A Little Apology Before the Chapter
First of all, sorry for disappearing and not uploading the chapter.
Actually, I myself have no idea what happened in the last 10-15 days. I forgot that I was writing this story. Not that I didn't want to, but I just somehow forgot about it.
And yesterday, one of my friends suddenly said, "Aaj kal tu likh nahi raha hai?" (These days you aren't writing?)
And this sentence somehow reached my heart.
I sat there for a while thinking,
Wait. Are there people who actually want me to write?
Just the fact that I was writing this story and that some people were actually waiting for me to write the next chapter made me feel so happy.
I know it's a really cheesy thing to say, but it's the truth.
So yeah, I might have forgotten to write for a few days,
but apparently, some of you didn't forget about me. ❤️
And I'm really sorry for making you wait this long.
I don't know how this chapter is going to turn out, but I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
And lastly,
I promise not to disappear for another 10-15 days.
No promises, really.
I'm still me. 😭
Anyway, enough with my boring excuses.
Let's get back to Vaqzy and see what trouble he gets himself into now.
The morning came, whether Vaqzy wanted it or not. He opened his eyes slowly and looked at the ceiling for a while, studying the cracks that he had seen a thousand times before. Nothing had changed in the room, but somehow, sitting in that room that morning was different.
For a while, he just lay there. Usually, he would have thrown himself on his other side and tried to sneak another hour of sleep, but something inside him stopped him.
He sat up and looked around the room.
And for the first time in a while, he didn't lie back down.
Maybe it was a sign.
Or maybe he had just gotten tired of running away from the same things over and over again.
He got up and prepared for college without thinking about it. Uniform, bag, glasses, shoes. It was all the same old routine. It felt like his hands were doing it before his brain could even process it. As if his body already knew he was going to college and was getting ready to accept it.
When he walked downstairs, his mother was already in the kitchen.
She looked up when she heard him.
"You are going?" She asked.
"Yes," he replied.
She didn't ask him anything else. She turned back to the stove, but Vaqzy saw the breath she let out and the way her shoulders sagged slightly in relief.
She had been waiting for him to say that.
He picked up his bag and walked to the door. He stood there for a moment, looking back, before he said,
"I'll be back."
His mother didn't answer.
But somehow, he knew she had heard him.
The moment he stepped outside, the morning air hit his face. It was cold and he instantly missed the warm blanket that he had left in his room.
He stood there on the doorstep for a second, looking at the road before he started walking. Just looking at it for a second, taking it all in.
Then he walked.
The road to college was the same as always. The chai stall was already steaming, the uncle on the bicycle was ringing his bell at an unnecessarily early hour, and the school kids were walking so slow on the footpath that it was as if they had bought the road from the government.
Everything was normal.
Strange, but normal.
It almost made Vaqzy feel better.
Normal things felt different today.
Not better or worse.
Just different.
He reached the college gate and stopped. His hand hovered over the gate for a second before he pushed it open. Students were walking in, chatting and laughing, arguing about things that would barely matter at the end of the day.
The sound of them reached his ears in waves.
He had forgotten how loud college could be.
Or maybe he hadn't.
Maybe he had just been trying to.
"Bhai." Vaqzy didn't have to turn around to know that it was Rohit. He appeared beside Vaqzy, slightly out of breath, with his bag slung over one shoulder as if the bag itself had given up trying to be bag-like.
"You actually came," Rohit said.
"I said I would," Vaqzy replied.
"You say a lot of things."
Vaqzy gave him a look.
Rohit raised his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay. Come on."
They walked into the college building. The corridor was the same as always. The same torn notices on the board, the same walls, the same fan at the end of the corridor that had been broken since first year.
At this point, Vaqzy was starting to believe that the fan wasn't broken.
It had just retired.
Some things never changed.
"Walking normal," Rohit suddenly muttered.
"I am walking normal," Vaqzy said, looking at him.
"No, you're walking like someone expects to get hit."
Vaqzy straightened his posture.
"Better?"
"Much better."
They reached the classroom and Vaqzy stopped at the doorway for half a second. There were already a few students inside, and some of them looked up when he walked in.
Some looked away instantly.
Some held their gaze for a fraction of a second longer than was comfortable.
