"India?" Maple wondered what that was "I have never heard of it before,"
"What is that? A dish?" Loraine asked with a smile.
"No, it's a country in the southern ocean towards the east" Ember smiled back.
"You are going there?" Loraine asked.
"Would you come with me?" Ember proposed.
"I would-if Maple does!" Loraine held Maple's hand. Maple replied in negation "I want to go to Antarctica and pet a polar bear. I don't like snakes,"

"If Maple isn't going, then I won't go either" Loraine pouted.
"Then I'll be lonely there," Ember said.
"Ember can make new friends there. They will love you," Loraine smiled as he held his hand.
"I hope so," Ember looked down at his feet.

Ember enrolled at a new school in India, but he was always secluded from the rest of the group of children. But seclusion was an art he had learnt from childhood, it was the hope for something different that let him down.

"Wow! You got blue eyes!"
Until he met her. He looked at her with his eyes wide open and she grabbed his red cheeks. He looked into her brown eyes. Blue eyes, he wondered, were they rare? He touched his eyelashes, trying to feel the colour on his fingertips.

"Ember! Come!" She yelled as they ran through the tall grass. He ran after her, she had grabbed his hand, he looking at her hands, and suddenly fell on his knees.
"You fell again?"
He looked up at her, "Don't worry. I-I bandaids, yes?" She smiled.

Every wound she gave him held an adventure of its own which piled tattoos of scars on his pale skin. Her sun-kissed skin was like a bronze gem in his black woods of death and despair. Yet, he could see how they were growing apart, their memories, crumbling; like dried flower petals, melting into the soil churned by time, they are fading away like the colour on an old piece of paper. And as he began chasing shadows in dreams, he begged

To save him the last seat of her love.

. . .

"Hey..." Arorhea patted Ember's warm cheeks. His wet eyelashes looked at her blurry face. He quickly wiped off his face and rubbed his eyes, "Are you crying?"
"No," He looked away, "It's just water," He laughed.
"Is it normal to wake up with watery eyes?"
"For me, yes," He sat up straight, his back balancing his posture by standing against the wall.

"The class is over by the way. You never showed up," Rhea passed a notebook to him.
"What is this?" He giggled apologetically as he looked at the notebook.
"The notes. You might need them for your exams,"
"Ah yes, exams," He took the notebook from her.

"Oh yeah, I forgot," He mumbled and looked at her, "Could you drop me home?"
"I won't,"
"What?" He laughed as he got up, "Why?"
"Because you are fat!"

"So?" Ember took the notebook from her and picked up his bag.
"How dare you expect me to carry you on my bicycle? You are so fat you make holes when you walk on the road,"
"Not only the road, but I'm also good at making and dealing with all sorts of holes," Ember smirked.

"What does that mean?" Rhea asked and Ember pressed his index finger on her lips. He was staring at her lips. She blushed, "What?"
He smiled, "What a prepossessing red,"
She pulled her neck away. He continued smiling as he looked at her. She scrunched her toes and held her fists together.

"Come, I'll drop you home,"
"Why, thank you,"

After coming back home, he walked into his room and kept his bag aside. He walked towards a table in a dark corner of the room. He tore open the white paper packet kept on it and took out something on his palms. He picked a glass tumbler and went to the bathroom to fill it with water. He filled it half and brought it near his mouth.

"This is only for you, Rhea,"
And he drank down the glass of water. He kept it aside and looked into the mirror. He touched his reflection, his eyes,

"Wow! You got blue eyes!"
He smiled, "I can't let myself ruin another thing you love,"
Suddenly, his phone buzzed and he took it out from the pocket of his jeans. The crimson scars of guitar strings on his fingers seemed to turn blue over his dry skin.

"Hi, Ember!" It was Nikki. She had been texting him a lot lately. So much that he decided to drop his suspicion for her. Life was turning simple and calm again.
"Hey, Nikki" He changed into his pyjamas and sat on his bed with a bowl of salad. He pushed a piece of chopped cabbage into his mouth while looking into his phone,

"What are you doing?"
"Eating~"
"You are eating every time I text! How much do you eat?"
"You text every time I eat so XD"

Nikki lay on her bed with wet and tangled black hair, falling down to her floor.
"I washed my hair today~"
He took a spoonful of beans, "Can't relate. I wash my hair every day."
"LMAO Why?"
"It's a sin to be blonde and not wash your hair every single day,"

"Your hair must smell so good," She turned to her side as she texted.
"Trust me, I make sure it does,"
The conversations stretched from a few minutes to a few hours. Nikki liked his company. He was gentle, approachable, quick-witted and good-natured with a pretty face.

"Can I call you?" She typed.
"Of course <3"
The first time she heard his voice, she wondered how she got so lucky
To be making memories with this blonde boy she had never seen.

"Rhea," Nikki looked at the pink clouds floating in the blue sky as she sat on the green field beside Rhea. Neel and all the other boys were playing kho kho while the sports teacher blew one whistle after another, "MADHOU! What are you doing? Run! Quick!"

"Yeah?" Rhea looked over her book.
"Do you love Ember?" As she asked that, all the voices around them seem to fade away in Rhea's head. She looked at Nikki, "What?"
"Do you love Ember?" She asked, in the same tone, looking at the same blue sky.

Rhea's gaze shifted away. Her chest felt tighter, "...He's a nice friend,"
"Just a friend?"
Rhea fiddled with her thumbs as she looked at the book. The letters, she couldn't recognise them any longer. She had never looked at him that way, never thought about it, but she couldn't say she never felt it. She could feel her heartbeat inside her head, so loud, so passionate, that it felt as if it was expanding. There was no other organ in her body except that tiny pump, full of a young love that choked her air passage, making her blood flow stronger, thicker, richer blood flow under her cheeks, "I think I," She whispered, "I-"

"I love Ember," Nikki interrupted.
Rhea looked up at her. The voices filled her head again.
She turned towards Rhea, "I am sure I love him. Do you mind it?" She seemed worried, "No, right? You said you only like him as a friend,"

To choose between a friend and a love she was unsure of.
Holding on to her prepossessing red heart, which seemed to turn blue, she smiled, "Of course not,"

"Good! Then, today, I will confess. Wish me luck,"
Rhea smiled, even though she didn't want to, but it would be unkind after that sacrifice, "Good luck,"

. . .

Rhea sat before her canvas after school. July is coming to an end, the sky was screaming into her ears, lightning covered the room, although the room itself was quiet. But what about the storm inside her. She could feel flowers grow inside her chest, bright blue Gulmohars. To imagine him, those white fingers holding that hand who took the chance first, it hurt to let him go.

To have all these flowers growing inside her chest, they looked pretty, of course, they did.
But they made it so hard to breathe.

Finally, the sky came pouring down, and so did tears.
She didn't know why she was crying. It just hurt too much to keep it in anymore.

"You let him go so easily, yet you shamelessly find shelter in him again. You emotionally destroyed my brother and I will always hate you for it. Always" She heard Loraine's words, screaming in her head again.

It hurt too much to feel anything else.

Even the presence of Neel standing at the door with a mask covering half of his face. He looked at her back and heard her cry, "Is it that blonde boy again?"
She stopped abruptly and turned back.

-To be continued

Can't I Touch Your Heart?
Teach Me the Art of Living