Transit- Chapter 7

Trisha walked off campus; fairly certain that she wasn’t gong to fit in. The scowling looks that were thrown her way the entire two hours of the orientation was enough to show her that people, especially the women were not going to warm up to her. She decided to walk home because she stayed about twenty minutes away from the college, five if she had to ride the bus. The rain had stopped completely but the roads were still wet and the sun still hid behind the clouds, giving the sky an ominous, almost heavenly glow. She took out her cell phone and dialed Alicia.
“Hello…”
“Hi, it’s me. What are you doing?”
“I just got home from orientation. How was yours?”
“I don’t know. I can’t say. Nobody really spoke to me. They all kept giving me the stink eye. I hate that I don’t have you with me.”
“It’s alright. Don’t worry about it. I’m sure everyone was equally nervous. Heck, I was so nervous that I stuck with Rahi the whole time.”
“Rahi, really? I didn’t think you were that desperate.”
“Well she was the only one I spotted and she seemed equally lost.”
“Ha-ha… alright then. I’m just heading home. I’ll see you tonight alright? And please don’t come too late!”
“Don’t worry, I won’t. Bye…”
She hung up, shoved the phone back into her pocket and walked down. The location of the college was magnificent. It was at the place where the affluent and most influential people in the city lived. But that was not the one of the perks of being at Geoffrey’s. Directly opposite campus was the beach and that only meant most students would ditch class and spend time sunbathing once the monsoons passed.

She took a walk along the path, almost touching the sand. The smell of wet mud still lingered in the air. A sudden surge of excite filtered through her body and for the first time that day, Trisha felt happy. She stopped by a tiny restaurant and went in. Her nerves from before had controlled all of her rational so it was no surprise she heard her stomach growl out in protest. Finding a corner seat, she placed her lavender sling bag on the table and scanned the menu. She hadn’t notice that the empty restaurant now had another customer. She was lost her thoughts, wondering what would help satiate her hunger when someone walked over to her table. “Excuse me, would you mind if I joined you?” Trisha snapped her head up, angered by the presumptuousness of the boy standing next to her, only to melt at the sight of his baby face.
“A-a-a…there are other empty tables you know?”
“Well yea, I can see that but none of them came with a pretty girl like you.”
Trisha began to blush, still unable to refuse him. Without further delay, he took the seat opposite her, removing his bag from his shoulders.
“I’m Gaurav by the way,” he said, stretching out his hand.”
“Trisha,” she said, taking it, surprised at how soft it was to touch. Flushing, she immediately pulled back, hoping that her face didn’t give her away. They sat in silence, letting several awkward moments pass by them. Trisha bit on her lower lip, avoiding his gaze. She couldn’t believe that someone as gorgeous as him would want to even talk to her. Finally, she turned to look at him. He sat staring at her, his eyes fixed on her face. He smiled the moment her cheeks began turning pink again. He broke the silence by calling for the waiter.
“What will you have?” he asked, looking at the menu as the waiter stood besides him.
“A ham and cheese grilled with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice,” she said, looking at the waiter.
“I’ll have the same, except make mine a coke.” He shut the menu, handed it back to the waiter and adjusted himself in his seat till he found a comfortable position. Finally, after several readjustments, he turned his attention to Trisha.
“I saw you at orientation and I was waiting to come up and talk to you but we divided you into separate groups and then I lost you in the crowd. I thought I’d catch you after but I couldn’t find you again. Then I was coming out of the ATM when I saw you enter this place so I followed you in.”
“But why? I mean, why would a senior want to be caught talking to a freshman?”
“Well, I don’t normally associate with freshman but I received detention so I was forced to serve as an usher during your orientation when I saw you. I just had to know your name.” He flashed his teeth in a big smile, confident that he knew she would soon be smitten. Trisha couldn’t help but stare in amazement at his flawless good looks as she found herself lulled by his smooth, deep voice. She had seen such beauty before but never a foot away from her. He was perfect. His dark brown hair was gelled, giving it a messy punk-rocker’s spiked look; his green eyes seemed bright and animated every time he opened his mouth to speak; his fair complexion was now a little pink from the rush of talking about college and the extra-curricular activities their many clubs offered. But what really drew her in were the perfectly symmetrical dimples that lined the side of his lips every time he curled his lips to smile.

