I closed my eyes again, hoping to see myself playing basketball or something similar. But, as the darkness overcame my vision, my mind travelled back to two years ago. 2nd April, 2024. That date itself made my body shiver.
It was our second day of ninth class. The skies were clear, so clear it felt as though the atmosphere was covered by a light blue blanket, with no patterns and no prints. The birds were singing their own sweet, melodious symphony which seemed to attract the attention of every creature with a beating heart. The sun was shining brightly, as if welcoming the students of all the classes to the beginning of their new term with great brightness and warmth. I had recently healed from the trauma caused by an earlier mishappening. Sitting with my friends, I was continuing with my fake laugh which I had mastered in two years.
During the third period, in which math was being taught, our maths teacher assigned different leaders to different rows in our class. Though the previous day was the first day of the school year, we had been given mathematics homework, and today, I was sitting with my half completed homework, waiting for the row leader to check my assignment and complain to the teacher that I hadn't done my work. That was when I heard a deep, hoarse voice asking me to show my homework. I raised my head and at the same time, I saw him for the first time.
It felt as though all the air inside me had been kicked out, and sudden butterflies started fluttering around in my stomach. It felt weird, so nicely weird. His hair looked as though they were strands which had life embedded into them. His dark brown, almost black eyes, looked like a dark night sky, which stretched up to millions of miles, with stars shining in a way his eyes felt as though they had a life of their own. The shadow of his eyelashes fell on his under eyes, enhancing the sight of his eyes. I felt that I could fall into his deep eyes, even while falling, I would be smiling. It felt as if his eyes were the bows which shot arrows straight into the depth of my heart, tearing through the walls I had built around this organ of love and life. For me, it didn't matter how hard I fell, I knew even the pain would feel sweet if his eyes were the ones I would fall into.
His voice snapped me out of the daze I was in when he asked for my homework. It felt as if my body was moving on its own, as if I was a battery functioning robot whose remote was in his hands. I gave him my notebook, our fingers touched— just brushed against each other, but that was enough to pass electric currents through my veins. The feeling was equally weird and pleasant. I was sitting on the outer side of the double bench, that is closer to the aisle way, due to which the distance between me and him felt close. He moved on to check the homeworks of the other students in our row, but he didn't go there alone. A piece of my present moved with him.
Third person POV:
A tomboy was staring at the guy, whose name she didn't even know, like all the world around her was hazy and he was the only one sharp and shining bright. As if all the voices around her were a cacophony and the sound of his laughter was the most melodious symphony she had ever heard.
His eyes— god, his eyes.
His two dark brown hypnotising eyes. Whenever he smiled, his eyes would form small crescents which seemed like the moon in the night sky, the only object providing light in the darkness of her overcast atmosphere. She could still feel the tingling touch of his fingers on her skin, her fingertips tracing the same spot again and again, as if she wanted to drill in the memory of his touch into her mind.
First person POV:
I felt a white, hot light flash across my vision and the day in my mind's eye changed to 12th April, 2024. I was resting my head on the table with my arms folded below it. In the background, I could hear birds chirping, footsteps of my classmates as they walked around in the classroom and the occasional loud shouts of the teachers in the neighbouring classes. I could hear my companions talking, whispering and shouting but I couldn't make out a single word. I raised my head, just a bit, and his silhouette caught my eye. He was talking to his friends, laughing and chuckling.
As the world around me focused on the current gossip and nonsense happening all around, I found myself falling deeper into the cage that was built by his eyes.
Beautiful, magnificent, magical, attractive, deep, radiant, dazzling, captivating and appealing eyes.
My mind went blank, as if all the thoughts had just vanished as I stared into those two eyes from across the room. Just as I was getting lost, our mathematics teacher entered the classroom, pulling me out of the endless maze I was in. My mind was wrapped with the thoughts of him when the teacher instructed the row leaders to check everyone's homework.
Ten days since I saw him, not once did I ask his name. I tried to appear casual and pretended that I wasn't just staring at the guy who was approaching us to check our homeworks. He stood beside my bench, checking my homework, it felt as though the temperature was suddenly rising as heat crept up my cheeks. I sneaked a peek at his id card and that was when I finally got to know this name— Arth Upadhyay.
Arth. I fidgeted with my fingers but my face broke out into a small smile. At least I know his name now. I may start talking to him after this fidgety and jittery state of mine has stopped. I turned my head around to catch a glimpse of him again, but a butter freezing feeling settled in my chest.
I opened my eyes again, the warmth of the starting days I had seen him was replaced by the cold, unutterable emptiness of the present day where my eyes were begging for just a glimpse of his shadow. I raised my head and looked at the wall clock.
It was 11:37 a.m. I leaned my head back against the headrest as I started getting lost in thoughts again. I wished to feel the warmth of his body close to mine, but once the moment passes, you can never rewind it. I closed my eyes again, the reality of the situation causing my eyes to feel heavy and droop.
My memories are the only connection I have with him—if I move on, if I start hating him then even a chance of us together, maybe another version of us in a parallel universe, on a planet where our story of love is not just a story, but a love story, will also vanish from existence.
In the thoughts of his, I found my solace,
In this reality, I got pain that I had to embrace.
Maybe in another life, my dreams would be the reality,
Maybe in a parallel world, joy wouldn't ask for clarity.