Page 42 - The World's Best Boyfriend

10

No matter how strong she was, how many books on feminism she had read, she

still felt the need to be desired, missed, loved, talked, objectified, fantasized
about and masturbated to, and she hated herself for it.
She dimmed the lights of her room and of her laptop before she clicked the
‘Video call’ on her Skype account. She switched on ‘Show video’ to check if her

face or any part of her body was in any way recognizable. Not that anyone
would want to see her body. Saying she was fat was an understatement. She

weighed 73kg and was barely 5'3" and it constantly weighed on her head. For
years she had been battling with her issues with weight.
Sameer, the boy on the other side of the video call, had first met her in an
interschool debating competition about five years back. He had been talking to

Aranya, on and off, for the past few months, and he showered her with a lot of
attention, and it wasn’t friendly attention, it was sexy, overbearing, dirty, sweaty

attention.
SAMEER
Hey, I can’t see you. Switch on the lights.
ARANYA

I can’t. My parents are outside. Make do with this.:*
SAMEER

Oh! A kiss! The night just got very interesting! I think I just got turned on.
ARANYA
Show me.

Aranya’s heart throbbed with nervous energy, a tingly sensation took over.
Sameer’s ex-girlfriend was tall, slender and reasonably fashionable, the kind
who took selfies in changing rooms and labelled them #ugly. Aranya wanted to

shove her own Polaroid in front of the ex’s face and shout, ‘You self-serving
lowlife, this is ugly, not you!’
To think she had turned on that girl’s ex-boyfriend was a cause for

celebration.
The boy teased Aranya a little, gyrating and thrusting his pelvis into the
camera like an octogenarian on his first yoga class. Slowly, the guy took off his

shirt, and then slipped out of his trackpants. His torso was sufficiently ripped and