Busted! - Chapter 14.4: S.O.S

After the fight, when everything had started to die down, I realized that I had just ruined my best friend’s wedding. I could see the disappointment in his face but when I explained to him what had really happened, he found it hard to believe that there are still people out there that actually torture people for being themselves. The guests kept on asking what had happened and I was just so angry at them because not even one of them stepped up to help calm the situation. I just sat down and took everything in and when I realized that my Lincoln was lying on the floor bloody and unconscious, tears just started falling from my eyes. Gabriel brought me a glass of sugar water. The situation brought all the gays closer, we realized from then onwards that we are still fighting for our freedom and that an injury to one should be experienced by all of us. We took a stand and fought to save one of us. We were a family. The need for pretence and useless fights started to become unnecessary because we learnt that day that we were faced with a bigger challenge than we thought possible.

The ambulance made its way to the wedding and Lincoln was taken to the hospital. He cried in agony when they placed him on the stretcher. It pierced right through my heart, I felt as if they had stabbed me repeatedly. One of the paramedics asked who Earl was. When I responded he told me that Lincoln wanted me to go to the hospital with him. As I sat in the back of that van, Lincoln kept on apologizing and I told him to stop. He was dizzy and he couldn’t speak. His clothes were covered in blood. Normally blood would traumatize me, but at that moment, I couldn’t even smell it. I was stronger than I actually thought I was.

As soon as we arrived at the hospital, Lincoln was rushed to the emergency room where I was denied access. I felt so angry. I was so angry that at that particular moment I felt like taking whatever weapon I could find to destroy Anthony and his friends. How does your own brother almost beat you to death because of your sexual orientation? How does that happen? Up to this day I cannot stand homophobic people. I just look at them and ask myself if they are aware of the fact that they have a bigger struggle than we do, we have accepted ourselves and the reason why they can’t be happy with that is because they’re not happy with themselves, and we have to pay for their bullshit and their insecurities. It is just heart provoking, I cannot stand it, I will not, and I pray that I never come across such again because at this rate, I would run them over just to make life easier... for them!

Sihle, Malcolm, Thebe and Gabriel came to the hospital. The first thing they all asked me was how Lincoln was doing. I also didn’t know. I sat there for almost an hour waiting for some form of communication from anyone who bothered to tell me. I looked at Gabriel and he showed a genuine concern in Lincoln’s state of being. Being gay has to be one of the bravest things one can ever be. We obviously don’t choose it, but the way in which we embrace it is what sets us apart from the rest of the world. Gabriel was a guy that didn’t know Lincoln moments before he was moved by his state of being. Gay bashing creates a fear in us and that stops us from achieving our goals. Homophobic people know how much power we have over the world and they try to can us down so that we don’t take over. It won’t stop, they only make us stronger.

The doctor came to tell us about Lincoln’s condition. He mentioned that he had suffered serious head injuries but that he would make a full recovery. One of his ribs had been dislocated but they wouldn’t operate on him until they were really sure what happened. The doctor then asked me to stay away from the hospital a bit because that was what Lincoln requested. Lincoln had told the doctor that I was too sensitive and probably wouldn’t handle seeing him in a compromising state all the time. Gabriel offered to be the one who comes and checks on him every day and then give me feedback. He was a kind person under all the madness.

Busted! - Chapter 14.3: The Bond

The wedding commenced and it was so beautiful. When I saw Thapelo dressed as a prince, I knew that Martha had to walk down the aisle looking like a princess. I was right, not only was she dressed as a princess, she was Snow White. The wedding theme came as a shock to the guests but because I knew what kind of a person Thapelo was, I was already expecting something over the top. Instead of placing a couple on top of their cake, they placed an apple which had been bitten. It was adorable, turns out Snow White was Thapelo and Martha’s favourite fairytale. The older guests were a bit touched by the theme especially the Christians who believed that the apple was bad! Nonetheless, the wedding was beautiful and the fact that Thapelo and Martha were so whimsical about their moment made it unforgettable. When the service was over, we headed to the venue that they had chosen to host the reception. The set-up was amazing, it was almost as if we had gotten lost in a time machine, and just in case you were wondering, there were seven dwarves! They entertained us with their singing and dancing. That wedding for me was perfect!

