To be with you.

Embarrassed.

That night when I suffered without being able to sleep, I thought it was because of the new place or maybe because I was nervous about my first day in college. But no matter what I tried to think about, trying to distract myself, why did a certain pair of brown orbs keep intruding on my flow of thoughts?

Even the swarthy wooden furniture beside me coated with lacquer reminded me of him. His eyes made me think of the amber-coloured tree resin dripping over a dark brown tree bark from the wedges like the copal.

No one who crossed my life bothered me that much ever... not even Lucas. I've never spent my night thinking about someone, losing my sleep... not even about Lucas. But that guy... I've spent seconds in his presence, and I've spent that night insomnolent.

Whenever I thought about him, my chest felt like it was overfilled with air making me feel overwhelmed... making me feel like I can't breathe anymore. I didn't know what it was or why I was feeling that way since it was all new to me but I was able to interpret and distinguish one of the emotions I was feeling. I was curious... curious about that enigmatic stranger.

Something about that guy screamed danger, but I wanted to walk towards him as much as I wanted to run far away.

'God, Deva! You are totally crushing on a stranger, and it's not even your first day in college.' My mind mocked me. As much as I wanted to deny it, my inner self was right. So deciding to find out about him the next day, sleep took over me when I closed my eyes. One funny thing about all of it was, I totally forgot about Lucas musing over a stranger.

The next day, I went to class with Nyra and Simon. It was fun and exciting listening to all the professors talking when they weren't actually talking about the subject. It took merely three to four hours for the orientation along with the tour to finish, and we were dismissed for the day almost at lunchtime.

Nyra, Simon, and I chatted for a while sitting at the caterpillar. Some senior students who were already there warned us not to ever sit on the head of the caterpillar, the one with the columns and the roof. We didn't know why but we nodded our heads in agreement as obedient juniors and sat far away from it... just in case.

Post Lunch, Nyra and I spent our time choosing a dress for the welcome party. It was a tradition in that college that the immediate seniors to the new batch hold a party to welcome them. They believed that it would help strengthen the bond between seniors and juniors.

We were told that the students would be dancing and singing. There will be games to participate in and free food and drinks will be served. The senior students arranged everything for us to welcome us.

Nyra and I were so excited to go have fun. Simon was also excited but for a different reason. He thought that he could meet that boy who he kept mentioning as his soul mate at that party.

Although Lucas wasn't participating in any of the events, he attended the party with his friends. We met at the venue. It was a huge stadium behind the main building with an occupancy of 3,000 people, and I heard most of the major events of the college were held there.

The stadium was designed disc-shaped with the stage at its centre. Since the crowd was minimal that day, most of us occupied the place nearest to the stage to enjoy all the events.

Lucas made me sit with him and his friends. I joined him throwing an apologetic look at Nyra and Simon. Although I was sitting with them Lucas never introduced me to his friends or them to me. Lucas sat between us like a wall but kept his attention on his friends. I was upset that he made me sit with him and kept conversing with his friends on the other side showing his back to me but I decided to enjoy myself watching all the events.