34

SOLEIL

With Brice gone, I'm now stuck alone with Hidde who doesn't look that happy to see me. We stand at a stare-off in awkward silence. He smoothly slides his hands into his chinos and cocks his head to the side. I mimic him by tilting my head to the side too and cross my arms in a defensive pose.

I take the time to look at him, really look at him. His blonde hair is shorter and smoothed back, his face younger and rounder in contrast to the sharper features of the mature man in my dreams. He was handsome in his own way. Unfortunately, my sights were set on his dark-haired, broody cousin.

So much new information floated around in my head and I needed to talk to someone who would understand. I had a feeling he knew what was going on. He was not at all phased with Brice's sudden appearance or disappearing act.

"Clovis..." I tested out the name to see his reaction.

He furrowed his brow and walked over to where I stood. His blue eyes regarding me with a cold look as he stared me down. I hadn't interacted much with Hidde during high school except for a project here and there over the years. He was cordial but never friendly. We'd greet each other whenever we crossed paths but otherwise kept it pushing.

"Why would he tell you that?"

"He didn't. I found out on my own." His eyebrows drew up in surprise. I could see the questions in his eyes. "I saw you in my dream."

A few beats of silence passed between us as he assessed me.

"I see. What else do you know?"

"Not much. I was hoping you could fill me in."

I had dreamt of him and Brice in their previous incarnations. Not to forget, we were also family friends. Our mothers knew each other. Our grandparents also knew each other. I wonder how deep this family connection went.

"I got your things from Mark's hotel room," he said, changing the topic as he walked away, heading over to the sitting area.

I noticed my overnight bag on the couch for the first time.

"Get dressed while I check out. We'll talk in the car."

*

We sat in comfortable silence in the luxury SUV. Similar to Brice he drove a black Jeep but his was a Grand Cherokee instead of a Wrangler.

I'd let Gogo and Michelle know I was on the way home back at the hotel - the same hotel Mark and I checked into. A few of the Matrics had also booked rooms there to recover instead of driving home drunk after the club. I had tried calling Mark but it went to voicemail so I sent a few texts.

I was both embarrassed and annoyed.

I don't know what I was thinking kissing Mark but I do know I was sending him mixed messages and that wasn't fair. Why did Brice have to be such a brute though? Couldn't he have let me have one normal night without pulling a stunt? I certainly never expected him to lose his shit and knock Mark out.

I warm rush of heat runs through me when I recall him admitting he was jealous a short while ago.

You got it baaad, my subconscious wails along with a few more lyrics from the Usher track.

"How is Mark doing?" I ask Hidde knowing they're also friends.

"How do you think he's doing?"

"I didn't mean for this to happen. Trust me when I say I feel badly, guilty even."

"His nose was reset and luckily, he didn't suffer a concussion. He had his driver come pick him up when he got out of the hospital a couple of hours before you showed up. He's pissed but he'll get over it."

I nod my head, taking it all in and sit quietly.

"Put your address in," he indicates to the GPS on his dashboard. "We have an hour's drive ahead of us so why don't you tell me how this happened? This thing you have going on with Brice."

"It's complicated and weird. I think it's best you ask him," I say as I tap my info onto the screen.

"I've tried, maybe not hard enough. However, I do notice that he's either vague or defensive when it comes to you."

I don't know what to say to that. It sounds very much like Brice. I decide to field a few questions of my own instead.

"I've been wondering, what is he? Like he has these powers... abilities. Can you also do what he does?"

"He's the return of the first king. A demi-god of sorts. Quite frankly I'm not sure how this all works. And no, I don't have any special abilities or powers. I'm still a virgin."

It was something I had to do to prove that I was a man to awaken the power within. It didn't make sense to me at first but afterwards it did. I started to remember things from the past and with those memories came abilities, I recall Brice's earlier words.

"So, you haven't awakened them or your memories yet?" I ask.

"No, not yet. Have you?"

"No! We haven't...I'm not... I'm still a virgin." I manage to say all of a sudden embarrassed.

Hidde laughs at my expense for a little too long. I was about to say something when he stopped.

"That's nothing to be embarrassed about. I'm just thinking of Brice and how this is probably eating at him."

His mouth stretches wide revealing a row of straight, white teeth.

"Look, I think you're a nice girl and he's a halfway decent guy - most of the time - but he always gets what he wants especially when it comes to the ladies which has made him an insufferable prick. He wants you. I sensed it from the night I caught you in his dorm room and the way he handled Jacques at the manor confirmed it. Are you two together now or what?"

