A Story

Warning: Somewhat long post. If you yawn mid way, just leave the page and please don’t do any more damage to your precious brain.

Prologue

The stare was unbearable. For every second he kept wondering, “What could it be that she is so serious about?” When it reached its threshold he muttered, “Tell me whatever it is that you want to share and stop staring at me like you are seeing me for the first time. I mean, for Goodness’ sake, just say something than trying to fill the air with frustration.”

It was only then that he saw her lips were trembling.

The Story

He noticed her on the first day at school. As he got transferred to the school for “Plus One”, very recently, he had not much friends there. He felt like he is all alone in the world as almost all other students formerly studied in the same school and were engaged in chatting with each other, but him. He knew he was stuck with this dumb fellow, whom he knew from the tuition center, for some days before the other students took him as one among them.

“Be damned,” he thought, “the day I decided to join this place. Almost everyone here has a distinction in S.S.L.C and they are choosing friends based on that. What am I going to do? Being a first class holder, not just 'a' first class, but a 'high-first class', I might end up among the bottom dwellers. I should have taken into consideration mom’s suggestion to join for commerce in another school. Well, that school is definitely better than this place.” And so went his thoughts.

However, by the end of the day he found out his fears were just the creations of his mind. He found some very good friends. Also, to his relief, he came to know that only a small fraction of the students are above the 500 marks limit and by the end of the day they were in a group and were discussing future strategies (Yeah! Like they had any!) .

Now we shall see some things about the girl. She, the most beautiful and popular girl in the class, also didn't belong to the ‘high achievers’ group. But she had the charm which made her the most popular girl. She was very kind to everyone. She had almost all the characteristics of a perfect heroine. But she hadn't learned classical dance and can’t sing like the perfect heroines are supposed to. [What a relief, eh?].

Anyways, he noticed her on the first day itself. [Yes, you guessed it. Also please gimme some credit as I said this in the first sentence itself.] He noticed her because of her qualities. He thought that she looked like a butterfly in that outfit. [She wore something like what Alice wore in the story ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Hmm…]

It'll be too obvious if I say he went to her on the first day itself to be friends. Yeah, I know that you people are very clever to understand that. But… They didn’t even talk to each other till two weeks later. Not even a ‘hi’ or ‘hello’ or ‘good morning’ or ‘good afternoon’. Not even a ‘good evening’ was exchanged between them.

As I said, it was on a Monday that he felt someone scratching his shoulder. He was surprised to see that it was her, his dream girl, scratching his shoulder for him. Nope, she was just calling him. Blame her fingernails.

“Hi”. The ice melted with a single, single syllable word from her mouth. They became real good friends and that too very fast. Nobody understood what was happening between them. Even those two persons, who got very close to each other in a very few days, didn’t really understand what had happened between them. Was it just good chemistry? (Physics? Geography? Logic? Anything? Whatever?) Or was it love? She cannot answer that question, even now.

Though it remained a mystery for others and her, he was very much sure that it was love. ‘The divine intervention of God’, ‘nature’s conspiracy to unite two like beings’, so on and so forth. He began giving meanings to it. Of course it was not just him who began to scratch the surface. His friends began to think out loud when he was around about the possibilities of her falling in love with him, about how she came to him for friendship, about they being so close to each other in a very short period. Their findings began to acquire the form of a research thesis. It seemed he would personally vouch for them if he was asked for the purpose of awarding doctorates to his friends. Dr. So and so with a doctorate in ‘Detecting love patterns’ sounds great, right?

He openly criticized his friends for giving other meanings for a holy relation of friendship, though he secretly congratulated them for pointing out the things he never noticed about her and her behavior around him. And thus one day he decided to tell her about the love he had for her and he decided to disclose this fact when they were alone after the school hours. [They are two and how can they be alone? This is a practical question asked by many people. So I ask the same, not because am dumb. Mind you.]