Then he fell silent. He noticed how Trisha seemed to be lost in her own thoughts, not really paying attention to him. A little offended by her lack of interest, he decided to change the subject. “So tell me Trisha…”
“What would you like to know?”
“Anything you can tell me, rather anything you want to tell me…”
“Well…I like your shirt…I mean, I like the colour. It looks nice.”
“Thanks…But that’s all you want to share?
“Then ask me what you want to know and I’ll tell you. I don’t really know what to tell you.”
“Alright, fair enough. Which school were you in?”
“Wow…I wasn’t expecting that but ok…I went to the St. Teresa’s. It’s the conve-n-t…”
“Yea I know where it is,” he said, cutting her off. “I have cousins going to that same school. But you wouldn’t know them. They’re I think still in elementary school.”
“Ok…” She let her words trail off. She checked her watch. It had been twenty minutes since they placed the order and her stomach seemed to get louder by the minute. Gaurav noticed her place her hands on her tummy a few times. Taking the hint, he called for the waiter again.
“We ordered two ham and cheese sandwiches over twenty minutes ago. It shouldn’t take this long.”
“I’m sorry sir; we had some trouble finding the ham. But your sandwiches will be out any moment.”
“Ok, thank you.”
The waiter left and he turned his attention back to Trisha.
“So where were we? Ah yes. My next question.”
“Shoot.”
“When’s your birthday?”
Trisha blushed surprised that he asked her this question so soon. She was hoping that he would but she didn’t expect it right now. She continued to smile.
“What? Is there something on me?
“No.”
“Then why are you smiling like that?”
“Never mind.”
“Ok then…so tell me, when’s your birthday?”
“It’s today actually.”
Gaurav flashed his brilliant smile again. “Now I get your weird smile from before. You should have just told me.”
“Yea, I could have. But I wanted you to pry some more…” she said, giving him a sly smile. She slowly began to loosen up and flirting seemed to come naturally to her. Gaurav was happy with how the conversation was shaping up.

********

Ayaan sat in his room, still beating himself up over what happened in the cafeteria. ‘You had to be such a retard didn’t you?’ he thought to himself. It was about 3.37 p.m. and he had locked himself in his room from the moment he reached home half an hour ago. He wanted to catch up on some sleep but somehow he couldn’t mange to get her off his mind. Lying on his bed, he stared up at the ceiling wondering exactly what she was doing at that very same moment, but more importantly, he was wondering what her name was.

The rain seemed to have slowed to a light drizzle and the sun kissed the clouds ever so lightly in the falling rain. Tiny beads of condensation trickled from his bedroom window, casting worm-like shadows in the low light emerging from the slowly thinning cloud cover. Staring out into the grey afternoon, Ayaan placed his arm under the pillow and slowly drifted into a quiet sleep, picturing Trisha’s smiling face all the while. Moments later, he was pulled into a deep, black abyss, lost to any inkling of human existence. He felt himself floating, like he was in a low pressure room with no gravity. The butterflies at the pit of his stomach began to tickle as the lightness moved in surges throughout the length of his body. As fast as he was dragged to the abyss, Ayaan now felt a heavy weight at his ankles, pulling him swiftly that even the darkness around seem like a blur. And as quickly as he was sucked deeper, travelling through dimensions and layers of unexplainable time shifts, Ayaan was beamed into the driver’s seat of his SUV, driving down a familiar road. It felt like he wasn’t driving the car, though his hands were holding the steering wheel and he was the one sitting with his foot firmly pressed on the gas pedal. Peering into the rear view mirror, Ayaan caught a glimpse of his reflection except it wasn’t the reflection he was used to seeing everyday. He seemed older and wiser somehow. ‘Am I dreaming?’ he thought to himself. ‘Only moments earlier I was 16 and lying in my room.’ He looked around the car. There wasn’t anything unusual and it all seemed very real so it couldn’t be a dream. He noticed his phone buzzing on the passenger’s seat and he reached over to see who was calling him. ‘It can’t be!’ he shouted to himself. Were his eyes deceiving him? On the screen her picture flashed bright. It had to be her. She seemed older too, her hair was different but her smile and her beautiful eyes were exactly like they looked that morning. And then he focused his eyes on the name. “Trisha,” he read out loud.

Just as he placed the phone onto the dashboard seat, a bright beam of light hit him and made him lose control of the car. Almost as speedily as the car swerved out of control, Ayaan awoke drenched in sweat, panting under his blanket. He jerked himself onto his feet and stood staring around his room. In less than a second, he ran into his bathroom and glanced at his reflection in the yellow light falling from the overhead lampshade. Staring at himself for several minutes, Ayaan controlled his panting. Till he resumed his normal breathing, Ayaan fixed his eyes on the mirror in front of him. The rain outside began falling heavily again and the sun was lost behind thick layers of clouds. He turned the nozzle of the faucet and let the icy water flow into the wash basin. Splashing the water onto his face, almost completely wetting his t-shirt, he reached for his towel. Walking into his bedroom again, he patted his face dry and rummaged through the clean laundry for a dry t-shirt. He looked over his shoulder at his wall clock: 5.27 p.m. and he was still sleepy. A hot cup of tea would snap him out of his nonsense. He walked towards his kitchen, still lost in his thoughts. ‘Trisha, is that her name? It can’t be her.’ Walking into his kitchen, he switched on the light. The bright white beams from the tube flickered in the grey evening light filtering in through the window. A few more flickers and the dark room brightened and sprang to life with the clanking sounds the kettle made as he filled water into it and placed it over the stove. Opening a few cabinets, Ayaan searched through jars of spices and powders and finally found the tea bags. Placing an empty cup on the counter, Ayaan reached for the sugar bowl and a packet of biscuits. He bit into the chocolate filled cookies, staring blankly at the tiled wall of the kitchen.

