The Misfortunes of Lolita

07 | when lolita saved

THIS IS AN UNEDITED AND SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT VERSION OF THE MISFORTUNES OF LOLITA. I AM PUBLISHING IT IN FALL 2021—PLEASE FOLLOW ME ON IG @/ls.akhter and GOODREADS (L AKHTER) TO STAY UPDATED. I am so excited to share TMoL with you again.

CHAPTER 7

"There's a hole in my heart. Or in my mind. Or in my very being- that is being filled with thoughts of a boy who is too beautiful to be mine." - Lolita's writing journal.

When Frank sat inside his biology class the next morning, Lolita sat up a little straighter. She didn't say hello, however.

So he did, instead. "Hey."

She looked at him. "Hi," She was shy. He was kind of shy too, now that he thought about it. Shy in an idiotic way. Shy only around Lolita. "Did you do your biology homework?"

"Kind of." He said. He would have loved to do his biology homework, but he couldn't seem to focus on anything but a painting in black and brown. A girl with the world on her shoulders.

He was an idiot.

All he seemed to do nowadays was think. If he liked Lolita, he should do something about it, but thus far, all he'd done was acted like a huge loser, and said stupid cheesy shit.

"Kind of?" she said, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Uh, do you need help?"

Frank grinned, despite himself. "Okay. What time are you free?"

Lolita blinked, and then her cheeks turned red -

Red. Not exactly red. Her cheeks turned slightly pink, really, but even then that was a loose description. What colour was the sunset?

Rose gold?

"Free." She said. "After school?"

Frank didn't notice she'd spoken, because he was trying to pin down the exact shade of her flushed cheeks. "Huh?"

"After school. You needed biology help." She smiled so brightly, that Frank wanted to fawn over it.

Idiot.

"Oh." He said, almost reaching out and brushing his hand over her warm cheeks and then stopping himself, thank the lord. "Yeah. Thanks."

"Okay." she said, her voice light like - like a cloud.

God, she drove him insane.

"Can anyone tell me what chitin is?" Doug asked.

When no one responded, Lolita raised her hand.

In the past couple of days of knowing her, Frank had realized that Lolita was in love with biology more than she was in love with anything else. She lived for cytoskeleton and neural synapses and she could mutter all day about the reason cancer cells don't stop duplicating.

"Why do you like it?" he'd asked her.

"I want to understand the world." Was her response. And then she'd gone back to writing down notes, sparing him a smile in between.

Understanding the world.

Lolita had settled for understanding the world, but Frank wanted to understand Lolita - and all the universes that existed within her. And that was proving to be a feeling that he never wanted to get rid of.

--

"Chitin is a polymer." She said, looking straight at Doug. Frank wouldn't have even noticed that she was jittery if it weren't for her fingers.

When Frank reached out and brushed his fingers along hers, they trembled with nerves, and he realized that she was waiting, again, for the ground beneath her feet to disappear.