Neel stood at his balcony, looking at the chair on which Rhea was sitting a few hours back. It was dark now and the chaos the children were creating was now a peaceful murmur of adults. He held the shucked up corn cob in his hand and everlasting symphonies in his head. He couldn't believe what he saw that day. With an array of colours around her and a white sheet before her, to see that, to hear her happy voice, it brought a nostalgia he seemed to have forgotten into the waves of tragic memories.
The next day at school, while Rhea and her friend, Nikki, sat in the cafeteria, Nikki asked how it was going with Ember.
"He has joined my Crash Course Centre," Rhea complained as she pressed her forehead.
"I'm telling you, it's more than friendship. He likes you" Nikki said.
"No, he likes someone else," Rhea looked at her fingers.
"Well, why do you look so upset?" Nikki asked.
"I'm not upset. Okay, maybe I am, but I don't know why,"
Nikki smirked, "Why won't you be? Your crush likes someone else, after all,"
"I do not like Ember Helberg. We are just friends,"
"That's what your mind says, try asking your heart. What does it think?"
"Nikki, mind is meant for thinking, not heart. Only idiots follow their heart,"
"People in love are idiots," Nikki said. Rhea didn't say anything. Nikki was expecting some reaction, however this was rather disappointing. Did it mean that she really liked him or she didn't? It turned awkward so Nikki decided to take advantage of the situation,
"Okay, give me his number. I want to talk to a foreigner too," She said "I'm sure we will be best buds!"
"I'm don't know if I should." Rhea said.
"The fact that you're not giving me his number just shows how possessive you are of him,"
"I'm not possessive of him. It's his right to privacy to not get his number leaked,"
"You're making such a big deal out of this. It's fine, dude," She tried to convince her. Rhea looked away in dismay and dilemma.
"Please? I thought we were friends..."
Finally, Rhea reluctantly gave Ember's number to her. Nikki quickly saved it on her phone and typed a message to him without wasting any time further.
"Oh my God! I sent it! Why is he not replying?" Nikki looked at Rhea.
"Because unlike us, he has a life," Rhea sneered.
"Is my Whatsapp name that suspicious?" Nikki peeped into her phone.
Rhea leaned towards Nikki's phone screen and gazed at her profile,
'Hillary Clinton'
"I don't know, sounds kinda sus" Rhea shrugged.
"But I'm a supporter"
"Change it, you moron"
"Then, what should I name myself? Arorhea's wife?"
"That's just gross" Rhea gagged, "Why can't you give yourself a normal and unsuspicious name?"
"Unsuspicious? Is that even a word? Wait I got my word,"
"Nikki no,"
"Ms unsuspicious!" Nikki squealed. Rhea just stared at her with hopeless rays of darkness oozing through her eyes, or maybe they are just dark circles. The bell rang and everyone started moving back to their respective classes.
"Oh! I needed to go to the art room in the lunch break for practice, shoot!" Rhea suddenly remembered and hurried out. She pushed people aside and ran towards a room at the end of the stairway. As soon as she entered it, she bumped into someone and the guy's lunch ended on his shirt. And guess what? It was Neel Dewan! Again! It was like his shirts had a lifetime back luck warranty with them. Rhea was surely painting his shirts on a regular basis.
It also seemed like a brand new uniform shirt, which now had ketchup smeared over it like period blood exuding from his nipples. His chest felt like a frying pan, with the leftover extra spicy noodles covering his chest and neck like long flower garlands they put around the heads of politicians or pictures of dead people. The Fresca drink over his stomach, moving down his pants, added a breath of filthy aroma to him, with the impression as if he had peed his pants.
(Fresca is a lime and grapefruit flavored citrus soft drink created by The Coca-Cola Company)
Everyone walking by stopped and stared at them. Some were laughing while the others were shocked by such sheer wastage of food since they had been starving since 1629. "Well, hello neighbor," Neel raved. Rhea laughed nervously. She could see what was coming for her, gulping down the remnants of a chocolate muffin, she asked, "I'm really curious about this one sensitive topic-Why do we always meet like this?"
"I'm curious too, you donkey!" Neel jeered as he removed the noodles sticking on his shirt, "Because I've brought two new fucking uniforms in the past one week and now one of them is yet again damaged because of the same damn person, how not annoying!"
"Fate brings us together," Rhea laughed awkwardly.
"Is this funny to you?!" He bellowed and Rhea stopped her laughing pretense.
She apologized and offered to buy him a new shirt. But he declined it and instead asked her to visit his place after school.
"Why are you inviting me to your place?" Rhea asked.
"Just come, dipshit" Neel pushed her away and angrily moved towards the bathroom, dripping with Fresca and leaving noodles behind like sluggish footprints.
Rhea decided to go back to the class and leave the idea of going to the art room for that day. After that incident, Neel smelled just like noodles and Fresca during all rest of other four periods of the class. Everyone in the class covered their faces with masks, "Air pollution in Delhi seems to be increasing, ain't it?"
"It's especially intense here," Some boys talked while covering their noses with a handkerchief. Neel got up and left the class. He seemed to get more and more agitated.
That was the first time in her life that Rhea didn't want her school to end. Her stomach felt sick, and that wasn't because of the peculiar smell but because of approaching danger she could sense, like a rat inside its own hole, with a snake slithering its way outside. As soon as the bell for dispersal rang, everything felt like a warzone. She grabbed her bad and ran out of the class. She made it out safely and reached her bike when she saw Neel standing beside it.
She looked down and he looked at her, "I knew you'd try to run away so I made sure to end that little plan of yours, you little shrew," He smirked and moved towards her. He threw his bag at her and sat on the bicycle, "Unlock it. I'll paddle," He ordered and Rhea did as asked. She held their bags and sat behind him. He pushed the paddles with his muscular calves that shone brown under the sun as he tucked his pants till his knees.
Unlike Ember, he was rough with the bike and also much faster. Rhea felt the warm air on her face as he paddled through the streets. His body was wet and sticky, his hair like charcoal, so black, so intense, shimmering with his sweat like a watermelon mist on a dark island, trimmed right over his ears. He smelled of men's body spray and lemons.
"How do you usually come back home?" Rhea decided to cut down the awkward silence.
"My sister picks me up in the car," He answered immediately. His voice wasn't soft, it was horse and deep like a growing teen boy. The hair on his arms wasn't blonde, his neck wasn't white, his eyes weren't blue, the corners of his eyes weren't wrinkled, his back was much broader, his face much angular with light beard appearing on his sharp jawline.
He was short tempered, violent, verbally abusive and capricious. Nothing about his resembled Ember in the slightest. But wait, why was she comparing him with Ember? Why was she even thinking about Ember, she wondered. He wasn't there, then why did the thoughts of him cease to persist?
They soon reached their apartments. Neel parked the cycle and grabbed his bag from Rhea's hand "Let's go," She ran after him. They reached his apartment and he took out a key from his pocket "Wait- There's no one home?!" Rhea asked while he stared unlocking the door.
"My parents are working," He said and opened the door "Move,"
"I'm not going alone to a guy's house" She turned to leave but he grabbed her hand and pulled her inside, closing the door. He threw his bag away and removed his tie. He grabbed her hand and pushed her into the bathroom. She looked at him. She stared into his green eyes shining through his black fringes as he stood at the door of the bathroom with both his hands holding each side of the door.
-To be continued
Neel Dewan
Can't I Touch Your Heart?