Tears | [BoyxBoy] | English

30

When I opened my eyes in the morning, Shanalka was not beside me. I felt my entire face turn red at the memory of last night and I turned over on the other side of the bed. At the same time, the door of the room was opened and Shanalka entered the room. He smiled at me.

'Here are two Panadol with a cup of lime.' As he sat down next to me, he placed a cup of lime juice in my hand along with two Panadol tablets. I sat on the bed and drank a sip of lime along with the two Panadol tablets.

'what's the time?' I asked him.

'It's nearly eleven. Yeheni went to see the flower plantation on the other side. When she comes, we will have lunch together.' He said, brushing my hair from my forehead and kissing my forehead. I smiled and looked at him.

'Eh by the way...' he drew out the words.

'Hmm?' I asked.

'Will you be able to walk?' he asked suspiciously after a moment.

I turned red and tried to get out of bed. At first, I was able to walk even though my feet were a little numb, so I showed him my thumbs up to tell him that I could walk. Shanalka smiled.

'Looks like I didn't go that hard.' He said. I sat back on the bed and finished drinking the cup of lime. Shanalka was also sitting next to me and looking at me.

'Let's go eat.' He pulled me by the arm. I got up from the bed. Shanalka put his arm around my waist and pulled me into his body. I smiled and hid my face in his chest.

'You are so cute, babe.' He said squeezing my cheek. We both walked slowly and sat down at the dining table.

Shanalka told me that various dishes on the round table were made by Yeheni. I pulled a chair around the table and sat there. Shanalka sat in front of me and at the same time, Yeheni entered the house with a camera in her hand through the opened door.

'Look, I found a blue beetle.' She showed me a picture of a blue beetle on the camera. I looked at it.

'Nice...' I admired.

Yeheni showed the image of the beetle to Shanalka with her face turned red due to cold. Shanalka pulled her by the arm and made her sit on a chair.

'Sit down and eat.'

Yeheni put the camera aside and spooned some salad on her plate. 'I slept like a dead man last night.'

'What a nice news' I whispered.

Yeheni looked up at me. 'What is the meaning of that?'

I turned red and looked down. 'Nothing.'

She looked at Shanalka and me suspiciously. 'You two last night...'

'no no.' I interrupted.

She covered her mouth with her hands. 'Who's Top? I am sure it is our ayya. Isn't that right?'

I poked the fish with the spoon. Shanalka silently took a bite of rice. Yeheni smiled and folded a cabbage leaf into her mouth.

'By the way.' She raised her voice after a while. 'Should I share some stories with you?'

Shanalka looked at her. 'what?'

'Now we have our own house. So I want to end my old sufferings as soon as possible.'

Shanalka remained silent as if uncomfortable. I also looked at Yeheni without saying anything.

'If you think it's better to say... say so.' Finally Shanalka said.

'Let's go to the room after eating.' Nangi put a piece of fish on my plate.

We finished eating slowly. The air around us was heavy. We understood that whatever Yeheni had to say was harsh. Shanalka had slowed his feeding rate as much as possible. Yeheni also started to eat silently like never before.

Finally the three of us were sitting on the bed in mine and Shanalka's room. Shanalka took a deep breath and motioned for her to begin.

'So... you know about mother's incidents... you know that mother started raping me since I was twelve years old...' Yeheni said awkwardly.

My body trembled at the memory of Mehansa. Yeheni shook her head and opened her eyes.

'Let's put them aside. People at school started saying shits to me at first. I don't know how much shit was spreading in our section about me. Like they even told each other that I use drugs. If we put those things aside, one day during the history class,' 

'During the history class, we were taught about Queen Kusumasana. The history sir explained very badly about Queen Kusumasana getting married three times and then pointed his finger at me. After pointing it out to me he told the whole class that this girl will beat Queen Kususmasana  by  being a whore.'

'Nangi!' Shanalka said in a shocked voice but Yeheni waved him to be quiet.

'The whole class laughed at that time. I also laughed at that time. But since then, the teachers started looking at me in a strange way. A music sir who was in his thirties made fun of me all the time in an unwanted way. There were many times when I wanted to stay at home without going to school, but if I stayed home, my mother would rape me, so I went to school without saying anything. After what happened to Mehansa, Lithum started making gossip about Mehansa. He was the one who told me the same thing when I was fighting Lithum. In short, they thought I was using drugs.'

When Yeheni paused her words to catch her breath, I looked at Shanalka. Shanalka was biting his cheek helplessly. Yeheni brushed her hair back from her ears and started talking again.

'So after that, after I got nine As for my O-levels, the gossip stopped. Lots of boys asked out me while I was doing A/Ls and I said no. It made that situation worst. There were so many crazy stories in the whole school that I didn't even know about.'

'Why didn't you tell me any of this?' Shanalka asked with teary eyes.

'I didn't tell you about school because I told you everything that happened at home. Except that I didn't pay much attention to what was going on at school. I was so stressed about everything when I was doing A/Ls. I even thought about cutting myself again and again but I didn't. I'm glad that I got one A and two Bs for A/Ls with that situation I was in.'

I patted her shoulder. 'I'm so proud of you nangi! You dealt with everything alone.'

Yeheni leaned forward and kissed my cheek. She bent over and kissed Shanalka's cheek too, keeping a happy look in her eyes. 'I am happy that I have you two in my life. I have lived this long because of you two.'

'So am I. I have no life without you two.' I looked into Shanalka and Yeheni's eyes and said sincerely.

Shanalka smiled and looked at me and put one arm around my shoulder and pulled me close to his body. His other arm was wrapped around Yeheni's body. 'I don't have anything except you two.'

I closed my eyes and let his warmth embrace me. One of Yeheni's hands was entwined with mine. The three of us huddled together on the bed.

It was comfortable.

It was filled with a sense of security that I could never find again.

___________

TEARS

2022. 08. 04