It was quite obvious that my group would attract a lot of attention; gay guys always steal the spotlight. I could sense that there were some uncomfortable people and some that were just eager to get to know who we were. When there were no more items on the program for the wedding, the party began and Lincoln and I decided to take a walk just so that we could check out the venue. That was probably the biggest mistake of our lives because we were then approached by Anthony, Lincoln’s brother. Lincoln was shocked to see him, I recognized his face from Lincoln’s pictures.

He was there with four of his friends and he seemingly didn’t like seeing me and Lincoln holding hands. “What the hell is going on here?” Anthony said as he roughly separated me from Lincoln. Out of shock Lincoln asked his brother what he was doing at the wedding. “Don’t ask me stupid questions, I said what the hell is going on here?” he violently asked. I was starting to freak out because I knew that this would turn into a sticky situation. I told Lincoln that we should leave but he insisted on explaining what was happening to his brother. Anthony seemed to be understanding and with a smile he slowly walked away. Just when we thought it was over, he came back and punched Lincoln in his face. Lincoln fell down and hit his head on a rock. People were starting to gather up around us but nobody was helping. I don’t know if it was because they were dressed in expensive suits or if they were just happy that there was a gay bashing happening right in front of their eyes. Sihle, Malcolm, Thebe and Gabriel ran to the scene. Anthony and his friends were starting to gang up on Lincoln and we knew we had to fight to save him. The five of us took off our blazers and the fight was on. We quickly removed Anthony and his friends away from Lincoln because they were honestly about to kill him. Fists kept flying; it was the gays versus the “straight” guys. No straight man, who knows himself well enough, would succumb to beating up a gay guy just for being gay. We showed those boys that as gay as we were, we could still kick ass! All of a sudden it made sense why anyone didn’t want to intervene; the gays were fighting like they were on steroids. When the boys realized that they were losing to a couple of gay guys, they decided to run away. The gays and I had suffered minor injuries anywhere else but on our faces, whilst the straight boys fled the scene with bruised faces. I’ll say this once and never again, don’t mess with the gays!

Busted! - Chapter 14.2: The Wedding Day

Friday night saw me, Lincoln, Sihle and Malcolm flying down to Cape Town for the wedding. Sihle knew that I wasn’t a big fan of rental cars so he was the one in charge of that. We could have went out for drinks but because we had to be up early the next day for the wedding, we decided to just check in to the hotel and get enough rest before looking our best for Thapelo’s wedding.

I woke up the next morning with a smile on my face. It literally felt like I was the one getting married. Thapelo was one of my best straight friends and I was just so excited for him. Lincoln and I were walking on cloud nine; everything was just working in perfect harmony. I woke Lincoln up so that we could take a shower…together! It took longer than it was supposed to but it set the mood for the day. We then got dressed and headed to Sihle and Malcolm’s hotel room.

They looked so beautiful in their tuxedos, it looked like they were the ones getting married, but they said the same about Lincoln and me. There was so much love in the air that day, almost as if all the people that had broken up miraculously decided to reunite that day. If I were to use one word to describe the mood that morning, I would say “Golden”. When we were all ready, we made our way to Thapelo’s wedding. Sihle was driving with Malcolm whilst Lincoln and I sat at the back.

