Masquerader

Chapter 3

               Days went by like this. Cenne had Cheio on her mind until things changed. She got indulged in some defaming activities. It continued for some months during which she went through a lot of hard things and she went through them all alone. She had a lot of friends but none she could talk about all this. 

              One of Cenne's friends, Jacey would call Cenne's name out loud whenever Cheio passed by. Cenne had asked her so many times not to do this but she never listened until Cheio gave her a piece of paper in which he had written, "Cenne is my little sister and she's such a cute kid." Then Jacey stopped teasing him by Cenne's name but Cenne was so hurt because of Jacey, how she was disgracing and roasting her own friend just like that on the streets? 

            She got spoiled and rehabilitated herself without anybody knowing but she was thirteen years old who had messed everything just as she entered teenhood. She did not know anything about the world but 'the prospectus of life and how to deal with persons' that was in her mind was enough for her to grow in these starting years of her life only if she had acted upon that booklet. So in this time, she had gone through heartbreak as Cheio had texted her friend, Maple some horrible things about Cenne. She lost her mother's trust. She was grounded. She had her final exams which she didn't prepare for at all and she was expecting to get fail but she did not get fail instead got 93% which was quite good but that was only because she had done excellent on the tests conducted earlier. Someone had told her dad not to let her go out due to false acts of the people she was with. Cenne's brother Lua was really understanding and had always supported her. He kept on asking him why mother had been so rude with her lately? Why is she grounded? Cenne trusted him and she loved him more than anything in the world but for the life of her, she could not gather up the courage to tell  Lua what was happening in her head and her life.  It is really weird how while living in the same house, sharing the same room you don't have any idea of how much a person next to you is disturbed? Maybe that's because we do not try to know others not even the person right in front of us. We don't share and keep the distance with the ones we should be close with and how stupid it is of us to tell a complete stranger everything we are going through. We should develop the ability to know who is really honest to us and who are trustworthy. Most of the time they are the people you don't expect to be nice. Cenne faced depression for the first time in her life during this. But she had a strong faith in Allah Almighty and she continued to ask him for forgiveness and she promised Him that she would never do something like this ever again. All she wanted was to be with her family, happily. She was with her family but not happily. Her mother always used to believe that she was the wisest of all her children and Cenne used to think that too and had always made her parents proud. Everybody liked her. She had a liking for all the healthy activities and was a good kid. Everyone they met said Cenne is such a nice kid, well etiquette and the most loving but that was two years ago and now I'm a characterless girl who is catcalled by ramble boys of the streets. Cenne was thinking all this when she realized tears were rolling down her cheeks. She used to pray to the Almighty and she cried so intensely, she was ashamed although she didn't even do anything. But she was broken because of losing her mother's trust. She wasn't even allowed to call somebody not even on the landline. 

                One day, Cenne sneaked out of the house and went to her friend they were all gathered at a spot and they showed Cenne a piece of paper on which Cheio had written "You look gorgeous." He gave that paper to Jacey. After a few days, Cheio gave Jacey an old Nokia with a message to call him. She did. He gave her a Nokia because when he gave Cenne an android, she broke it. Jacey called him twice from that phone. Cenne used to hang out with three girls, Jacey, Maple, and Ema. Maple's brother got to know that Cheio had given Maple and Jacey a phone. He was really mad at it and talked to Cheio. Cheio calmed him that it was a misunderstanding but Maple was really upset.

                After some time, her mother had started taking some evening classes and she was alone at home for an hour or half. In that time she used to open her laptop and unblocked Cheio and talked to him and his friend. Cheio had texted her sending her a link to the page he said he wanted to promote that page so he needs her help in promoting it. Cenne knew perfectly well that was an excuse, why would a guy like him who knew everybody in their area wanted her to promote that page. He also apologized to Cenne. Maybe he knew that his texts to a friend of Cenne had broken Cenne's heart. She pretended like she does not even know what he was talking about but he explained. He said that he had given his account to his friend, Jack and he sent those messages. He does not even know what messages Jack had sent. Cenne remembered that he had asked his same friend not to tell anything about that to Cenne as this would hurt her and he does not want that. So she believed him. He had asked her to buy her ice cream. She used to chat with Jack also at that time. They would send each other emojis of food. and he also asked her to get him something to eat. It was 4:05 p.m. Cenne was alone at home. Her father and mother were at work and fortunately, Lua was also not home. So she asked Jack to come by her house and she'll give him money from which he'd buy icecream for Cheio and himself. He came by and she handed him some cents. That's it. But oh her friends, they especially Jacey made such a big deal out of it and in their fake accent were like; Oh so you asked him to come over, and did you ask him to come inside too? Did you guys do something? How much Cenne wanted to escape from the Earth at that time. She considered Jack as a friend and there wasn't anything leading to this. And this wasn't everything, when they were outside and saw Cheio and Jack, Jacey was like oh, somebody got theirs today. People had fun today. Cenne was begging her to stop but she didn't stop until Jack replied, " What? Did you missed me?"