Lone Girl

Chapter 8

My daily routine has changed so much now. Daily going to college by walk, working on the art project with not so talkative Karan, having small talks with Dev in commerce, enjoying my pleasant lunch breaks alone on the outside tables and everything was so good, except the time I have been spending at home.

***

It’s been a month since the college started and everything felt so nice about it. Of course, except the fact that now I am officially a loner. It seems that I concentrated too much on avoiding my sister and brother that I forgot the important thing in college life, making friends. As a result the only people talking to me were my most mysterious and non-talkative art buddy, Karan and my commerce classmate, Dev.

The atmosphere in my house also didn’t help much to my situation. Dad has become really busy since we came here. Mom also had to join the company board in order to reduce dad’s burden. Even when they are at home, they seem constantly worried about something. Mukesh kaka and his wife left for their village after we shifted here. The new maid finishes all her work, prepares food and  just leaves without even speaking a single word. Both my elder siblings never spare even a single second to talk to me. So the only person that I speak to daily is Swetha.

Tomorrow I have to submit my essay and I still couldn't decide on what I should write. The loud noise, which Jay loves to call as music, coming from his room was also not helping. 'What the hell? Did he still think he lives alone in the house?'

I went to his door and banged it twice. After a second I decided to bang again but stopped as the music in the background slowed down.

"What?", Jay spoke opening his door. The look on his was evident enough that he didn't expect me on his door.

"I have a paper to submit tomorrow and thanks to you I couldn't do it".

"How am I connected with you not being able to submit the paper?"

His voice was filled with impatience and I could sense anger filling up his face. Even though, I got a little frightened by him but  I decided to continue.

" The stupid noise blasting off your speakers, ring any bells, is just breaking my head and so I couldn't concentrate on my paper". I said my voice filled with annoyance.

"Shut the hell up and leave. Your paper is none of my business", with this he shut the door and the sound of music increased again.

'What happened?', I asked myself. 'Jay just shut the door on your face like you were a little girl'. I sighed and started again banging on his door. With my every bang the sound of the music got increased. I was so annoyed and I left from there.

***

Next day I had to face detention for not submitting my paper but I somehow managed to hide it from Swetha and parents as I know that Swetha would kill Jay for it. I walked into the detention class and found a seat at the last and started doing my work. After a moment I saw Dev coming and sitting beside me.

" I never thought I would see you around here".

"Thanks to your friend I couldn't complete my paper. So I had to take detention for a week."

"A whole week?", his voice was filled with excitement.

"Yeah", I said hesitantly. 'What part of me having a week detention actually excites him?'.

"Well I too have detention for two weeks, so?", he trailed off leaving the sentence incomplete.

"So?"

"We can spend that time together".

“ How does that make you excited?", I enquired.

"I can get to know you more and may be we can be friends. "

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, I will happily get detention daily if it means I get to spend time with the most beautiful girl in our school".

I rolled my eyes at him and continued doing my work without talking to him for the rest of the hour. He kept smirking at me when ever I looked at him. One thing he made sure was that I will be seeing him daily in detention. I really don’t know how am I going to bear his presence. 'Be happy you dumbass, you are going to have a company at least in detention.’

After the detention, I slowly walked home. Swetha has been to her friend’s, so when I reached home, I went straight to my room. I quickly got freshen up and slept quickly after dinner.

Next day morning, I woke up late, so I hurried to college. All these days, spending time with Swetha after college took away the pain of being lonely in the college. But now, each second of my loneliness kept on replaying in my head again and again. Unlike other days, today I felt so much lonely. All the day passed by without having a person to talk as always but it felt more painful today.

I waited so much for the day to end and I almost ran out to my locker after my final class. But then I remembered about the detention and slowly dragged myself to it. I was sitting in the same spot as yesterday and was looking out of the window.

Dev came and sat beside me. I ignored him and continued staring out the window. He kept quiet which is so unlike him.

“What are you looking at?”, he asked nudging me.

“Nothing, just thinking about something”.

“Something or someone?”, he replied with a wink.

“I know you can’t stop thinking about me”, he added slyly.

“You wish”, I told him and started doing my work.

Dev kept talking to me throughout the detention hour and I felt less depressed at the end of the hour. I hope these detention classes would be finished before than I expected. ‘Yeah, so that you could be all alone again. You dumbass.’

Author’s note:

Where are these talks with Dev in detention going to take Anu?