Thanks so much for #29 in Booktrovert under Humour on 24th June, 2016 (edit: #27 on 25th June, 2016) and #38 in Light Years on 23rd June :) Means a lot x

Song attached: Vegas Skies by The Cab. It's such a beautiful song and I can totally see our little dork Varun singing it xP

                                             f i v e

                                 [ p r i n c e c h a r m i n g ]

Helium... the name's Kiranya.

And the similarities slapped me across the face. I didn't remember Kiranya's face but I remembered her black pixie hair. I remembered how even when we were small, her palm against mine made me feel like a giant though it was more or less the same size. Or how she tilted her head when she was thinking new models for our sand castle.

But then the differences came up too.

How Kiranya was shy but really happy. How she smiled every second. How she was friendly to everyone. How she had warm eyes while all BookManiac12 had were corpse eyes.

BookManiac12 was nothing like the Kiranya I knew.

What happened?

"Argh!" I groaned for the thousandth time as I tried to play my guitar in hopes of cooling my nerves.

And it wasn't working.

I felt really, really betrayed, you know?

Not at BookManiac12 but at Kiranya.

She would've recognised me at first sight. She would've known it was me when she saw my eyes. Not would've, she knew it was me all along. So how can she be so stubborn and mean when I asked for her name?

My phone chimed near me and I looked at it.

BookManiac12 has updated Through the cheerleader's eyes [ 1 ]

I threw the phone to the other side of the bed as I started strumming the strings again.

Okay, so a part of me knew I was being childish and her drastic change might be one of the reasons why she didn't tell me her name or in the least, acknowledge me. But a major part of me felt really betrayed like how you feel when your best friend keeps talking to the new acquaintance and ignores you.

And in my anger, yep, I decided to add it to my dictionary, I did the most idiotic thing ever.

I looked at my username.

BookAddict11.

I still remembered the day I found BookManiac12 or now, Kiranya's username and how the very next day, I changed my username so I could somehow match hers without being obvious.

And now, I was so pissed.

I clicked the settings. When I saw the icon 'Username,' as stupid as it seemed, I selected it. It was sort of like rebelling her, as hopeless as it seemed. There was almost zero chance that she would even notice but—whatever.

In the place for the new username, I typed the username I had in mind and then entered my password.

My finger hovered over 'change' for a second but asking my mind to get lost (wow, I was really angry. Even I'm surprised), I pressed it.

I visited my page and looked at my new username.

Booktrovert

Please, don't ask me what Booktrovert actually means. I just came up with it because 1) I was angry 2) It sounded innovative 3) I simply wanted to seem cool, and 4) I'm lame like that.

Deal with it.

*

*

*

Today at school, I ignored Bookmani—Kiranya.

And to look even more childish, I turned, gave my bestest (again, not an exact word) smile and in my most cheerful voice greeted Kiranya's best friend, Boomi without as much as a glance at Boo—Kiranya.

Even Yuvan looked suspicious.

And after all these, I only needed a placard over my head that had a hand pointed at Kiranya and screamed 'I'm mad at you! APOLOGISE!!!' with billboard lights around it.

Yep, I was that mature.

Kiranya completely ignored my presence but right when I was about to turn around, I may or may not have glanced at her totally inconspicuous, to find her look at me, corpse eyes filled to the brink with amusement.

She finds it amusing.

She finds me amusing.

Oh, I hate her.

*

*

*

So may be I might have overreacted and said huge words like hate and stuff.

Six hours of ignoring Kiranya indeed let the steam cool and now I felt really stupid. Okay, it wasn't like I didn't feel stupid before but—you get what I'm trying to say yeah?

Good.

Because like Kiranya said, if I was a writer trying to describe a situation, I'd be the crappiest one out there. Not exactly her words, but I don't have photographic memory.

More times than what it is termed as healthy, my fingers had typed something, anything, to a certain girl with an username starting with a capital B and ending with the number two but all the time, I resisted.

