…but she still was under the delusion that he would reluctantly dismiss her love for him..
Eagerly waiting for his coming, her face would blossom with a glimpse of his irresistibly captivating and endearing face! For her, he had acquired the throne of her Tartary! Everyday she would wait for him outside their college. But he was a late bloomer! He would arrive just before the college bell would peal and would get into the college in haste, thereby desolating her. She was so intensely in love with him that she would hardly pay any attention to the reality and would be in the post terrestrial space where the only person with her, would be him. She would go to the college even on Sundays in oblivion and later, realizing it, she would get back home sighing!
Even though she had tried speaking to him a few times, she had only been able to stammer something which had never made any sense to the boy. He would stare at her in bewilderment and she would lose herself in the dark, shining eyes on his face! Fair and spotless face; incredibly attractive smile; dark brown hair, hunky physique, with all these ingredients, he sure made a delight. Seeing a girl standing in front of him, speaking nothing but just staring at him as if he had stolen something of her, he would just walk away with a question mark on his face. Little did he know that he had unknowingly stolen her heart!
After encountering her ‘stop and stare’ act for quite a number of times, he had become familiar with her face which was nonetheless beautiful of course. He was not surprised to see an already existing friend request from her on facebook which he had ignored earlier. “Stella Samuels” he read out. He dubiously clicked the ‘confirm friendship’ button. The funniest thing about Facebook is that it lets you claim someone as your friend while you hardly know them or are even unsure about their actual existence in the non virtual three dimensional space. Not too late after the approval, he received a message from her and he was quite expectant of it. He was curious about what this perplexing girl would have had messaged him. He usually wouldn’t anticipate anyone to be speaking up to him but Stella had kept him puzzled since the day he had noticed her gaze fixed on him. He wanted to know why she was doing that. Being so hot and being self conscious about it, anyone in his place would jump to a conclusion that the girl had fallen for him. But he was not anyone. He was good at this in his own way. He thought “What if she’s a serial killer?!”.
He smiled and opened the message. He was surprised by a huge text.
“Hi Smith. I am Stella and luckily if you’ve ever paid attention, I’m the girl who stares at you all the time and never speaks up. It’s not that I’m shy or something but you’re so good at making my vocal chords nervous that my throat suffers drought and they fail in their efforts to produce any sound at all. I have been trying to make a conversation since forever but everytime you’d shut me up with your Master degree in nervousness induction. Although I found out a way to communicate with you over Facebook, it’d been 7 months since I’d sent you the request and there was no option to message you before you accepted it. Finally, today I was so surprised by this notification that I splashed water on my face twice to confirm that I wasn’t dreaming”.
He couldn’t stop smiling. He replied, “Hi. This is very unusual for me. I know you and yet I do not. I have been watching you stare at me and yet I do not know why. I feel that you’re very eager to talk to me and yet I do not know how to react to that. Everytime you stare at me, I feel like I’m a thief and I’ve stolen something belonging to you. Why is it so? Never earlier has anyone been able to grab my attention like you have. I hardly have any interest in talking with people and yet you’ve kept me intrigued. I assure you that next time whenever we meet, I won’t caste any spell and you can tell or ask me whatever you’ve been intending to from such a long time”
She became very happy after reading this. She shouted enthusiastically, “It’s me. You’ve stolen me”. Then she translocated herself into her own world and lost herself in thoughts about him.
They began chatting everyday and got to know each other well. Eventually they got closer. But Smith neither showed any signs of love for her nor did he decipher any of hers for him.
Once she gathered courage to ask him his opinion about her.
She messaged him,
“What do you think about me? What do you feel when I come in front of you?”
He replied, “I am not sure what I think about you but I just get scared”
Stella: “What!? Am I so fearsome? I know I am not beautiful but I thought people could at least stand my face”
Smith: “No, that’s not what I meant. You are a very beautiful girl. I’m just scared if you’re a serial killer”
She: “Ah! yes that I indeed am”
Smith: “Oh snap! Is it going to be painful?”
She: “Yes dear boy, it’s going to be a very painful death for both of us. For you will be shot with a bullet in your chest, I will be inflicted by your loss”
He: “Just in case, I’m ordering a bulletproof jacket online right now. Would you like me to order a bag of tissues for you?”
