vagary

"Seriously, Dasgupta?"

January passes into February and then March and before Shiloh can fathom, it's the first day of eighth grade.

She is not expecting anything groundbreaking this time, not that she did have any expectations regarding last year.

It was supposed to be good, at least that is how Shiloh had felt at the beginning of the year.

It had turned out good, if you looked at it.

Shiloh forgave Eli easily for that one ugly little incident, forgiveness comes naturally to her. Sure, she pantsed him that one time in the hallway, but that's that.

Forgetting is another matter though, isn't it?

Shiloh will sometimes look at Eli when they are playing dumb charades or when he is sitting beside her reading a book and eating from her tiffin box as if it his own (it has been deduced that no one can pip Mrs. Daniels' cooking) or when he'll sometimes side hug her (the only kind of hugs Shiloh reluctantly agreed to when pestered by Eli), and wonder about the not-so-kind words that spilled from his mouth some months ago.

And that makes her sad. And a tad bit uncomfortable. But in typical Shiloh fashion, she keeps mum about it.

Right now, as she settles into the first bench in the classroom (first day of new class calls for sitting on the first bench, it's rule number two in Shiloh's handbook to being the perfect student in school, the number one being not missing the bus and reaching to school on time), someone plops down beside her.

"Weren't you supposed to sit somewhere else?" she asks the seat hoarder, Eli Dasgupta.

"Why?" he asks.

"Because you hate sitting on the first seat you dimwit. Tariq was supposed to sit with me, where is he anyway? It's past eight." she says.

"No clue. Maybe he missed the bus or something. Anyway, he can sit somewhere else, this seat is mine." he says.

"Suit yourself" Shiloh shrugs. Arguments, especially ones with Eli, are a waste of energy and time.

"Uh, hey Shiloh?" he asks.

"Mhm?"

"Could you come to my place after school to do homework?" Eli asks. Shiloh doesn't need to know how his heart is beating at that moment.

Shiloh snorts.

"It's the first day of school El. What kind of homework are we even gonna do? Plus, my mum wouldn't allow it anyway."

"I'll ask her in the lunch break" Eli says without missing a beat.

Shiloh looks at him with narrowed eyes.

"Where is all the confidence coming from? Where is the shy stuttering turning-red-in-the-face Eli I know?"

"Uh, uh I don't really know. New year new me, I guess?" Eli says.

"Seriously, Dasgupta? And no, you are not asking my mum." she says.

"Uh, okay. It's okay, it's fine." Eli says. His newfound confidence seems to have fizzled out quicker than Tariq's soda pops.

"Uh, will you have lunch with me, then?" he asks after a minute.

"Eli, we do have lunch together every day, along with Tariq and Ria. You forgot that fact during the school break?" Shiloh says in a tone you would use with a child. She senses there is something very different about Eli, but can't place it.

"Uh, I thought maybe, you know, just you and I?" Eli says before he loses courage.

"Oh" Shiloh says, her cheeks a faint red as it finally sinks in.

"Uh, yeah" he says.

"Cool" she says.

Shiloh feels a tug somewhere in her guts and a dull throb where her heart is supposed to be. She hasn't felt like this since almost a year, back when she saw Eli for the first time in class or heard his laugh.

So, when she smiles up at him, and he smiles back his signature dimpled smile with teeth showing, she feels giddy with something she finds hard to describe.

Gods, has she missed this feeling.

A/N

Short-ish  chapter but it is important as it shows the complex friendship (relationship?) between Shiloh and Eli

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