Mysterious Notebook

A Strange Note

It was the beginning of another mundane day for Annie. Wake up, get dressed, pack the bag, feed Fluffy and take the bike to school.

As she got on her bike, she noticed the scratch where the paint had peeled off. It reminded her of the accident that day. She never got to ask Brown who had thrown the stone at her or just how he happened to be present there at that time. She could only speculate his response.

The first two lectures went by before she could realise it. Something was odd today. She kept zoning in and out of her life. Maybe it was the weather. Winter was slowly setting in and particularly that morning, the fog had settled quite heavily over the whole school campus. From far, it was difficult to discern the borders. The day trickled on drowsily towards noon.

After her regular lectures were over, Annie decided to visit the library. She was bored and she didnt want to go home as yet. Her mother would be out till late, so anyways she would be alone at the empty house. And today she wished to have a companion. She thought she would sit in the library for a few hours. Perhaps read a new novel.

She walked down the hall to take the library card from her locker. Surprisingly there were no new nasty comments on the door of her locker. She sighed in relief. She had half expected her bullies to have scratched out her remark from the door but when she looked at the white letters scrawled in her own handwriting left intact, she felt good. She opened the locker and found a little violet paper sitting on top of some books and files.

It was a strange note with only four words written on it.

Sorry for that night

Annie read the note again and again and yet one more time. Still she couldnt understand it. What did it mean? Who was it from?

The only person she could think of was Bryan. But how can he put a note inside her locker! It didnt even make sense. Brown could perhaps do it, since he had a habit of doing such odd things but what could he be sorry about? And which night would he be referring to? Could it be one of her bullies then? But when did they have anything to do with her at night. And she didnt believe they would do that, especially after she had given their names to the Dean.

She slipped the note inside her coat pocket and started walking.

She couldnt go and sit in the library anymore. She felt puzzled and wanted to get her thoughts straight first. She headed for her only recluse. The park.

When she reached her spot, that broken bench was already occupied by someone. To her great surprise and happiness, it was Max!

Max smiled at her and motioned her to sit down beside him. "Did you get the note?"

Annie reasoned in her mind before blurting out anything. She felt sure that it was either Max or Bryan who had sent her the note.

Max started talking when she didnt reply anything. "Bryan asked me to give you the note but I couldnt ask you to meet me up just for that so I told a friend who happens to go to your school to drop it in your locker sometime..."

"Oh so it was Bryan." Annie exclaimed softly. She didnt think he would apologise. Afterall, she counted him as a jerk and expected nothing else from him other than misbehavior and indecency. Well.. guess jerks can also have a conscience once in awhile, she thought.

"So what exactly happened between you two that night, if I may ask?" Max propped the question that she was hoping he wouldnt. On top of that he was grinning at her with explicit facial expressions.

"Erm.. he forced a kiss on me. In his car." Annie replied with a grimace. She wanted to break out of her silent passive self, become more assertive and confident, nevertheless her shy and demure nature was hard to overcome so soon. She felt herself blushing inspite of herself.

Max was prudent enough to stop grinning. Infact he looked like he was at a loss of words. After sometime he said, "I am sorry you had to experience that. I should have dropped you back home. I am not defending him, Bryan is a jerk no doubt about that, but honestly he has never been this rash before. He has always been gallant and chivalrous. I dont know what got into him that night."

Annie nodded in silence.

Max continued, "And this note.. this is the first time I saw him writing a note to someone. Usually he is the type to call up people and sort out things if there has been any problem. Its my fault you had to face that, I should have paid more attention to you."

"Oh. No, dont blame yourself. Its not your fault that he is an idiot." Annie replied.

They talked about Lily and some regular stuff a bit and then Max got a call and he had to rush off again. Annie finally got up to return home.

On her way back, she couldnt stop wondering about Bryan and what Max had told her about him. She didnt want to think about him too much, she tried to distract herself but it was no use, those thoughts kept getting back in her head. She was beginning to feel irritated with herself so she started singing aloud while riding her bike.