First Love

Chapter 3

Almost 6 yrs. before.

Two months into school, Anjali was rushing to class, she had been running late that day, when she smacked in to a solid wall, and all her books and papers went flying all over.

When she looked up she saw a that she hadn't run in to a wall but someone, and that someone was one of Aditya's friend, she didn't know him but he made her feel uncomfortable.

She mumbled a sorry and bent down to pick up her books, when she gathered as much as she can she stood up to see the guy still standing there holding out one her books to her.

"Here you go. Your name is Anjali right, Aditya's friend?"

She watched him wryly and didn't reply and started walking towards her classroom.

He fell in step with her, "Hey, what's wrong? I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, I just wanted to introduce myself, I am Aditya's best friend."

Again she didn't reply and continued walking towards her class.

An hour later when she came out of the class, he was standing against the wall. When he saw her, he once again, fell in step with her.

"Look, I am sorry if I did something wrong, I was just trying to help, by the way my name is Nick, I just wanted to welcome you and say sorry for the way you were treated the first day, and now that your Aditya's friend you are our friend too. I just want to reassure you, that from now on no one will dare bother you."

Anjali frowned, had she got it wrong? Maybe she had imagined that Aditya's friends didn't like her, it was just her feelings, none of them had done anything to her. Should she give them a chance?

Anjali turned towards Nick. "It was nice meeting you and thanks for helping with my books, sorry I ran into you, I was in a rush."

Nick smiled, "It was my pleasure," He then walked her to her hostel.

Two weeks later Aditya was running up the library steps, he couldn't wait to see Anjali, he missed her these past two weeks. He had to make a quick visit to home, and he had forgotten to get her cell number from her, first thing he was going to ask for once he catches up with her.

He wasn't paying attention to his surrounding and ran right smack in to Anita. "Huh...Anita, what are you doing here? I thought you hated the library."

She gave him a coy look, "Why do you say that Aditya, you know I love hanging out with you, no matter where."

He mentally rolled his eyes again, I have to get rid of this clingy girl, Anjali will hate it if she tags along.

He was thinking of how to get rid of Anita when he spotted Anjali coming out of the library, he started to call out her name, but stopped when he spotted his friend Nick walk out behind her.

He frowned thinking, when did she become friends with Nick? He always thought Nick made her uncomfortable, that's why he had never brought his friend along with him whenever he went to meet her at the library.

And if he was honest with himself, he would admit it, that he really didn't want Nick to be friends with Anjali, he had a reputation among the girls, that Aditya didn't care for.

Anita distracted him once more, "So, Aditya, where have you been for the past two weeks?"

He answered her absently, still watching Anjali and Nick, "I went to visit my family."

Anita followed his gaze, "Don't they make a cute couple? They have been hanging out together for past two weeks, I think Nick really likes her."

Present...

At the time Aditya had not reacted at all to Anita's taunt. That had been the start of end of his and Anjali's friendship. He had refused to acknowledge, even to himself, that he had feelings for Anjali and it was jealousy that had made him act the way he did.

He purposely made it look like he had a relationship with Anita just to get back at Anjali, and that had made it easier for his friends to break up their friendship. They had deliberately lead him to believe that Anjali had loose character.

In fact it was Nick who had set her up to fall in Aditya's eyes. Nick was the one who told him that Anjali had just started seeing him to make Aditya jealous, and when he tried to get close to her and tell her he really cared for her, she rejected him and humiliated him by saying what made him think she would ever care for a looser like him.

Then Nick had produced some pictures of Anjali with different guys to prove that she wasn't what she is portraying herself to be. Aditya had been angry looking at those pictures. He couldn't believe he could be so wrong about a person.

If he was fed bunch of lies by his so called friend, Anjali hadn't been spared either. Somehow Nick had guessed her true feelings for Aditya, and had encouraged her to express her feelings.

Anjali refused to at first, claiming he didn't want anything with her but friendship, but Nick badgered her until she caved in. At the time she had thought he genuinely wanted to be her friend. When she told him there was no way she can express her feelings to Aditya, he encouraged her to practice with some of his friends, unaware that the whole time he was having her picture taken with different guy as she practiced having conversations with them or practiced flirting with them.

Then on the day she was supposed to declare her feelings, Aditya humiliated Anjali in front of everyone. Neither of them had been aware of the games being played behind their back to break up their friendship. All because Anita had loved Aditya and she wanted to be sure she took Anjali out of her way.

As for Nick, she hadn't realized at the time, that he was a distant relative of her aunt, it wasn't until she had left college and went home, she realized why her aunt had talked her dad into sending her away to college.

In the end no pleading on her side had swayed Aditya from thinking she was nothing but a girl with loose character, who only wanted to see how many hearts she could break. He had told her only reason he had been friends with her was because he had felt sorry for her, he thought she needed his protection, not realizing it was he who needed protection from her. He shamed her in front of all her classmates and his friends, by throwing all the photographs in her face, and all she had been able to do was stand there in shame, unable to defend herself.

And then in the days that followed she had been further degraded by all the catcalls and suggestive remarks by the boys on campus. Someone had given out her cell phone number, and boys would call all night propositioning her, in the end she had been unable to survive college life and called her brother to take her away, and he had kept his promise and took her home after two weeks.

As for Aditya, he had completely thrown himself in his studies, avoiding all the places where he could run in to Anjali. After that he had not trusted any girls and decided he was better off not getting involved with any girls. It was months before he had realized she left college never to return.

Now that he thought back on it, he realized the reason he believed his friends so easily back then was because his feelings for Anjali had scared him to death. He had wanted to create a distance from her to save himself from heartbreak, but had he really saved himself from heartbreak?

He had convinced her to marry him when they met again, because he realized he still had lingering feelings for her, so why then once again he had believed a stranger over her? It seems he was still not ready to admit that she held a special place in his heart and his life. And now that he has realized this, she no longer wants anything to do with him.