The four lettered word (LOVE)

chapter 5

Shiva remained quiet for a long time just staring into his drink. I could hear the wheels turning inside his head. I left him alone to deal with his thoughts and silently sipped my drink. After a few minutes of silence he asked, “So how long have you known him…. sorry her?”

The girls were getting ready to play some sort of game and trying to drag Gowtham into it and he was trying to get away. “I have known her for a long time Shiva, from the age of 8. We were childhood friends. We grew up together and there is nothing that could separate us”, I answered Shiva’s question with a genuine smile.

“Not even the fact that she is a transgender?” asked Shiva with a quirked eyebrow.

The girls had somehow convinced Gowtham to sit with them and he tried his last hope of escape by saying, “OK! Girls get Ashwin to play and I will play”. Three sets of eyes turned towards me and Jenny squealed that would have broken a glass if there was any, “Ash!!” I closed my ears to drown out some noise. However that was not much of use and I turned towards Shiva and answered his previous question with a smile, “No!” and   left to join the girls and Gowtham in the living room.

“Make room for the king ladies”, I said while I neared them and Gowtham shot me a glare. I couldn’t tell whether it was for not acknowledging him or it was for not protesting to join the game. “What’s the game?” I asked and Jenny replied with enthusiasm “Truth or Dare”. That must have irritated Gowtham more as he replied, “Really Jenny? We are not kids anymore.” Jenny rolled her eyes at him and replied, “But you whine like one”. Nithya supported her by saying, “Besides it is a way to get to know others. Come on guys. It will be fun”. We agreed with a little bit of reluctance and Jenny insisted on explaining the rules though we all know about the game. “These are the rules guys” she said, “I will spin the bottle and when the bottle stops spinning, the person pointed by the nose of the bottle can ask a question to the person pointed by the base of the bottle, if the latter chooses a truth. If the person chooses a dare then they can make the person do something.” She finished with an evil smirk that said she had some evil plans floating inside her head and spun the bottle. It twirled for a few seconds and stopped with its base pointing towards me and top pointing towards Nithya. Until then I didn’t realize she was sitting opposite to me. She gave me a smile and asked, “Truth or Dare?” I wanted to say dare but I really don’t know why I ended up saying “Truth”. She gave a smirk and she tilted her head with a finger tapping on her chin, giving an expression of thinking hard. I was sure she was going to ask something embarrassing or something weird and I prepared myself for that. What I never expected was her question to bring back memories. Memories those were painful. Memories those were never supposed to surface again. Memories I have long before learned to bury deep inside my heart.