Thorns with fragrance

08

"And their fingers still, intertwined" - A.S.

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“W-What do you think you’re doing? Don’t come any closer, I will call the cops” Kelsey cried out in panic as she was cornered against a wall 

“Why? Don’t you want to kiss me now? Am I not appealing enough to you anymore because I am a single man?” Ben whispered as he leaned against Kelsey and let out a low chuckle 

“You’re creeping me out, I’m sorry for what I did, p-please leave me Ben, I know you’re better than this- That b***h didn’t deserve you, I was only trying to help” Kelsey let out in between ragged breathes and turned her head away as Ben’s face started closing in. 

Ben stayed quite for a while before banging his fist against the wall, right next to Kelsey’s face as they stood in silence for a second in the corner of Ben’s small, quiet, mostly empty apartment. 

“Don’t speak about Jane with that vicious tongue of yours, you home wreck” Ben growled as he squeezed the sides of her face between his fingers as he moved in closer to her and bit her lip hard enough for it to bleed as tears streamed down Kelsey’s face as she clenched her chest. 

-Later- 

“-I don’t know what to do...What have I done, this is not me, I can’t live with myself, help me-” Ben cried the name of the person he called as he sat with his knees pulled up against his chest on the floor next to his bed, swinging, sobbing and cursing at himself 

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-Present day- 

Ken and Jane stuck next to each other for the rest of the day in university after lunch, all through classes and when the last class finally ended, they linked their arms like in the morning and started walking out of the gate when the guard at the gate stopped Jane and informed her that she must head to meet the principle before leaving. 

“Oh, alright, thank you” Jane replied politely and looked at Ken with a tired fact and almost rolled her eyes 

“Wait for me, I’ll call you if I think it’ll be long” she told him and looked up slightly at Ken’s face and moved closer to him and pressed her lips against his briefly before smiling and walking inside the campus, towards the main office. 

Ken stood there struck at what just happened. 

-At the office- 

Jane walked into the corridor into a swarm of familiar faces that she had seen at the same place yesterday. 

Ben, three of Kelsey’s friends and the receptionist were seated the same way they had been before, on the same side with a space left between Ben and the other and similarly to yesterday, they were all staring right into Jane’s eyes. 

She looked at Ben who gave her a strained, small smile, he seemed to have aged way faster than he should’ve in the past few days, he looked relived, probably to see Jane alone seeing how he looked behind Jane and let out a sigh. 

Jane wished she had brought Ken along but shook her head ‘I’ll be over and out of here soon’ she told herself firmly and went up to the chair she was seated at yesterday and sat down. 

Thankfully, for Jane, she had to sit there only for a while before she heard footsteps, like from yesterday and she saw the two cops from yesterday walk through the corridor and barged into the doors of the Principal’s office after knocking twice. 

Shortly after, Jane, along with the others were called inside the Principal’s office. 

Feeling increasingly uncomfortable, all of them entered the office, one by one and piled behind the empty chairs across from the seat where the Principal sat. The two cops were standing to the side of the right wall and everyone kept glancing up at them.  

“I will not be taking much of your time today” the Principal started “Because of legal procedures, you are required to submit to us all of your passports and another form of identification as we require it to make sure everyone remains in state in case of the worst.” Mrs. Marie said “And of course, all of your parents have been informed, right before you walked into the office” she added as a side note 

“Our university is a very reputed and prestigious institution and we can not allow the news of a suspected criminal being from our university which is why all of the happenings have been dealt with very privately. Your guardians have trusted us with you all and we...” Mrs. Marie went on as every one of the student’s faces had worry written all over them. They started getting aware of how stuffy the room was and also realised that their parents will freak out. 

“Anyways, the report of the autopsy will be here after analysis and hopefully all of your names will be cleared off” Mrs. Marie informed them as they were asked to leave after submitting one of their legal identification at the reception and drop off their passports later that day. 

As they all walked out of the office, they breathed in the air outside the suffocating office and pretty much rushed out after sliding their ids to the receptionist. 

Jane made her way back to the gate where Ken stood looking into his phone, Jane breathed out in relief as she rushed ahead to him so Ben who had been calling her name and trying to catch us with her would get a hint and stop trying to speak to her.  

It seemed like he did get the hint because Jane could no longer hear his footsteps when Ken looked up at her, so she rushed to his side and without sparing a glance behind ,  intertwined her fingers with Ken’s and started walking out of the gates, quickly. 

“Hey, what’s wrong? Is everything alright? Did the cops say anything? I saw them come in earlier, did they find out anyth-” Ken bombarded Jane with questions but Jane cut him off and curtly replied “No, they might get more information tomorrow, I need to go give them my passport later today, can we not speak about this now?” Jane snapped at Ken  

Ken looked stunned at her and blinked as they walked away with their bags hanging off their backs, and their minds and hearts racing and their hands, still intertwined. 

“I’m sorry, all this is just overbearing, I shouldn't have snapped at you” Jane said in a small voice as she looked down at her shoes and they walked 

“I’m sorry too, I should’ve been more considerate” Ken replied back and they walked in silence for some time until they walked by a park and Ken stopped, making Jane look at what happened 

“Can we spend some time here? I feel like we need some air” Ken requested as he looked longingly at Jane  

Jane nodded and they walked to the front of the park and walked inside the park and instinctively walked towards the empty swings. It was starting to get dark and everyone in the park had already left or were leaving. 

Jane hesitated before finally sitting on the swing, Ken had already started to swing high, with a grin on his face. 

“What a sight” Jane commented under her breath with a grin as she kicked the dirt under her feet, constituting to digging a deeper cavity under the swing from the years of people’s scraping feet. 

Ken slowed himself down and gave a guilty chuckle “I got carried away, sorry” he said with a grin which Jane returned “Clearly” she replied smugly 

They both looked at the playground in front of them, engaged in their thought, when Ken finally broke the silence, 

“Why have I never seen you with other people, Jane?” He asked, framing his sentence carefully. 

“Well...” Jane started...