Unraveling and Entangling

chapter 5

Ink couldn’t believe where the last six months went since she transferred to the new school. She had made some amazing friends here and they didn’t let her feel left out or that she was new and needed to fit in somehow. They had welcomed her with open arms and she was thankful for that. Her previous school kids hadn’t been that accepting of her and she had to spend most of her days and lunch breaks alone, sitting by herself. But it was different here.

The girls had almost immediately accepted her into their group and they helped her with getting used to the new surroundings. But, if asked, she would say that the closest friends she had made here were Pat and Pran. Two rivals who were not just rivals. She could feel something simmering beneath the surface that she initially couldn’t put her finger on. The entire first semester was spent trying to understand them, especially Pran. Pat was easy to read and eager to be read. He was more open and extroverted, ready to be friends with anyone he deemed interesting. Pran, on the other hand, was a little more complex, a lot more closed off and difficult to get through to. She had tried all of the first sem for him to open up to her but all she could ever get out of him were pleasant greetings and dimpled smiles sometimes.

That all changed starting this new year when they were seated in the same row. She could observe him more closely without infringing on his privacy. The way he took his notes with different coloured pens, the little doodles he drew at the end of his notebooks when he had some free time, the secret smiles that he tried to suppress when a certain someone made a joke in class, the fond glances thrown towards the back of the class when one particular individual wasn’t looking. She noticed everything but still couldn’t understand their dynamics completely. Maybe it wasn’t meant for her to understand. Maybe it was something very personal to both of them. But the proximity gave her a window into Pran’s world and he slowly began to let her step into it.

She had discovered that if Pat made her life more exciting by bringing in chaos and laughter, then Pran was her safe space where she could rest when the world became too much.

She had been spending some of their lunch breaks together with Pat since last semester, enjoying his company and the carefree aura that he exuded. On the outside he might look like just an overexcited puppy but from inside, his mind was a complex maze of feelings and emotions; some getting expressed while others repressed and pushed down. He might come off as overconfident or a show off to someone who doesn’t know him well but in reality Pat was a finely crafted eggshell adorned with hundreds of insecurities as the little holes that made him beautiful yet even more fragile. She had spent relatively more time with Pat and could read him almost like an open book now. Even better than himself.

She was certain that he didn’t consider Pran his enemy or rival. Rivals didn’t look at each other the way he looked at Pran. Ink was always amused to see the gleam in his eyes when he got to compete against Pran, the way his gaze looked almost proud when Pran got better grades on a test than him or scored a goal on the football field or the way he always smiled when Pran entered the room, searched for him and finally spotted him. But what amused her the most was that Pat was totally unaware of all of this. It seemed like a part of him was programmed to react to pran even without his knowledge.

Pran on the other hand at least seemed to be aware of his reactions to the other. They way he tried to seem nonchalant about the competition between them by deliberately rolling his eyes to hide that same gleam in his eyes, the way he covered his proud gaze with a head shake at Pat when he got over excited about getting better grades or scoring more goals than Pran, the way his dimples betrayed him when he tried to suppress his smile as he entered a room and immediately searched for Pat and met his eyes that were already looking back at him.