Anyways, as a pre-condition satisfier statement, he began to buy chocolates for her on an everyday basis. Slowly he increased the number of chocolates per day so that at one point the count reached 20. Well, he had considerable allowance of pocket money and was an expert in nicking Rs.100 notes from his dad’s pocket. Though it would’ve been better for her to eat so many chocolates daily as it could help her in gaining some weight, the thought of her becoming fat made him to force the D-day sooner. [He wouldn't accept his part when his dad warned him about the increase in number of missing currency notes from dad’s pocket. Whatever. Duh!]

So the day came. The day he decided to express his love towards her. The day he would remember throughout the rest of his life. The day, which made him a wonderful man.

Evening. Him and her – alone in class room. He – sweating profusely. She - wondering why he soaked his hanky in sweat and thinking when he is going to put it down.

After 10 minutes of absolute silence, she asked him, “What happened to you? Why are you sweating and shaking? Is it fever or anything?”

No answer except for a blank look and even more sweating.

“Well, if you are not going to tell me what is happening to you I would like to tell you something which I had been wanting to tell you for quite some time”, she said.

Now it was she who had a blank look and life less stare. He was startled by the sudden development. He knew in his mind that she struck the chord and the same music is sounding in her heart. He looked at her and said in a sound lower than mumbling, “You can tell me anything. You know that, don’t you?” and he waited for her to speak.

But there was no response from her. This time he looked at her and saw that she was staring at him. [“Eh? What is happening here? Staring competition?”]

The stare was unbearable. For every second he kept wondering, “What could it be that she is so serious about?” When uneasiness reached its threshold he muttered, “Tell me whatever it is that you want to share. And, stop staring at me like you are seeing me for the first time. I mean, for goodness’ sake, just say something than trying to fill the air with frustration.”

It was only then that he saw her lips were trembling.

“Am sorry”

Two words. Just two words from her mouth and he was flapping like never before. He thought he would need a bed sheet to wipe the sweat. His thoughts, which sounded like, “Ahem, she is going to cry and fall onto my lap saying ‘I love you’. Yes, it’s definitely going to happen. How lucky am I? ”, changed to, “What in the world is she going to tell me now?”

“Why are you sorry? What are you sorry for?”

Wow, I think we should appreciate him for at least asking this than trying to run away.

And her reply was, “I love someone. He is not a student here.  He is doing his degree in Chemistry. I am really sorry for not telling you about him till now.”

*Sob sob*  [“Ah yes, the tear drama has started. Gotta find a bucket to collect those tears.”]

“What? Chemistry? Girl, I am an aspiring Computer Scientist. What do you need a chemist for? To mix your child’s baby food?”, and such were the questions which came up in his mind but he carefully avoided asking them. Or he was too busy contemplating the situation that he couldn't make sense of anything that came to his tongue. Anyways, he was eventually told the other guy’s name and whereabouts.

“So, what was it that you wanted to tell me?”

Oh Yeah! Time to be creative! “Eh? Oh my God. Please help me out.” Then it suddenly struck him. He said, “Thank God. I was about to tell you a similar story. I came to this school as a girl, oh! no, not as a girl, but as the girl whom I like is studying here!" And a lot of imagination unfurled which depicted a girl in whose search he came to this particular school and how he met her and all those things which he could conjure up in that little time he had to explain his situation. He actually ended that conversation with asking her help in wooing that 'other' girl!

She went home that day with a lot lesser weighing heart as that weight got completely transferred to his mind with a lot more adding to self contempt and desperation. He went home with his held hanging low with the weight of his thoughts about how he was swept off his footing by the tide of truth. Then he found the gem which lay hidden under all this rubble.

 “Never ever even think you understand a girl before she says you understand her.”

Epilogue

After some days…

“What happened to her, dude?”

“I don’t know.”

“ Aren't you going to wait with her today?”

“Me? Nope. I gotta run. I have to get to the health club. catch up with you later! Bye. Take care.”

[Disclaimer: I took these incidents from my life and changed some things and added some twists and turns. No movie scripts are used as references, and if you have any doubt watch every Malayalam movie till date and verify your doubts.]