When we got to the wedding, I bumped into my mother. I hadn’t spoken to her in a very long time. She was there with her fiancé, Thebe’s dad. Now you know why me being with Thebe was such a big deal, turns out we were about to become stepbrothers so we had to end our relationship because our parents unknowingly fell in love. In the beginning, I was angry about the situation but I think both Thebe and I loved our parents enough to give them the liberty of being together and if that wasn’t the case, I’d say we were both scared of them and what they could do to us if we chose to remain together. They did however look good together. I was just happy that after years of being a single, independent woman, my mother had finally found love and if it meant I had to sacrifice myself or something I had for her happiness, I did it with a loving heart. I introduced my mother to Lincoln and she remembered him as my high school sweetheart, the one that got away.

We then waited to be ushered to our respective tables. Each table had six chairs and since Sihle, Lincoln, Malcolm and I occupied four, we knew that there was a couple that would join us at the table. We sat there talking about how awkward it would be if they grouped us with a straight homophobic couple but we were laughing about it. The couple finally came; it was Thebe and his new partner… Gabriel! When I saw Gabriel, I whispered to Lincoln that he was the guy Malcolm had an affair with. Thebe greeted everyone at the table before introducing his partner to me. “I know him, we happen to go to the same salon. Well… Gabriel… I’m sure you know Malcolm?” I asked Gabriel. “What are you doing with this dude?” Malcolm asked Gabriel in reference to Thebe. “Well I could ask you the same!” replied Gabriel. Malcolm then stopped and gave Thebe a good stare. “I know you from somewhere…” Malcolm said to Thebe. Thebe just shied away but it was quite evident that they did indeed know each other. “So you’re the Gabriel that was sleeping with my man?” Sihle asked Gabriel. “Is that what you call him? A man?” Gabriel said as he laughed. “Guys, can we all just sit down and have our drinks? This can be sorted out later”. I pleaded.

Obviously Thapelo is the one that was responsible for this set up. He just made sure that all the gays were sitting at one table, which if you ask me, was a bad idea. The set up was so awkward. You had Sihle who was adamant on marking his territory to get a reaction from Gabriel, Malcolm who kept on studying Thebe, Thebe who kept on trying to show me that he was better off and Lincoln who was striving to keep me entertained just to show Thebe that I’m happier with him. It was stupid and awkward.

Busted! - Chapter 14.1: Appear!

The next day I woke up in the afternoon because I was really tired. Lincoln was acting weird because of our argument the previous night and I didn’t want to entertain him. I wanted to go see a movie so I went to ask Sihle if he wanted to come with but he said he was spending some quality time with Malcolm. Nigel said he was tired and that he’d rather sleep so I called Gavin and asked that we meet in Sandton.

A few minutes after preparing myself to meet with Gavin, I took a boring drive to Sandton. The neighbourhood was so quiet. Everyone was just minding their own businesses that day. I got to Sandton and met up with Gavin and together we went to go check out a movie before heading to the bar for drinks.

After the movie as we were on our way to the bar, we approached Menzi and he was with Zodwa and his child. Gavin tried to convince me to turn around and we go the other way but I simply told him that it was okay. When I saw Menzi at KG’s dad’s funeral I knew that he was okay since his disappearing act and I made peace with the fact that as much as he made a return, he clearly didn’t want me in his life because he never even bothered to tell me that he was back. He simply discarded me. I greeted him and Zodwa and we continued walking as if nothing ever happened. “How do you do it?” Gavin asked. “Do what friend?” I asked. “How do you remain so calm when approaching a situation like this?” he asked. “Meditation! Lots and lots of meditation boo!” I replied.

We sat down to have drinks and before we left the mall, we went to go shop for a gift for Thapelo’s wedding. Thebe had only sent me two paired invitations and I gave one to Sihle so that he could go with Malcolm. Gavin wasn’t interested in going to a “straight” wedding because he was tired of them.

On my way home I passed a beautiful house that was on sale in Rosebank. It really caught my eye so I decided to pull over and view it. Coincidentally it was being sold by 3Complex Properties. It was stunning. I can’t even describe what it looked like but it was just stunning. It had a beautiful open plan kitchen and a huge walk-in closet. I had always wanted a house that had a perfect version of those two things so I immediately called Kabelo from the Property department and told him to remove the house off of the market. I know it was a spontaneous decision, but if you were to walk in to that house… you’d never want to leave!

