Chapter 5: Cracks in the Glass
587 Words
The first argument felt small.
So small, Naledi almost convinced herself it didn’t matter.
She had taken too long to reply to Adrian’s message. Twenty-three minutes, to be exact. She had been helping her mother wash dishes, her phone left on her bed.
When she finally checked it, there were five missed calls.
Where were you?
Who were you with?
Are you ignoring me?
Her chest tightened as she typed back quickly.
I was busy. I told you my mom needed help.
Three dots appeared. Disappeared. Then appeared again.
If you cared, you would’ve answered.
Naledi stared at the screen, guilt flooding her like she had done something wrong. Maybe she should have kept her phone closer. Maybe she should have explained better. Maybe—
The phone rang.
She answered immediately.
“Why does it feel like I’m not important to you?” Adrian’s voice wasn’t loud, but it was sharp enough to cut.
“You are important,” she rushed to say. “You’re the most important.”
There was silence on the other end, then a soft sigh.
“I just don’t want to lose you,” he said. “You’re different, Naledi. I don’t trust people around you.”
The words wrapped themselves around her heart again — protective, possessive, confusing.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she whispered.
But that wasn’t entirely true.
Because every day, she felt herself drifting further from who she used to be.
At school, Thato noticed before anyone else.
She looked tired. The spark in her eyes flickered instead of burned. She laughed less. And when her phone buzzed, her whole body reacted — tense, alert.
During break, he sat beside her on the steps near the field.
“You don’t look okay,” he said gently.
“I am,” she replied too quickly.
“You don’t have to pretend with me.”
That almost broke her.
For a moment, she wanted to collapse into honesty — to admit that loving someone shouldn’t feel like walking on glass. That she was always scared of saying the wrong thing. That she felt proud when he chose her and terrified when he didn’t.
But Adrian’s voice echoed in her mind:
They won’t understand us.
It’s us against everyone.
So she stood up instead.
“I have to go,” she said, even though she didn’t.
Thato watched her walk away, his jaw tightening. He didn’t know everything, but he knew this: love shouldn’t look like fear.
That evening, Adrian picked her up.
“You’ve been distant,” he said as they drove past the edge of town.
“I haven’t,” she whispered.
“You have.”
The car felt smaller suddenly.
“Do you even want this?” he asked.
The question felt like a trap.
“Yes,” she said immediately. “Of course I do.”
He glanced at her, studying her face like he was searching for something.
“Then prove it.”
Her stomach dropped.
“How?”
“Stop letting that boy hang around you. Stop acting like a child.”
The word hit harder than she expected.
Child.
She had been trying so hard not to be one.
Naledi swallowed and nodded slowly.
“Okay.”
And just like that, another small piece of her shifted — not broken, not shattered, just slightly out of place.
Like a c***k in glass that no one else could see yet.
But cracks, no matter how thin, always spread.
And this one was only beginning.
- Writer
