REBEL GRAINED

ARMOR

Nandi pushed Thulile and Femi his gran's chair to lars' car.

Julian waited in the parking lot with Lars. He wanted to have a moment to chat with him.

"What do you want?"

Lars frowned, "what do you mean?"

"What are your intentions. What do you want from Thulile?

"I want coffee," Lars replied without hesitation, "Thulile and I are working together; I'm in a position where I can help her. So I'm helping. What do you want, Mr. Nkosi? Are you here for your friend's interests or your own? Thulile was with Mr. Mkhize, right? They broke up, and suddenly your there, so tell me your motives."

Julian attacked him first. Lars just followed in his lead.

"I don't need to justify myself," Julian answered.

Lars pursed his lips and inflated his cheeks before bursting out with, "I've observed Thulile enough to know there's no way she'll ever see you for something other than Mr. Mhkize's friend. That fact strikes you out for any other position you'd like to have beside her."

The man didn't throw a pebble but a stone, if not to say an anchor in the sea.

Julian chuckled, "you're funny. Who do you think you are?"

Lars smiled, "dunno, perhaps I'm the man who can offer Thulile the possibility to chase her dreams. In reality, Thulile doesn't need you or me. It's our fantasy to believe we can save her. She needs tools to find a way out, and I'm going to give them to her."

"You want to play the night in shining armor, huh?"

Lars shook his head, "correction, I said tools. I'm just a tool, her armor perhaps. She's the knight."

"Wow, so you'll be her armor for free? Don't act as though you're not expecting something in return," Julian restored. He hated the superior tone he assumed Lars took with him.

"I'm a businessman, here to make a profit, and I know I can do that with Thulile."

Julian tried to distill something in Lars' expression that would indicate a lie, but he saw none. The man's face remained neutral.

No, Lars didn't see himself as Thulile's savior. The thought was pretentious, but he was her ally and willing to back her.

Julian was about to say something when Thulile arrived.

Lars opened the door and helped her grandmother while Julian hurried to help Thulile, only to be dusted off by Nandi.

No matter what he did, he remained Elijes' friend.

"Thank you," Thulile's gran said and patted Lars' hand. She was part of the generation who suffered from the apartheid regime. If someone had told her younger self that one day she would touch a white man without being thrown in jail or that she would live in his house as a guest and not an employee, she would have slapped the person.

Time.

It changed and shifted minds. The scene they lived in at that instant would have caused havoc back then, but things were different. Yes, some bitterness and intense resentment remained, but the will and desire for change were stronger.

"I guess we're all set," Lars said with his usual enthusiasm as he went to the driver's seat.

Thulile sneered and rolled eyes, "look at him. He's so happy," she whispered to Nandi, who had her head poking in the window.

"Thulile, the man is helping us. Be gentle, sis?"

"Pff, all he wants is coffee."

"It's a low price to pay for his service," Nandi said and caressed Thulile's head, "you need to fix this hair. You must look good."