Half Girlfriend

the quality of the kiss, or what did the kiss mean, or can we do this
again or let’s get carried away. I did it for you. So you know you mean
something. But please don’t discuss mention or bring this up ever
again.’
I looked at her, shocked. How can you brush aside the most
incredible kiss in the state, possibly the world, without even a basic
review? But I said,‘Fine,’
‘Sit up,’ she said. She sat cross-legged on the charpoy. I faced her,
but I moved far enough so she wouldn’t feel I could strike again.
She smiled at me.
‘What?’
‘It was nice,’ she said.
‘What was?’
‘What we just did.’
‘We sat up cross-legged. That was nice?’ I said.
‘Yes,’ she said and laughed. ‘It was wonderful how we sat up.
Wow. You sit pretty well.’
‘We have sat before.’
‘This was a different league. Guess maturity makes a man better,’
she said, ‘at.. .sitting.’
We laughed. I wanted to touch her, if only to touch my fingertips to
hers, but didn’t. I couldn’t believe we had kissed again. We chatted
about old classmates of ours. We had lost touch with most of them, but
tried to update each other with our limited information, Twenty
minutes later, she coughed. Once, twice and then five more times.
'You okay?’
‘Yeah, it is a little cold,' she said and went into a coughing fit.
‘I’ll get water.’
I ran downstairs to my room. I came back with a bottle of water.
She lay down on the charpoy, right hand on her forehead.
‘You’re not well, Riya?' I said.
She coughed again, sat up and had some water.
I touched her forehead.