She wasn't BookManiac12 anymore. She wasn't the sadistic anonymous writer anymore. I wasn't her faithful reader anymore. It was more than that.

I was her first best friend and she was mine.

I think it's time she actually made an effort.

Since I was trying so hard not to text Kiranya first, my fingers were yearning to get my guitar and start playing it but I resisted. I've to wait for her to make an effort wholeheartedly without distracting myself with music.

Did I say it to you before? No? Well then, I play the guitar and as hard as it seems, I'm actually good at it. The only good thing that happened to me in Riverside other than the refreshing hilly atmosphere and my two best friends, was that. It was there, I learned to play the guitar from my 'as close as a sibling' cousin, Nanda anna.

It was more than two hours before my phone chimed.

And I may or may not have 'scampered' (literally) to the other end of my bed to retrieve my phone.

And it wouldn't take a mirror for me to clearly see the word 'disappointed' written across my forehead in neon yellow colour with glitters sprinkled over it.

BookManiac12 has updated Through the cheerleader's eyes [ 2 ]

And though I was really angry at the writer, I read the story because it was well written. Unlike her first book, this book was serious. It was raw to the core and it was purely awesome.

It was a series of letters written by a cheerleader addressed to some unknown person. It still isn't clear if there's anyone out there reading Roslyn's, yeah that's the cheerleader's name, letters but it's only the start. The letters were the cheerleader's pov of your cliche bad boy x good girl stories that litter Wattpad.

And though I was mad, I voted on the story 'cause , let's face it, the writers spend so much time writing it and the least we could do is vote and show our appreciation.

Once I had finished reading the chapter, I didn't message her like how I always did.

Almost forty minutes after I had finished reading the chapter, my phone chimed again

What now?

I seriously expected some update or something like that but what I didn't expect was to see the username BookManiac12 in my notification.

One message from BookManiac12.

BookManiac12: Seems like you changed your username.

No 'sorry's, no 'uh... hi's, not even a simple 'thanks for the vote.'

Just a sentence (which is kind of what I wanted to hear, but yeah) as if I hadn't been ignoring her.

Kiranya has changed so much.

I tried to ignore her, well not ignore because let's face it, I'm pathetic and sooner or later I'll text back. But I tried my best to give a really late reply like hers.

In the end, I replied in twenty three seconds.

So much for late replies.

Booktrovert: Yes

Unlike all the other times, Kiranya replied the next second.

BookManiac12: Don't tell me you're sulking.

Sulking? Me?

Of course not!

Well, if moping around my room and strumming horrible tunes in my guitar while thinking about how mean my childhood friend has become is considered as 'not sulking,' then I sure as hell were doing a great job.

And again, I wasn't the greatest liar out there. So I typed a neutral response.

Booktrovert: Don't talk to me. Go away.

If it was the little cute girl who looked at me hesitantly in the park all those years back, hearing that sentence, she'd look at me with huge eyes while twisting the hem of her skirt, her lips spilling sorry after sorry.

But seems like Kiranya wasn't that girl anymore. Her reply had no ounce of regret in it.

BookManiac12: It's hard to go away when we live a block away from each other. Meet me in the park yeah?

The little shred of dignity in me wanted to scream a loud 'no' at her pretty—ahem, corpse face but I guess you guys pretty much figured me out by now.

I'm a pathetic shameless guy, to put it bluntly. And I can feel you guys agreeing with me.

"Amma!" I shouted as I ran downstairs, a really ugly looking yet totally warm sweater thrown over my shoulders. "I'm going out."

My appa peaked from the newspaper he was reading while my mother muted the television.

"Now?"

Okay, so it wasn't exactly a decent time for a teen to be heading out. 9:45 PM but still...

"A friend of mine called. Extremely important," I said trying to sound as confident as possible.

My amma raised one eyebrow while my father's torso was suspiciously vibrating behind the newspaper.

Don't tell me he's laughing. At me.

"And what's that important to go out at night?"

