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14. Rani
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A Few Hundred Poppies 15. Crop Top, Hair Gel
"This shit's gotta be celebrated," Troy stated, grinning from ear to ear. He stood up and proceeded to clamber onto the bench, knocking Art's soda bottle off the table. "In honour of Fridays and Ever and Lee's patch up, we're gonna play...PAINTBALL!" He punched the air with his fist, and when we didn't react, he looked down at us with the disappointment of a brown dad whose kid can't solve a math problem. "You guys are on a different level of buzzkilling," he sulked, sliding down to his seat."My bad, should've thrown up some confetti - the shiny kind," I drawled, rolling my eyes. "Seriously, though, it's good to have you guys back together.""It's great and all, but the exams literally start next week, we should be studying," Art asserted, delicately pushing a fry into her mouth."I'm just gonna tell Ma that we're gonna group study. If she hears about paintball, I'll get my ass whooped," I said, taking a sip of my soda with a short slurp. From beside me, West poked my arm with his i
A Few Hundred Poppies 16. A First Date
"Oh god, West, you asshole! Not here, not here, not here!" I whisper-screamed as West yanked me down by the sleeve of the olive HazMat suit. The protective gear was padded with a scratchy material on the inside, and I could barely resist the urge to squirm in it. Allah knew when these were last washed, if they'd ever been cleaned. "Shut up, midget! I know what I'm doing!" he hissed back."This is so fucking stupid, they're gonna see us any moment!" I said, voice even more hushed this time by the realisation of the proximity of our faces. Granted, there were two fat, ugly, worn out helmets between them, but his face was still deliciously close, enough for me to see the minutest ridges along his eyelids as his gaze darted around the field. My friends may have thought that they were being clever by tricking West into teaming up with me, but I was having a very hard time concentrating on the game with his tense arms and shoulders constantly bumping against mine. Nevertheless, with Troy
A Few Hundred Poppies 17. A Murder
Having had enough, I meandered through the crowd, not apologising when I stepped on people's shoes or pushed them. When I made it to the front, my blood ran cold. I staggered backwards in surprise, and would've fallen if West hadn't caught me by the waist.After the waves of shock had passed, a storm of sadness suddenly built up in my chest and I started sobbing, turning around and burying my face in West's chest without much thought. I forced my eyes shut. Sharmaji's dead body on the floor and his blood drying on the bullet wounds remained charred to my sight. "Aditi!" The woman who'd been shrieking and wailing in a heartbreaking tune called out, making me swivel and rub the tears off my eyes. "Ah! No more new sweets, no more free sweets for you! The halwai is gone, they've taken my halwai, oh lord!" she yelled, and fell unconscious on the gravel road in a miserable heap. Some people rushed forward to help, but I didn't have the strength to.I looked to the sky, feeling several drop
A Few Hundred Poppies 18. Sixteen Going On Seventeen
"I literally don't know why the hell he hasn't asked you out yet," Lee complained, stowing the folded clothes delicately inside the closet. I was grateful for her intervention, but it was a reluctant gratitude. I liked my room like I liked myself - messed up. "I know, right? I'm getting tired of his shameless flirting," Art said, lowering her feet from my desk and swiveling on my chair to face me. I squirmed under their gazes."Why're you guys looking at me like it's my fault? It's really not. Or maybe it is, I dunno," I swung my feet, resting limply on the bed, to the soft texture of the green carpet. It caressed the soles of of feet as I drew patterns on it with my toe. The carpet became a darker green when swiped my toe forward and lighter when I moved it backwards, and this phenomenon seemed considerably more engaging than our conversation."Hey," Art leaned closer to me conspiratorially. "What if you ask him out?""I was kinda thinking the same thing," pleased, I muttered, cover
A Few Hundred Poppies 19. The Heartbreak Party
see the soul under the skinArt scowled at West's retreating figure like a connoisseur of art would at a hippie who'd graffitied a penis on Mona Lisa's head, and patted my shoulder with her soft hand. "Hey, fuck boys, right? Give it a whirl, girl! Nothing gets you over a guy like dancing."And so we danced. We danced until my feet hurt in the Everlane heels borrowed from Lee, and then I took off the heels and danced some more. Once it no longer mattered that who was watching and judging, I had nothing to fear.When we cut the huge two-tier cake, I grinned despite the word spreading like wildfire that Ruby and West had made out during a particularly passionate round of seven minutes in heaven. Ramming a piece of chocolate cake all over Ever's face while pretending to feed him, I made a wave of laughter reverberate across the room, my own sounding the loudest. Ever reached for me with a fistful of cake, but I ducked and he smeared the cake on Lee's collarbone instead. Art, Troy and I ca
A Few Hundred Poppies 20. Ma
funnily enough, even though the nights seemed everlasting, the thoughts wouldn't end when the sun came outI woke up to a startlingly loud sob. Groggily, I untangled myself from the sheets, the white dress from last night clinging to my body. The rattle of the newspaper guy's old cycle echoed up through the window as he cycled past us. Trying to rub the sleep from my eyes, I followed the feminine sobs down the stairs.Khammi appeared distraught. Dressed in a simple cotton kameez, she sat on a tool near the base of the stairs, trying to muffle her sobs with her pink dupatta. The moment she spotted me with her bulging watery eyes, making me yelp, she launched up from her seat and pulled me into a crushing hug, her wailing jumping a pitch. Mortified, I scrambled away from her, wondering what the hell was happening. The clock hanging on the wall above the couch said that it was 7 in the morning and it had brightened outside, but nobody had remembered to turn off the glaring light. Consi
A Few Hundred Poppies 21. Going South
I turned the blue scissors in my grip from side to side, as if the logic of what I was about to do was etched on its surface. DON'T DO IT! - part of me screamed. YASS BITCH JUST DO IT - the other part yelled louder. Trembling, my hand guided the glinting metal all the way up until it was just above my neck.Snap. A lengthy black lock of curly hair plummeted to the bathroom floor. "Holy shit," I muttered at my gawking reflection. "This is a really shitty coping mechanism. I love it."Snap, snap, snap.-"How's it going with the dance? Isn't it tomorrow?" Bapi asked, plopping down on my bed and taking a bite of the samosa Khammi had brought yesterday. Reeking of Old Spice, he had evidently tried his best to clean up for his first day at work after 9 days. "Don't worry, I haven't messed up any more," I muttered. As I cracked my knuckles, the crunches sounded thunderous in the autumn silence."No, I mean, who're you going with?" He finished off the samosa without a hint of gusto and disc
A Few Hundred Poppies 22. The Kreep House
let's forget all the crazy things happening, just for tonighthttps://images.app.goo.gl/1z6JXrmFLHeNrbxv6The rose gold choker necklace glinted in the orange glow of the lamp overhead. I picked it up from the dresser and inspected the glinting set of the choker and jhumkas, perfectly matching my simple yellow saree with pink floral pattern on its sheer organza surface which came with a lovely onion pink blouse. Fariah had gifted me the saree in exchange for helping her come out to Khammi as bi, and a small smile appeared on my face at the remembrance.Quickly slipping them on, I took a few seconds to appreciate my cat eyeliner, rich pink lipstick and painstakingly perfected hair.Let's forget all the crazy things happening, just for tonight.A loud knock at the front door managed to make my heart stop for a split second. "Coming!" I yelled loudly, and slipped my phone inside the hidden pocket on the underside of my blouse. The Taryn Rose heels fit my feet like Cinderella's slippers. A
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- A Few Hundred Poppies 22. The Kreep House
- A Few Hundred Poppies 21. Going South
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- A Few Hundred Poppies 17. A Murder
