My Sunflower Girl (Chap 11)

Changing world

“Komal can I get your physics notebook?” I went to her after the school was over.

“Mine, you’ll regret taking mine. I haven’t written a word in it since last week.” She said.

“What about chemistry?” I asked again, loosening the hook of my tie. Why do girls act as if they don’t understand a thing? It just not about the notebook, it’s something more to it. Who cared about the damn notes!

“Komal hurry up Shweta must be waiting outside.” Kavita shouted at her from outside the door.

“Chemistry.” She placed her bag on the table, took out her notebook, and started browsing its last pages.

“It’s said, if you want to know about a student, check the last pages of their notebooks.” She said placing the notebook in hands. “And I don’t want to give you any wrong impression about me.”

“I can manage.” I said

“Don’t bother about it, I write only nice things on my notebooks.” She smirked.

“Nice things about what?” I questioned playfully as she put the strap of her cross bag across her shoulder.

“Nice things about nice things.”

“I’m a nice one.”

“You believe a lie.” She walked out of the table and I followed.

“When whole world is lying then you should start believing that lie.” I mentally patted myself for the line.

“Why do you try so hard?” she questioned.

“I don’t know; you just make me try harder“.

“Bye, see you tomorrow.” she smiled, going over to Kavita.

“Bye” I said putting her notebook over my heart enclosing it with both hands leaning on the door. I was getting nuts for her.

The world of ours was slowly changing. It was disbursing like the frost in winter evening, slowly and silently expanding its horizons.

On one direction Meera and Vishwas were coming along. After years of my only friendship she had found a new friend in him.

I stood on the other direction watching each and every action of theirs and then trying to ignore it for peace of my mind.

Here on my stand while trying to ignore what I have been getting suspicious off, I was getting along with Komal unpredictably well.

My growing fondness for Komal wasn’t any surprise for Meera; she knew it from the first day.

She always knew, what so ever ran in my mind. I never had to explain a thing to her, as if things with me, or what so ever I did, left its aura in air around and she somehow grasped that aura.

“You like her?” Meera asked out of nowhere. We were doing cleaning chores at her house, actually she was, and I was sort of helping. I don’t even know whether my help counts because every time I tried to help Maa with things, she pushed me off saying, “You better leave. Less you help and more you increase the work.”

“No.” I lied. Komal she could rouse animal lust in any one. And no, I wasn’t a pervert, it’s just she was too hot, to not to be a pervert.

She was done with cleaning all rooms, only utensils in the kitchen were left to be washed.

“You do and she likes you too.” She said passing me a crooked smile, throwing the broom behind the door of her room.

“And how do you know that.” I asked curiously. I was sure I liked her but she likes me that was great news.

“Because duffer, if you noticed you would have seen that whenever I come in your class her eyes directly stops at you. Since last two, three weeks I’m seeing this. And even outside the school when I and Vishwas wait for you or you are waiting for us then her eyes are also intently at somewhere near us. She’s already feeling insecure.” She ruffled my hair walking towards the kitchen. “Maggie?”

“Yeah but don’t make it soupy. But how come I never noticed that she always stares.”

“Girls do it in a way dodging the guys. Only a girl knows what runs in a girls mind.” She said aloud from the kitchen over the jittering sound of tap water falling on pan.

“Wow.” It felt ridiculously good. I mean after weeks of tolerating Meera’s increasing closeness with Vishwas, I finally had something else to put my mind on.

“Really, so what is running in your mind?” I walked over to the kitchen. For once I wanted to see what lies in her mind. Not that I didn’t understand her, we both had a kind of transmission set up in our brains, we knew everything about each other but I wasn’t sure about Vishwas.

Or might be, I knew everything but I just wasn’t prepared to take it as truth, to digest the thought of Meera liking him.

There was an instant but a very powerful urge to know, does she like Vishwas? Or he’s just a friend.

She put four cups of water on the pan and put it over the fire.

“Right now I’m hungry as an elephant.” She said raising the two packets of Maggie.

“And what else?” I moved closer, grabbing the carrot from the vegetable basket and chewing it, making myself look as a pervert as possible.

She looked at me suspiciously.

“And if in a second you don’t stop your steps, I’m going to warn you to step back.” She said with an expressionless face. She wasn’t scared or nervous, just bit timid.

“Why? Are you afraid of me?” My tone turned sluggish in my attempt to hold back laughter.

She moved two steps away from me towards the sink.

“Stop. I have warned you.” Her voice was frail.

She said reaching the corner of the sink leaning on the wall on other side.

“Do you love any one?” I asked with my lower lip enclosed in between my teeth else at any second I would burst into laughter, at the face Meera was making.

“Yeah.” She said and at that instant my heart froze up, it let go its pumping. The laughter that enclosed died inside.

“Who?” I asked, throwing the carrot in the sink. I wished to know the truth but I wanted her to deny it. “Do you love Vishwas?” All fun was washed away.

“No.”

“Why do you sit with him in class then?”

“I used to sit with YOU as well.”

“WE are us and HE is HE.” The air around had turned tense. I could sense heat brewing up my skin.

“You love him?” I repeated.

“No, I love my daddy.” She said grabbing the bucket down the sink and splashing all cold water over me. The cold water gave a sudden sting but her words turned out to be the balm.

She broke into laughter, putting the hair strands that had come down her eyes back over her head, softly sliding her hands through them.

I exhaled that I had even forgotten air was inside me as I had stopped breathing at her last words.

“Go and change and by then your Maggie will be prepared.” She said taking break from her laughter holding the empty bucket in other hand.

“You all girls are sick, mentally challenged. That’s the reason no one could guess what runs in your mind.” I said wiping the water off my face. My clothes were all drenched with water. She giggled more loudly at my words

Vishwas was better than I thought. Before I believed, he was my competitor but caught up to me as friendly company. He in short time had become a sort of friend.

He in short time became quite a good friend of Meera. To be honest, He and I were friends because Meera can’t get off me, neither could I. So I guess we had become kind of tolerating friends. He was different, although we shared same taste but he was very unlike of me. I remember once we three were casually talking what we wanted in our lives.

What Vishwas wanted from Life?

“Small house with a beautiful wife and a small car with a small loving family.”

Who thinks like that! He was impossibly strange.

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