Hide & Seek

Trekking

In the next couple of weeks we all sat together at lunch and forging time between classes to discuss debate fundamentals, with Nicholas trying to make a conversation, me eventually swaying away and him ultimately giving up. You see, after the first encounter I never wanted to see him again. When I told Reya about him and what a dreadful thing his presence did to my heart, she was quiet for a long time.
"Love at first sight." She finally said.
I groaned. " Reya! I felt like crying. And it was awful. Love at first has butterflies and drooling not tears and tugging and banging." Afterwards she said none.

I resolved not go to the occasional rendezvous which primarily remained a resolution but never an actual action. I tried to sneak away during lunch but Miha dragged me anyway saying they could use my help. And I have to give in atlast which soon turned out rather riveting.

Shivangi from science was a like a senator, really, she even turned up once wearing a white sheet round her shoulders, with refined adjusted vocabulary. She had a way with words. As I discover that she spent her long hours going over rare words, synonyms and what not in google. Once she casually said, "Ephemeral, transitory, momentary, and transient means the same. And we must not use fugitive or fugacious instead."
Shruti was like a living journal-house and would dig out informations like an undercover officer. She even acted like one. She would prance around the library crouching and would appear at our side without our noticing.
Rishi from commerce was a quote shark. Ask about Abdul Kalam, Karl Marx, Confucius, John Stuart Mill, Voltaire; he knew it. Many a time he reminded me of Reya. She had started an interest of reciting out famous quotes, at the top of her lungs in variant voices, perched on the top my bookshelf.
Purav from Commerce was the ultimate legend of debate and the leader. With confidence in his voice he could even speak about whether or not roadside dogs should be taken home? Do vampire deserve citizenship? Are fish to be staple food?
And then there was Nicholas. One thing; he was good at this thing. He exactly knew what to say and when; and either he would have a grin or frown on his face, specialy while reading something. He was to a great extent total physics freak. Once, while we were reading this blog about on recent debate he had this thoughtful look on his face and suddenly started saying, "You know, according to the standard model of cosmology, the observable universe-- containing all the billions of galaxies and trillions and trillions of stars-- is just one of an infinite number of universe existing side by side, like soap bubble in foam. Because they are infinte every posible history must have played out. But more than that, the number of possible histories is finite, because there have been a finite number of events with a finite number of outcomes. The number is huge, but it is finite. So, this exact event, where this writer wrote these words and you read them must have happened an infinite number of times. Even more amazingly, we can work out...." Two minutes later we tuned him out.
And my friends Miha and Priya for being the Humanities students and having a general record of speeches and debates and an interest to throttle the opposition with words in best intention were proving assassinating demons. Miha's one look was enough to leave the opponent sweating to his toes. Like the look Do Bong soon gave Min Hyuk . I always knew Priya talks, a lot. But seeing her in motion in debate was something else. And would kinda make sense unlike Reya.

Meanwhile, I, helping them in every possible way discovered one thing. They were not a team because they were alike in some instance but because they so contrasting to have disagreements every five minutes that I had to step in.
When I told Reya about this she smiled her wise smile which didn't really suit her and said, "Distinciton and disagreements is important." With that she was gone.
I spent the entire first half speculating those words. What did she meant I did not know. It confused me. And the lunch affixed even more when Nicholas as always didn't smiled at me. I was relieved he had stopped. But my damn heart was giving a tug. Longing tug. The same it always dose around him. The dreadful one. And I didn't know why but his cold behavior forloned over that and I scolded myself for it.

That weekend we trekked the nearest hill. Maa, Baba and Dev set a camp below while I trudged upward because Reya was much eager to just sit around and I had to follow in.
After reaching a flat land we panted through mass of tall trees. The past four months Reya had been with me she was nothing but annoying and very chatty with new interest every few weeks and this week it was exploring the beautiful Goa hills. It had been her proposal or rather demand if I may  say so, that I had to persuade my parents for with a promise to study hard and get As in every subject. Dev was excited which surfaced as understatement for he didn't accompanied me up here.

"Oh, its so hot," Reya gushed wiping her forehead for the sweat which wasn't even there.
I narrowed my eye at her. "You cannot feel hot. You are dead."
She stopped and stared at me dead end. "You had to say that?"
I shrugged. "Truth hurts."
"Oh, come on." She chided and drifted ahead. "No sense of consideration."
"Hey," I quickened my pace to match hers. "Thats the truth and to be honest I didn't even wanted to come here."
"God!" She rounded me. I came to a halt before  I literally walked into her. I never tried, but I did hear that walking  through dead gives you shivers. I wondered  if the same could be felt with Reya. "Are you insane!"
"Sometimes I doubt it," I mutter. "Taking that I hang out with a ghost."
"Can't you see the beauty here," she continued ignoring my comment. "The upway hills, the lushy green. The trees, the birds and the creeks, the brimming  music of nature. Oh ho. You know, once I went to this camping trip with my sister. Just the two of us. I mean, I didn't wanted to go, just like you here. You see, I was much of a introvert kind of girl. My mother once scolded me for that. What happened is that I was in my room and she just entered. Didn't even knocked. I mean, in my home, no one, particularly had respects for privacy. Taken that those days literally none had. But you see, this rich neighbors of ours-"
Did I mention chatty?
"Stop!" I shouted. "What are you talking about?"
She scowled. "The beauty of trekking."
At that I had bite my groan of frustration. Because this ghost was downright frustrating.
"Well," I said. "I've had enough. I'm going down. You coming?"
"Oh, come. Just a little further..."
"Okay, bye." I turned and started jogging through the trees.
"Okay, bye!" I heard her irked shout before I burst out from the web of trees.

I might have taken a wrong turn because I found myself slighty in unfamiliar  veiw than the one we had encountered before launching into  the trees.
Despite the qualms  I wedged   forward. Halfheartedly I feared that I was lost in the stupidest of circumtances after hsving disagreements with my ghost friend. I thought of going back but then she possibly had gone much ahead of me seeing how eager she was.

I started following a creek downward for where is water there is safety, right? I was unaware how much time had passed, the sun was still overhead, the rays beaming in the near silence filled with nature hum. After a while I sat on a rock and drank from my water bottle. Some bushes nearby shook and my bottle slipped off my hands splattering down my shoes. My throat suddenly dry, blood pulsing in my veins.
Please, not some dangerous animal! I pleaded. I know there was none. The guide had confirmed of full safety yet, fear over fact. I pulled out my pocket knife and stood over the bushes and as soon as it parted I plunged the knife.
"Woa! Jesus Christ!"
What? I opened my eyes and found Nicholas.