Chapter 3

Becoming friends on social media was a milestone in our relationship. There was a feeling of attraction from my side. I did like him. But that attraction would soon turn into love was something I didn't know. Being the reserved kind I could never look at him directly. But we would occasionally exchange smiles, after all we were classmates.

Then came the time of our exams, first minors of second semester they were. And out of habit I logged into my account after returning home. To my surprise he messaged me at that very moment reminding me to study instead of surfing. A smile came on my lips and I asked him if this was the way to talk to somebody for the first time ?

He replied back saying that consider my first message as 'Hi' instead of the previous one. I was happy that he messaged me and initiated the conversation. We began talking on social media frequently after our exams but not in person. I used to feel shy talking to him. We talked about random stuff, from anything to everything. I used to reply instantly to his messages. Talking to him felt nice. I used to look forward to talk to him each day. Since it was our Holi( festival) break. After that our conversation continued only on FB. He was in our department's cricket team. So he used to practice during the day . He missed out on few lectures and asked me if he could borrow my notebook. I gave him my notes and he was to return the notebook during the evening at a shop where we often went for getting stuff photocopied ( university life is full of notes and material that needs to be photocopied).

On my way there I met our common friend from class and she told me that he won't be able to see me at the shop as he is busy practising. I like a teenager said that he promised to see me there. But as a backup I asked her for his phone number. So that was how I got his number. I reached the shop to see him nowhere. I tried his number ( I guessed the girl was right). No body answered. I asked the shopkeeper but he didn't know about it. My notebook was lost it seemed. I tried again and again and again. Still nobody answered. I was angry. So I came home. What else could I do ?

After half an hour when I was already home he called back, anybody would do that after seeing 16 missed calls from the same number. No wonder he hadn't recognized my voice after I said hello, it was our first time talking on the phone. He asked me if I a friend of his friend's ?

I was angry on hearing that I told him that I'm your friend. Then after listening to me he suddenly seemed to have recognized me. I asked for my notebook and he said that it was with the shopkeeper only but he must have not recollected at that time. I was sad and asked him to return the same to me the day after. The conversation ended and I came to my room.

He messaged me during the evening out of habit. I was annoyed so I messaged back saying that I won't reply with a Hi or Hello. He instantly asked me the reason. I was surprised as to what difference does it make to him if I don't reply ? I said that I was upset because of the notebook thing and he immediately apologized for the same. I was touched and felt valued. And to tell the truth I wasn't actually angry but seeing him make up to me made me overjoyed. Sometimes small gestures have huge impact on you and so was the impact of this incident. His sincerity left an impact on me.