It Was Always You

Chapter 3

Hey guys i know its been too long and i am so sorry for that. Actually i had my exams and seminars at first, then the one i typed got deleted and retyped it which got deleted too. Trust me when i say this is the fourth time i have typed it. Hope you like it. And i will try to be regular from now on.

Masoom POV:

The second I saw him, my brain became a mishmash of emotions. Happiness, surprise, shock, anger, sadness, worry and fear filled my heart and mind. I was happy 'to see him after all these years', surprised and shocked as he was here 'after all these years, suddenly out of the blue', angry that he came 'out of the blue yet took so long', sad that he 'took so long still an unintentional and unplanned visit', worried that the 'unplanned arrival might soon reach his ears as a twisted news', scared the 'twisted news would lead to such havoc, that I won't be able to handle this time'. Though my heart burnt like a hotpot with all these emotions, somehow the last two of them managed to overtake the others.

What an rotten luck of mine! I couldn't totally be happy for his return. I can't even afford a smile on my face, not even for namesake. All I could think about was him and the consequences. Sana was saying something, but my brain shut my eardrums close not wanting any disturbance, while breaking the promises I made, not long back.

I was lost in my world of despair, when I heard the nickname I gave him and snapped out of it. I immediately looked at him. I wasn't focusing on the conversation going on, so I wasn't sure if they were really talking about the nickname, I gave him. And if they were really talking about it, then did he tell his friends about it himself, and even allowed them to call him by that after all that happened. I thought I would decode his expressions to get my answer, but he totally avoided my gaze.

I couldn't follow the conversations that followed. But when A.J explained, I understood.

'A.J and Ash must have seen my scribbling in one of his science or social texts', I thought.

If you get your hands on either of these, you will see that they are totally filled with my scribbling. He loves science, but not a nerd. It's just that when he hears a lecture on some science topic, he becomes interested and gets wholly involved and he also has a habit of taking notes in the text while listening. Since he is anyway mentally storing them all, I tell him to write the notes in mine, while I scribble in his. Bunking social classes was impossible, so the drill continues there too, when Abhi becomes attentive which is almost half the time.

Getting back here, I realized he isn't happy to hear the name again, when I saw him shooting ocular daggers at Ash, which took me, back inside my brain.

Not long after, H.O.D came and I introduced them by their names and Ash said I forgot something. I didn't realize what it was until he said that aloud.

I just looked at Abhi, not knowing what to do, but he didn't seem to be of any help with that look of indifference. I didn't know if he will be fine with me calling him by that name. I knew that he would already be bubbling with anger and I didn't want to feed the fire anymore than I had already years back when I had first set it.

Sana nudged me out of my thoughts, having no other choice I said it aloud 'Raphael'.

The Godzilla, I mean our H.O.D just brushed it off and turned towards us explaining all our 'responsibilities'. Most of them were just elaborations of what she had said before and some new ones too, but what got my attention was that she wanted all 10 of us to stick together literally the whole time we are in the campus. There I was thinking of ways to step down from this STEP thing just to stay away from him and here she is hell bent on making the situation worse for me.

No way in damned hell would I give in without a fight. I tried to tell her of all the ways this won't easy and how we would be troubled by this. But she was so stubborn that she said she would take care of everything.