Ugly Woman Handsome Man

Enemy zoned

THEN

I was in my Economics class, my eyes glazed over and staring at the professor. At the start of class, he had introduced me to the students there but I had no idea what he had said. Quickly, he had dismissed me and relieved me from the torture.

I could feel L and M staring at me alternatively. I was cozy in my corner, beside the wall and in my own bubble. My thoughts were chasing each other. There had always been a few given things in my life. My father’s hatred. My mother’s helplessness against him. My sister’s solidarity despite the popularity. Always, always, she had chosen me above all her friends.

It had been the reason school had been fun for me. To know I belonged with somebody there. But all of a sudden now, she seemed to have chosen someone other than me.

‘Go away, Jeni.’

The words were a weak echo of her real voice but the pain was too real and just as clear as the moment she had uttered them. The chuckles of her ‘friends’ as my sister humiliated me still resonated in my ears. I swallowed again, pushing the wedge down my throat just like I had then.

I had run away from there, quickly and abruptly. Barely ten steps later, she had caught up with me, grabbing my arm and turning me forcibly. Honestly, I had expected her to apologise but it seems she was determined to confuse me.

“What did you talk with him?”

If anything, that had been the most painful moment. Knowing my sister was not any longer her. The one person I knew was my friend. It was difficult to believe. She can’t be like the idiots who laughed at others misery. Lallu was above that. She would never choose a guy, a crush, above her blood.

“With whom?” I asked, wanting some time to gather my thoughts.

“Don’t act with me, Janu. What did you talk with him? Did you tell him about- about,” she looked around nervously, “him?”

Him. He was Lallu’s one bad secret. He was Lallu’s one huge regret. I had been shocked beyond belief that she would think I would speak with Karthick about that.

“Why would you think that?” I had asked vehemently, “How would I do that to you when I know you have a crush on him?”

Lallu had shushed me hurriedly. “Do you need to broadcast it to the world?”

I had shrunk from her anger. Lallu never got angry on me.

“I mistakenly sat on his seat and a kind person told me not to. Then he came along and I left to another seat. He asked my name but-”

“He spoke with you?!”

I had nodded despite the offending tone of shock and surprise.

“What did you tell him?” she had asked suspiciously. Why was she being this way?

“Don’t you know me, Lallu? I couldn’t speak. He is too- too- goodlooking.”

“He is, isn’t he?” she had asked dreamily. I had waited. Now that we had finished talking about what she had wanted to know, maybe now she would explain what she had done.

But Lallu had continued to surprise me. “Look, I will talk to you at home. Got to go. See you.”

She had rushed off like the social butterfly she was.

It was like she was rushing off right before my eyes when I glanced at the clock above the professor’s head. Class was almost over and it was history next. I did not fancy the talk with L and M in the intermittent walk to the History classroom. I was worried they would say ‘we told you.’