When Bluebirds Fly | ✔

Part One : Chapter Two

"No," I said coldly, tugging my jeans and getting up swiftly. Before I could see Isaac's smile turn into a heartbreaking frown, I turned to Lola. "I'll help you with the icing."

"Come, dear," she said amusingly and I followed her in the pantry. I could feel his gaze boring into me till the moment I disappeared from his vision. Once out of his sight, I sighed audibly. "Boy trouble?"

I gawked at Lola, her weathered face stretched into a knowing smile.

"It's nothing," I said scornfully, eyeing the fresh batch of golden doughnuts. Why couldn't people mind their own business?

She held out a bowl of sprinkles in front of me and only when I met her gaze, she released her grip on the vessel. "It's only awkward when you make it."

Yeah thanks, no one asked for your bloody advice. As if we chose to make things awkward. It simply happened.

I smiled tightly, taking the bowl from her and placing it on the table with a childish thud. There was complete silence for a few seconds and I was too vexed to apologise. But then she giggled and soon I joined her to be polite, laughing dryly at how my fate led me to the most unfortunate events.

* * *

I'll show you mine and you show me yours.

I lifted my frock and stood there with the fabric bunched up at my hips. He was crouched on the ground, digging mud with a fallen branch. I waited impatiently, but he didn't even glance at me. "Isaac, look!"

Isaac's familiar head of unruly hair raised up, his lovely eyes squinting as harsh sunlight spilled on his face. For what seemed like only a mere second, he stared before averting his eyes back at the ground, uninterested. I let my frock fall and pulled up my underwear.

"Your turn," I said fairly and he shrugged.

"No."

My small hands balled into fists at his refusal and I pushed him down angrily. He fell on the ground and the soft skin of his elbow broke- bleeding there. The fragile stick he was holding snapped in two. For a while, he lay there and I wondered if he died. I didn't want him dead. He was my best friend.

Eventually, he got up without uttering a single word and again began digging the mud with his hands as if nothing had happened. Minutes later, I joined him, four baby hands trying to find where the wonders of the planet earth lay- the centre of our world.

* * *

We were six years old then. He was the kid who always said a blunt 'no' to everything asked and I was the violent kid who pushed him each time he said a blunt 'no' to everything asked. We made quite an odd pair, but we were best friends armed with a box full of toys, lemonades with extra, extra sugar and the childlike hunger for adventures and knowledge.

But with years of childhood friendship came the inevitable end of it and the embarrassing memories. He literally saw my nether regions, how could I possibly show him my face? Especially, after the devastating end to our friendship.

I stopped fingering the glazed doughnut and tried to suppress the mortifying memory of me displaying my down there. However, that wasn't the only embarrassing moment, there were countless others-

Five years old. I ate a huge watermelon piece and spat all the black seeds on his mother's new car. I blamed Isaac for the minor damage caused. He was grounded for the whole weekend.