Steal my Heart.

61

I gasped when I saw myself in the bathroom the next day. A big, red love bite sat on my neck, clear to public view. I applied some concealer and foundation there, but it just wouldn't hide. I instinctively took a scarf from the wardrobe and tied it round my neck. Now it couldn't be seen.
I went to school and sat on my usual seat at the back. Stuart came strolling in. I cleared my neck when he reached his desk.

"Yeah?" He said.
"You aren't talking to Ivy?" I asked.
"Chuck it." He said absentmindedly.
"I know this is none of my business, but see Stuart, she cares a lot about you. And you know it better than me." I said.

He exasperatedly sighed. "I know right. But she's becoming too annoyed day by day. She's being faraway and keeping her distance. And whenever I even mention a girl, she becomes all crunched up."

I bit my lip. "She doesn't want you to mess up, I guess. She wants you to do well. We have our final exams coming up and all."
He sat still for a while and then nodded. "I'll talk to her. I'm at fault this time."
I smiled back at him. "Just don't throw away a friendship like your's, over a reason as trivial as that."
"Yeah sure. But are you feeling cold at the end of October itself?" He asked.
"I didn't get you?" I asked.
"That scarf around your neck?" He said.
"Oh umm it's nothing." I said and turned around, completely red.

•••

Alastair and I decided to walk home that day. He kept a hand on my waist and we walked towards my house.
"Why are you wearing a scarf, I'm seriously not getting it." He said.
"Thanks to you. It's for hiding a hickey." I said, scowling at him.

"What the hell." He started laughing.
"Yeah right. I don't even know what's funny in that." I said, poker faced.
"It is actually. A scarf wound tightly around the neck, in autumn, when it isn't even so cold." He said.
"Yeah whatever." I rolled my eyes.
"What was wrong with Stuart and Ivy?" He asked.

"The same old. Stuart actually has no idea of Ivy's feelings for him. How can someone be so stupid to not see something as obvious as that?" I said.
"He's a dumbfuck. So engrossed in others that he can't even see his own best friend falling for him."
"You fell for him?"
"What no, I'm not gay!"
"You yourself said that Stuart's best friend is falling for him. You are his best friend, aren't you?"
"That was so stupid that I just feel like going and jumping off a cliff."
He said it with such seriousness that I couldn't control my laughter. I almost tumbled over.

"That's the perk of being with me." I said,"Lame jokes when you ask for them, lame jokes when you don't ask for them."
"Yeah right. How nice." He said sarcastically.
"Which college are you applying to?" I asked him.
"Seattle University, like you." He said.
"I just hope we both get in." I said.
"We will. We've been working hard." He reassured me.

A few children were hopping about in a nearby small park. One of them kicked a ball which came towards Alastair. He immediately caught it.

The little boy came bouncing up to us and asked for the ball. Alastair patted his head and threw the ball towards him. He grinned and ran away. Looking at him, I knew he'd make a great father. Somehow, not having a daddy affects him. We always know the value of what we don't have. He'll give everything to his child what he himself doesn't have.

"Grace." He says.
"Yeah."
"Why don't you have friends? Apart from Mel and your books ofcourse. I know I've asked this before, but then the question was about why books are your only constants?"
Here comes the topic I dread.
"I don't know."
"So curt."
"Okay I'll explain it to you briefly. Basically, I'm an insecure, inferior person. Due to that, I've been shy, unapproachable and reserved. I'm not arrogant. I just don't know how to approach anyone and you know, hang out, be friends with them. I've had very few friends."

"It must have been difficult."
He understood well.
"Yeah it has."
"Haven't you tried to change?"
"Yes I have. I just don't fit in anywhere."
"Why try to fit in when you were born to stand out?"
I smiled at him.
"It's been a while since we have had a deep conversation." I said.
"We always end up kissing when we have a deep conversation."
"Haha true though."
"But we do have deep, personal conversations at midnight."
"Yeah conversations get pretty sad after midnight."
"You know basically everything about me."
"That's true intimacy."
"I feel as if I don't know things about you."
"There's nothing to know about me."
"There is. No need for any deep, dark secrets. I just want to know you, your opinions, your favourite band, who are your most loved people and things like that. I just wanna know you inside out."

Alastair's Point Of View.
I paused.
"We will include all that in our talks okay?" She said.

I was happy. Happiest I had been in a long time. This relationship wasn't just about making out, clicking pictures and going on dates. It was respect, trust, conversation and happiness.

"What is love?" I absentmindedly asked her.
"Love is when you know you're gonna fall, but you take the plunge anyways. It's like putting someone else's happiness before yours. It's crying when the other person is in pain. That's what it is." She says, summarizing up her answer. Ever the perfect student. Presents every answer in brief.

"How will you define love?" She turns to me.
"You." I say.
She gives out a nervous laugh. She still gets worked up around me.
"How's that?" She asks.
"Well, I've known love only since you came in my life. Love, need, all were just words until you came and gave them a meaning. You actually define it for me."

She blushes, and looks everywhere except for me. All I wish to do is scoop her up and hug her. We've reached her ranch.

Suddenly a car stops in front of her house. We both stop and instinctively look at the car. The back door opens and a guy steps out of it. Tall, sparkly eyes, boyish face.

"Howard!" She yells and goes up to him and hugs him tightly.
"Grace, how I've missed you." He says, hugging her back tightly.
And I watch how the love of my life hugs the person who's been my arch enemy.
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Chapter dedicated to Rutuja Parulekar, my friend for loving the book and giving me ideas just so I keep writing. This one's for you. <3