A Twist of Fate (Slow Updates)

5

Ananya flopped down on the bed and much to her embarrassment, she started crying. She had never been humiliated like this before and the worse was coming to terms with the fact that she hadn't want him to stop. She was attracted to him. After all these years, she still carried a torch for him. Her heart still hammered, her stomach still flipped, her core ached and her legs felt weak when he was near. It was like the flame and the moth. She was the moth, she was attracted to the flame and she knew she'll burn but she was still attracted.

She had been a naïve but a sweet 18 years old when she had first met him, on their law school campus. She had just stepped at the cusp of adulthood and had been full of confidence to take on the challenges and trials of the future. It had been the first week at Law School. Honestly, it was the first time she'd been away from her home. Though she was excited to be away from home and her mother's stern eye, she was surprised to find herself feeling a little homesick.

She had spotted Vikram for the first time near the entrance of the classroom where her first class was supposed to be held. He was tall and lanky with a laid back gait. He was leaning on the door and was looking at his classmates ordering the juniors to act out scenes from the movies or sing songs.

He was two years her senior and had seen her sneaking away from the orientation class.

"Where do you think you're going?" He had asked her.

Dressed in a lemon sleeveless shirt and blue jeans, like any other Fresher on her first day of college she'd been nervous. She had heard about ragging in colleges but had no inclination to be a part of it even though it was conveniently now named 'Introduction with Seniors.' As she turned around towards the voice that questioned her, she could only gasp like a gold fish taken out of water. He wasn't that handsome but he had an aura of authority around him. She felt tongue tired and shy in front of him, tall and broad shouldered with black hair that lighted up his black eyes, he had asked her to move back into the classroom. As a form of punishment for sneaking away he ensured that she was made to sing two songs in front of her class and seniors. She had had to do it, all the while aware of his eyes on her that for no apparent reason made her blush and the butterflies' dance in her stomach.

Later on, as law school progressed, he would drop in a "hi" or a "how are you?" in the corridor but it all actually began on the day he met her in the library. She had been engrossed in a book near one of the interior shelves of the library when he said "hi" from behind her. She jumped and turned back to admonish whosoever that was. But as she turned to find him, her anger simply melted. "Your eyes sparkle when you get angry!" he had observed with his smile that simply melted her bones to water. But he was a charmer, he knew how to get her out of her shell and before she realized, they were friends. They'd go out for ice-cream, lunches, rides and soon became the talk of the college. She didn't know how, naive and stupid she considered herself then but somehow they came to be looked upon as a couple. Vikram never told her he loved her or she, him but it was more like it was understood. Ananya thought it was really not needed since their eyes said so much.

She couldn't have been more wrong, she had realized a lot later.

Whenever they were together, she had the time of her life, he was a considerate boyfriend, if she could call him that and he looked after her well. He taught her things like writing good reports, public speaking and overall encouraged to do all the things that would be essential for her professional life. He taught her to be independent and free in her thinking. She, on her part, just kept falling more and more in love with him.

In this entire rosy picture, there was one flaw, Samaira Bose. The 5 foot 7 inches, fair girl with black straight hair, beautiful healthy flawless skin and black almond shaped eyes always seemed to be hovering around in the background. His ex-girlfriend. She was beautiful, many a times Ananya had felt gauche in front of her in her tom boyish attire and had often thought why a guy like Vikram would leave a girl like Samaira to be with someone like her.