𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐡𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬

CHAPTER 06

When I walked into the classroom, it was empty, except for one person. Haider. Our eyes met for a split second and like yesterday, he chose to ignore me.

Why does he do that?

It felt like he just pinched me in the heart. I had thought I would be able to ignore him, now that I had a boyfriend, but the wish of just saying a simple hello, to him, never went away.

Wordlessly, I strode to my front seat, the row beside him. There were only two columns of benches in this classroom which could hold forty students, with one bench having space for only two. Thankfully, the space between our seats was around ten feet, else, it would become more awkward to sit near him, without uttering a word.

Yesterday, I was worried that I would miss finding my classroom, so I arrived fifteen minutes early to the class. It was simply because finding the room numbers on my own, in unknown places, freaked me out. Today, my bus arrived fifteen minutes early at the college, and it always would be, as per the schedule. But I wanted to know why Haider came so early. He was here, even before me.

He didn't seem like he stayed at the hostel, judging from his accent. Then, if he was a local, then why was he here so early? Did he come by bus or did he have a vehicle? If yes, then did he ride a bike, or was he rich enough to drive a car? More questions began to churn inside my head, but I kept quiet.

I wasn't good at starting conversations. He was still a stranger to me.

Five minutes later Livi arrived, slamming her bag on the table to break the silence. "Are you okay?" she asked holding one of my arms.

I glanced sideways to notice Haider was looking at me, and I nodded. His expression was thoughtful. I was getting nervous to talk about yesterday, but I didn't want to do it in front of Haider. Still, it was better for me that it was him than anybody else.

Somehow, I knew he wasn't loose-lipped.

"I'm sorry." I started with an easy sentence. Livi looked clueless and Haider looked surprised but I held out my hand, gesturing for her to let me continue. "The night before college, my scooty died in front of the FANES club. I went to ask for help but the musical voice captivated me so much that I didn't know when I went inside and tripped a wire. Jai's microphone broke as a result and I was horrified by the mean comments, being thrown at me. I ran towards the exit and thankfully, a guard helped me fix my scooty. Jai stopped me when I was about to leave and accused me of knowingly, ruining his show." Livi had an expression of shock and I didn't dare to look at Haider.

I would lose my nerve by simply looking at him.

"This was the reason when you took me to the same club yesterday, I felt uneasy. And I was just as shocked as you when Jai proposed to me but I said yes because..." I wanted to fulfil my fantasy of being the girlfriend to a playboy and wanted some adventure in my life, "I like him," I settled with a simple answer. This time I glanced at Haider, and his eyes were trained on the action-packed game he was playing. It was as if he wasn't interested in listening to me and it hurt me.

What did I expect him to do? Nod at me understandingly?

How ridiculous was that?

At least, he could look at me once. That way I would know I had made the right choice. I waited, holding my breath for his approval, but he never broke his concentration from the game. A slap to the face would have felt a little less painful as compared to his actions.

What was he trying to prove by always hurting me?

Livi wasn't happy with my explanation and it upset her that I lied to her face. Still, she asked me to give her some time to process all of this. Though she wasn't big on forgiving, my honesty pushed her to give me a second chance to our friendship.