1. Beginning
It probably has never been this hot in Heaven’s Valley, or maybe I was exaggerating. I rolled my eyes at myself as I waited for my bus to arrive.
I had been standing here for fifteen minutes and I still hadn’t seen a single bus on the route that I need to take.
With a sigh, I pulled the straps of the backpack further into my shoulders and pushed them downwards, a habit I had developed since god knows when. The pressure felt good, I guess.
A few feet away from me, there is a group of students, giggling among themselves, and I didn’t miss the way their eyes would glance at me every now and then. Not surprisingly, my self-consciousness and anxiety started kicking in. I bit my lips under the mask, revelling in the comfort that the mask would hide any form of discomfort that could be displayed on my face, and made sure that my eyes remained away from the group, staring at the corner from where my bus should take a turn.
But a hand on my shoulder beat the four-wheeler and I turned around with a frown, thinking it might be one of them. My frown smoothened immediately when I noticed that it was a friend from another department.
“Hey, I thought your classes weren’t supposed to end for another hour?” I turned to face her.
Shiza sighed and rolled her eyes, “It would have if we hadn’t requested him to give us an early leave.”
“And he agreed?”
“Surprisingly enough, he did. You’d think after the fiasco of last month, he would still be sulking with us.”
“I mean, you guys had a valid point, it was him who overreacted.”
Shiza shrugged and stood silently while tinkering with her iPhone, no doubt checking where her boyfriend was.
Their romance is really cute, they have such a good thing going on for years now… with every other relationship around me not lasting for long, their relationship fills me with hope. For a long time, these two are the only people who have been giving me the perfect examples of how relationships are supposed to be.
I guess, from the point of view of friendship, I really have been blessed, Apart from Shiza, there are still four others who have been my best friends for a long time now, but none of them has had a good experience when it came to romantic relationships. Sadly enough, neither did I.
“How long have you been waiting here?” she asked after pushing the device inside her jeans pocket.
“Almost twenty minutes now,” I grumbled.
I didn’t pay much attention to the fact that she didn’t reply, my eyes were still on the semi-busy road, waiting for that damn bus. I mean what are the odds, there were so many buses that go through that route and still, none of them passed by while I stood there waiting.
When I finally felt her eyes on me, I decided to return her stare, “What?”
“Would you please take off that mask? I feel hot just by looking at you.”
I rolled my eyes at her over-exaggeration and took off the mask.
It wasn’t that the temperature was too high. Over the past few years, summer temperatures often reached as high as 42 degrees Celsius. It was the humidity that was on the verge of washing out 2/3rd of the population of Kolkata.
“Anyway,” she spoke up before I could say anything, “I have to go, I have a test to take at the private tutor’s.”
I raised an eyebrow, “A test within a month of the beginning of the course?”
She pretended to wipe a non-existent teardrop away and threw me a goodbye over her shoulders as she crossed the road.
“All the best!” I shouted after her and she returned with a “thanks!” before turning out of my sight.
Wiping another drop of sweat away from my temple, I turned to the Ice-cream cart on the right side of the University gate. I was contemplating buying one when I felt yet another tap on my shoulder, making me turn around and look at the face connected to the hand.
It was a boy from that group earlier.
My socially anxious heart skyrocketed and I had to purposefully make sure that my expression didn’t give anything away.
“Hi,” he gave me a nervous smile.
Seeing him be so nervous eased some of my nerves as I found myself smiling back at him. The guy was adorable. Even though he was taller than me, his ruffled hair added to the boyish charm.
“Hey.”
I waited for him to say something, anything, so as to know why he suddenly decided to talk to me. He looked so on edge that it was almost worrisome.
I glanced back at the road once again before looking back at him. I could feel the eyes of the group on us. There were some chuckles and giggles here and there. From the one time that I glanced in that direction, there was only one dude that looked serious, or was it curious?
After quite a few seconds, when I was sure that he wasn’t going to speak, I decided to break the silence.
“Can I help you with anything?”
He looked back at me with wide eyes and shook his head, before nodding again, “I j-just wanted to say that I had been keeping an eye on you for a long time now, and I was hoping that we could be friends?”
