Till The End

Chapter 3 - The Challenge

As teacher is delivering her lecture Emi is continuously whispering into my ear if Jim's the guy about whom it was written in the horoscope.

"No way!Firstly, falling in love is not so easy for me that I'll see a guy and just fall for him. Secondly, not him at least", I reply since it's just totally next to impossible for me to fall in love. I don't really know what is love, how it feels being in love. All I know about love is that, you get betrayed by the person you are in love with. So, I don't really trust in all these. In fact I don't wanna trust all these. 

"Okay okay, but don't you think you should say him sorry for what you did?" Emi asks and I also begin wondering that I should. But I don't want to. Don't know why but feels like I can't face him, maybe because I am guilty for how I behaved. So I say,"Yeah but I don't want to face him again."

"Means you are afraid of him!" She teases and I am like WHAT? She thinks I am afraid of Jim. No way. Why should I be afraid of him? I admit I did wrong but that doesn't ,mean that I would be afraid of him.

"Have you gone mad or what? I'm not afraid of anyone and not him at least",I give a swift reply. Though I said so, I am kind of guilt driven. Emi notices this and so she took this opportunity giving me a challenge since she knows I like challenges. Emi adds, " Let's take up a test. You may call it game of destiny.

"W..wait, what? Game of destiny? What is it?" I ask in confusion.

"I'll count till 20 and between this if Jim turns at you even for once then you have to say him sorry as well as kiss him."

"Have you gone mad? Sorry is okay but kissing him... No way and why kiss?" My voice comes out a bit loud with few students turning back at me including Jim but I guess it was not clear enough for them to understand.

"Sorry is for your mistake and if you kiss him I'll understand that you are not afraid of him or else I'll announce it in front of all that Eila is afraid of Jim", I'm sure Emi has gone mad. I have not kissed anyone till now and she's asking me to kiss him. How can I? As I thought unto myself she starts teasing, " I can clearly see the fear lines on your face. So it's proved that Eila is afraid of Jim."

"NO", I protest. This time also my voice cames out loud but thankfully teacher didn't listen. "No. You know that I have not kissed anyone till now. So, How could I..?" I clarify in a low tone.

"I know and that's why I am asking you to do so. Come on , grow up now. Baby you are still too naive", she explains.

"So you know how I am. Then why are you giving me such challenge", I say since I am clueless about the same. But there's still something about Jim which is attracting me towards him and maybe that's the reason I'm not being able to protest Emi the way I should do usually.

"Because I want you to kiss him. Now no more further arguments on this", I know she's not gonna listen to me. So whatever I say now, it will be useless and so finally I decide to agree,"Okay fine, but I'm sure he won't turn", I bet since there is no such thing called game of destiny and I'm sure he's not gonna turn.

"Let's see what is God's plan for you", Emi says as her eyes glittered up knowing that I agreed. She started counting ..1     2     3......and the very first time I can feel my heart beating so fast. God knows why I am continuously biting my lips because never before this I became so nervous. Though I said I'm not afraid but inwardly I am getting really skittish thinking that if he turns then I will have to kiss him and yeah a little bit afraid also. But I don't want Emi to see this or else she'll tease me the rest of my life for this.

And it is 15     16     17     18     19 and he turns. "Holy crap, Eila he turned at you",Emi says with excitement. And I am like NO. How could he turn? Why he turned? So many raising question on my mind but I have no answer. 

"Yy..yeah..h. Oo..kay..y. Please take back your challenge", I am pleading before her the very next moment though my eyes are still glued on him.

"See it was God's wish and so he turned . But are you getting afraid?", she giggles. Is this really God's plan?

"N..no. Okay I'll do it but not today , tomorrow promise", I hope she gives me some time since I'm yet not ready for this.

I guess she understood my situation and agrees,"Okay fine. But if you don't do tomorrow then you know very well what I will do", Emi says with a firm look.

"Are you my cousin or my enemy?", I ask narrowing my eyes since she's doing too much about it.

"Both" and she gives a jiffy reply pulling my cheeks.

.  .  .

I don't know how am I gonna spend this night. Suddenly I feel my life's getting complicated. Katherine auntie comes knocking the door and I smile at her. Sitting beside me on the bed she gives me a wedding gown saying it was designed by my Mom. According to her, Mom wanted me to wear it on my wedding. Weird! Mom never told me about this and today auntie brings it all on a sudden. As I hold the gown caressing it carefully, tears drop from my eyes as memories of Mom comes running down my mind and auntie consoles me placing her palm on the back of my hand. Actually after Mom's death, it's her who took care of me like her own daughter. But yeah, I miss Mom. And Dad... I don't wanna think of him.Thinking of him is like a nightmare to me.His memories are kept locked at a corner of my heart which I never opened since the day he left me and Mom. Ahhh..again I'm getting emotional. That's the reason why I don't wanna think of him because his memories bring nothing but the sorrow through which I had gone through years back. 

"Don't cry baby", auntie takes me into her warm motherly embrace. 

"I'm not", I say rubbing my eyes. "But why you gave me this suddenly? That too today?"

"I opened by cupboard and saw it lying at a corner. I thought I should give this to you know."

"Thanks", my eyes again gets glued on the white gown. If Mom was here I'm sure she would've surprised me giving this gown.

"I suggest you should sleep now. It's getting late".

"Yeah. I'll keep this in the cupboard first", after she goes, Emi enters the room. We both share the same room with the walls colored in  baby pink and two single beds kept side by side with a certain distance in between. There are fairy lights behind both of our beds, hanging on the wall with our pictures attached with them, two cupboards, two reading desks and a single dressing table to specify. Our room is certainly a big one with a large window beside my bed covered with pinkish designed window cover from where we can see the beautiful backyard of our house.

I keep the gown in my cupboard as Emi reminds me of the challenge.

"Yeah , I remember. I'll do it tomorrow. Now let's sleep it's already so late", I say assuring her that I do remember about the challenge but deep down I am so so nervous to fulfill that , nonetheless I don't want her to realize this. Before going to bed I write in my diary about what all happened today. Actually this is my habit. I wanna capture every single day of my life so that whenever I want I can reread those gone pages of life. After completing I keep it in its usual place that is in the drawer of the small table beside my bed. There's something still bothering me. Why I agreed so easily to kiss Jim? I am not like that. In fact auntie gave me the wedding gown today and it's today only I met that Robo. Was all supposed to happen the same day? Are all these a mere coincidence or something else!

Though I am trying but I can't sleep even for a bit because the whole time I am thinking of Jim, his robotic behaviour, our first meeting and the challenge. Things were all different today. It was like a sudden glitch in my mild coloured  life. I am just wondering how I will say him sorry and then how to kiss him. What will he think of me? Saying to myself "No Eila, you can't kiss him." But then I remembered what Emi said regarding the announcement she'll make. To be honest, at a deep corner in my heart I somewhat know, I didn't agree to kiss him just for the sake of challenge. There's some unknown feeling bothering me. Yet I decide to let it all go. I plan out in my head to go in front of him, say sorry and then kiss on his... yeah cheeks not lips and then run from there. "No, this will seem so awkward.Okay Eila , calm down", I refute my skittish thoughts. I again decide to just go and kiss him, finally exclaim my point nad that's it. Yeah done. A grin appears on my face. Just then I peep at the clock and find it's already 3 at night. God! It's too late. I should better sleep now.