My phone buzzed in my bag and I pulled it out. And when I was done reading the message with tears streaming down my face, I knew what I needed to do.
Sam:I hope you’re happy! You totally ruined my, MY, engagement party. I trusted you. When Matt first introduced me to you, I didn’t like you. But I tried. I tried to be nice to you and this is how you repay me. By completely embarrassing me in front of all my friends and family. I should have seen you for who and what you are—you’ve been trying to steal my fiancé this whole time from right under my nose. I warn you, DO NOT EVER come near Matt again. Your friendship with Matt is officially over, and he agrees with me. Don’t ever think you will see him again.
Dear Diary,
Matt thinks it’s great that I’m dating someone. So does Sam, for that matter. She seemed more than thrilled that I’d introduced John to them. I wonder if she suspects how I feel about Matt? She must, mustn’t she?
Everyone else thought the date was amazing, including John who has—get this—actually made plans to hang out with Matt some time. The two really hit it off; it was rather revolting to watch the start of the bromance blossoming, to be honest.
Anyway, I will not be going out with John again. It did not have the desired effect and I think Matt wouldn’t care if I was staying in and having hot gangbangs all day with male porn stars with eleven-inch dicks. (Note to self; possible article about porn star penis—God I hate that word. Who has the biggest, whose is the most famous, etc? could be fun.) Anyway, I digress . . .
John and I will definitely not be going out again, and I am still pining for Matt like an idiot. And basically, I hate myself for it.
Later . . .
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“Let’s do it!” I barged in the second he opened his door without even asking. “Let’s go through the list and get over them together. I mean, why not?” I started pacing his room, wound up with energy like a spinning top.
“Like you said, we have nothing to lose. Besides, Sam just sent me a message and I can’t face going back to Jo’burg. What would I say to people? Or worse, what would people say to me? Let’s just do thi—is—” I stopped pacing and talking when I saw him.
“Uh . . .” I mumbled. I’d forgotten for a moment what I was meant to be saying. I was looking at an extreme makeover. Gone were the punk rock clothes, replacing them were smart casual shorts, a simple white T-shirt, a pair of nice-looking sandals. There was no trace of eighties rocker in sight and I stared. Good-looking was an understatement. He looked at me curiously, as if waiting for me to speak again, which I guess he was, considering I’d so abruptly lost my train of thought.
“Yes! Let’s do it.” I snapped out of it.
“Seriously?” He walked up to me and placed his hands on my shoulders . . .such big hands.
“Yes.” I nodded. “I mean,I think so.” My confidence waned for a second and then I remembered that text from Sam. “Yes!” I was emphatic this time. “Absolutely.”
“Great! This is great.” He ran to the dressing-room table and grabbed the magazine. “Let me see what’s next.”
“Wait.” My stomach plummeted. I knew there was something I needed to do first before I could move onto the next step. Something I should have done last night, but hadn’t had the courage to.
“There’s still something I need to burn.” I slowly pulled the diary out of my handbag and held it up. “It’s full of Matt.”
“Well,” he said, looking at it thoughtfully. “We can’t burn it, or we might get arrested. I have another idea though.” He shot me a smile and then looked down at my feet. “How are your knees feeling?”
“Fine actually, thanks.” The cream had worked wonders on them overnight.
“Perfect,” he said and walked over to a small backpack on the floor and started putting things into it.
“Wait, where are we going?” I asked. But he didn’t respond. He gave me a mysterious smile and then headed for the door.
An hour later we were surrounded on all sides by thick, lush, tropical jungle. Vines twisted with fern leaves the size of my head, and every now and then bright pops of color pierced the sea of green. I felt like Alice down the rabbit hole; arriving in a world so foreign and magical.
And the bamboo! I’d never seen bamboo so thick and tall in my life. Standing to attention like soldiers and towering above us like skyscrapers. But what was most interesting about it was that almost every single one was covered in graffiti. You would’ve thought this would have detracted from their natural beauty, but it didn’t. For some reason, each branch became a kind of fascination, with its own unique story to tell, and I couldn’t help stopping and reading them as I walked.
“Did you know,” I called out to Alex, “that Jim loves Steph 4 eva?” I ran my fingertips over the fresh etching.
“Well, did you know, that a man from Japan was here.” Alex pointed to the bamboo next to him.
“Did you know,” I continued, “that Jenny is lit as fuck!”
“Good for Jenny.” Alex smiled at me. “Hey, we should write something too.”
“Like what?”
“We should sign a contract together.”
