Crossroads | ✓

t h i r t e e n

Song attached: Tell me why by Taylor Swift.

Thank you so much for #21 under Humour on September 4th and 5th, 2016! (Today it's at #29 but yeah :'))

                                        t h i r t e e n

                                             [ w o r d   v o m i t i n g]

My legs felt like lead as I walked behind Kiranya. Wave after wave of sadness and some emotion that my limited vocabulary couldn't portray, shook me as I moved towards her at a snail's speed.

Kiranya was moaning loudly as her slumped shoulders shook and at that moment, I felt more than useless. My heart clenched seeing her like that. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out why she was so closed up and rarely showed emotions. It's because she didn't want others to find about them. To see that she was crying so loudly in a busy hospital would only mean that something really terrible had happened for her carefully constructed facade to break like this.

"Kiranya..." I called when I was just right behind her.

Her body froze and slowly, very slowly she looked over her shoulder. I didn't smile or try to explain something. For once in my life, I remained silent as I took her form in.

Her eyes were red and it looked like they had sunk to the darkest pit of tartarus. Black circles which were never a sight on her face adorned her eyes and to put it bluntly, she looked like she had been hit by a bullet train. My eyes drifted downwards to see her feeble hands clutching a locket. Her fingers were mostly hiding it but the image I saw was something I'd recognise anywhere. It was a picture of small Kiranya in the hands of a familiar woman. The man who used to have a warm and jolly smile when I was small had his hands around both of them, all of them smiling at the camera.

Kiranya was wearing boys clothes that were too big for her and when she noticed that I was looking at the locket, quickly hid it into one of the numerous pockets of her cargo pants. She peeked at me, her eyes burning with accusation and anger.

"What do you want?"

No whispers or muttering. It was loud and I staggered back at the hate that coated it.

I explained what happened but the cautious and calculating look in her eyes didn't fade. But by now, her tears had dried up and for that, I was glad.
                                   
A crushing silence surrounded us as Kiranya scrutinised me while I admired and marvelled each sand grain beneath my crouched figure. My hands were itching to take her in my arms, rock her and whisper sweet nothings into her ears as her previous heartbroken look kept repeating in front of my eyes. Too vulnerable. Too broken.

"What happened?" a groggy ogre voice asked, something so different from mine but I knew it came from me.

"None of your business."

I felt something in me snap and the next second, I landed a frustrated punch in the tree trunk. Truth be told, it hurt so bad but even the pain didn't distract me from the irritation I felt.

"None of my business?" I spat out, "Can you stop being, I don't know, such a jerk for even one day? So what? Your life became shitty. But newsflash: Everyone's life is crappy, one way or another. It isn't always about you."

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING..?!

But I couldn't stop. Kiranya's eyes widened, filled to the brink with hurt and disbelief and though I slapped myself to shut up, my mouth continued blurting out things.