"Ummmm...hey, Lan!" a familar voice called out.
I blinked. did Rishi just call me by my real name? Normally, she'd just call me 'Grandpa'.
I didn't have time to contemplate on that, because the little sophmore I had come to know suddenly glomped me. I quickly jabbed her in the side, and she let go of me. Rishi plopped down on the seat next to me. "Morning!" she chirped, even though it was time to leave school, and I was on the bus to go home.
I sighed. "Good afternoon." I replied, moving my backpack away from Rishi. I didn't want her to go searching through it for applesauce, which I just happened to have in my bag. The last time she ate applesauce, she was hyper for a week.
Rishi grinned at me. "Whaaat?" she whined, holding her stuffed cow, Steve, to her chin and blinking at me cutely. I swear, if she did that puppy pout, I would be useless to resist. Rishi always found some way to get what she wanted.
"Walk me home, kay?" she said, batting her eyelashes.
"Sure." I replied without a bat of my eyes. Rishi lived two streets away from me, so either her neighbor Tere or I would walk her home--it was normal. We didn't want out cute little 'innocent child' to be tainted just yet...which, living near three perverted high schoolers, was very likely if she didn't have a companion. Plus, if I said no, she would probably cry.
The bus ride was fairly normal, as Rishi chatted away with a freshman whose name I could never remember. Something, I noted, was weird. She was still calling me by my real name--Lan. She never called me by my real name--when we first met, she decided that she would call me 'Grandpa' and that was that.
"Oooy, Lan! Let's get off here." Rishi called, tugging my hair. It was a stop before mine--three streets from my house--but I stood up with her. She still had a grip on my hair. I picked up my bag and followed her off the bus.
Rishi and I were the only ones to get off at this stop. Well, her freshman friend did, but she went in the opposite direction. The yellow bus pulled away in a cloud of smoke.
"Hey, Lan," Rishi started, calling me by my real name again. "I wanted to tell you something."
I glanced over at Rishi. She had put Steve away. She was looking at the ground, her brown locks bouncing with each step she took. Her mouth had gone from a grin to a thoughtful expression. She bit her lip.
"I really like you, Lan."
I stopped shrot, looking back at Rishi. She was maybe a foot behind me.
Rishi looked up at me. "For a long time."
So that was why she was calling me by my real name.
Rishi started walking again, quickly catching up to and passing me. "If you want me to change, okay, I can do that. If you want to reject me, that's fine too, go ahead and reject me, and I can keep calling you 'grandpa' and we can forget this ever happened. What I want is a definite answer. Yes or no will do."
I was, to say, speechless.
"Well?" Rishi demanded. "What's your answer?"
"It's not that...I don't." I said, carefully choosing my words. I didn't want Rishi to get angry--that was the last thing I wanted. "I just don't want to get into a relationship right now."
"That's not a direct answer." Rishi cut in. "Damn it, Lan, you're so frickin' wishy-washy!"
We had reached Rishi's house. Rishi stood there for a moment, lingering. "Only a fool makes the same mistake twice." she said, her eyes averting mine. She turned towards her house. "Fool."
With that, she walked away.
Rishi never called me by my real name again.
