First Love – A Short Story

It is 8.10 a.m. and the twenty-something young man, waits at the bus stand, just as he has for the last one month.  He looks at his watch impatiently. She should have been here by now, he thinks.  He raises his head and there she is, a vision in cream.

Some days she reminds him of the turquoise ocean, on other days, a doe, with her big eyes, then again she reminds him of a cotton candy. She is perfectly coordinated, tinkling bangles, big hoops in her ears, her huge tote slung carelessly across one shoulder, tapping into her phone, or listening to music.

Once he sees her, his courage deserts him. He wants to get to know her, but how?  She barely glances at him, but he can tell that she is aware that he stares at her everyday.

Every bus journey is a torment.  He wants to talk to her, but she is immersed in books or her music.  He simply does not exist!  In his moments of sanity, he orders himself to take an earlier bus, but his heart plays traitor.

30 cruel days run by, and finally desolation seeps into the young man’s heart.  He cannot take this anymore.  He decides that he will not look at her anymore, nor can he muster the courage to talk to her. “Such a coward”, he chides himself.

Now, he takes the earlier bus to work.

Life goes on, plain vanilla and ‘sorrow-flavored’.

He listens to soulful music, and tries to stop hyper-linking every colour, he sees, to ‘her’.

Today, he has missed the earlier bus, and is forced to take his usual bus.  He arrives at the usual time, and turns away from the direction she will appear from.  What he can’t see, can’t affect him, he reasons.

The bus turns the corner, and as he prepares to take out his bus-card, he feels a tap on his shoulder.

She says, “Hi! Don’t see you these days?”

A foolish grin breaks out on the young man’s face.

Life stands still, chocolate and ‘happiness-flavored’.