Stag Tales Moon Talk

Broken Glass: part 6

Well, this is what the story

looks like.

Her

We were to attend a seminar on sex and its effects on society, the whole lot of us. Marching to the auditorium, my hands behind my back, my bag left on a desk in the lab, I gave no care to anything in the world.

Everything was alright. I knew it. It had to be.

Climbing the stairs to the top, my eyes on the last seats, I eyed someone else reaching for them. Oh, dear. No. Let him go to the moon and never come back. Let him keep the stars. Just let me have this, the last seats, this.

Watching him take a seat, I sat two seats away, before the girls lapped between us and asked, "Hey, do you mind shifting in? We don't want to be separated."

Looking over to me, his gaze void of any heat, he probably nodded in response, or didn't respond at all, because less than ten seconds later, he was only an arm away. 

"Hey."

"Hi, Krish."

"Hi, Shubhadra."

"You know my name."

Looking over to me, he passed the words along casually. "Well, yes, I do."

So we don't argue. Not till Surya's gaze fixes with mine, and Krish notices.

"He seems to really love you."

I don't nod. I don't shake my head. I refrain from giving my two cents.

"I'm not kidding. He really cares. Too much."

Another second, another resistance, and I say nothing. He continues. "I mean, it's pathetic how easy he makes it look, falling for you. A guy could be misled."

"Is that why you think you can get me to kiss you by Christmas, because Surya makes me seem easy to get?"

He didn't expect me to answer, I think. Or maybe he was goading me. So, he stays quiet this time around.

"I don't have a problem, I'm flattered, quite frankly." I turn to him, to his hoodie, his dark eyes, his silly, meandering gaze and his beautiful dark hair. "But it only makes one wonder about you, when you think about it."

"Look at you, sitting here and passing judgments. And you've known me, what, six days?"

"Ten," I correct him. "We finished camp ten days ago."

"Look, like I said, you were cute that first day, and Surya was quite concerned with my staying away from you. I did. Till we got drunk and he spill out his secrets."

"What secrets?"

He shrugs so easily. Like he really doesn't care. "It's your stories to tell. Anyway, you came to me, remember?"

"That was because Surya told me about the bet."

"Ah, well," he turned to me now. "That's off."

I don't answer.

"See, back then, when your pretty eyes made me wonder, it was a bet. Now that the whole story's out, there's nothing left for me to see."

Someone came to the mike. Finally. "You know nothing about me." I tell him dispassionately, reminding him the truth. "And I know nothing of you."

"I know enough."

"You've heard enough," I correct him, again, dispassionately. "You know, at this point, nothing."

Him

I didn't have to follow her, but it felt like I had to. Like she had grabbed on to me, thrown me into the pool of doubt and left me there to drown. 

"So there's more?" I ask as I follow her out to the electronics department, the trail laid with stone.

Uninterested, almost bored, she looks to me, then behind me. "What're you doing, Krish?"

"Is there more to what I've heard?"

"No," she sounded firm, but something gave her away. Her shake, the head tilt, her hands fisting into tight curls. "There's nothing more. That's the whole truth."

"So that's how the story ends?" 

She thinks about it, over it, and digs the grave and nails that coffin. "Yes." She calls out, just before turning away. "That's how the story always ends."