Vaqzy didn't react.
He just walked to his seat, sat down, opened his notebook and placed his pen on the desk.
One guy at the back made some sort of comment.
Vaqzy heard the inflection in his voice, even if he couldn't understand the words.
He didn't turn around.
He didn't acknowledge it.
No drama. No confrontation.
Just being there.
Rohit slouched beside him and leaned closer.
"See? Not bad."
"I didn't say anything."
"Your face did."
Vaqzy looked at him.
Rohit smiled.
"Your face said, 'Okay, I survived thirty seconds. That's decent.'"
Vaqzy turned towards the board.
"Shut up."
Rohit smiled to himself.
"There he is."
A few minutes later, the professor walked into the classroom, dropping his notes on the desk in the process. He looked around the room before he started speaking.
"Before we begin, we have a new student joining us today. She has transferred here from another college. Please be respectful."
A few people turned around to look at the doorway.
Then she walked in.
The room somehow changed when she walked in, even though no one said anything. It was as if the room itself acknowledged her presence.
Her name was Meera.
At least, that was what Vaqzy found out later.
She wore a simple dress with a dupatta over her shoulder and adjusted it as she walked into the classroom. She looked around with calm eyes, taking in the room without showing any particular emotion. She didn't seem surprised to be there, nor did she seem particularly interested in being here. She simply walked up to an empty seat in the second row on the left and dropped her bag on the desk.
She opened her notebook and started writing.
And just like that, class began.
Vaqzy found himself smiling to himself.
It was amusing, really.
The three guys in the front row somehow managed to straighten their posture within four seconds of her walking in.
All three of them.
At the same time.
It was almost impressive.
He looked away.
None of his business.
The lecture began.
Something about markets and economics. Vaqzy found himself writing a few things down.
Progress.
At one point, the new girl raised her hand and asked a question. Her voice was clear and her inflection showed that she was genuinely interested in the answer. She didn't seem to be asking just to be polite. She really wanted to know.
The professor explained it to her.
She nodded, wrote something down in her notebook and continued listening.
Normal.
Vaqzy went back to his notes.
When the lecture finally ended and everyone was getting up to go outside for a break, three guys had somehow positioned themselves near Meera's seat. Vaqzy saw them while he was packing his bag.
One of them offered to show her the way to the canteen.
Another one asked if she needed the professor's notes from last week.
The third one didn't say anything.
He just stood there smiling as if smiling was his entire personality.
Meera was polite about it all.
"Thank you. I'll manage."
She picked up her bag and walked away.
Vaqzy left the classroom with Rohit.
"You saw her, right?" Rohit asked immediately.
"Yes," Vaqzy replied.
"And?"
Vaqzy looked at him. "And what?"
"Bhai."
"She seems decent," Vaqzy said. "Now can we get chai before the line gets too long?"
Rohit looked at him for a while.
Then he slowly shook his head.
"You are a different kind of problem."
"Tea," Vaqzy said, ignoring him.
They walked towards the canteen. The break was short, but Vaqzy found himself listening to whatever Rohit was saying. It wasn't that he was really paying attention. It was more like he was there. Listening. Present.
The chai was surprisingly hot.
The samosas were the same as always, vaguely warm but not hot.
It almost felt like before.
Not completely.
But almost.
After the break, they walked back towards the classroom. Vaqzy was a little ahead of Rohit, adjusting the strap of his bag when his mind wandered off somewhere else. He wasn't really aware of his surroundings.
He turned the corner.
And walked straight into someone.
Not that he walked into them intentionally, but it wasn't exactly a gentle collision either. It was more like two people who hadn't been paying attention bumped into each other and immediately regretted it.
Her notebook fell to the floor.
Her pen rolled away a few feet.
And her dupatta fell from her shoulder and landed right over the notebook, almost as if it was trying to protect it.
Vaqzy caught himself against the wall.
She took a step back to steady herself.
For a moment, they just stood there, looking at each other.
Then Vaqzy looked at her.
She looked at him.
It was the new girl.
Meera.
For a second, neither of them said anything.
Then, from four steps behind, Rohit made a sound.
He was trying really hard not to laugh.
He failed.