I drove back home and when I got there, I found Kelebogile. I greeted her and went straight up to my bedroom because I wanted to avoid any further conversation with her. She and Lincoln seemed to have been talking about something very serious. Sihle came to my room to tell me that Kelebogile had come to say hi to him. I didn’t believe that, I knew exactly why Kelebogile was there and it wasn’t because of Sihle. She was becoming a nuisance. “There’s something I need to tell you but you have to promise not to tell anyone.” Sihle said. “Okay, shoot!” I said. Lincoln then came into the room and decided to lie next to me. Sihle got the message and left without telling me what he wanted to tell me.

“So you and this girlfriend of yours, can’t you guys meet somewhere else?” I asked Lincoln. “She wasn’t here to see me; she was here to see Sihle. You can go ask her if you like” he said. “Lincoln… I’m so tired of all of this. I think we need some time out, just to be by ourselves and think about where we're headed. I’m really tired. This is not what I signed up for!” I said to him. “So you’re leaving me?” he asked. “For now…” I replied. He went ballistic and as soon as that happened, I totally muted him. I hardly heard anything that he said because I knew that whatever he was saying was coming out of anger and it would probably hurt. “You just need to clarify things Lincoln. Is it me or her?” I asked him as I grabbed my keys and an overnight bag.

I checked into the hotel and as soon as I was done with that, I switched off all my phones and fell asleep.

The next day saw Lincoln and Sihle showing up together at the hotel. “He just wouldn’t let me go! I had to bring him here” Sihle said. “It’s okay, could you kindly excuse us friend” I asked and Sihle left. Lincoln sat down and poured his heart out. For the first time I actually saw Lincoln for who he really was. He was a man that couldn’t believe that he was in love with another man. And this wasn’t just an ordinary love, he loved just one guy and that’s the only guy he would love in his entire lifetime otherwise he’d fall in love with women. Lincoln wanted to do anything it took to make me happy and he knew that he wasn’t ready but he was more than willing to try until he bled…

Busted! - Chapter 13.5: Saturday - The Funeral

The day of the funeral finally came and I was feeling nervous about seeing all the other ex housemates. I was also very nervous because it was going to be the first time I saw KG since the huge fight. Although I had promised to see him before his father’s funeral, I kept on postponing because I was actually not ready. Things between Lincoln and I were starting to look up again and that’s only because I had made peace with the fact that Kelebogile will forever be a factor in his life no matter how hard I tried to fight it. That was the best decision I had ever made for myself because her presence in Lincoln’s life had gotten to a point where it just didn’t bother me anymore. I took a shower and prepared for the funeral and then I woke Lincoln up so that he could do the same. That had become our routine. When we were done we headed downstairs to have breakfast, it was Lincoln and I, Sihle and Mike, and Nigel whom had returned to the house during the week. We all drove in Sihle’s car to the funeral.

As we were arriving, Lincoln looked at me and said “Do you think you can do this?”. “I have to, for The Big Guy!” I replied and then we got out of the car. KG was waiting to welcome us at the gate. I went straight up to him and gave him a hug. “So… how are you feeling?” I asked. “I really don’t know. I can’t find a single word to describe the way I’m feeling” he said. “I understand. This too right?” I said. “Yeah… this too.” he sadly replied. We then went inside the tent where we found everyone else.

The service commenced after a few minutes and a few tears were shed during that. It was hard to believe that we were saying goodbye to KG’s father. Lerato was there with her new boyfriend and KG wasn’t even fazed by them. Zama also came together with Thobile and Kelebogile. Morithi came with Gavin, I don’t even know how that happened. The service ended and we headed to the cemetery where we’d lay The Big Guy to rest. It was sad but it brought all the housemates together again. A lot may have happened: betrayal, deceit and drama but in the end we were still a family. We had a group hug and cried together with KG before heading back to the house for the after service. KG was a bit drained so I led him to his bedroom where I let him rest a bit before facing people. On my way out of the house, I bumped into Menzi!