She: “You’d order me a ton of tissues and it’d still be insufficient”
He: “And the statistics say, we are facing a drought this year”
Both of them laughed.
It had now become very clear to Stella that Smith wasn’t bearing any love for her. All her efforts in letting him know about her feelings indirectly were futile. ‘Actions speak louder than words’ was an inapplicable proverb in his case. He would just selectively choose the funny aspect of whatever she would say and would cut jokes. She was under desperation and was dealing with pain. She had nobody to share all this. She was so busy in loving him that she had not made any friends close enough to share her personal life and thoughts. She tried to discern a solution. Nothing really struck her little brain.
He heard the sound of footsteps at his door. It was very late in the night. He was alarmed by this and thought someone had broken into his apartment. Before he could take any action he saw the silhouette of a girl. As she approached, her face became partially visible in the moonshine. He was pacified as it was Stella. A greatly surprised Smith asked her, “What are you doing in my apartment at this time? Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping in your bed?”
She said, “I’ve come to kill you. You never understood my love for you. Everytime I gave out some signs, you misinterpreted them and cut some nonsense jokes. I’m fed up. I love you so much but you are so dumb that you will never comprehend it. I have lost all the hopes. So I’ve decided to kill you and put an end to my pain. When you’re gone, I’ll at least have a reason for why I didn’t get you.”
“Wait! What are you saying?” Asked a perturbed Smith. “You love me? I admit that I never realized it. But are you serious? Killing me will put an end to all this? Do you even know that you’re not making any sense?” He was flabbergasted by his next thought! “Alas! How right I was when I thought you were a killer! And how wrong I was when I thought that you were kidding when you said you’d shoot me! I didn’t even order the bulletproof jacket for God’s sake!”
“Oh dear, this is no time for muttering nonsense. I’m not joking. This is the time to end” She pulled a gun out of her jacket and pointed it at his chest and got closer to him and said, “Shut your eyes and be prepared to die. Do not utter a word.”
He was daunted. He had not expected that she’d really kill him. He closed his eyes and waited for the bullet to enter his heart and finish him for once. Next moment, he felt her breath on his face. He was afraid to open his eyes. Any moment could be his last. But he was befuddled about why she got so closer. It wasn’t too late when he discovered the reason. She hugged him tightly and kissed him. He was startled.
He woke up sweating profusely. It took him a minute to realize that it was just a dream and she really wasn’t around him. He recalled the dream. He knew she had killed him. Not the one that ends everything but the one that makes you attain salvation.
He had never given it a thought and now everything showered upon him by itself. It’s not merely that they say that the universe wants you to notice it and when you’re too ignorant about it, it finds a way to get noticed by you.
Right then, his love for her spurted out of him and his heart opened up for her. He made up his mind that the next day he would go and reveal his feelings for her. Finally, time had come for them to become one soul out of two bodies. He couldn’t stop thinking about her. He couldn’t sleep that night. He was waiting for the Sun to wake up soon. He could’ve sent her a message but this wasn’t any ordinary issue. Special was too typical an adjective. It was something ineffable happening in his life and he wanted to unravel his emotions for her in person. He couldn’t stop imagining the spark of happiness he was going to see in her eyes the next day. Time was so exceptionally running slow for him that he thought it was time form him to replace the battery of his clock. He kept rolling and tossing in his bed.
Meanwhile she was still trying to figure out a solution to end the pain. For once she thought of suppressing her feelings for him because persuading him was a far-fetched task. But then they were too strong to be suppressed. She thought of spilling the beans the next day may whatever would be the ramifications. Somewhere in the nook of her mind, a voice kept reverberating, “He is made only for you and you’re made only for him. It is implausible for this to not work out. Make your move and the dice will automatically show up accordingly.”
But she still was under the delusion that he would reluctantly dismiss her love for him.
The Sun seemed to be shining brighter than ever that day and a cold wind blew keeping the ambience cool. The most romantic thing was going to take happen in the lives of two people that day. The Universe was preparing itself to unveil another beautiful love story.
Penned down by Pranav Hegde
In Pursuit Of Peace - Poetry by Pranav 