Chapter 8: Puzzles to be solved

It rarely happens that you chance upon meeting a girl, who seems to be too much of a lady, but beneath those layers, digging down, it tapers, hence bringing forth the crazed freak.

This love was bound to happen… it was inevitable, an accident that I was looking out for, waiting.

What seemed to be a clueless journey was this whole time a maze… a setup designed by the universe. Twisted, twirled… but yet, just one way out. 

We were bound to meet.
Wonders is what are the mystified ways of the creator, leaving you dumbfound, bewildered... utterly flabbergasted. Yes, He himself was penning down my stories now.

Tej happened to join our school and still mourning from his breakup, rarely left any topics related to his ‘first love’, Bhavana.

How they happened was not unremarkable in itself!

It so happened that Bhavana, being a loyal friend that she was, tried to help Tej in approaching a girl he had a crush on.

“I can’t” he said, when Bhavana asked him to cash upon this opportunity to propose to this girl.

“What if she says no? What if she doesn’t like me?”

“What is there to not like about you”

“Well you tell me.”

“Nothing! You are an amazing guy. Any girl, or for that matter, any guy with a life bit more colorful, would be lucky to have you” said Bhavana, trying to cloak her feelings with humor.

“Really? Anyone? Even say… you?”

The guy made his move, and he had a girlfriend. As simple as that.

Well truth be told, I wasn’t there to witness this, and if sources are to be believed, the girl he wanted to approach, shunned him of with something worse than “We are just friends”.

Legend has it, nothing can be more insulting, and to tell out loud, more humorous than, “Are you serious? I always thought of you as my brother”.

Well, this was the first time I had heard of this legendary character, her name... Lia.

Funny how life puts in pieces for you, to bind together and solve a puzzle.

Golden words of insult that could have, with no doubt whatsoever, added her name to hall of fame, did make me look out for her on the then ‘in thing’ Orkut, and get addicted to going online just to be able to see her, first thing in the morning.

(Image courtesy : Jayanth Maiyya-  follow @ https://www.facebook.com/JayanthMaiyya)

Seeing that image of this girl in the blue dress set in a dark background. Her hair just a tad out of place, yet making her seem all the more elegant. Her queso panela like white… spotless skin seemed to be crafted especially to show off her dainty features. Cherry lips that made girls envious effortlessly were enough to make the spinning of the world around you feel all the more obvious.

The girl in the blue top with a slender neck slightly leaning over her left side, and just a few strands of her notably though slight brown hair coming down, brushing over her cheeks, and a barely set tender smile, with just one thing catching my sight every single time. The eyes that looked straight into the camera lenses had magic within, that only she had shown.

With her gaze fixed, and the picture captured, yet her eyes seem to sparkle. What it sparkled off was not a smile, it wasn't a spark or hint of naughtiness ... that. 

It was something else, that from a photo could only be read as a pain, a crushing, bone wrecking pain hidden behind that smile it was. Or I misread it.

Whatever it was, nothing more captivating had I ever witnessed ever, this merely out of a picture. I had, as of yet seen her only in the virtual world.

And the time that I did see her in the real one, in front of me, leaving me tongue tied, the beauty of it was more than I had perceived to start with.

And as they say. 

The rest, is history!