“Menzi?! What are you doing here?” I asked in shock. He asked me the same question and at that point I was getting confused. “It’s KG’s father’s funeral.” I replied. He was astonished and I still couldn’t understand exactly what was happening. “KG’s dad? Nelson? This guy was KG’s dad too?” he asked. “What do you mean by ‘too’?” I asked. “Well my mother told me the truth about my real father after finding out he passed away, so I came here with Mandla because she wanted us to pay our last respects!” Menzi said. I gasped for air. Menzi and Mandla are twins by the way.  “You mean you and Mandla are KG’s brothers?” I asked. “Well that’s what it all boils down to! I didn’t even want to come here, I was forced to come! I've never even met this guy and then all of a sudden he dies and I must come running here like some sick psycho!” added Menzi. I didn’t know what to say. I just sat down because I was starting to feel light headed. I tried to make sense of the whole situation, if KG was older than Menzi and Mandla then it meant that KG’s father had an affair with Menzi’s mother. Lincoln came to fetch me inside because he was under the impression that wherever I was, I was sitting with KG. We then went outside and then KG’s mother came to excuse herself. She called an immediate family meeting between herself, KG, Menzi and Mandla. I think the news about Menzi had already gotten to her and when she had the will printed out she did indeed learn that Menzi and Mandla were added on the will. So as much as he didn’t spend time with them, he clearly was still in contact with the mother because he seemed to know a lot about them.

Later on when all that had been sorted out and the truth was out, we decided to leave. The rest of KG’s family was still fighting the whole idea behind Menzi and Mandla making them look like they were some sort of con artists. KG’s mother on the other hand knew the truth and she couldn’t handle it by herself so KG had to step in and try to quiet things down. When we arrived at the house, I went straight up to my bedroom because I wanted to rest. Lincoln followed me and started attacking me. “You stood there with KG like you two were some kind of lovebirds. Do you know how humiliating that felt for me?” he asked. I was so shocked by that statement that I didn’t even have a comeback. I just looked at him asking myself if he was hearing the stuff that he was saying. “Lincoln, KG just lost his father. Of course it’s my duty to care about that as his FRIEND!” I retaliated. “Oh and what about Menzi? Is he also your friend now?” he asked. At that point I wasn’t sure how to feel but it became quite evident to me that Lincoln was insecure. “Lincoln, baby, you’re seriously overreacting. I could have easily blown a fuse when I saw you with Kelebogile but I’ve come to accept that you are mine and you should probably do the same… for your own sake”. I said. He took a deep breath and nodded. I guess that was him telling me “You’re right!”

Busted! - Chapter 13.4: Just Like That!

The next morning at 7am, my alarm went off and I woke up to prepare for work. I had a sex dream and guess who it was with? Malcolm! As if I needed more confusion and drama at that point in my life. I went to take a shower and dressed up before waking Lincoln up to tell him to get ready for work too. I then went downstairs to prepare breakfast. There was no one at the table by that time so I just sat there by myself trying to make sense of everything that was happening in my life, especially the situation with Lincoln. Malcolm came down and greeted me before heading to the kitchen. I found myself staring at him. I just couldn’t look at Malcolm the same way anymore and it was getting a little uncomfortable for me. Sihle came rushing down, he was late, as usual. Sihle and I are different, if we have to be at the office at 9am, I’ll get there at 9am. He on the other hand wants to get there at eight. I’m not about that life. He rushed out of the house and Malcolm went running after him with his lunch. It was so cute. Sihle left and then Malcolm came back to sit with me at the table.

