Confessions of A Fake Hopeless Romantic

prologue

prologue

—

'i hope i won't stay this way forever'
- aging out of the 20th century, trash panda

Liyana watched as her mother dished up the last plate of food and hand it to her so she could give it to her grandmother.

Her grandmother was seldom here, but since she wanted to see Liyana before she left for university, she had been here since the early morning.

Liyana sat next to her on the couch, feeling a little anxious for what was about to come. Truth be told, Liyana didn't like change. She much rather preferred the comfort of predictability. No surprises, just her normal day-to-day routine, but a lot was about to change now and instead of feeling excited about it, she dreaded it.

"Are you going far away?" Liyana's grandmother asked and Liyana shook her head.

"It's not that far. Just an hour away from here."

Everyone she knew from high school wanted to get away from home, to go far away, but not Liyana. Liyana wanted to stay as close to home as possible, because at least when things got hard, she knew that her comfort was only an hours drive away.

"When I go to university, I wanna go to Cape Town, yoh. Far away from this place," Liyana's sister, Ayanda chimed in and Liyana rolled her eyes.

"Nobody asked."

This was normal for Liyana and Ayanda. It was sibling banter, and although Liyana was never going to admit it, she was going to miss moments like these. Liyana and Ayanda were 3 years apart, and they spent a good portion of their lives fighting with each other, but these days, as if they were both dreading the day Liyana had to leave, the fighting had halted.

When their mother finally joined them in the living room, Ayanda spoke.

"Mom, just know that Liyana will return a different person," Ayanda said.

"No, she won't. I trust my child. She is going to school to study."

Ayanda snickered but Liyana didn't know why. Her mom was right. She was only going to focus on her schoolwork and nothing else.

She imagined that her university days would be filled with endless trips to the library and nothing more, except for the occasional trip to the mall to grab something but that was about it and she was okay with that. She wasn't much of a social person anyway.

"Has Palesa moved in already?" Liyana's mother asked and Liyana nodded.

"She moved in last week."

Palesa was Liyana's high school best friend. They didn't plan on going to the same university but Liyana was glad that things turned out the way they did, because at least she wouldn't be doing this whole university thing alone. She would have her friend, and she was grateful for that.

"We're leaving in 30 minutes, I hope you packed everything that you need," Liyana's mom said.

Liyana got up from the living room and headed to her bedroom. She was certain that she was done packing, but she felt the need to be alone.

She was not excited to leave home.

She wasn't excited for a new beginning.

——