A Beautiful Confusion

Chapter 4. A phone

March 2019

It was break time and the squad was in the middle of one of our "heated" debates. When I say heated debate it is no where near to whatever your thinking about, it is a debate with . . . heated content.

"My nigga Rose's legs are not better than Angel's legs" Shouts Jizzy.
Jizzy is one of the erotic psychos of the group.
"You are smoking too much weed man, the clouds are blocking your vision!" Yaatie shouts making us all burst into laughter.

How this conversation started you ask? Well probably the same way the other heated conversations start, with a bunch of boys starring at chicks.
I have to find new friends.
I am the one who usually doesn't take sides in these matters and tries to change the subject.

"Hey guys!" I shout to get attention " This is not right man, you guys are wasting our break on a useless debate."
"What?" Mabhena asks while everyone is starring at me with puzzled faces.
"Angel clearly has better legs, it's in her name man." I respond and everyone laughs and continues to argue.

In the past I would never have admitted to thinking something of this nature but now in front of my friends I can say nearly anything without serious judgement. Despite our differences this factor is one of the things keeping the gang together.

After break was life sciences, one of my favourite subjects (and the one I never take seriously).
Miss Joy was talking about homeostasis, but I was not listening at all I was talking and having the time of my life with Andrew, Naomi, Mabhena and Iris.

"What you support Chelsea too!" I whisper to Iris in an excited tone.
"Yeah, I guess so."
"How come Andrew gets to sit next to Naomi? I saw here first." Prince whines.
"Hey man I struck first." Andrew replies.
"Woah, guys slow your roll, for all you know Cameron could be my man." Naomi says as all the colour drains from my face wondering if Iris is taking this seriously.
"Uhh! Cameron and Naomi, NC, Nameron, Caomi." Iris teases.
"Nchoo, I like the last one." Naomi pushes the joke knowing very well that I don't like it.
"Wahhhh! Me and Naomi, nahh!"
"Oh so your too good for me?"
"No, that's not what I meant, I was just-"
"Save it Mr Smarty-pants, Andrew will keep me company."
"Okay then Iris will chill with me." I grin.
"Woah!" Iris turns towards me "What if I'm already taken?"
"By who?"
"Uhm Edward."

Hearing her say his name felt like a spear to the heart, I just laughed and changed the subject. Even though I hid how I felt everyone at the table except Iris saw straight through my act but said nothing about it even after class, but that could have been because of the good news I received on my way to English.

"Hey Mabhena I found this phone in a gym, so you can have my old phone." Ndumiso aka Crazy pocket, one of the weirdest cool-ish people I know who is also freakishly tall and till this day nobody knows why his nickname is crazy pocket.
I feel like it has something to do with theft.

"Ehhh!! Mzala you stole this phone?" I ask shocked at what I heard.
"No I just found it."
"Cameron who cares how he got it in the end I'm leveling up." Mabhena grabs Crazy's old phone and starts clearing it immediately.
"Nah, it's just that I didn't expect you to steal."
"Well I gave Mabhena my old phone so, I cancelled out my bad deed with a good one."
"That's not right, it's still wrong."
"Hai Cameron stop whining man you can have my old phone." Mabhena said while handing it over.

The last time I had a phone was in primary school and even then it was my mum's old phone, my parents either can't afford to buy me one or are not even bothered by the thought but now I have a phone.

"What I was saying was, this guy was careless to leave the phone lying around so he forfeited the privilege to own a phone."
I took the phone, put it in my pocket and ran to English.

Mabhena's old phone is a Sony Xperia E1 he got it from Ben, so it's a hand me down but, at this point I am just happy I can be online.
The phone looks seriously banged up. It's a 4 inch phone with a plastic screen that has so many scratches but you don't notice if you're focused on the task your doing. The phone has no back cover so you can see the battery which used to fall out sometimes but Prince put some tape and paper so it doesn't fall out and the phone has so many dents.
Basically it's small and looks like rubbish but this peace of crap is mine.

I spent the rest of the school day collecting numbers in between classes and receiving shouts of praise from The squad.

"Yeahhh!! Cameron has a new phone!" Shouts Yaatie.
"It's not new I'm sure that phone is older than you." Ken laughs.

And then the school day ended just like that, we walked home but I took a detour to the local spaza shop (informal shop, and no spaza does not mean informal).
I bought airtime and a sim card and ran home.

I told my parents the news and they didn't seem too happy about it but that's only because they didn't buy it for me.
For the first time ever I texted my high school friends on WhatsApp, and it was AMAZING.
I even forgot I was hungry until the battery died.

Note to self, phone has a serious battery problem.

This phone thing is super cool, I have an injured phone but I still enjoy it.
I just wish I could get Iris's number.