. I couldn't help the trace of a smile on my face at just the thought of him. I quickly washed my face and brushed my teeth before getting next to Anele in bed and going to sleep, I wished I would dream about the man but my dreams were occupied with too many other things, if not nothingness.

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While we wait for the author to update The German's Obsession....

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Mosi-oa-Tunya, the 'Smoke that Thunders' is the picture at the top.
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Tell me what y'all think.