"We're not in a relationship." I see him give me the side eye. "Seriously though, he hasn't asked me to be his girlfriend or taken me on a real date." And I am not counting that morning he took me for breakfast at the manor so that he could ask me to be his tutor. "I've just found myself in this weird situation."

"A situationship? Come on, Soleil. You're a smarter than that."

"Nope, I'm an idiot. I brought this on myself."

"How and when did this all start?"

"If I tell you, you have to promise me you won't laugh."

"I don't make promises I can't keep. I can promise to not hold anything you say against you."

"Fine, I wished for him to notice me."

"Come again?"

I start at the very beginning, back in Grade 8 when we went to Sugarbay for a camp and I nearly drowned. His heroic display saved my life and that was the start of my burgeoning feelings which for some reason came to an explosive head at the fair where I wrote down my wish in the magician's book. How that quickly spiraled into Brice's manic behaviour which for some reason hasn't improved even though he says the spell has been broken.

Not once does Hidde interrupt me or laugh. He just occasionally glances over before returning his focus back to the road ahead.

"So, he's under your spell, Spellman?" he says in amusement.

"The irony of my surname hasn't escaped me," I quip dryly. "He says he broke the spell but didn't explain how. He then gave me an ultimatum between drowning and serving him. I'm sure you can guess which one I chose."

He glances at me briefly as if he's about to say something and instead shakes his head silently.

"You said you found out I was Clovis in a dream. What do you mean by that?"

I go on to briefly explain, minus the intimate details, the first dream with Brice as Merovech and the second one featuring him as Clovis.

I think back to the night I took those vows in the middle of the ocean. The sea was bottomless and pitch black. I don't think I would have chosen differently if given the choice. Then again, looking at everything that's happening now, I can't help but wonder if we were destined to cross paths in some way considering our family history.

Hidde appears deep in thought. I'm relieved he's not prying.

We're back in the city and should arrive in the next 10 minutes.

"I never got the chance to ask last night, but do you know how our grandparents met?" I ask in an attempt to steer this conversation in a different direction.

"From what Oupa told me, he was a double agent working for the old government and secretly supplied your grandfather with information when he was overseas rallying resources and allies. He said that it was a long story and we would discuss it when I came around for a visit."

"I see. And what about our mothers?"

"That I don't know. I didn't see Genevieve or my ma talking to your family. I can find out."

"Thanks. Genevieve?"

"Brice's mother. She's my aunt. Her and my mother are sisters."

"Right, which is how you're cousins. I'll ask my aunt. She was my mom's twin," I supply.

"Hmmm, interesting."

Interesting indeed.

"Have you heard about the French Connection?" says Hidde.

"No, what's that?"

"Everyone at Milton House has a French connection which is how they get in. It's more than a school. It's kind of like family. We're both legacies since our mothers attended Milton but I'm guessing they got in because of our grandparents' relationship. It's not just about having the money to enroll. Someone has to vouch for you and that person tends to be from a French family who migrated over from Franschhoek."

"So, every single pupil at Milton has a French connection?"

"Yes."

"What about Mark and Tshepho?"

"Mark's mother is a French Jew. Instead of staying in the newly created state of Israel or moving to the U.S her family came here. Tsepho and Brice have been friends since prep school. Their dads are both doctors."

We pull up to the gates of the estate and I punch in the code to enter. This conversation and trip has been illuminating. Seeing home within reach has fatigue hitting me like a tonne of bricks. I can't wait to climb into bed and sleep for a few more hours.

"Can you do me a favour and not tell anyone what I've told you about the wish and my dreams. The only other person who knows is Brice."

"Of course, you can trust me."

I hope so.

I guide him through the various twists and turns of the estate until we reach my front gate. I use my remote to let us in. Gogo is waiting at the front door with her hands on her hips. Oh boy, here we go.

***

I never imagined Hidde and I as friends but one wouldn't say otherwise considering how well he'd taken on the role. He'd proven himself to be a great ally in the mess that had become my life.

When I got out of the car and grabbed my bag from the back, scrambling for an excuse as to why Mark wasn't the one to escort me back, he had walked over to Gogo and pulled out the charm.

She invited him in for tea and he indulged her for over an hour as she regaled us with stories. He had smoothly excused Mark as not feeling well and quickly steered the conversation to asking about Riaan as a young man and his role during the apartheid era.

I expected pushback and suspicion from Gogo. Instead, it was Aunt Michelle who kept her eyes volleying between Hidde and me as if trying to piece together an odd puzzle.

Once he'd left and I'd slept, I eventually worked up the strength to ask Gogo if I could go to Plett the day after tomorrow.

