Wildly Driven

Chapter 23

Alignment:
(noun)
A position of agreement or alliance.

When my mother had passed away, I had been depressed and there was no one to talk to. Dad always made sure that he spent a lot of time in the tracks to get rid of those memories that haunted him. Lily and I were not so close back then and there was nothing I could do to get those feelings out.

I was angry that there was no one who thought about me and what I felt. I hated everyone and I stopped talking to those few people who talked to me.

A week after my mother's death, I had gone to the head master and had asked if I could enroll for shooting - a perfect way to vent out my hatred and anger. With the knowledge of my mother, the teacher was more than happy to let me join to any team if I had asked.

Being the angry bird that I was, I held the shooting bow and put all my frustration in it to reach it to the red dot few meters away from me. But each time it failed and stuck to the trees behind it.

That was when I was introduced to the word, alignment.

It is a position where one stands to make sure that everything seems to be in line. Even though I hadn't understood what the word implied back when my teacher had blabbered on about it for an hour, tonight everything was making sense.

There are certain times when an alignment is necessary to see things clearly. Though the notions for it seem to be right next to us, the alignment position will let us be blind to it. Only when we stand in line we realize what we had been missing all this time.

A little change in position, or a change in the point of view, or a distant memory, or wisdom - is all it takes. In my case it was a small confession. It made me look at things differently and shattered my confidence level.

How am I ever supposed to like a guy in future without doubting his likes and dislikes?

I sat staring at the white walls thinking about how I had not seen the hints that were lying just in front of me all this time.

As soon as I had him utter those words, my world had fallen apart. I was embarrassed and ashamed of myself rather than anyone else. I had made my point clear to almost everyone that I liked Nick Everest just to know that he not only dislikes me but also bats for a different team altogether.

I excused myself and walked home in my famous walk of shame and locked myself in my room, recreating the events that happened between the two of us which would at least let me know that something was definitely up. But I found none. Hell, we were flirting all the time. If he was gay, why the hell was he flirting with me and purposefully leading me on?

My phone beeped for the umpteenth time.

I sighed and took the call. Ever since my eloping, I had switched of my phone and had practically shut off everyone from school. I had spent the whole night contemplating why and how I had missed those subtle hints. I had even taken it to the next level and had bunked school the next day just for the heck of it. I made breakfast for Dad and waved him bye and sat watching the white wall in my room wondering what the fuck happened to my life just in a blink of an eye.

"Where the hell are you?" A familiar voice came booming through the phone. I held it a litter further away from my ear not letting it suffer for my misfortunes.

"Monica?" I asked surprised.

Did I mention that I had bunked job along with my school too?

"At least you are alive!" She said. "Lily and Nick had come here looking for you."