“So moving on, what does 5s stand for? Reece? Iwe Reece, Reece, for Chrissake, she’ll come back to you, can we focus just for a minute?”
Reece didn’t respond, his fingers anxiously swiping over his phone, refreshing WhatsApp for what felt like the hundredth time. Tendai stared at him sternly before waving his notebook in front his eyes. “This is the exam period, my guy. Just let the girl be, she also needs to pass, which we will not if you continue to be on that damn phone!”
“Tendai shaa, it’s been two hours now, and she hasn’t been online. Zvichiri zvediscussion here?”
Tendai shook his head and stood up. “Reece, you need to give Nina a chance. Not every chick is like Laura, man. We need to focus on quality management, bro; we don’t have much time left.”
“Iwe Tendai, move that book away from me! There’s no smoke without fire. Nina has been moving suspiciously these days.”
***
Reece and Laura were the it-couple on campus. Almost everyone envied them. Their TikTok account, littered with cute, romantic vlogs, had amassed over ten thousand followers. They were always out and about: picnics, road trips & dinner and lunch dates, you name it. Draped in matching outfits more often called “goals” by the fans who fantasized about romance. And this is why the breakup shocked the social media relationship space. On her individual TikTok account, Laura alluded to a lack of attention from Reece, with him prioritizing content creation above their relationship. Reece, on the other hand, didn’t post much. He decided to drown himself in bottles of Red Label. It was safe to assume it was Laura who had pulled the plug on the relationship but the real reasons behind the split remained shrouded in obscurity.
A year passed, the hopes many followers of the goals couple rekindling died.
In comes Nina!
A freshman.
Daughter of prominent church leader Evangelist Barry Mpofu.
She had fallen hard for Reece. He seemed to have fallen for her as well.
But there was something off about him. Reece always wanted to know exactly where Nina was. If she took too long to reply, he’d become restless, then irritated, then angry.
At first she found it sweet. But she mistook possessiveness for affection. She thought it was how people deeply in love behaved. Then things changed. Reece began asking to go through her phone.
He wanted to know who every male contact was. Sometimes he’d ask for a selfie just to prove where she was. Eventually, he started following her whenever she said she was heading home. Following one of his stalking expeditions, Tendai called Reece up. Yeah Reece was becoming obsessive, too much for everyone’s liking. “Ree,” Tendai said, “are you going mad, mfethu? This is not healthy. You can’t be on your girl’s toes every second, man! What the hell, bro?”
“Nah, I just want to test her. You can never be so sure with these girls,” Reece fired back.
“Brother, I love you, but I don’t think you’re ready for a relationship.”
***
“Where were you? You weren’t online for what, the past two hours?” Reece barked to his girlfriend as soon as he caught sight of her. Students walking past slowed down. Some turned to look.
Nina was astounded. Tears were brimming in her cute big round eyes. Only then did Reece realise dozens of people were watching. He knew he had effed up.
”I’m so sorry, babyy… I didn’t mean to!” He moved closer trying to hold her hand.
”No! I’m tired of this!” Nina hissed back as tears gushed out on her cheeks. Without waiting for him to respond, she ran away.
Reece tried to run after her but Tendai stopped him immediately. ”You messed up, bro!”
Reece turned, rushed back to his room. He took a gulp of water before going to his study desk. Maybe he might catch up on his studies. He spent almost an hour, on the same page.
He tried calling Nina, but there was no response.
He typed: Baby, I’m sorry.
Deleted it.
Typed again. This time: Can we please talk?
Deleted that too. He decided to go to the boarding house she stayed in, about fifteen minutes away from his dorm.
He put on his jacket and bolted out. Reece ran the course till he had reached her room. He found her door ajar. He pushed it slowly. The room was empty, bed still neatly made but the window was open. He tried calling again. “The number you’ve dialed is not reachable, please try later…”
“Ko, where did she go?” Reece mumbled to himself.