I raised an eyebrow, my sixth sense blaring like a damn fire alarm. “Keeping an eye on me?”
His eyes widened more, as though that was possible and shook his head, “I meant that I have seen you around! Our classrooms are on the same floor, I swear I am not a creep!”
True to his words, I had seen him before. Him and his whole group.
I peeked at the group, they weren’t even hiding it, not even looking away for once. While most of their eyes jumped from me and vice versa, the one who looked serious had his eyes set on me, only barely glancing at the boy.
“Um…”
“I just… actually friends will be the wrong term. I want to be more than that.”
“Excuse me?”
He nodded, “I have seen you around with your group of friends, I love your personality. It’s been… intriguing to say the least, and I would love it if you would accept me as…”
The end of his sentence was barely intelligible as his voice lowered drastically. His cheeks tinted red and he looked down avoiding eye contact. However, the little that I caught of his words was enough to make me blush a bright red too.
Unlike him though, my eyes widened slightly and remained stuck on him.
Did this guy, whom I am talking to for the first time, actually just say that to me?
I stared at him open-mouthed before glancing at his friends. Some of them were plain curious, waiting for me to react, to see what I would do, and the other half had a Cheshire grin on their faces, just waiting for me to give the worst reaction, maybe slap him while screaming about what a creep he was, while the other half was.
“What the fuck…” was all I whispered.
I could see him flinching already, as if he expected me to slap him, as if that was the only reaction he had expected from this encounter.
“Do you actually mean it or was it a dare?” I asked.
I have no clue how my voice didn’t break, or how I didn’t stumble over the words. This was one such situation I had never thought I would find myself in. What the fuck was wrong with this group?
“Dare,” he whispered.
I sighed, “You really shouldn’t have given in to that.”
“I am so sorry. I know how creepy it must have sounded…”
“It isn’t about that,” I said with a shake of my head, “Honestly, the way your friends are still staring, it is very clear that this must have been a dare. But then, not everyone would actually even consider the fact.”
He nodded his head, looking actually ashamed.
I did notice his behaviour though. Even though this was a dare, the whole concept might not be a joke to them. Maybe they just wanted to see how a stranger would react to that? But this is a very dangerous thing. Just because I am not into it, doesn’t mean that other people aren’t either. And going around asking people such questions can be really dangerous for this dude.
“I just mean that… not everybody will react like this. Some people might actually give you the reaction that you expected. Even I could see that you expected the slap.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because I could see their faces. It wasn’t too hard to guess you didn’t do it by choice.”
He shook his head with a now genuine smile and extended his hand towards me, “Thank you, for not giving an extreme reaction, even though I would have deserved it.”
“Are you actually into that?” My eyes widened and so did his as our hands froze. “I am so sorry, I shouldn’t have asked that, you don’t have to answer.”
He chuckled awkwardly and scratched the back of his head with the other hand, “Would it creep you out if I say I am?”
“No,” I said without wasting a minute, “but I would then ask you to choose wisely. There are a lot of people who like to exploit these things.”
His eyes bore into me but he didn’t speak a word. I heard the rumbling of the engine and the shouts of the conductor before I saw a bus coming toward me.
Finally!
“Well, see you later then.”
I smiled which he returned and I let go of his hand. Without sparing a single glance at his group of friends, who had already annoyed me by putting one of their own in such a situation, I got on the bus and sat on one of the empty seats by the window.
I didn’t look out at the boy or at the group and waited while staring at the darkened screen of my phone until the bus started up again and drove ahead.
Only then did I take a deep breath. Taking the water bottle out of the bag, I gulped down some of it and stared out the window with a dumbfounded feeling.
What kind of a dare is that?
I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t shut it out. I kept hearing the guy’s voice again and again in my head.
Who the fuck asks that to a random stranger even for a dare?!
“… and I would love it if you would accept me as your submissive?”
____|~.~|____
So, I am not yet sure where I am going with this book. But I haven't posted in such a long time so I decided to just go for it I guess.
Let me know what you guys think about it?
Also, if you guys have any suggestions or ideas about it, let me know them in the comments!
Much Love! <3
