Khabar (Trans: Revelations)

The first words of the text caught my attention “You want some time? Ok. That’s basically the only thing I can say. I guess it’s fair too because I’ve had years to come to terms with the fact that I’m in love with you. And I will give you space if that’s what you want. You know when I realized that I’d actually sent you those texts, I thought about denying it but then I thought now that it’s out there….”


I stared at my phone and thought about responding but couldn’t think of anything to say. Putting my phone away, I headed back into the kitchen where Jack was starting to clean up.

“Are you done with the pakore?” I asked as I grabbed a rag to help him

“Yea” he said “we can eat in a minute”

Together we quickly cleaned up and carried everything to the table. As we ate we talked about everything that had been going on. A few times I saw Jack looking at me as if he wanted to say something but wasn’t sure if he should.

Finally I had had enough. “What is it Jack?” I asked

He looked like he was going to brush me off but then decided against it “Are you okay?”

I looked at him quizzically and said “yea I’m fine. Why are you asking?”

“Well when you were taking to Alex you were happy and laughing. Then when you hung up and came back into the room, you look worried” he said

I thought about just brushing him off but knowing that he would eventually get it out of me “I...I got a text message from Kevin last night that has me..confused”

Jack immediately looked at me and asked “what happened? What did the text message say?”

“Nothing happened” I said as I poked at the left over pakore on my plate. Then almost mumbling under my breath I said “he said he loved me”

Jack nearly exploded out of this chair as he said “he said WHAT!?”

Surprised at his explosive reaction, I straightened to look at Jack more carefully. His whole body was tense and I could see that he was angry. Confused I asked “Why are you so mad?”

“Mad? Why would I be mad” Jack asked as he visibly tried to keep a blank face

Curious now, I looked Jack in the eye “Jack. What’s going on? Why are you so pissed off right now? Did something happen that I don’t know about?”

Again Jack looked like he was going to deny it but I kept staring him in the eye and finally he looked away and said “Nothing happened. I’m just surprised that he sent you a message like that”

“Why are you surprised? And what do you mean a message like that” I asked as I grew nervous. I could feel in my stomach that Jack was about to tell me something that I was not going to like.

I could see Jack hesitating “Spit it out Jack. Whatever it is. However bad it is. Just tell me. You’ve never lied to me before so please don’t start now”

“Okay. The first thing that you need to know is that I ran into Kayla the other day” he said

Startled a little I said “Kayla? Kevin’s ex girlfriend Kayla? My friend Kayla?”

“Yeah that Kayla” Jack said, staring out the window “I was just as surprised at you are because I remember you telling me that she was going to Duke, literally on the other side of the country. But we started talking while we were waiting for our coffee and she said that she had just transferred back to USC. I asked her why because I remember that she had always talked about going to Duke and she said that she had hated it there”

The feeling of dread growing in my stomach, I waited for Jack to continue.

“When we got out drinks, Kayla and I went to a table to continue our conversation. As we were getting caught up, she let it slip that she was dating someone. Teasingly I asked her who and she told me that she was…she was dating Kevin again” Jack finished and looked at me

Shocked, I felt as if someone had sucker punched me and now was holding my heart in their hands and squeezing…

(This is an picture of pakore. I thought a visual might be fun. These are one of my favorite Indian appitizers?snaks of all time)