Vaqzy ignored him and bent down to pick up her notebook. He picked up the pen and the dupatta, holding it out to her a little awkwardly.
He wasn't really sure how to give it back.
She took it and adjusted it over her shoulder.
"Sorry," she said. Her voice was calm, almost amused. "I wasn't looking."
"Neither was I," Vaqzy replied.
There was a pause.
Then she smiled.
"So we're both equally responsible."
"Sure."
Another pause.
Vaqzy looked at her.
She looked at him.
And apparently, his brain thought that the conversation had run its course.
"Okay, you can go now."
Meera blinked.
Once.
Slowly.
It was the kind of blink that happened when someone's brain processed information that didn't quite make sense.
"I... can go?" She asked.
"Yes," Vaqzy replied.
He said it like he was giving her completely normal information.
She looked at him properly this time.
Really looked at him.
It was almost as if she was trying to understand what kind of person said that sentence after bumping into someone.
Behind Vaqzy, Rohit had turned around completely.
His shoulders were shaking.
Meera looked back at Vaqzy.
"Okay," she said slowly. "Thank you for the... permission."
There was something in her voice.
It wasn't anger.
It wasn't exactly amusement either.
It was somewhere in between.
Vaqzy simply nodded, adjusted his bag and walked away.
Meera stood there for a second before walking in the opposite direction.
Rohit caught up to Vaqzy after a few steps.
"Bhai," he said, almost choking on his own laughter. "Okay, you can go now? What was that?"
Vaqzy looked at him.
"What?"
"That is not what you say to someone after bumping into them."
"I gave her the things back."
"That's not the point."
"She said sorry."
"So?" Rohit asked.
"So I acknowledged it."
Rohit looked at him.
"Normal people say, 'No problem,' or 'Are you okay?' or something like that. You just dismissed her like she needed to submit an application before she was allowed to leave."
Vaqzy frowned.
"She was fine."
"She looked confused."
"She recovered."
Rohit stopped walking.
He looked at Vaqzy for a long moment.
"You know," he said finally. "She was probably expecting you to apologize properly. Or maybe ask her name."
"Why would I do that?"
Rohit looked up at the sky as if he was asking for patience.
"Because every guy in this college is already trying to get her attention."
Vaqzy said nothing.
Rohit continued, "And you just..."
He paused, searching for the right word.
"Filed her out."
Vaqzy gave him a strange look.
"I don't know what that means."
"Exactly."
They walked down the corridor as the classes began. Students walked past them, doors opened and closed and someone shouted from the other end of the corridor. Life continued as it always did.
Neither of them knew that, a few corridors away, Meera was still thinking about the strange boy she had bumped into.
Vaqzy couldn't have known because he had already walked away.
He hadn't seen the look on her face.
She wasn't offended.
She wasn't amused either.
She was curious.
There was something about the whole situation that made her think that it was the weirdest thing that had happened to her since arriving at the college.
In only a few hours, she had already received a lot of attention.
Polite attention.
Eager attention.
And, in some cases, too much attention.
People had tried to impress her, help her, talk to her, and find reasons to stand around her.
But Vaqzy hadn't done any of that.
He hadn't asked her name.
He hadn't tried to make an impression.
He hadn't even tried to continue the conversation.
He had simply picked up her things and treated her like what she was at that moment- a girl who had bumped into him in a corridor.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
Just that.
Meera adjusted her dupatta as she walked.
The words came back to her.
Okay, you can go now.
She looked at the boy's back for a moment, studying his posture.
For a second, she almost smiled.
She almost laughed at the absurdity of the situation.
But she didn't.
She simply looked at him, really looked at him, before she turned around and walked away.
"Who says that?" She whispered to herself.
She didn't know.
But she was going to find out.
Because sometimes, the beginning of something important doesn't feel important at all.
There is no music.
No perfect moment.
No dramatic entrance.
Sometimes, life simply makes two people turn the wrong corner at the right time.
And sometimes, a love story begins with a fallen notebook, a confused girl, and the strangest sentence imaginable- "Okay, you can go now."
END OF CHAPTER 8
"Maybe some people don't enter your life like a storm.
Maybe they arrive quietly, in the middle of an ordinary day, and slowly become the reason that day is no longer ordinary."