Player

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏: 𝐕𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚

Anjali's pov

There had always been a certain roughness to her, a streak of stubbornness with a touch of ice. Even with tears strolling down her face, she made me feel like I was on the edge of a cliff.

"I thought you trusted me," she said, her voice unwavering. We were just fifteen and yet, it felt like we were running out of time.

"I wish you trusted me."

"I do..." I tried to explain myself but she cut my statement before I could.

"No, you don't. You have been dating him? And I didn't know a thing about it?" I wish I could say it was a rumour, but she was accusing me of something that was very real.

Her brown eyes were cutting sharply through mine and knew I had to say something. "Come on, it's not that deep," I said, "We were just chilling together, and he -"

She did not give me the time to process anything beyond that. In a flash, her lips were on mine and I was completely lost in the strange taste of the vape she had been smoking a while ago.

Before I knew it, the kiss was over and she had stepped back as quickly as she had stepped forward. It was all too sudden for me to understand what had happened.

"Is that what he did?" she said, her voice cold.

"What?" I said, our previous conversation completely forgotten.

"You were telling me about how you guys were chilling together."

"Oh."

And then it came crashing down on me. I had a boyfriend. And possibly had feelings for my best friend. Fuck.

I had known for a long time that I was bisexual. I suppose my parents did too because when I had watched the Alladin movie for the first time, I had spend two weeks talking about how I wanted to be Alladin. I later realised I just had a crush on Jasmine.

I had never had a problem with being attracted to girls (or boys, or any gender to be honest), my parents never made a big deal of it. But I had ended up putting myself in quite a problem now.

"Ken," I said, looking as her sharp eyes cut through my skin. "What just happened?"

"I don't know," she said.

I took a step closer to her and raised my hands to her face. She closed her eyes as I dragged my nail gently along her cheekbone and down her sharp jawline. The smell of vape was still lingering around us.

"Doesn't it give you breathing problems?"

"What?" she said, looking at me non-plussed.

"The vape," I said, "You play sports. It's not good for you."

She did not skip a beat. "Neither are you."

I had this sudden urge to dig my nails into her skin.

"I'm not good for you?" I said, my voice barely above a whisper. I touched her lips and suddenly she was not breathing.

"No," she said.

I leaned over to her and bit down on her lower lip, hard, but she did not pull back. She did not flinch.

I pulled away and smiled.

"Fuck you, Anjali," she said, and I smiled again.

I slipped her hand in mine and her coldness was gone. She let go of my hand and instead wrapped her arms around me and buried my face in her neck. I felt her heat all over me, and with the cold wind seeping through out tshirts, her warmth was a relief.

"You can't love him," she said. She was not pleading with me, she was telling me. She already knew it was true.

She rubbed her hand on my back and gently slipped she fingers through my hair, and in that moment, it feels strange to admit, but it felt like I was cheating on her by being with him.

* * *

We had spend the evening under the sun, laying in the grass and talking. Her name was Kenna but I called her Ken and I knew she loved it.

She sat up and looked around. "We are alone right?" I nodded.

She pulled out her vape from her pocket and I was amazed. "You had that thing in your pocket this whole time?" I asked.

"Yup," she said, grinning.

I was a good girl, but somehow I always found myself in the company of people who could fuck up my whole life.

I tucked my hand underneath my head and looked up. The sun was not so strong like it was back in India. A thin trail of smoke rose up in the air.

I frowned. "It that..." I took a sniff, "Vanilla?"

"Yeah."

"Man, I love vanilla ice cream," I said out of the blue.

Ken chuckled. "What has ice cream got to do with this?"

I shrugged. "I dunno. That's just the first thought that came in my mind."

She shook her head and took another puff. She knew I did not vape.

"So, I heard something," she said.

My heart dropped.

"About what?" I said, turning my head to gauge her expressions.

"You," she said, her eyes had a shine to them, like a wolf's. There was dead silence. In under a minute, she was on her feet and so was I.

"I thought you trusted me," she said.

You see, the thing about Ken is that she is amazing at hiding her feelings. Until she is not.