The First Fall

Chapter 4

“Who is he? Why is he smiling at you? Do you know him?” Rhea was throwing questions after questions at me.

“I’ve met him once. It’s almost a year now”.

“What’s his name? What is he doing here? He is not a student, that’s for sure.”

“Hmmm well I don’t know his name nor do I know any other details about him. So don’t bother to ask any.”

“Are you joking? The way you both are behaving….. I don’t believe you. There is something more to this than what you are very reluctantly divulging”.

I told her how we met and she was quiet for a while and then began to laugh.

“Why are you laughing like this? It’s unnerving”.

“Oh really? Let me tell you this. You my friend is very much attracted to that good looking man and you are really happy for meeting him again. Aren’t you?”

“I don’t know….”

“Do you want to know his name, some more details perhaps?”

“Yes”.

“I knew it. Be prepared my girl. You are going to turn a new leaf and my sixth sense is saying that it’s going to be epic”.

“Look Rhea, Please don’t dramatize this too much. You know me. You know my past. Whatever it is you are hinting at has already started to scare me.”

“Oh Nina. Don’t be a coward. I know you and I can guess what you are feeling now. But don’t let your insecurities and fear get in your way. Whatever you are feeling is not an offense. You should let your mind do its work. Even if you do try to stop this, you are not going to win. It’s already written all over your face. You have some sort of feelings for this person.”

“Okay. Please stop this right now. I don’t know what I feel. He noticed me that day because I made a scene there. He might have felt pity for me and when you notice someone like that you won’t forget that person easily. He remembers that day, how I was stumbling through that door and he will be laughing at me in his mind.”

Luckily for me our class started and I tried to keep my thoughts away from him and from what my friend just said. I failed miserably.

I knew he followed us to the railway station again and Rhea noticed it too. Before entering the building she just turned and smiled at him waving her hands in a goodbye gesture. He returned the wave and smiled back.

“He certainly is a good sight for the eyes and you are lucky girl. I feel jealous”. My friend said.

I didn’t respond. What was I supposed to say? Agree with her? I don’t know.

Weekends seemed far away and time was passing very slowly. My frustration also started to increase. Rhea said it’s usual to feel this way and that I am too eager to meet a certain person.

Somehow a week passed by and It was Saturday again. As usual I saw him, we smiled at each other and this continued.

A month passed by and one day during lunch break Rhea seemed excited and dragged me to a corner of our class and started talking. “His name is Roy and he is teaching temporarily, as a replacement for a friend who is not well. He has an Engineering degree and is also preparing for some government service exams. You won’t believe me girl he is the friend of J T or Jose Thomas who is the son of  politician Samuel Thomas. He is staying with him and they are family friends too”.

“Roy”. His name just rolled out of my tongue and I was not even aware that I had said it loud. I realized it only when I heard Rhea chuckling.

“Care to tell me how you got all this information and from whom?”

“From the devil himself my girl”

“What? You talked to him? Are you crazy?”

“No I am not crazy and yes I talked to him. You were not going to do that and I couldn’t control myself. I am not as patient as you. Curiosity got me.”

‘What did you two talked about?’

“Are you curious? You were not showing much interest a while ago. So I am not going to tell you about our very detailed conversation”.

“Please Rhea?”

“Okay. I asked him what his name is and why is he following us every day and whether he has any feelings for you or not”

“My God. You are nuts.”

“Whatever. Do you want to hear about this or not?”

 When I nodded my head she continued.

 “He wanted to see to it that you reached the railway station safely, maybe because he knows about your clumsiness and he agreed that, that day you both met for the first time? he felt sympathy for you but along with that he is also feeling a strong attraction towards you”.

She stopped and started to wiggle her eye brows.

I didn’t say anything and strangely she didn’t ask me any other questions.

The next day I was near the cooler drinking some water when a boy from our class came near me. He tried to talk to me but I didn’t respond. He had been disturbing me for a while, always asking for my number. I didn’t like the way he behaved. He was a total flirt and took pleasure in annoying me whenever he could do so.

Gradually he began to show his true colors and started saying rude things. Rhea tried to warn him a couple of times but he brushed it off. I knew that he will not back off without creating a scene. Once or twice he got Roy’s attention and the look Roy gave him was chilling.

This boy didn’t know when to back off. I had a feeling that this was going to end very badly.

And it did get ugly soon after. But that’s a story to tell another time.

My feelings for Roy were getting stronger  as Rhea continued to inform me about his ambitions and other details. She was playing  messenger for us and she and Roy became friends.

I respected him a lot and I looked forward to meet him every weekend at the institute.