And the class was over…
And the class was over, another semester came to an end. Another period of life, with memories made, struggles shared, ended. We had our last class get over at around noon. The teacher wished us the very best of luck for the monstrosity i.e. the majors, which were due in a week. But, hardly a soul in the class had that in mind. The hot topics of discussion, as murmurs became noisier, comprised mostly of questions like — “where do you wanna go today?”, “Let’s do something different, something to remember that we survived another one.”, and yet others were like — “I’m going to cuddle up with this book today evening, which movie do you have in mind?”.
Now, me, John, being more of an extrovert (yeah, alright! Maybe I ain’t one, but it’s my story, and I’ll tell it however I want!) was in a group of the former kind. So, we planned on meeting at the Red Lobster just outside town, then driving through the night, maybe listening to some music, sharing awkward stories etc. etc. I was alright with the plan… though maybe this time I didn’t want to go places, maybe I wanted to cuddle up with a book, but good luck telling that to your group!
Just as I was leaving the lecture theatre, I was jolted by someone. Who could it be? Jen… obviously!
Now, I’m not saying that I am a rude person, but persistence has its limits. She had been bugging me for some time now, asking me to hang out with her more often. I turned and told her sternly, once again, “Jen, you and I both know why I can’t hang out with you. People will think I’m crazy.” I know, that’s harsh. But what other choice did I have? I knew I had to be straight with her, better than leading her on, isn’t it?
Anyway, she still walked with me to the hostels. There was something about this girl, you just couldn’t drive her away. Talk about an upbeat personality!
I reached my room, fell on my bed. It felt like heaven and how I wished I could spend the rest of the day, just lying there, listening to my favorite playlist. But plans are plans. I passed some time, then got ready as it was almost time to leave. I stuck that cheerful face onto mine and left the room.
We reached our destination. Not surprisingly, the place was already quite full, with students who were out “living” their life. We got a corner booth, and everyone ordered their favorites. As the orders were coming out, the restaurant looked like it was going to eat up an entire gulf’s worth of animals. But we were all slaves to our tongues, not once feeling guilty as we gobbled up whatever kept coming.
“Hey, let’s drive out to the woods tonight. We’ll share our darkest, most embarrassing moments”, suggested Nina. Yeah, because that’s something you want to do out of the blue when you are relaxing. Obviously, she had a target in mind, she and Trevor had some bet going on about revealing something that we did not know of entirely. So, everyone agreed to go to the woods and do that. Because there aren’t enough horror/crime movies already made on such excursions, we wanted to add to that!
As I was walking over to the washroom, I saw on my way, Jen, sitting near the counter, alone. She beckoned to me again. I, reluctantly, walked over to her, again, “I sure am seeing a lot of you today.” She was a little annoyed, but who wouldn’t be when they hardly have anyone to talk to. It was as if the restaurant was full, but she was invisible to everyone sitting there. We had a little bit of an awkward talk, and I went back to our booth afterward. “Who were you talking to, man?” Alex asked me. “Oh, no one. I just have something on my mind.”, I replied, trying to stay as calm as I could. “Are you sure you wanna join us, you don’t look so good.” “Nah, I’m fine, there’s no way in hell, I’m missing your most embarrassing story!”. Everyone laughed, and we took off.
As we approached the woods, the sun had almost set. We went off the freeway to the clearing, which had become popular among the students as the perfect spot for a fire. Sam’s truck had some stuff we could work with, so, in a short while only, we managed to draw up a nice bonfire. We sat around it and turn by turn, everyone started sharing what they felt most embarrassed about. Things started out lightly, with flatulence pranks, PDAs and stuff. But as time passed, we became graver and graver, starting with Alex, who, with a very straight face told us, that he was going to share something that almost ruined his entire high school experience. Silence swept over the group.
“It was just another day in the cafeteria, and I was minding my own business, like the dork that I was.”, started Alex. “Bret, the bully of our year, came over to me and shoved me while I was standing the queue. I didn’t do anything, because I felt I was weak and timid.”, Alex went on. But something caught my attention behind him at some distance from where we were sitting. Was it a person? It could not be who I thought it was. Infuriated, I picked up my phone. “Hey guys, I’m sorry I forgot to call home, I’ll just be a minute, you guys carry on.”, I made an excuse. “Booo, come on, John!” they yelled. I walked away from the group and towards the shadow. To my utter shock, it was Jen again.
“You can’t keep following me, Jen. I think I’ve already made myself clear to you twice TODAY!”
“You and I both know, I can, John. You can’t just keep ignoring me forever.”
“Oh! You don’t know that! I’ve been doing it for a while now, and I feel confident that this time I won’t fall for you and your stupid tricks.”
“But we are meant to be together, and until you accept that fact, I won’t stop coming after you.”
“Who are you talking to, John?” I heard Isabel call out from behind.
“No one, I was just talking on the phone.”, I said awkwardly.
“No, you weren’t. Don’t lie to me, John.” “Are you seeing her again?” her voice became more serious as she asked me.
“Who? I don’t know what you are talking about”, I knew she had caught me, but still desperately trying to clutch onto my sanity, I yelled.
“Oh, don’t lie to her, John. Just tell her that you haven’t been able to stop thinking about me.”
“Oh, just shut up! Give me one goddamn second to think!” I shouted.
“Oh, John!” she rushed into my arms and hugged me tightly, tears running down her eyes. “Why wouldn’t you just take your meds.” “Don’t you worry, we will get through this.”
So, just one little thing I forgot to mention. Isabel was my dearest friend, or that was what she called herself. I never really felt a sense of attachment with anyone. Developed a disorder. Schizophrenia, they called it. I just called it my ability to create companions I feel comfortable with. But with time, I had realized that it had become toxic and so I started medicating. It was probably because of the stress of majors and that I hadn’t taken my pills for a while. Maybe that’s why Jen had started bothering me again. Isabel was with me, the first time all this happened, and don’t know why, but she stayed close when others just didn’t seem to care. I hope with time, I start to feel closer to someone, I hope I can leave Jen behind and forget her, like a dark part of my past.
Devin
This post has been migrated from my previous blog.
About this post:
As you would have already guessed if you’ve seen ‘A Beautiful Mind’ (that Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly movie), where I got the idea from.
This was my first attempt at creating something based on a concept that I came across in a movie. Hope you liked it!
Thanks for your time!
