dead girls don't love [dgdl]

chapter 04 \l

LIFE TOOK NO NEW TURNS as months passed by, swirling in the same dark hole, except for one. 

Nights still screamed deafening silences and mornings demanded escape from the house. 

Afternoons still went busy with studies and college but evenings had a new cue added to them in the past two months. They were always vibrant but now the setting sun brought many colors new to Ashna's life. Colours, she is not so sure of the shades of.

A week after Ivan had sent her the following request, Ashna had replied to a story of his. It was nothing. On a similar night when she was lying down on her bed, scrolling through reels and stories of people, she came across his story, the first he posted in the past week.

She had realized he did not post enough, a minimal following list that only had either standup comedians or artists and people who she guessed were his best friends, and followers that were mainly men from their class or people from the school and others she knew not of. 

The story was, "ask a question," and what had made Ashna ask one was the little note he had added, "Keep it a 2 marks question only."

It had brought a smile to her face and she had asked, "What's 8-6?" 

He replied with "2" and a screenshot of his calculation in the phone calculator. "It was a really hard question, I had to use the calculator," he texted. 

That was that only. But it brought a smile so wide on her face as her heart felt so happy for some reason. 

Ashna, in the small of her mind, had wished for him to say something at least. After numerous replies they made on each other's stories, most of her replies which he only left after liking, this was the first time they talked over text. 

She did not know Ivan and it won't be false to derive that she felt the urge to know him. That could be called the beginning of what can not be made sure of. What had some other shades than the violet Ashna had known for all her life?

Even she does not know how she went from that little unremarkable question to talking to him for a remarkable time every evening. Even when she had not seen him clearly for once, not after school at least. 

She did not remember him the exact way he was in school; she never heard anything controversial or had any sort of remembrance of him. 

Except for the PPT and that his little sister was really good at studies which his friends had said, maybe once or twice in the class. 

She had not met him even now despite having talked over calls for about a month, every time the sun thought of vanishing. It was nothing, for all they had talked about was classmates, their studies, etc. Random old talk, but with him, she did not feel tired to tell those things. 

He was quite accepting of everything, even things that may seem a little odd to other people. They went from knowing each other as strangers to close friends to like they were best friends. 

Life took them from stories to texts to the point where they had started to wait for that little hi. 

Their little chatters, which sometimes dragged on for an hour or so, had brought her to the realization that he was introverted. And he did not judge; hell, he was the least judgemental person she ever knew. 

It was also true that he was a man who cared less and so avoided little talks and stuff as much as he could. No specific reason. Maybe, disinterest. But specifically, because it just went like that for him. 

And through the other things he spoke of, she knew he was not introverted to everyone. Not to his friends, and probably, not to her.

Things twisted into a spiral when one evening, their fun talks turned heated; they debated and challenged each other so many times, it was one of those times.