Mommy ✓

two

C H A P T E R T W O

☆☆☆

PAITEN HEARTH

☆☆☆

My favourite sensation to date is the feeling I got as soon as I entered the house after a gruelling practice. It was like the house possessed magical qualities that melted the stress from my body.

I was accustomed to the silence that greeted me once I got back from school and I looked forward to it on most days. After eight hours of dealing with people, the solitude that my house offered was a heaven sent.

I flung my backpack somewhere near the door and sprinted up the stairs to the bathroom. Post-practice showers were the most therapeutic things in the world.

Once I was clean and dry, I made my way back downstairs. I was hungry enough to devour a horse, but I settled for the pasta bolognese my dad had made last night.

My cellphone buzzed against my thigh and I fished it out of my sweatpants. There was only one message on my notifications bar:

Dad💛: hi princess, will be working late tonight. Noma will bring Manda over to keep you company. I've sent you R150 into your account, you can order pizza or KFC or whatever. Love Dad 😙

Baby Daughter👨‍👧: ok thank you dad. is there any chance you can turn that R150 into a R200? 😉

Dad💛: i'll talk to Noma. Manda will bring it with her

Baby Daughter👨‍👧: I love u dad💕💕💕

Dad💛: yeah yeah yeah 😒

My father and Manda's mother worked so many late nights over the years that it was commonplace for Manda to keep me company at my house or vice versa. It was a perfect for us, because we were best friends for life and eternity or BFFLAE for short. (Manda had been the one to come up with it in grade three and we'd stuck with it since.)

I heard the low hum of MaNcube's Audi outside the house and opened the front door to go and greet her.

Manda was in th eprocess of gathering her things and getting out of the car. I walked over to the driver's side and MaNcube rolled her window down.

"Hi Ma," I said.

"Hello Paiten, how are you?" she asked with a fond smile. MaNcube was light skinned with a round face and a hearty smile. I adored her way more than Manda did.

"I'm well, Ma."

"I will pick Amanda up tomorrow evening after work."

I beamed at her like I had won the lotto, "ah, that's great news, Ma."

"I'm starting to think that you girls prefer this arrangement rather than staying at your own homes like normal teenagers."

"It's not an assumption if we've told you that countless times," Manda replied from the front door.

MaNcube shook her head with a small smile. She reached into her seat compartment and handed me a hundred rand note, "your father said to give this to you, I trust you will use it well. No drugs or alcohol or any other funny things, neh?"