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Story Time: Love — What the hype is all about?
August 6: A bright and sunny morning greeted me indicating the very first day of the new academic year, which was bound to be my last in this school.
I was a bit desperate to jump into my van. The main reason being the fact that my best friends, Umar and Salman, would accompany me. We were fine in studies and the pranks we played on others were not aimed at degrading anyone but it did create a lot of chaos; all this for the sake of fun. With the same intention I stepped into the van. The two devils, Salman and Umar, warmly greeted me.
We all seemed to be very happy as it was our last year and above all we were reunited after two and a half months.
“How were your vacations, Adeel?”
“They were average. I missed you guys a lot, yaar. You can conclude that I was bored to death. All I received was scolding from my parents for all the problems that I created. More humiliating for me was chemistry. It beat the whole living hell out of me but somehow it just slips right off my head.”
“We too had more or less the same kind of vacations that you had. The only interesting thing that I did was to visit the beach and nothing else.”
As we talked, a new girl entered the van. Salman threw a chalk, which hit her on her head, and she stared angrily at us. We pretended as if nothing happened; we acted like angels and as she turned away we all burst into laughter.
I didn’t notice her much at that time but as she left the van to go towards her class, I felt as if something precious was taken away from me. A sudden change struck me. My thoughts were drifted. All day long in the class, I thought of her, not knowing what to do and what not to do.
I felt very passionate and desperate and wanted to talk to her. I decided to apologize to her for my stupid and ridiculous behaviour.
Once, I desperately waited for the day at school to end. Each minute seemed like miles away. While going towards the van at the end of the day, I felt very shaky and nervous: as if my whole body had gone numb. During the journey home, I sat very quietly. Salman and Omer were very surprised at this bizarre and peculiar behaviour of mine.
“What happened, Adeel, you seem to be very quiet and depressed. We haven’t seen you like this before. You have always shared your joys and sorrows with us. After all we are your friends,” inquired Omer.
“Nothing yaar I was a bit worried about my progress, nothing too important,” I made a failed attempt to hide my emotions.
“Don’t make a fool out of us, it’s the very first day of school, and I don’t think we made any progress on the very first day. Have you got yourself in some sort of trouble, huh?” This time Salman got into the conversation.
“It seems you have some sort of crush on the new girl who made her way this very morning,” Omer archly added.
“I fear I have one,” I finally confessed.
“Adeel’s got a girlfriend, Adeel’s got a girlfriend!” Taking my feelings as a source of fun they cheered in a low voice.
“Why don’t you go and just start a decent conversation with her,” Omer said in a serious mood.
“I don’t know yaar. I never had this problem before. I do talk to girls but this never happened earlier. Things run smoothly with them the way it goes on with you guys. This is going to get ridiculous. Whenever I intend to go and talk to her, I feel like a rat. I am a bit scared and when she departs, I feel like as if I missed an opportunity.”
“But she’s so ordinary. What’s so great about her that’s driving you insane?”
“It doesn’t matter what you guys think of her. What matters is how I feel about her. Perhaps it’s her simplicity that’s driving me crazy,” I replied.
“OK, you have got a point there, but how are you going to initiate a talk with her, huh?” Omer asked intently.
Before I could answer, Salman said in between, “Maybe you can stomp on her foot and apologize for it. Then you can ask her about everything else like her subjects, the type of student she is and so on.”
“I think that won’t work. She would eventually figure out that I stomped deliberately on her foot. I should rather apologize for the chalk that you threw earlier this morning. Perhaps that could make things better for me.”
The very next day I walked up to her and apologized for our behaviour. Gaining enough guts was the most difficult task for me. She possessed a good character and forgave me immediately. Eventually we exchanged our email IDs.
Time sneaked by and I was unaware of it. I realized my thoughts and her character deeply. Time is the best healer for the worst of diseases. With the passage of time I eventually realized that those thoughts were an adverse fantasy at the back of my mind. And much sooner I accepted her as what I should have done much earlier. I finally accepted her as my sister! Perhaps it needed to end this way.
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