Bare jola o bone , we never dated Mare ke bone.

Act 1 : Before I Knew Her

Sometimes we learn the hard way that the fantasies we dream about won’t always happen. The relationship you perfectly picture in your mind, the thought of your crush liking you back and y’all finally being together… that’s a reality I almost lived, but we were always worlds apart

I remember the first time I saw her at school. I just caught a glimpse of her during break, but I couldn’t ignore what seeing her did to me. I remember telling the boys, “I just saw the love of my life, man.” I didn’t even know her name, hadn’t heard her voice, but I was already picturing our first conversation. Yha eish, I was gone fam.

Let’s call her Gwen. To me, Gwen was just a high school crush , nothing more, nothing less. I didn’t even expect anything from the thought of me and her getting together. I respected the whole “crush” thing to the tee fam…… hehe nah GWABABA was just high, ngl.

Every time my friend group passed by hers, the gents would just look at me and smile. It got to a point where whenever I saw her, I’d instantly hit the

“Gents… did he see her fam?”

I remember at the time I only really had like five close friends, ngl. I wasn’t socialising like that at that point in my life.

A whole year went by and I never made a move never even intended to, honestly. Back then, I saw myself as this weird lil nigga filled with insecurities. I’d always laugh about them to hide how I really felt about myself, so approaching girls just wasn’t my thing at the time.

And btw, this is way before my relationship with Amo. Way before all that

Now things started moving in a certain direction. She joined the land service, so every Friday we’d be in the same class learning, crafting, and working in groups together. My friends saw it as the perfect opportunity for me to finally talk to her, and honestly, they were doing a pretty good job hyping me up ngl.

But of course, I took my time with it. You don’t cure gwabs overnight.

I used those Fridays to get to know her character more. She was always happy, always helping around, always volunteering to assist with whatever needed to be done. She also hung around “O,” and she’s one of the most honest and raw people I know.

Sure, she does some questionable stuff sometimes, but she’s an amazing person and an even better friend. She was always there whenever you needed advice, so to me, the fact that Gwen was close with her was already a good sign.

Crazy thing is, I once had a conversation with O and somehow ended up telling her that I liked Gwen. She didn’t react much at all… ima tell y’all later why that’s actually crazy.

Fast forward again, we had a camp coming up, and the boys and I were excited about it because the last camp I went on was back in primary, and those things were always legendary.

Friday finally comes, and I don’t know why it never crossed my mind that Gwen would also be pulling up. Seeing her by the bus packing her bags, I was like,

“Shiii… I’m about to spend a whole weekend with her.”

Yha, I know… me and my delusional ahhh. We weren’t even friends at the time.

So we get to the campsite and start unpacking. The boys and girls were separated ,the gents were way up the site while the girls were closer to the exits and bathrooms and all that.

It’s around 17:00, we’re done setting up tents, and now we’re walking down to get food.

And there she was, man. Alone and majestic.

Aight, let’s stop referring to my boys as

“the boys.”

Let’s give them names.

First nigga ,let’s call him Kevin Hart. The light skin version. Short dude, always saying some wild shii. You genuinely can’t leave me alone in a room with him and expect us not to laugh or say dumb stuff fr.

Then there’s Zoro. Except he’s never lost. He’s kinda the first person that really acknowledged me as a person and as a best friend fr fr.

Cool, now back to the story.

We walking down to get food and Gwen is there by herself. Kevin goes

“Poi, lata Gwen.”

Aye man, gwababa was HIGH, so I hesitated. And that tiny little window of hesitation let McDonald’s do his thing.

Fuck.

Aye man, don’t come at me for these names. I’m trying here

Back to the story .

Donald started making conversation with Gwen, and at first I didn’t think much of it… until I started seeing them together multiple times.

Alone.

Aye my nigga, I was tweaking. It went from

“they just talking as friends”

to me overthinking every interaction they had.

Kevin and Zoro stayed on my case, telling me

“ke sentse nako,”

but hai man… by the time I finally grew balls, Donald was already there. Sad, hey.

I remember realizing how serious it actually was when I kept seeing them walking back together alone from the tents. My ahh was crying inside, bro

It started getting late, so everybody moved up the campsite to light a fire, roast marshmallows, and just chill. I look to my left and I swear these two were STILL talking. At that point, I just gave up ngl.

Eventually we all formed a circle around the fire, chowed mellows, and started playing Truth or Dare.

Hehehe… now THIS is where the tea came out.

The game starts off calm, some icebreakers here and there, vibes were nice… then they asked me:

“Truth or dare?”

Aye ngl, I don’t even remember what I chose, but I remember people laughing meanwhile I was dead serious humiliating experience, that one.

Oh yeah, I forgot to explain this part. The camp had Grade 9s, 10s, and 11s. In total we were probably like 25–30 people mixed together.

Donald was in Grade 11.

I was in Grade 10.

And Gwen was in Grade 9.

Keep that in mind

So now they ask Gwen

“Truth or dare?”

She chooses truth ,safe option. Then they ask

“Out of everyone here… who would you date?”

