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𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟒: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥

Ken's pov

I knew desire long before I knew love. I deciphered longing gazes much better than eyes that looked at me with love and affection. That's why when I looked into Anjali's eyes, I felt utterly confused. But when I heard the other girl giggling and telling her friends something and then staring into my eyes a second too long, the middle school version of Kenna saw right through it. She hungered for it, in a way.

She never found anything fascinating in boys expect for the fact that they were fun to practise tennis with. But the other girl, damn was she fascinating. Her eyes spoke a language only they knew. She didn't tell Anjali anything about it until it was done.

I remember her walking into the tennis court and sitting up in the stalls and cheering on me, all alone. She did not love me, and I knew that, because she never talked well of me among her friends.

Soon, it was me who was the bad guy and the other girl a the creator of that character, a professional story crafter.

To be honest, I fit quite easily into the narrative. It felt like the rumours were tailor made for me. Especially when the other girl would take me in empty bathroom stalls and kiss me and slip her hand under my tennis shorts.

The other girl was my classmate who went by the name Judy.

She was not exactly popular, but she did get popular by running her lips all on my mouth and running her mouth all over the place.

In her stories I was her helpless lover who she never loved back, but it was the opposite in the true stories that she never bothered telling anyone.

She would get hysterical when she did not get what she wanted. She would threaten me, she would say the most hateful things without giving them a second thought, but told me she loved me so I believed her. I took it all in like a sponge.

Anjali never said she loved me, but slipped her hand in mine when we walked out of school and went back home. I never understood why, I just assumed that's what friends do. Maybe they do. But I was too wound up in Judy's arms to care about how softly her hand fit in mine.

Until one day Anjali and I were walked home from school. She had been exceptionally quiet the entire day and even now, she was staring down at her shoes.

You see, Anjali has a way of doing things. She overthinks till she has reached the worst case scenario possible and then, she does it anyway.

"So, I've heard something," she said.

"About who?" I said, quietly embracing myself for something I already knew. A talk that was long overdue.

"You," she said looking up at me. I was taller than her and when she looked up at me, her eyes open wide like that of a child, she made me feel like I was handling a fragile vase with just my fingertips.

"Oh." I waited.

"Judy's been saying some," she paused, "stuff about you."

I nodded. "I'm aware."

"Is it true?"

"Partly."

"Which part?"

"Me being into her, I guess?"

There was a brief pause, "Do you love her?"

I shrugged, "Depends on what love means."

She looked up at me with those big eyes again, "Don't you know what love is?"

"No," I said, "Do you?"

She pursed her lips, "Maybe, maybe not."

"Does she love you? She says she does not," Anjali said after a while.

"She does not."

Anjali chewed on her lower lip, but she way her body swayed more freely as she walked, I could tell she was feeling relaxed. She was just thinking something.

"Well," she said, finally letting go of her lower lip, "I suppose I do love you so it's fine." She quietly slipped her hand in mine.

This had, so far been the strangest reaction of me coming out to people. I was used to people giving me disgusted looks or just outright ignoring me, as if that conversation had never happened, but someone telling me they love me? Never happened before. Well, it certainly was a good change. I liked it.

"I don't know what love is," she hummed quietly, "But I do know that I love you." There was a brief moment in which, I don't know if I imagined it or if it was real, I felt like our hearts were in sync. But then Anjali sighed and it was all broken, the brief connection was gone.

"I'm hungry," she said, looking at me with puppy eyes. "No one will be at home today. Can I drop by your place for a bit?"

"Sure," I said, a part of me still searching for bits of the lost connection.