Trust Fall(Complete ✅)

36. Birthdays and Heartbreaks

"How's your boyfriend?" Keith asks Aahana, taking a bite from his hand full of popcorns.

"Boyfriend? He's not not my boyfriend, if you're talking about Nik." She scoffs. "I'm not even sure of where our relationship stands."

The school had organised a small event to felicitate the non-teaching staff on May day and suspended the rest of the classes. Seeing the opportunity, Sia suddenly decided for the gang to hang out in the woods for a while instead of going home so soon.

So, having no reasons to deny, we all agreed and bought an ample amount of snacks to make this venture as good as a picnic.

After walking down the lane, crossing the trees of the forest below our school we reached a clearing just next to a cliff, "the perfect place" according to Sia.

"You do like him, don't you?" Asks Maya.

"More than I want to." Aahana sighs. "I thought the feelings were mutual.. but, I don't know. He hasn't called, nor has he been responding to any of my texts ever since he left."

"Would you miss me like that if I ever leave?" Keith asks but Maya just responds with a smile which somehow gets a bit awkward for all of us.

"When I planned about hanging out, I meant to have fun." Thankfully, Sia breaks the silence standing up. "Come let's play!" She pulls Rohan up from the grassy floor where we all have been sitting on.

Sia and Rohan have almost been inseparable ever since the beginning of this semester and it has clearly been doing good to him. I've noticed light returning back in his life with every passing of the days. As much as I can remember, he was nothing like he is now.

He's changing in the best way possible.

One could agree that metamorphosis is a possible reaction to affection. It has the capability of destroying darkness, a capability of changing habits, perspectives, priorities and an individual as a whole. I can say that confidently because I am one of the lucky ones who got to experience that and I can't express how glad and thankful I am.

The rest of us joined them eventually and now we're playing the traditional 'seven stones' like we're still kids. And I can't deny that I'm indeed having fun.

Bianca, who is so clumsy at running, soon gets hit by the ball thrown by Penzo and is now out of the game standing on the side waiting eagerly for the round to be over. So, I intentionally let Sia hit me to join my girlfriend.

"Hey,"

"Hey," she replies, exhilarated with the rush of the game.

I ask her if something was going on between Rohan and her cousin to which she acts dumbfounded. She starts biting her lower lip like she's hesitating about something.

"Do you want to tell me something?" I ask.

"Umm." She squints her eyes and continues biting her lip. "Will you please not tell anyone?"

Why would I?

Furrowing my brows I laugh at her naive question.

"Sia likes him." She blurts. Her eyes are wide and guilt rises up her face as a form of red heat, as if she committed a hideous crime.

I cough to cover up the laugh that escaped despite an attempt to stop. "Well, it's a good thing that Rohan likes her too." I answer as I recover shortly after I cleared my throat.

"How do you know that?"

"How? Isn't it obvious? Just look at him." She follows my gaze and we see Rohan, laughing his heart out as Sia desperately runs around like her life depends on the game.

"Yup," Bianca says, "He's crazy about her."

"Not as much as I am about you." I say, pulling her closer to me.

So crazy about you.

"What's that?" She says, looking towards the side of my neck with horror and my hands automatically reach towards where I find something squishy against my finger, "Is that a leech?" She screams and jumps away. I wish I could act differently but I'm as afraid of leeches as she is. I can also define that fear as my phobia. So, along with the constant chorus of "A leech! It's a leech!" by Bianca, I'm unintentionally joining her with my uncontrollable groans and "Aaaahs" escaping my mouth.

Meanwhile, our friends soon notice our frantic behaviour and run towards us. Bewildered, they ask for the reason for our panic but I can't do anything but close my eyes and move my head at the opposite side as if it would help to keep a distance.

"It's a leech," Bianca says again and while I hear some "ewws" and shrieks, I also notice a scoff soon followed by someone touching the spot of my neck and the girls are now screaming louder.

"It's just a leech," Penzo says and walks towards the cliff to throw it away.

Why? Why? Why couldn't it be anyone but him?

I hesitantly touch the spot to make sure it isn't there and breathe out a sigh of relief for it's absence. Luckily, I'm not even bleeding which saved me from going through the horrible bleeding experience I had with a leech when I was younger. That experience has been one of the significant reasons for me being afraid of that slimy creature.

"Please, let's get going." Bianca whimpers. "I hate leeches."

.....

A few days later we find out that Keith and Maya broke up. It got a bit awkward as they were always together and as expected, Keith doesn't seem to be coping very well with the fact. He was utterly quiet in the morning and there hasn't been any difference yet.

"You know what?" Keith finally breaks the silence as we eat our lunches in the cafeteria. "I'm amazed at how subtle she was. How did we never have the slightest hint about her cheating on me?"

He looks at all of us expecting a response but we simply continue to eat.

"What?" He asks. "You guys knew she was cheating on me?"

Some of us scratched our heads, some cleared their throats, while some just adverted their eyes to look anywhere but at Keith's direction, as an awkward admission to our awareness to which he holds his head with both of his hands, completely astounded.

"Damn!" He says, "Why didn't you guys tell me?"

"Well," Penzo starts slowly. "I tried, but before I could even begin, you started lecturing me about being serious for once, so.. I kept quiet."

"Now I feel like an idiot." He runs his hands over his face and sighs. "But I guess it's for our own good. Better to separate than pretend to be happy with someone who doesn't even wants to be with you."

"You're gonna be fine, Keith." Bianca says to which he lets out a small forced smile.

I'm almost bewildered by the way Keith is reacting. I behaved like a psychotic moron just with the knowledge of Penzo's feelings towards Bianca. I can't even imagine how I'd react if only I'd known that she cheated on me. I can't imagine being as composed as Keith when I try to put myself in his shoes.

Hence, this proves the diversity in human emotions. But I don't think he'd ever been as serious about Maya as much as I am about Bianca. So, I suppose it's wrong to assume things while only knowing about the outer frame of a picture.

.........

A/N: So, what do you think?

It's been so hard for me to update lately. I don't know why but it's getting rather difficult for me to feel the emotions I require in other to write this book. Honestly, I'm kind of unsatisfied with what I'm even writing. But as my friend suggested, I should keep on working despite the turbulence I'm currently facing and edit later when I finally regain the energy the plot requires. Until then, I'm trying to stay strong and I'm praying that you'd like my work.

Please leave your comments as a form of your opinions and suggestions.

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Happy reading.

Love ya<3