I tapped my feet continuously,
my new pair of converse making a harmonious beat against the muddy sidewalk.
Little dirty drops of water trickled down the shed of the grocer shop under
which I took shelter in the monsoon downpour. It was one of those melodious
rain, where everything seemed beautiful, and there was no thunder to give you
goose bumps, or lightning bolts cracking the grey sky.
‘Where was he?’ I wondered.
Maybe he forgot. After all, who would be so kind as to remember my mere
existence and come see me just because I asked?
He is the first boy of our
school, and also captain of the football team. He probably has a very
inadequate closet, for he wears the same shirt to school every day. He walks
with his eyes glued to the sky, which scares me a little, with his old black
deflated bag hanging loosely over his left shoulder. His family owns a BMW, but
still he walks to school. He is a strange person, unlike all the other first
boys and jocks, with unusually mysterious and magical eyes, eyes that speak,
that say so much.
The only similarity he has
with the other ‘cool’ people is his temper, his red, hot and
explosive-like-a-bomb temper. So it was not out of the blue when he hissed at
me when I asked him if he could meet me. But it was absolutely gob smacking
when he said yes, and asked me to meet him a few blocks down the road which led
to our hostel, block B was what they called it.
Me? I was just an ugly
back-bencher, with dark eyes and cropped hair. I was the example of failure,
even though I never got anything other than a 100 in Maths. I was invisible,
still am and always will be. My face will always remain hidden by my oh so
favorite hoodie, the one which I also chose for our meeting.
I was there, 5pm sharp, just
like he asked me to be, even in the pouring rain. But no signs of him. Another
car splashed past me, as I dashed backwards. Everything seemed gloomy now.
Maybe it was the fact that I just wanted to talk to him, not be his girlfriend.
No, I did not want to dash off to a gruesome, sleazy club with him on a date,
nor did I want to sneak around at school. All I wanted to do was…talk.
As the clock struck 6, I pulled
the hood over my head and hit the road, feeling disappointed, hollow, and
defeated. Lane after lane I passed, the rain hiding my tears, till I reached
Block D. And look who’s
standing there?
He was wearing his same old
faded jeans and a red striped shirt which I did not see before, and was staring
at the sky with an annoyed look plastered over his face. With baby steps, I
walked over to him, when ‘His Majesty’ finally looked at me.
‘Where were you? Did you lose
your way?’ He yelled.
I slowly nodded with a smile,
‘Yes.’
I was confused. Was he a fool,
or was I? Or was it…the both of us?