Whispers Of Unseen Wounds

EPISODE 4

After some days ...

A few days have passed since that day. During those days, sometimes I’d catch a glimpse of him, and sometimes I wouldn’t. Whenever I saw him, he was always with another boy, probably his best friend. On the days when I did see him, my heart would swell with happiness, but on the days when I didn’t, nothing felt right. All I wanted was to see him, somehow, somewhere.

One day, school was over, and it started raining heavily. I was standing there, waiting for the rain to stop so I could make my way to the bus. Suddenly, someone held out an umbrella towards me. I turned around, and a wave of nervousness and joy hit me all at once because it was him, the one I longed to see every day. My voice got stuck in my throat as he said, “Take this umbrella.”

I stuttered, “No, I can’t take it. What about you?”

But he just smiled and said, “Don’t worry about me. I’ll manage.”

I still hesitated, but then he gently took my hand, placed the umbrella in it, and quickly ran off before I could even say a word. I stood there like a statue, my heart racing from the touch of his hand. I couldn’t even thank him. Slowly, I walked to the bus, clutching the umbrella tightly.

When I got home, my mom noticed the umbrella and asked, “Did you get wet?”

I showed her the umbrella and said, “No, a boy from school gave it to me because of the rain.”

She smiled and said, “He must be a well-mannered boy. It’s rare for someone to give up their umbrella like that.”

I thought to myself, *He really is a good guy,* and nodded, lost in my thoughts as I went to my room. After changing clothes, I lay down on my bed, replaying everything that had just happened. I felt a mix of happiness and shyness as I remembered how he spoke to me and how he touched my hand for the first time.

As I was deep in thought, Anna snapped me back to reality, saying, “Hey! Where’s your mind wandering? We’re in class!” I realized I was daydreaming during the lesson, and quickly tried to focus on my studies again.

But as soon as the class ended, Anna turned to me with a serious look on her face. I was startled and asked, “What happened? Why are you looking at me like that?”

She said firmly, “I need you to answer something honestly. Do you like someone?”

My heart skipped a beat, and I tried to brush it off, saying, “What are you talking about? Who would I like? Don’t be silly.”

But she persisted, “Don’t lie to me. You like that basketball player, don’t you? The one who’s a senior.”

I couldn’t hide the truth anymore and slowly nodded. She looked at me and asked, “Why didn’t you tell me something this big... what did you think that you can keep this secret from me..huh?,I could tell just by your behavior," she said. I asked, "Really? But how?" She replied, "The way you keep looking at him, always searching for him—it’s obvious to anyone who sees you." I quietly murmured, "Oh, I see."

Then I said to her , “I didn't told you that Because I didn’t even realize what was happening to me. I didn’t understand why I was feeling like this.”

She grinned and teased, “Oh, so you have a crush on him?”

I nodded again, and she smiled , saying, “Well, you’ve got good taste—he’s handsome!”

I smiled shyly and said, “He’s not just handsome, he’s really kind too.”

She grinned mischievously, “Oh, you know about his heart too, huh?”

We both laughed, and then she said, “So why don’t you just tell him that you like him?”

I panicked, “Are you crazy? I can’t do that! He’s older than me.”

She shrugged, “So what? Lots of people like someone older than them.”

I shook my head, “No way, I can’t do it. Besides, it’s just a crush—it’ll fade away eventually.”

She smirked, “Okay, let’s see. But tell me, do you even know his name?”

I looked down, embarrassed, “No, I don’t.”

She was shocked, “You’ve had a crush on him all this time, and you don’t even know his name?”

I sighed, “How would I know? But I really want to find out. I’ve tried to figure it out so many times, but I just can’t.”

She smiled and said, “Don’t worry, I’m here to help. We’ll find out his name together!”

I smiled back, relieved, “Alright, let’s start our mission!”

We tried everything—standing close by whenever he was around, hoping someone would call out his name. But nothing worked. One day, Anna even tried to talk to him under the pretense of asking about basketball, just to sneak a glance at his ID card. But before she could read it, someone called him away, and our mission failed.

..............

One day during the assembly, they were giving out awards to the students who had won first place in a quiz. The teacher started announcing the names, but I wasn’t really paying attention. However, as soon as I saw him walking up to the stage, it hit me—oh, they just called his name! But I hadn’t caught it! I was so frustrated with myself for missing the chance to finally learn his name. Still, I was happy for him that he won the award. Then, the teacher said his name again,and told him to say something about this win ...and this time, I made sure to listen. I finally heard it—the name I’d been trying to figure out for so long. And it was beautiful, more than I could have imagined. His name is Zayden. It sounded so unique, so perfect because it was his name.

I turned around to look at Anna, and from the look on her face, I could tell she had heard it too. She gave me a thumbs-up, and I couldn’t help but smile as I turned back to watch him then he walked towards the mic and just said ,"Thank you to all the teachers for giving me this opportunity  to participate and for this award". Then I saw that he wasn't feeling happy there was happiness on his face it was like he just fake smiled for all so he doesn't look sad and I wonder why is he not happy then I realised that I have rarely seen him genuinely happy only when he is with his friend or when he is helping someone only that's time I have seen him happy. But I shrugged those thoughts think that maybe I'm making my assumptions.

A little later, when we got to class, Anna said, "Well, we finally know his name." I replied, "Yeah, and isn’t it such a great name? Zayden..." She looked at me and said, "You’re seriously losing it over him," but I just smiled.

That night, as I was getting ready for bed, his name kept playing in my mind, over and over. I fell asleep with the sound of "Zayden" echoing in my thoughts.
The next day, I went to school as usual. We had our regular classes, and then the lunch break came. After eating, I started looking for him with my friend. That’s when I saw him standing with a girl, talking and laughing. The first thought that crossed my mind was, Is she his girlfriend? I realized I had never even considered that he might have a girlfriend. I kept watching them, trying to figure it out. But they were just talking, nothing more. So I told myself,* Maybe she’s not his girlfriend, they’re just chatting.*

I walked away with Anna, but the thought kept nagging at me—What if she is his girlfriend? The idea made my heart sink. I tried to tell myself that if he does have a girlfriend, I’d have to control my feelings. But deep down, I wasn’t sure how I would do that, or if I even could.

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