vagary

"And no hugs."

Shiloh picks through the pulao, last night's leftover dinner, which her mum has given for lunch today. Clearly, Mrs. Daniels was in a rush this morning.

It's the first day of school after the winter break and it couldn't get worse.

Shiloh had imagined the whole fiasco would have died down by now, that she would have waltzed into class and everyone would have returned to their normal usual selves. But the way Tariq keeps throwing furtive glances her way (or at least tries to, discretion is not his forte) and everyone else is acting around her as if stepping on broken glass, she knows things are still quite not right.

Sigh.

When the awkwardness became too much for Shiloh to bear, she decided to have her lunch in the school ground, never mind the brutal January cold.

Now, she wishes she was inside the class bickering with Ria and Tariq and Eli and the others.

"Uh...hi"

When Shiloh looks up and finds very brown eyes staring back at her apologetically, she almost chokes on her mouthful of pulao.

She feels déjà vu alright, but not the good kind.

"Get lost Dasgupta. Go find someone else to abuse." she says.

"Look Shiloh I..."

Shiloh knows from having read enough books that sentences that start with look or listen are never genuine.

She has no wish to listen to half-assed apologies, so she does the next best thing and gets up to leave.

Someone starts crying and it is definitely not her, she would die before crying in public.

"I am sorry Shiloh I am so sorry I-" Eli says before breaking into tears.

And no, he is not simply sobbing, he is having a full-on nervous breakdown, replete with red eyes red cheeks red nose and snot.

Shiloh has no clue on the playbook for such situations. How do you console a boy you kind of liked but now plain detest, who is having a breakdown in front of your sorry eyes?

She thinks she should pat him on the back and mutter "there there" or "it's okay" (after all, isn't it what they do in books?) but God forbid she would ever touch him.

So, she does the next best thing and offers him tissues she always carries with her, she is kind of a neat freak.

"Uh here take these" she says awkwardly. Life couldn't get worse than this, she thinks.

Eli cleans up his face and then looks at her with the world's most sorry and embarrassed face.

"I am sorry Shiloh. I shouldn't have said something like that. I have no idea why I said that. Uh here I...um I made this small uh-"

He shoves a card into her hands.

Its gold and white, Shiloh's least favorite color combination, but she doesn't say anything.

Inside, in a surprisingly elegant cursive handwriting, Shiloh sees the words

"I am very sorry for being a twat.

I am very very absolutely sorry.

If I could lose all my books (and you know how much I love books) only to take back what I said to you, I would do that in a heartbeat, Shiloh.

I am sorry.

Because what I said is not true at all.

Truce?

Eli

P.S. Thank you for the gift it is so darn amazing!!"

"You've got a way with words, haven't you?" is all Shiloh manages to say.

"Uh, yeah I kind of write sometimes?" Eli says, scratching the back of his neck uncertainly.

"Uh, so, apology accepted?" he says. The suspense is driving him crazy. Suspense in books he can handle, but real-life, not so much.

"I don't know Eli, you ruined my entire Christmas break, and it only comes once in a year, you know?" Shiloh says.

"I-

And you did call me black. Now that's racist. And plain mean."

The sadness on his face almost makes Shiloh want to cry, or laugh. She can't decide.

She decides it's best to leave the crime scene but before she can twist her back, Shiloh is engulfed by two scrawny arms.

Apparently, Eli has a thing for hugs.

Sadly, Shiloh does not. She only likes hugs when she is the one initiating them.

"What the hell Eli! GET OFF ME"

Eli pulls off her, his face and neck fifty shades of red.

"Ugh, fine. Uh...as long as you keep your racist comments in check, I guess we are uh...we are fine." Shiloh says.

Eli almost hugs her again. The key word being almost. Hell would freeze over before Shiloh would let him hug her again.

"And no hugs."

A/N

I'm back! And for good!

Since my exams are over which means no more school for the rest of my life, you could expect frequent updates.

Maybe. ;)