Crossroads | ✓

f o u r t e e n

The gravity of the situation started sinking in and I felt my body shake and vision blur. It felt like suddenly all I could hear was a static buzz.

"C — can you guys leave me alone for a few minutes?" I croaked out but my mom shook her head looking angry.

"No!"

"Ma, please," I whispered as I pressed the bridge of my nose.

A migraine was starting to form and all I wanted was to just lie down and get lost in oblivion.

"Varun— " she started but my dad squeezed her shoulders.

"He needs some time to cool off," she murmured.

"But I think he needs help. Someone to talk to. Did you see him? He was walking mindlessly with those glassy eyes and pale face, and— "

"Let us leave him alone for a moment," my dad said in his CEO voice and the words died in her throat.

She gave me one last lingering look before stalking out of my room, looking angry.

"Varun," my father said, his voice grace and for the first time, sounded like that of a parent's. "I've never behaved like a father to you and I've always been a friend to you. I know how important Kiranya is to you but son, sometimes as parents, we get worried. And seeing you today, we both got scared. Your mother and I want to give you everything you want, but nothing that'll make you lose yourself. If something like today keeps happening in the future, then I don't think we'd be supportive enough to let you stick around that girl."

I didn't reply.

*

*

*

One message from BookManiac12.

My heart rate picked up and with shaking hands, I opened the message.

BookManiac12: Are you free?

I looked at the time. It was eight ten in the evening. I had finished all my homeworks yesterday since I always liked to be free on sundays so I typed back a 'yes.'

But her reply took me by surprise.

BookManiac12: Meet me at the park yeah?

The same exact words like the last time we met at the park when she had called me prince charming.

I really don't have to explain what I did next. Yeah, you guessed it right. I sneaked out of my house, waiting for a minute or two to see if anyone had noticed me leaving. When nothing seemed suspicious, I ran to the back of our house, where numerous trees lined the backyard. The night was dark and silent. I wondered how to climb the walls without making the alarms go off.

"Climb that tree near the corner," a voice said behind me and I yelped startled, jumping up in the air.

I whipped around to meet my dad standing in the shadows, a cardigan in his hands.

"W — what are you doing here?" I stuttered trying to calm my nerves. "You gave me a heart attack!"

He gave his trademark smile with no traces of his father talk of the afternoon. "Helping my son to escape," he said rubbing the back of his neck.

I stared back at him blankly.

His face flushed and his ears tinged pink. He tried to speak something, opening and closing his mouth, his face getting redder by the minute. When he decided that he had done his share of squirming and rubbing his poor neck, he coughed and tapped my shoulders hard.