1.3 | Under The Pink Evening Sky | ✓

23 | her bubble of people

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"So what happened? What's with that odd expression?" Her mother finally voiced her question. The two were seated in the balcony, looking out at the fading colours of the sky. Darkness was already spreading fast, eating up the pink and orange from the horizon.

"Nothing happened."

"Did you and Shrest fight?"

Sana glanced at her mom. "No, no. That's...no."

Her mother pondered over it. Then, her eyes brightened. "Say, did he confess to you?"

Sana's eyes jumped to her mom's. "You...How did you..."

"I really was right?"

Sana's chest deflated and she leaned back, letting out a sigh.

"So, my guess turned out to be correct." A pause. "What's stopping you?"

Sana blinked. "Stopping me?"

"There's something stopping you from dating him. What's that?"

How did her mother hit the nail on the head?

It seemed her mother could recognize her expression. She laughed and said, "Sana, I'm your mother. Although I couldn't spend much time with you, I know you best. It's a motherly thing. So tell me. You know you can tell me anything."

"I'm...a little afraid. What if we break up? Our friendship will never be what it is. It would be damaged, unrepairable. Lot of things would change-"

"So you're scared of change."

Sana came to an abrupt stop.

Her mother placed her tea cup down. "Sana, you have this bubble around you. It's a bubble that's practically impenetrable. It is...both a good thing and a bad thing. Right now, it's a bad thing."

Sana stared at the sky.

"You're afraid of letting people into the bubble. You're satisfied with how things are and you don't want it to change. That's not a good attitude. Life is all about changes. You need to learn to embrace it."

Her mother watched her for a while. Then, she turned forward. "There's a unwrapped gift lying in your cupboard. What's that?"

"Unwrapped gift? Maybe it's Mani's."

"It's addressed to you, though."

Sana raised her eyebrows. "Is it? I don't think I missed any presents. Let me go check it."

She sauntered into her room and opened the cupboard, finding that a gift was indeed there. And then she remembered. It was Shrest's second gift for her birthday. Closing the door to her room, she picked up the present and sat on her bed, unwrapping it.

It was a notebook. A filled, sketching notebook. There was a note that accompanied it.

Dear Sana,

This book is filled with sketches of you, my muse for all my art. These sketches say things that I can't verbalise.

Shrest.

Sana's hands trembled. How had she forgotten about this present?

Quickly she opened the notebook. There were ... sketches in total. The first sketch was the canvas he had gifted her previously. It was her watering the tulips in school. 

The second sketch was a simple black and white shading sketch of her. It was a little clumsy but the technique was definitely improving. 

The next sketch was her toying with a ball. It was a much more grown up version of her. 

The consequent sketch was her skating. The movements were sketched intricately, reminding Sana just how talented Shrest was. This was the only sketch that was coloured. 

She turned the page. A sketch of her seated under a tent.Sana guessed that this was a reference to their tradition on her birthday.

The last sketch was one that covered multiple pages. It was a sketch of her standing in a tulip field. There was much erasing and crossing out. Until the very end, the sketch wasn't complete.

She closed the book, her eyes tearing up. Swiping at the moisture collecting, she pulled out her laptop and began typing furiously. He had expressed his feelings in so many ways to her. It was time she reciprocated it.

She was going to start by writing an introduction to her interview with him.

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wordcount: 630 words