"Haw, mtwana yam! But you've just come back from a night away. And just a week ago you were away at school for months. Why do you want to leave me again so soon?" But my baby!

I couldn't wait to go to college. I was definitely staying in res. Asking for permission to leave a black household was the pits.

"I'm not leaving you, Gogo." This woman can be dramatic. "Christmas is in a few weeks and everyone will be traveling or with their family then. It's probably the last chance I'll get to spend with my classmates before we're off to different cities for varsity. Hidde will also be there and you've seen how responsible he is. He was headboy," I throw in.

"Ah Ah! Is he your boyfriend? You're asking me to spend a week alone with your boyfriend? Uyahlanya!" You're crazy!

My mouth hangs open in shock for a second.

"Gogo, no! Why are you like this?" I chuckle in amusement. "It's not like that. I promise we're just friends."

I'm going to have to be economical with the truth.

"I won't be alone with Hidde. There will be other people from school like his cousin Brice who's house we're staying in. There'll be girls too like his sister Hailey and her best friend Jessica. Charlondra went to Kenya so she can't come," I add. "Please! You're the one who was telling us we were friends when we were just babies. I just want to bond with my adult friends before we go our separate ways." I clasped my hands in supplication. "Please."

I give her my most adorable face.

I think it's working.

"I'll see. Let me call Riaan," she says and walks away without a backward glance.

***

I don't know what Riaan said, but Gogo agreed to let me go the next morning. However, she didn't fail to guilt trip me about missing out on some family get-togethers that were supposed to take place in Joburg over the holidays. I wasn't falling for it. I would see them next year.

There was a certain grey-eyed monster I was not willing to disappoint. Brice had been blowing up my notifications. I'd been updating him on my gran, my day, and how I was feeling since the last time I saw him I had been alcohol sick.

He'd offered to whisk me away if Gogo said no. The back and forth had me giddy.

I spent the day shopping and stocking up for the trip with new bathing suits, pajama sets, shorts, and dresses with the season and beach location in mind.

Aunt Michelle had been unusually quiet. It was only a matter of time before she spoke her mind. I just didn't expect it to be on the way to the airport as she'd offered to drop me off.

"It's not Hidde you're going for, is it? it's the other one, Brice."

"What?" I asked even though I heard her.

I looked up from my phone after letting Brice know I was on the way to the airport.

"I saw the way he was looking at you. He couldn't even hide it. Have you slept with him?"

I was gupping like a fish before I started choking on my spit.

"No, oh my gosh! Aunty," I finally got out.

"Hmm. It's going to happen sooner or later."

"Please stop," I begged covering my face.

This was so left field. We talked about boys, not that I had much to contribute to that conversation, but not sex.

"Which is why I made an appointment at the clinic," she continued

"An appointment for what?" I spoke behind my hands.

I chanced a glance at her through my fingers afraid to look at her as if I was watching a horror movie.

"Birth control."

I groaned. Why was my family so involved in my business? They really couldn't let me live. I swear, I was attending college in a city none of them were in. I needed peace.

"Are you serious?"

"As serious as teenage pregnancy?"

I thought back on my strange dreams where I was pregnant in both. Damn, did she know something I didn't? Was she clairvoyant?

"There's something about the men in that family when it comes to the women in ours," said Michelle.

I turned to face her. She had piqued my interest.

"What do you mean?"

"Your Gogo had an affair with Riaan when Baba had been exiled and was living in London. Then there was man-stealing Marie. She liked the same guy I did but she didn't want me as competition so she got her cousin to keep me occupied. I ended up pregnant with his baby. When I suffered a miscarriage that man tried to ruin me. I had to leave the country. Now it's you."

I was speechless.

First of all, thinking of Gogo rolling around the sheets with that old man was gross but learning that Aunt Michelle had almost been a mother made me see her in a completely different light.

"I'm sorry," I apologized for her pain and what she'd been through. "Did you love him?"

She gave me a tight smile as she pulled up to the parking lot of the medical offices.

"I did, but sometimes love is not enough. Those men love hard but when they're hurt it turns to hate. Asambe, you're running late on your appointment." Let's go.

"But I'm going to be late for check-in and miss my flight," I counter looking at the time on my phone.

"Then book another one. You're not going for a job interview or a meeting. A flight costs a few thousand; a child costs a few million. Learn to prioritize. Let's go," she finishes, getting out of the car and slamming the door behind her.

31 / 01 / 2024

WC 2917

I've started a new book titled The Spellman Scrolls featuring stories of the women in Soleil's family and their various romantic entanglements. You can read about Michelle and her mystery man on Ream!

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