When Love Bites (published)

Chapter-1

Eyes burning like church candles, I blinked in the blazing sun and set my sights on new beginnings. It was a beautiful day. I looked at the sky. It was a mixture of red and orange and yellow with only the slightest hint of green. They flew into the air at the touch. It was the first day of a whispering breeze, painting the wind and chilling the air. The leaves flew by in a swirling arch. I pulled out my phone and snapped a quick picture of them. I was about to the start of a three year journey towards a college degree. I had been looking forward to this day for many years, and it was finally here. I had mixed emotions about this situation. I was very excited, but at the same time I was also a little nervous. I wasn't all that nervous to be starting college. I was excited to 'start over'; to get rid of the person that I thought wasn't me. I was incredibly shy in previous school. It's not like I was necessarily unpopular though, I was mostly just unknown. People didn't talk about me, people only really knew my name. I am not going to lie, I wasn't really into drinking and I definitely was not into drugs.
Life is full of strange experiences—good and bad, happy and sad. Some of these experiences are just unforgettable. I can never forget my first day at college. It was a day of thrill, joy and excitement. But it turned out to be a real bad day indeed. Wearing new clothes, I entered the college premises. I felt proud of being a college student. I kept walking through the ground-side staring at the windows all the while. There were three boys standing near BLOCK-A. They were laughing and chatting. The first was a boy with long and curly black hair and warm dark skin. He wore black jean with a tucked in white shirt.
The second boy was fair looking. He wore ripped jeans with grey tee shirt.
The third was a decent looking boy in formal attire, wearing blue trousers paired with white shirt. The classes were to be held after the principal's address to the new students. The address was to be delivered in the Lecture Theatre. But I did not know where the Lecture Theatre was. I asked a senior student the way to the Lecture Theatre. He immediately pointed towards a door. No sooner did I enter that room than I heard a guffaw of laughter. It was not the Lecture Theatre but the girl's common room. Soon a girl's voice reached my ears: 'Come in, please.' For a while I did not know what to do. I felt badly humiliated. I rushed out of that room. Then I requested another gentleman to lead me to the Lecture Theatre. He took me towards the bath rooms. I was befooled for the second time. It seemed to me that everybody was laughing at me. I could not stay any longer in the college. I little knew what was in store for me on my very first day at college. As I was thinking to ask another person about the lecture theatre, hoping not to get befooled this time, I saw a girl running towards myself trying to manage her bag with her phone in the other hand.
"Lecture theatre?" she asked in a hurry.
"I am also in search of that" I replied with an unsatisfactory expression on my face.
"First year? BBA?" she asked.
"Yes", I affirmed.
A few feet away, we saw a woman pointing multiple other kids in the direction of a large building nearby.
"Is the lecture theatre over there?" the girl asked brightly but somewhat bluntly.
The women nodded in affirmation.
We started walking towards the lecture theatre.
We both reached the room and got settled.
"Hopefully we'll be friends", I uttered.
"Hi. I am Nikita", she said, stretching a hand out.
"Karan", I replied and we shook hands.
"Great, formalities exchanged", she frowned and we both laughed out loud.
She looked like a typical business honors kid- large dark eyes behind blue rimmed glasses, holding all the bookish knowledge. The girl's curious eyes asking for more, conflicted with the tight smile silently begging to be left alone with her books. She wore her hair up in a ponytail. She looked cute in her formal attire on that skinny body.
The principal came into the room and all the students stood up to greet him, putting me back to reality.
He delivered a speech about the bylaws of college and some more non-sense.
Nikita woke me up by pushing her elbow against my arm as I fell asleep in the middle of the speech.
Finally, his bullshit got over and we were allowed to move to our classroom.
"Alright class. It is the first day of your college and I am going to be one of those teachers who gives you a bunch of work to do" the teacher smirked. The whole class groaned and sulked down in their seats. "I am just kidding! But we will have a project due at the end of the year" he added with a chuckle, everyone sighed of relief.
We spent the rest of day together.
We ordered two burgers with cold drinks in the cafeteria and talked bilge.
She told me about her family, her likes and dislikes and some more corny shit which I was forced to listen as I had no other option.
Then it was my turn to tell something about myself. I told her about football. Yes, football was all I knew about since I was born, or maybe before that.
"Where are you from?" she asked.
"Although my parents live in Dwarka but it's impossible to travel daily from Dwarka to Noida, so I opted for a flat nearby college", I replied.
"Alone? How do you manage?"
"I'll get used to it soon. I am looking for a flat-mate right now", I replied checking my phone. It was a message from my mom asking about the first day of college. All the moms are so curious in the world.
We attended the rest of the classes and made fun of the teachers in every possible way.
Soon the classes got over and we headed to the gate.
She asked a taxi driver to drop her at the metro station and she vanished away.