“Earl, you’ve barely touched your food, are you okay?” he asked. I heard everything that he was saying but I was just lost in what I saw the previous night. I started noticing his teeth and his lips and everything that I wasn’t supposed to be noticing. I couldn’t even answer his question because I was afraid I’d say something that would incriminate me. “Uhh hello!” he waved in my face. I woke up out my trance. “Sorry what was that?” I asked. “Are you okay?” he asked for the second time. “Yes! Yes! Yes… I’m … fine… I think I need to leave now!” I said as I prepared myself to leave. He sat there looking confused as to what had just happened at the table. Lincoln came down and just as he was about to sit at the table to eat, I told him we’d get breakfast on the way. We sat quietly in the car. Nobody was saying anything to the other. We got to work, I kissed him on the cheek and went to my office and he headed to the IT department where he worked.

When I got into my office, I checked my emails. I had received an email from Thebe reminding me about Thapelo’s wedding that was happening a month's time. I was excited about the wedding but I just wasn’t looking forward to seeing his new boyfriend. I checked with Clifford to see if he was done with my suit and he told me that he had finished with it a long time ago. I went to try it on and I loved it. I called Lincoln and told him to head to Clifford’s office to take measurements for his suit for the wedding. Because I hadn’t had breakfast, I was starting to get really hungry so I headed down to the canteen to get myself something to eat. I saw Kelebogile at reception and I decided to go say hi to her.

“Kelebogile! Hi.” I greeted. She just gave me a blank stare. “How are you?” I calmly asked. “We’re fine! Me and the baby!” she said with attitude. A part of me wanted to slap her right across her face but another part of me told me to be humble because I had the one thing that she couldn’t really get back… at that time. “I hope so… see you around!” I said with a smile and walked away. When I got into the canteen I saw Sihle and I told him that his friend Kelebogile was in the building. He just rolled his eyes. There really wasn’t a lot of work to be done that day because most of the projects we had started were almost finished. I called KG to find out how the arrangements for his father’s funeral were coming along and he told me that everything was going well. That day I left Lincoln at work because he had other commitments. I took a boring drive back home. I was still fazed by Kelebogile’s attitude and I was trying not to let it get to me but I was failing... dismally!  

Busted! - Chapter 13.3: Cold Shoulder

At about 2am I woke up for the fifth time because I just couldn’t fall asleep after what Lincoln had told me about him and Kelebogile. I was feeling all sorts of things, but as much as I wanted to be angry at Lincoln, I didn’t have the right to be because he wasn’t with me when he and Kelebogile conceived that baby. I’ve been rejected before by my father and I know how it is to grow up feeling like you’re not enough so I knew that whether the pregnancy was real or not, that child was innocent and he or she deserved the best kind of loving from both his/her parents. I couldn’t stop myself from crying. I guess I loved Lincoln so much that I was actually welcoming to the idea of loving his child too if it all boiled down to that. Lincoln woke up and found me crying. It was dark but I think the sniffing gave it all away.

“You’re crying…” he said. We had an argument about whether I was crying or not because I kept on telling him that I wasn’t crying and that he should go back to sleep. He got up and turned on the light so that he could see my face. When he realized that I was crying, he knelt down beside me and started apologizing. “This situation is beyond my control. If there’s anything that you think I should do, please just tell me now. I will do anything in my power to make this work. Just tell me what to do!” he requested. “Just love me. It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted from you. Just love me” I cried. He kissed me on my forehead and promised me that he would do that, no matter what it took.

Malcolm then walked in to my bedroom because he was convinced he heard sounds coming from the room. “Is everything okay in here?” he asked. You could see that he was 70% asleep and the 30% was concerned. It was a funny scene. He came in wearing undies and he had quite an interesting erection bulging from his undies. It was my first time seeing Malcolm in undies and he temporarily managed to take my mind away from what was bothering me that night. Sihle was indeed lucky. KG still took the cup but Sihle was lucky.