1 Chapter 1

A tall teenage boy had his arm around the teenage girl's shoulders as they stood by the window. His eyes were bloodshot confirming how hurt he was by the words he was hearing outside from the Nhira family as they decided his and her fate. Even he had been thinking of the same thing. What was to become of him and Alexis without his mother and her parents?

With that thought he tightened his embrace and the girl buried her face in his chest and cried some more wetting his chest with tears and snort. "It's ok, Aly." God knows how he wished that was true. After the death of her parents and his mother they had no one other than each other. After having lived their whole lives in the US and having had just come here for Christmas with grandpa Nhira, the teenagers knew nothing about Zimbabwe. What they were hearing was a cultural shock to them.

God knew Tinaye could not separate from her. He would never be happy without her. She was his best friend ever since she was born two days after his second birthday. After his mother's death she was his only family but it was most likely that since he did not have relatives of his own anymore they were going to be separated. He thought Alexis would probably go and live with one of her relatives in another country while he returned to the US probably at an orphanage or foster home. That was his biggest fear.

He bend down even more as he buried his face on her neck and cried his eyes out. He wondered when he started obsessing over her. But what could he do? He was just a boy. He was just in his youth going through puberty. Youth and puberty, what's that without a bit of passion and first love?

When Alexis was six she would do all she could to get out of socializing when her parents pushed the introverted girl to have more friends. She would confidently say that she was going to marry Tinaye anyway. Her parents took it as child's play but those words stuck in Tinaye's mind for years until it turned into real feelings. He pulled away and wiped her tears before lowering his head and placed a kiss on her lips.

That was their very first kiss ever. It was an innocent and honest kiss that happened without even thinking. Since then, he knew he could never be without her.

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