Trisha he repeated over and over as he remembered her photograph flashing on the screen of his cell phone. He smiled quietly to himself even as he remembered her smile from this morning; the same lips and the very same glint in her eyes when her mouth curled at the corners. He snapped himself out of his day dream just as the water was beginning to bubble. Turning off the gas just as the steam from the boiling water began to emerge from the spout; Ayaan poured the piping hot liquid into the cup and let the light brown colour of the tea slowly mingle with the untouched water. Setting the kettle back onto the stove, he rummaged through the refrigerator for the carton of milk. When he was satisfied he had made himself a fairly decent cup of tea, he turned off the light and headed for his bedroom, carefully carrying the cup and biscuits on a small tray.

Setting the tray on the nightstand, Ayaan reached under his mattress for the diary his grandfather had given him. The musty smell of leather hit him as he held it close to his chest. Reaching for a pen from one of his drawers, he stared at the brown leather bound journal, gathering his thoughts before he began to write. Continuing from his earlier entry that morning, Ayaan began recollecting his dream. Writing down every detail from the light currents to the heavy force pulling him, he wrote out the dream. Finally, before concluding the entry, he etched her name into the page, going over it several times with black ink. He doodled around it and finally stopped when he realised that he decorated her name. He smiled to himself, pleased. He knew that she was the girl that somehow managed to govern his dreams and she now managed to make her way to his conscious thoughts. ‘There must be a reason why I can’t get her out of my mind!’ he thought to himself. ‘But what is it? Why do I feel so drawn to her?’ Apart from the obvious fact that she was the prettiest girl he’d ever seen, there was something else about her that he couldn’t put his finger on. He sat cross legged on his bed, sipping his tea, all the while staring at her name he decoratively wrote out on the page. ‘But what if this isn’t her name? I mean, you don’t even know her...’ his thoughts trailed off. ‘Stop it Ayaan!’ he scolded himself, ‘You’re going to drive yourself insane if you don’t get a grip.’ He quickly gulped down his tea and stuffed some more biscuits before leaving his house. He needed some fresh air and the rain had lulled to a quiet drizzle. Pulling out his windcheater from the closet, he grabbed his house keys and shut the door behind him, leaving his mother staring after him as she wondered what went through his adolescent mind. Unchaining his bicycle from the stand where he kept it, Ayaan rode off in the direction of his best friend’s house. He desperately needed someone to talk to and Keith was the only person he could trust.

Riding as fast as he could, Ayaan reached Keith’s house in a matter of minutes—not that he stayed far away anyway, but today, Ayaan made it faster than it would normally take him to reach. Hopping off before he could completely stop, Ayaan rested his bike against the wall of his house and began ringing the bell with urgency. His younger brother came to the door and Ayaan tousled his hair before heading for Keith’s room. Closing the door behind him, he finally stopped to catch his breath. Keith looked up from the book he was reading.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“I just really needed to talk.”
“Alright, what’s up?”
“I don’t know really. I mean, I think it has something to do with a girl but I can’t be too sure yet.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know Keith. It’s freaking me out. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep and I don’t even know the girl!”
“Ayaan, are you high?”
“No! Dude you have got to believe me. I don’t know what else to do…”
“Ok. Wait, hold on. Will you please start from the beginning?”
“Ok…It’s like this. This morning I woke up with one of the worst nightmares. I dreamt that I had been shot. I didn’t see anybody around but I distinctly heard the gun shot and a girl scream my name when the trigger was pulled.”
“So?”
“So… I went for my orientation after that. I couldn’t really fall asleep but I still tried. Then again on the bus when I managed to fall asleep, I saw the same dream again. This time I was driving down a road that seemed familiar, yet strange and then almost as suddenly I was lying on the beach bleeding and there was a girl screaming. I didn’t see her face though.”
“It’s normal for people to have recurring dreams you know. It’s nothing to freak out about.”
“I know but this afternoon after I reached home, I fell asleep again and I was driving down that road again but I happened to see myself in the mirror and it was me, only me maybe six or seven years from now. Then on the passenger’s seat I found a phone, my cell phone, and it was ringing. I reached for it and saw the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. The name read Trisha. After that, I woke up.
“Ok… So what’s the problem?
“The weird part is that the girl who was calling me was the same girl I saw at the orientation today. Man was she beautiful!”
“So what Ayaan? You’re making a big deal about nothing! Did you talk to this girl?
“Yea, I did… well sort of.”
“So there you go. You’ve obviously developed a crush on this girl and now you’ve started dreaming of her. It’s simple. Nothing so life threatening. The way you entered, you really had me worried.”
“No you don’t get it! I sort of spoke to her. I mean, she only asked me if she could sit with me in the cafeteria since all the other seats were occupied. I didn’t even catch her name. But when I saw her in the dream, I knew that Trisha had to be her name. It’s weird but I don’t know why I feel so certain.”
“You’re just tired and probably stressed from the orientation. Not to mention that you’ll be starting college soon and I’ll be going off to a whole different country to study. Don’t worry about it ok?”
“Alright. I guess you’re right. I’ll just let it go.” But he lied; he couldn’t just let it go. On his way back home, Ayaan thought about her all the while, remembering her face and her pretty smile. ‘There has to be more to it, there just has to!’