Aditya was in the final year of his graduation and was head of the Anti-Ragging Committee of his college because of his calm nature and polite behaviour. His CGPA never crossed 6.5 but still, he was favourite of few teachers. He was one of those few people who are always honest about their thoughts and beliefs.
Although he was the head of ARC, he never considered taking an introduction as ragging. Once, when he was in the second year, a professor caught him taking intro of the first-year student in the classroom and he was called to the Dean's office. That when, they had a long meeting and finally Aditya convinced the Dean that making the juniors to introduce themselves is the foundation of a strong bond between juniors and seniors.
That year, when the new batch joined college, Aditya and some of his friends went to their class for taking the introduction. Aditya recently had a breakup, but no one knew the reason. He was a very private person. As he entered the class, he scanned the classroom for girls.
“Surely, not a polite thing to do.”
Since he broke up, he didn’t like anyone else because whenever he met someone, he tried to find Pallavi (his ex-girlfriend) in her. The same thing happened that day. He sat down on the front bench and started using his mobile. Freshers kept coming to the front one by one and introduced themselves. Aditya was busy on his mobile, ignoring all the voices.
“I am Riya Garg.”
Aditya looked up before she could even complete this sentence. It worked like a spell for him. He didn’t have control over his eyes anymore which were continuously staring at her while she was speaking.
She was standing in front of the class, wearing white Kurti and blue Dupatta. Her hair was tightly tied with a hairband, but a strand of her hair managed to get rid of the grip of the band and fell over her face. She pulled it behind her hair and noticed the spooky stare of Aditya. It made her uncomfortable, so uneasy that she went back to her seat. His eyes followed her to her seat.
A few weeks passed,
Aditya didn’t get any chance to talk to her.
He urged the ARC's professors about adding two students from the first year to the committee. Professors consented and as Aditya was the head of the committee, he chose Riya and Abhishek.
Now they spent, one hour together every week.
Few weeks passed,
they exchanged their numbers.
Few more weeks passed,
they became friends.
Few more weeks passed,
people started thinking that they were a couple because they used to spend a lot of time together.
Months passed, they both knew that their friendship had evolved into an infatuation for each other. They had flirted with each other a million times but neither of them ready to accept the fact that they had started liking each other. Maybe because both of them were afraid of screwing up things.
Alcohol surely destroys your liver but it gives you the courage to speak honestly under its influence.
Same with late-night chats,
when you are sleepy,
you speak honestly.
And that night, Aditya was doing both.
He was drinking and chatting with Riya.
He surely was a daring person, wasn't he?
When you show daring, things change.
Either favourably.
Or in a horrible way.
But they surely change.
And that’s what was going to happen that night.
To be continued.....
By Vaibhav Rai