"Uh..." I dragged wracking my brain for believable excuses but then gave up, "extremely confidential too."

"I see."

My amma turned to look at my father who's face had a ghost of a smile.

"I know you're lying, kiddo," he said chuckling, "but since I know you don't have it in you to do anything that will deprive us of our sleep, I'll let you go out."

I scowled.

"Did you just call me a lame, dorky, good-for-no-teenage-illegal-thing coward?"

My father laughed turning to his newspaper. "If you put it like that, then yes. No, run off. You should be back by ten thirty."

*

*

*

The park was empty.

Alright, it's not like it would be brimming with life at ten at night but still, there wasn't even the sound of crickets and grasshoppers.

Reaching the park, I looked around but there was no signs of Kiranya. It wasn't such a big park too. Just a series of swings, two slides and a sand box around which there was just enough space for children to run and a couple of benches around for the parents. Heck, it didn't even have a fence around it so imagine how small it would be. So it's not like I miraculously missed BookManiac12 waiting for me.

Suddenly I heard the thumping of feet and when I turned around, Kiranya was half running and half limping towards me.

And that sight was enough to make me forget my childish grudge.

"Stop running, idiot!" I half yelled as I jogged towards her.

She had stopped moving when I reached her and short breaths escaped her lips.

"It's not that bad, helium. It's just a little bruise."

"Little?" I growled incredulously.

Seriously, this girl... always talking about everything as if it's a simple thing.

"Remember the time you fell off the slide? You said these same words but it was bleeding so much then," I mumbled, "at least, come sit."

I wasn't expecting Kiranya to look at me with her old huge eyes but when I saw the corpse eyes gaze at me, something tugged at my heart.

Why did she become like this? What happened when I was gone?

She nodded before proceeding towards the swings and I followed her.

"I came to your house many times, you know," I said once we were seated on the swings.

I pushed the swing mildly making me move back and forth a little while she just leaned her head on one of the hanging chains.

"It was always locked."

No answer.

"How are uncle and auntie?"

No answer.

"Tell them I said 'hi.'"

"How have you been?" she whispered instead.

It irked me how she wasn't doing anything my way. And it annoyed me that though she had become this stubborn and irritating, I still liked her as one of my good friend. In my eyes, she was that cute little girl who was my very first friend.

"Me? Just the usual. I slew a dragon, defeated Hercules, discovered an ancient land, had dinner with the alien king of the planet Zukabo, bathed in hot lava and made girls fall for me right and left. Well, for me, finishing each grade was like doing those, not that I actually did those—what...?!"

Kiranya was laughing silently and slowly my lips curled as traces of my favourite smile adorned her face.

"It's just that—" she took a breath but chuckled again "—you used to look a little cool then, with those 'I'm my parents' legacy, so I'm a gentleman' attitude. Now you've become a full on dork."

I tried to get angry but the carefree look on her, which I hadn't seen ever since I came back, held me back.

"Well, that's what staying in an all boys school for eleven years does to you," I said laughing a little as I remembered all the other huge dorks there. The whole school was lame. "It's filled to the brink with boys. You don't have to impress anyone there or act civilised. It's like a huge bachelor pad. If you find me a dork, you should meet those guys someday. You'll think I'm Prince Charming then."

I turned and even gave her a wink while she gazed back with the same corpse eyes, no trace of the carefree look which adorned it just a few seconds ago.

"I still think you're Prince Charming, helium. A lame, dorky Prince Charming, but a Prince Charming nonetheless."

~✩~✩✩~✩~

Wow, Kiranya here and Kiranya in my notebook are so different. In the notebook, she's the epitome of stoicism and she is incapable of showing emotions. And Varun and Kiranya didn't know each other as kids. Writing this Kiranya feels so different. Different but realistic :)

Whatdya people think?

I like them! I think they are as cute as Uthra and Rohan (but they would always be my number one OTP hehe ;))

VOTE. COMMENT. SHARE. LOVE.

With love,
Kavya.