Nithya

Chapter One: Interview

I stepped into the big empty waiting room. This was my fourth interview this month. The woman at the desk smiled and gestured me over. She seemed so bright and optimistic with the freshly cut flowers in a vase beside her. 

"Could I have your name please?"

"Nithya Nageswaran"

"Oh the name sounds nice. Is it Indian" she asked. 

"You're a little close there. My parents are from Sri Lanka so they gave me a tradional tamil name. "

"Nice to meet you. Your application looks very good. Mrs Edwards will call you in when she is ready. Good luck. "

...

I came out of the interview so happy. I called home

"Appa, amma, anna, I GOT THE JOB! I'll tell you more about it when I get home."

Thank goodness I have my family, they are everything to me. They have worked so hard to make sure I would have no problems when I try to study.  When the troubles in Sri Lanka started, they settled in London to raise their baby boy, my big brother. And then 7 years later comes the baby girl who was me.  Then 22 years later here I was, just after my successful interview. 

Today was going to be quite busy. I would get home and inform all my cousins that I've got a job. And I hopefully finally will be able to convince my family to stop being over protective over me. Being the youngest on both sides of the family, they were always wishing me well at the same time as laying out horrendously strict rules like always being given a lift when it got dark. For goodness sake, I'm a woman now, I can look after myself. 

As I was walking through the building,  I absorbed the scene of my new workplace. I bumped into a something hard like concretel. 

Next I opened my eyes to see a tall guy tapping my shoulder. 

"Nithya, Nithya can you hear me"

"Huh"

I craned my neck to look around to see a small room with a sofa and some chairs. I realised that I was in the recovery position that I learnt in year 9. 

"Yeah. What happened? Why am I here?"

"Nithya, you fell and hit your head. I was giving you first aid to check you're alright. You're in the break room."

The pain hit. It was like someone had smashed my skull with a hammer. 

I got up rather shakily and said

"Thank you. It was really nice of you to help me...  -your name?"

"Kathir- you can't go anywhere now. I'm taking you to hospital to get you checked out. " 

Clever Nithya, already turning into the damsel in distress even before her first day at work. 

Before I knew it, he helped me into his car. Why did he care? I'm just a random wierdo who clumsily fell. Unless this is his excuse for kidnapping me. Aaah where's my phone? I need to let my brother know so he can save me. I was franctically searching. The pain in my head didn't help me turn in my search for my phone. This was getting too hectic. 

"Nithya, if you're looking for your phone. I have it here" he said, smiling and handing the phone to me. 

So this guy was actually nice to me for real. My imagination is the craziest thing ever. I cautiously looked over at him. He did look pretty decent. He didn't seem like a creep or a player. Can't blame me for my wild imagination though. I was told not to judge a book by its cover. My love for Agatha Christie novels and Sherlock Holmes radio dramas made me assume the worst. 

Guys hardly just talk to me or help me. I'm not particularly outgoing. I usually have to help a guy out so much for him to even talk to me. I do like having guy friends. There's less drama and they hurl pathetic insults at you. Its also good because they hardly ditch you if you're their lab partner. But then again I was never fully friends with a guy so my theories may all be proven wrong. 

Haha wonder what Emma will say about kathir giving me first aid. She'll start saying that it was love at first sight. Aw she's so sweet and she's pretty. Probably that's why so many guys have liked her. I'm usually stereotyped into the innocent category so no guys have ever gone for me.

Anyway I'm young and true love never seems to happen at this age. Yes I've crushed on my fairshare of people but I've never had a relationship before. Normally guys only look at beauty. I haven't been bothered much. Its not that I don't care how I look. It's that I don't like getting my hair cut or threading. I complain about it being too expensive and time consuming but really I'm just super lazy. Nice gus shouldn't go for looks. They should go for the personality.

"Nithya, Nithya."

I heard Kathir's voice and snapped back to reality. 

"You've been like that for the past 5 minutes since I stopped the car. Are you sure you're alright?"

"Um yeah I'm fine." I couldn't read what he was thinking. It's pretty bad though because people can read right through me. 

He helped me out. Wow he really is a good guy. I'm lucky I have a friend before I start my first day of work.