BRO. Everybody immediately looked at McDonald

Now I’m locked in because I also thought she was about to say Donald. But then she hesitates.

“Eish… I can’t answer that.”

Now everybody confused. Me included.

Then one of the Grade 11s suddenly clocks something and asks:

“Wait… are you dating?”

“Yes.”

Ke no ba shocked RIGHT there because it genuinely never crossed my mind that she had a boyfriend.

At first I’m thinking

“Maybe she’s dating someone outside school? Makes sense why nobody knows.”

Then someone goes

“Ohhhhh… you dating the tall guy neh?”

“Yes.”

Broski, everybody except ME seemed to know who this “tall guy” was So now I’m trying to connect dots at lightning speed. I start replaying memories in my head, searching for every time I’d ever seen her around a tall guy.

Then boom flow state activated.

THE HEADBOY.

I remembered seeing him having lunch with them multiple times during break. Mr Gava used to let learners chill in his classroom, and sometimes I’d go there just to be alone or finish homework before class. So in my mind, it made perfect sense.

Hai… I was wrong

And I realized I was wrong when one of the Grade 11s said:

“Ke mang? Blxckie?”

She didn’t like that one bit , I remember she was kinda mad at that comment but the night went on

Mara Tjeses the headboy was NOT dark skinned like that, so immediately I knew it wasn’t him.

So they asked her the question again differently:

“If you weren’t dating, who here would you date?”

And that’s when she said Donald.

Looking back now, I swear his friends were trying to Kevin De Bruyne him with an assist , I still don’t know whether Donald already knew she was dating or if he also found out right there with the rest of us.

Eventually the game ends and everybody heads back to the tents. Aye man… teens in tents? Adults think they supervising, but young bloods are slick with it . Couples paired up while the rest of us went back to our own tents.

I shared mine with Zoro. Kevin was sharing with Jay. Kevin was closer to the Grade 11s than me and Zoro, so most of the time it was really just us two.

I got into the tent absolutely drained and knocked out while another round of Truth or Dare was apparently happening in Jay’s tent.

So quick recap of my life not really connecting in real time

1. I finally try make a move on Gwen… too late.

2. Donald already there and they basically inseparable.

3. We play Truth or Dare and find out she’s dating.

4. And if she WASN’T dating… she’d choose Donald anyway

Things were not looking good for me at all.😭

Then it started raining. I was freezing. And to make things worse, Zoro’s alarm KEPT going off and this nigga would not wake up

Fast forward to the next morning showers, breakfast, all the normal camp routines. Throughout the day I’d still see Donald and Gwen together, but now it wasn’t even jealousy anymore because I knew she had a boyfriend. Still though… something about how close they were and the answer she gave during the game kept sitting at the back of my mind.

Anyway, the main thing that happened that day was later that night.

We had an activity where we had to do a play Romeo and Juliet. Everybody got roles and all that.

And somehow… I was Romeo 😭

yha Yha I know this is a nice set up

And yha no, she wasn’t my Juliet.

I honestly don’t even remember which character she played, but I remember Kevin constantly pushing me to finally go talk to her. At this point, I kept using

“she has a boyfriend”

as an excuse not to.

But then I looked at her and told myself maybe this was the perfect time to at least become her friend.

I remember seeing her from behind and finally calling out her name.

“Gwen.”

Bro… my soft spoken ass was shy from saying just her NAME

I remember her turning around, and everything suddenly felt slow motion. Like one of those dramatic scenes from a romance movie. Right there, I genuinely became convinced movies don’t even do those moments justice because I was living one myself.

Her eyelids moving slowly, her eyes flickering with joy, the small plum lips followed by those bright white teeth…

And I swear, if I had read Sonnet 130 back then, I would’ve understood why poets glaze the people they love so much 😭 because what I saw in that moment wasn’t just the girl I’d been crushing on at school anymore.

That day, poi… I saw the love of my life.

There she was , Gwen

Her eyes made contact with mine. I looked at her with a racing mind, not knowing what to say. And somehow, at that moment, the right words ended up being

“Who are you playing in the play?”

Not “How are you?”

Not anything smooth

Just the first question that felt right to me… and somehow it landed.

I remember the first words I ever heard from her that were actually directed at me just came and went. She was a fast talker , I remember instantly hitting her with a

“Huh? You a fast talker hey?”

“Oh sorry 😭 I get that a lot.”

She paused for a second and repeated what she said, and trust me, I was paying attention… but at the same time I was floating in the realisation that I was actually talking to her, fam.

I swear our conversation entered this weird 5-second flow state. Even though we probably only exchanged like 6 or 7 lines max, that moment felt like a long dream I didn’t wanna wake up from.

Then we got interrupted because the play was about to start. Before leaving, I hit her with the:

“Talk later?”

She looked me dead in the eyes and said

“Sure.”

Nna ke jaiva blind poi 😭

And even as I walked away, she was still looking at me. I looked back too and yhoo… beautiful.

Funny thing is, the person standing right in front of me had no idea how much she was about to change my life……….

ACT 1 : Before I knew her