2|| Whispers in the Wind

8|| a glimpse of the past

Kalyani

"What do you do when you meet this really cute boy at school who you don't trust and you also sort of hate but then you get jealous when your sister talks to him?" Kalyani asked no one in particular.

Her mom hadn't checked in on her yet, which was odd, but she decided not to dwell on it and discuss her problems with herself. She wished she'd had an imaginary friend when she was little so she could pretend to talk to them now. She'd changed out of her school clothes and settled for dark shorts and a blue T-Shirt. Feeling unusually bored, she rifled through her backpack, wishing she could unearthing various types of items she'd forgotten about. Finally, she landed on a piece of paper. It wasn't crumpled, meaning she'd put it in today. On it was a note and a number.

Hi Kalyani. I think I gave you my phone number before, but you might have forgotten. Maybe you could share it with your sister too?

***- ***- ****

- Arlo

Kalyani looked at it in surprise. Arlo was making a huge effort to be nice to her. It was kind of disarming and slightly creepy. But why would someone like her give Kalyani, a new weirdo, her phone number and want her to share it with her sister? Unless- wait. But no. Too unlikely.

Well, maybe she could talk to her about her new boy problems.

There was a knock on the door. "Come in," Kalyani said, expecting it to be her mom. Instead, it was Aria.

"Hi Kalyani," she said, sounding unusually serious.

"What's wrong?"

"Mind if I stay here for a bit?"

"Yeah, sure."

Aria settled herself on the bed, wrinkling her nose at the general neatness of the room. "I'm having conflicting emotions."

"Tell me something new," Kalyani replied, sitting down next to her.

Aria scowled. "This is serious!"

"Alright, just tell me."

She took a deep breath. "Well, lately, whenever I see Wilder, I get this weird feeling."

Kalyani's heart dropped. "Like what?"

"He kind of makes me feel nervous or something. Like there's something off."

This was a first. Kalyani had been absolutely certain her sister was into girls, but... now she wasn't sure anymore. "You never told me you were into guys."

Aria threw up her hands. "What? That's not what this is! I don't like him. I was here to talk about something weird I was feeling- now you're making it about yourself again! Nevermind. I'll leave you alone."

She didn't know why she said it, but she did anyways. "Arlo gave me her number."

At the last second, Aria turned. "She what? Why you?"

"Seriously? Are you jealous or something?"

"Of you? This is ridiculous! I just came to talk, not get accused of anything. I thought you would've understood. You really have changed, Kalyani. I should have realized it when you hit Arlo in the eye. She's making a mistake being your friend." And with that, like a punch to the gut, Aria left the room.

And Kalyani came back to her senses. What was she doing? Why was she doing it? Stuck with conflicting emotions of her own, Kalyani decided to read. The book on top of the stack was the "Life of Roxanne (Roxie) Wesner."