The Relationship Status

ENIGMA

This is inspired from a true story.

All Rights Reserved.

CHAPTER 1

ENIGMA

We all have some amount of secrets, some bitter some sweet. The fear of one escaping is terrifying because secrets whether small or big are bound to hurt someone's feelings. The reason why they are kept hidden from the world and hence called secrets. I like to think of them as lies. White lies or serious ones, they too are bound to hurt people in one way or another and so lies are also a form of hiding the truth or in simple words; keeping a secret.

I kept my fair share of secrets too. Most of them weren't mine to begin with, they belonged to all of my friends who trusted me enough to share their part of secrets mostly comprising of ugly truths or hidden lies that were too much of a burden on their shoulders so they would gave some of it to me to share. I was always a good listener but sometimes the burden was too heavy for me, not of the secret itself but of the responsibility it engulfed me in. To keep my mouth clamped shut even when sometimes I knew letting it slip would do more benefit than damage. They weren't mine and nor was it my place to tell them out loud. I was just a mere keeper of it, keeping it well hidden from the world.

Since I was so good at it, it wasn't long before more and more people started trusting me and started depositing their secrets safe in my mind like a bank deposit kept safe in a bank.

One might feel the joy of being let in on a secret but I hated it.

I hated the fact people were so mysterious with each other, some conniving but I were not to judge them based on the ugly truths they told me because that's what I was brought up to be like. It hurt me to see my friends interacting with the same people the secrets were about and the lies they had told to each other. I hated being the only one to know the story behind their every word, every action as they spoke to one another fake smiles plastered on their face with their guards up, holding up a façade to cover the bitter, hidden truth.

So when I first came to this new school, I felt myself heave a sigh of relief because even though I felt torn about leaving my previous friends behind, I also couldn't help but feel myself leaving behind all the secrets with them. I no longer had to be careful about what I said around anyone or at least that's what I thought until I met him.

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I bit my lip biting down the urge to walk up to him and knock the ball right out of his hands. Before I could stop myself I felt my feet move in the direction of the basketball court. Not only a few hours here and I could feel myself attracting attention. Did I care? Absolutely not. My eyes focused on the ball now as I silently stood next to the guy shooting.

Bending his knees just a little bit and aiming the ball, giving it the perfect height. My lips twitched up into a small smile as I heard the familiar 'swoosh' of the ball going through the net. A perfect shoot.

I grabbed hold of the ball and positioned myself to aim when I heard him snicker from beside me. I could see him in my peripheral vision, not giving him any importance, I focused on aiming for the basket. Upon hearing the familiar swoosh once again I felt myself take a step back in triumph, silently challenging him to make the next move.

Holding the ball in his hands he walked towards me which was the first time I took a moment to study his features. Tanned skin, brown eyes with dark brown hair. He had a chiseled jawline and sharp features with robust, rosy lips, a smirk playing on them. I realized I had been staring and immediately dropped down my gaze.

"See something you like?" He mused.

"Not really" I replied calmly.

His eyes widened for a second before his lips turned upwards into a sly smile and he challenged me to a match.

I lost the match eventually. He was a good player, his moves weren't all that fancy but his footwork was really great. I internally smiled because Aaron Finn had no clue that he was going to be hustled by me soon enough.

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I had class after and was pretty much exhausted for it. Aaron had offered to buy me a water bottle but I politely turned it down saying I would take up on his offer when I win the next time we play. He just laughed at me and I could see that he was pretty confident of himself, if only he knew. I shook the thoughts away smiling and headed towards the stairs for class. My phone buzzed in my pocket and I took it out to check the notification when I slammed into something hard knocking the wind out of me.

A pair of hands steadied me and I looked up to see a muscular guy with aviators on smiling warmly at me. I gave him a weird look thinking why would anyone wear aviators inside but I quickly averted my gaze realizing the position I was in. He hadn't let go of me and I gave him a smile small uttering an apology, a small blush creeping on my cheeks.

"Watch where you're going next time, I won't be here to save you every time" he winked at me and walked off humming to some song.

I was dumbfounded by his cockiness as I watched his retreating back until he disappeared out of view. I dismissed the thoughts away and headed to class.

That's what I observed on my first day, the boys at West View High were abnormally cocky or maybe it was me who was oblivious to the way boys acted in my old school.

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My phone buzzed on my nightstand startling me. Who would call me at 2am in the morning? I glanced at the caller I.D, it was an unknown number. I rarely gave my number to anyone and the only people who had my number were my friends so I was reluctant to pick it up thinking it was probably someone pranking me or something. I finally gave in after I let it ring a few times. Pressing the phone to my ear I heard some shuffling in the background on the other end and then someone cleared their throat.

"Aiva?" a deep husky voice spoke.

"Who is this?"

"Hi umm..this is Aaron, the guy you played basketball with earlier."

"I don't remember exchanging numbers" I said recalling the time we spent together.

"Uh yeah about that, listen don't assume I'm a creepy guy or something. I wanted to ask you if you wanted to participate in the Sports week happening next week in school?"

"Where'd you get my number from?" I asked ignoring his question. It was a tad bit suspicious since I only exchanged numbers with some girl whom I met during lunch.

"That girl you met during lunch", he spoke as if reading my thoughts, "she's a good friend and I saw you two interact so I asked her if she had your number and that I wanted to ask you about Sports Week"

"Ah so you tricked her into giving my number" I said in a challenging tone.

"I might have some privacy issues but no I genuinely wanted to ask you about that. That's the story I'm going to stick with" he said chuckling.

I shook my head at his juvenile behaviour. "You know you could have asked for my number" I said as a matter of fact.

"Yeah but where's the fun in that?"

I laughed at his remark and we carried on talking for about two hours that night. We got to know each other better talking about likes, dislikes, movies, siblings and any random thing that came to mind. Time flew by and before I knew it, it was 4am and a yawn escaped my lips.

"Hey it's already 4am, I better sleep if you want me to register for the Sports week tomorrow"

"Yeah see you in a few hours" he mumbled sleepily.

We said our good nights and I went to bed with a smile on my face.