Stubborn and strong willed, that's who I am, and those two words define Celeste Khoza in a nutshell. I've always been a bit of a...let's say, I've always had high standards when it came to anything in my life. Ever since I was a toddler, I have always gotten what I wanted from my parents. Don't get me wrong I'm neither the only child my parents have had nor are they recipients of old money. Matter of fact, my parents are from humble beginnings. My father was born in a family of 11 that lived in a one bedroom flat in Hillbrow, Johannesburg and my mother lived with her grandparents and four cousins in a shack in rural Tembisa. My mother always told me that she was a young girl who had big dreams of taking over the world and her grandparents made her believe that anything was possible which was why she worked so hard at school and managed to get a bursary to study at any university of her choice. During her first year, she stumbled into my drunken father one night at

After my parents woke up before the sun even rose, which is the time that they always wake up whenever they are home. They sleep at 18:30 and are awake by 05:30, and when I open my eyes an hour later my mum's already cooked an entire buffet for breakfast. She prefers to cook for us instead of having a chef because we were once poisoned by a chef that my father hired. It turned the chef had an affair with my father at some point and because he didn’t want to be with her anymore, she tried to kill the whole family. It was a long time ago, I believe I was three at that time, and my mother has long since forgotten about that incident so I didn’t dwell on it either. During breakfast, my parents promised to spend the day with me and forced me to call into work sick. Which is why four hours later I'm all dressed up for the mini birthday celebration. I had on one of my new wigs because I wanted to try a new look. It was a shiny black bodywave of rich and lu

It was 11:00 on Sunday when I walked back into the house and found my parents walking around casually before they both froze when they saw me. I haven’t been home since that belated birthday lunch when they told me that they found me a husband. I didn’t want to even look at them at this point because more than anything I was hurt and offended. "Cel-" my mother began but I ignored her as I walked past her, heading up the stairs to my room. She called out my name behind me and followed me up the stairs but I ignored her as I opened my bedroom door and locked it behind me so that she wouldn’t follow me into my room before I sighed and tossed my wig to the floor. I heard a knock on my bedroom door but I wasn't going to answer it or even pay attention to it. "Celeste..." she paused and I rolled my eyes, taking off my jewellery as I yawned, "uh, we're having a dinner later on. I was just telling you so that

I took my time as I descended the stairs because I knew that they were already waiting for me- I was after all, over an hour late. I wasn’t late just to be spiteful…ok, maybe I was, but just a little. But I was spending all of that time, making sure that I was going to look perfect. Everything of mine tonight had to be absolutely perfect. My short hair had been brushed smoothly against my scalp, my eyelashes were long and sparkled whenever I blinked. My lips were painted a deep dark red that seemed light against my dark skin tone and my contouring was flawless. My facial structure has always been fierce, but tonight I was confident that I looked like a Goddess. I was also thankful that I had taken that 6 months make up course from a famous makeup artist because those skills had come in handy today, and my hands did not disappoint. I wanted to make a statement the second I stepped out of my bedroom and wh

"Hey, it's Thembisa. Listen, I was just checking up on you. You're not picking up your phone calls, bruh, you're not even on Twitter anymore so I know something's going on. Listen, I'm here if you need to talk. Whatever you're going through I'm here for you, don't forget that. You don't have to go through anything alone. My gun is ready and my car is ready so I'm ready to kill a motherfucker. I love you, neh, don't forget that." I almost laughed at that voicemail as I stared at my darkened phone screen. I clicked for the next voicemail. "Uh, hello boss, it's Lesedi. I've been trying to call you but it's taking me straight to voicemail. I wanted to tell you about, uh, t-the, what's it called? Oh yeah, deliveries. We got, I think it's fifty cows...the bodies of the cows...no, the skeleton of the cows... wait, how do I say it? Eish, ja, you know what I mean. We've been selling enough, and I stay last to loc