Amaranthine Odes | ONC 2022

◻Chapter 03◻✔️

Perhaps his last-minute packing attitude! Or maybe his promotion party hangover.

His eyes gleamed with happiness as he heard he had more time than he had hoped. Muttering a warm thank you, he hung up the call.

"Maa, one glass orange juice kedaikuma?" He asked as he sat on the wooden chair.

She picked three oranges and squeezed them in the serrated dome-shaped plastic juicer. As she mixed some honey in the glass, she said, "Ayya, kutty maa andha paper ungakitta thara sonnanga." She dodged her head towards the paper sitting under the salt shaker.

Kimaya wrote something for me?

With an amusing look plastered on his face, he took out the folded sheet that had some inked words. Withering off his qualms, he began reading it.

'Anna, I need to speak with you. Meet me in the park as soon as you see this.'

As he read it, he gulped down the juice. Wasting no minute, he wore his black leather shoes and sprinted to the eastern side. Sweat beads pooled down his chest, revealing his vest's borders on the shirt.

What would it be? What else would be it? Or was it all?

Gambling ounces of irony clouded his anxiously thudding heart.

When he reached the high gates of the boulder-bricked park, his eyes scoured her. Far away from the corner of the ruffling ferns, he could see a girl in her azure shirt and palazzo sitting on the gravel-cut bench with a notebook and pen in her hand.

She kept tossing her head to the sides. Her hair was tied high in a messy bun, with some strands teasing her tensed brows. The turquoise earphones were plugged into her ears, and her eyes were more tightly closed than usual. Her foot kept tapping, and with every tap, a fresh stab scarred him within.

When he tried to step forward, he could see her scribble something on her note hurriedly. Damping his dry lips, he walked to her. To his odd hunches, neither his footsteps nor his waving hands were glimpsed by her.

Damn! She looks so obsessed over something. His brain rang its alarm.

As he sat near her and held her arm, she withdrew it akin to a skittish moth.

"Don't scare me as such. Can't you call me out?" She shrieked as the note fell off her lap.

Tushant bent to get it while she avoided his help and took it herself.

"Sorry, Imay. But I must be angry too!" He folded his arms in a thick force, making her peek to the sides through his shoulders.

"You didn't notice my waving. I shouted your name. But boom!" He threw his folded fist toward her eyes.

As he lowered them, he could see her swollen lids evidently as she strained them.

"Have you been crying, Imay?"

His heart sank deeper as tears escaped her lashes, pooling on her cheeks to hit the grass and pebble-laid grounds.

"I'm sorry, Anna. It was- It was always me who was wrong." Her broken phrases made him grip her arm.

She shifted her things to the space beside her. Even if lost in the minute, Tushant didn't fail to read her moves to keep the note away from his reach.

"What are you talking about? Huh? Everything is fine. Trust me, Kimaya. We are fine."

She hid her face in her cupped palm while he patted her forearm and hugged her from the sides.

"Imay, listen. You never hurt me, and I can never be angry with my lovely sister. You are my forever shine." He pinched her cheeks, which carved a small smile on her swollen lips.