He was the new kid in school and had already made a name for himself: the first person in their class to date a girl, if nothing, at least the first ‘public’ relationship. She was intrigued from the beginning. Who was he? How the hell did he have the guts to ask someone out, get rejected and then be lucky enough to be asked out? He didn’t know it but he probably set a whole chain of relationships in motion.
She was a straight As student, but loved reading teen novels. She didn’t stand out in the crowd for anything except maybe an unexpected grade A in a subject where it wasn’t expected. Relationships, guys asking her out; they were not her thing yet. Sharing someone’s saliva didn’t thrill her. She assumed she was okay looking, but then she never spent that much amount of time on something she considered trivial.
The year passed. Her section got shuffled, he was in her section. She was wrong to assume it was going to be a normal school year.
He was outspoken and she liked to answer in class. The friendship triggered because they usually gave the same answers to the same questions. It was the beginning of the era of social networking, hence, with so many factors at work, it was but inevitable that they became friends.
Just a casual hey or a hi first which grew into long conversations, late into the night; all over facebook. She began to look forward to going online, and unconsciously hoping he was online. To her delight, she didn’t always initiate the conversation. She never thought or considered it to be more than friendship. Hell, she had a crush on some other guy! His relationship was on the rocks, and going down. But it was a tabooed subject in their conversations, due to the very reason that it was a hot topic of gossip among her friends. She didn’t want to be the source to any new rumor about her friend; neither did she want to lie to her other friends.
It was a wise decision, one of the few wise ones she made regarding him.
His relationship was a dynamic one, both the guy and the girl probably liked theatrics. They made sure (maybe unconsciously) that the whole school knew they were dating, and appropriately, that they had broken up. All she cared about was he was fun to talk to, hence pretty much ignored whatever crap was in the air about him.
Her friends began playing hero. Now with a broken relationship on his slate, they went with the general air that he was at fault and began cautioning her to stay away from him.
“You still talk to him?”
“Do you know what he did to poor sana?”
“Be careful!”
“Relax! I’m not going to date him. You know me! He’s fun to talk to.”
He gradually moved on...started seeing someone else from some other school, apart from mentioning it to her and her sometimes playfully teasing him, the relationship was hardly ever mentioned.
All around her people had best friends, friends they told everything too. She didn’t have any such exclusive friend. Once she got into a regular fight with her mother. She was a teen, it happened. But at that moment, she felt as if the world was on the verge of breakdown. All her friends complained, she never texted or picked up the phone immediately. That day she chose to not do so. Late at night, she replied to the texts and calls via texts, still pissed off. No one thought anything was amiss, he replied,
“What’s wrong?”
That was the push she needed. She went to the washroom, turned on the shower and bawled her eyes out.
“Nothing. It’s late. Gnite “
“If you say so, but you do know if there is something wrong you can always, without hesitating, call Sparshika, Mohak, Neha, Purvi, Vedika……still not feeling better then maybe call…a counselor.”
In spite of herself, she smiled.
“Yeah yeah...”
“;)”
Months later she would realize, that’s where she started falling for him.
---
She felt his eyes on her. She wished she could simply go and talk to him like normal. Of course she was over him; she never fell for him that hard. It’s just, she didn’t like the way he behaved, the way he talked, the way she had a thousand replies to his blunt sarcasm but somehow found herself tongue tied in front of him. She hated his guts, how could he simply yell his way out of work? He didn’t have any right to be rude to people actually working. Nor should he be offering criticism, when the only constructive thing he was doing…wait, he didn’t know the meaning of constructive.
Why did he have to do sweet things out of the blue? Was it intentional, or was it because he knew her well and knew, she didn’t give a shit about theatrics but with her, it was the small things that mattered the most? Why did he have to make the whole class halt while dictating an answer, simply because she hadn’t finished writing yet? Why did he have to give her a birthday countdown when her closest friends had forgotten? Why did he have to go and campaign for her elections when she was shy?
And why, after all that did he still not tell her he was already in a new relationship? He was already dating someone else. Why couldn’t he have waited for another few days? What was the point looking at her in class now? Did he think she’ll not notice? Did he think she‘ll not feel his eyes on her?
One things for sure, anger had replaced like in the equation now.
Gender:
Points: 300
Reviews: 0