Anna and I were talking while going for our evening walk. I kept saying about Harry’s sudden arrival, his gaze on us and lot more. She was surprised to hear that. We then sat on the bench in the park relaxing the muscles. Soon Roman strolled to us smiling at Anna.
“Hey girls!” He sat beside Anna wrapping his arm over her shoulder.
“Hey!” I smiled back. “What are you doing here? I mean you are not the guy who normally visit parks.”
“I wanted to see this Auburn beauty. So I came here as I knew where you would end your walk.” He said looking at Anna. Her cheeks became red that made me smile more.
We kept talking casually and she asked “Do you know Harry is here?”
Roman nodded his head saying “Yeah, I know.”
I looked at him asking “Why is here? Granny is in the city and the holidays are not yet finished.”
Roman shrugged his shoulders saying “Maybe for you.”
“What?” I was confused.
Roman sat straight saying in a serious tone. “Stella, yesterday Harry and I were talking on cell phone and… he asked about you.” He stopped saying looking at me.
“Okay, I’m listening.” I furrowed my brow.
He let out a sigh and spoke “I told him you are fine and… I said about Noah.”
“You said what?” I shouted.
“Calm down. I didn’t say it deliberately. It just happened while we were talking. He became furious hearing me. He scolded Noah and you. He can’t stay in his house after hearing you are hanging out with some other guy so he is here.”
I shook my head annoyed. “What is his problem, Roman? He bloody rejected me but acting like he is possessive over me. What changes if he stays in the city or here? I’ll definitely hang out with Noah either he sees us or not.”
“Stella, Harry is so complicated. He is feeling like you left him. He is thinking he didn’t do anything wrong. Why won’t you talk to him once?” Roman said.
“Talk to him? What should I talk? Hey Harry, let’s forget that you wanted to be my boyfriend for a stupid gossip and wanted to fuck me for enjoyment. Yeah you don’t love me, but let’s continue our stupid nameless relationship regardless how much I love you?” I yelled.
Damn! Why was I getting tears?
Anna held my hand comforting me. Roman became silent hearing my shouts. “I’m sorry.” Roman bent his head down.
“Gosh! Leave it guys.” Anna rolled her eyes. She continued saying “Roman, Stella is trying so hard to forget Harry. Let her be like this. If Harry needs anything he will talk to her. I think she is better off without Harry.” She made an irritated face.
Roman raised his hands saying “Cool. Let’s leave this. Now how about ice creams?” He smiled.
“I’m in.” Anna shouted. I smiled looking at her and we started eating our ice creams.
Days were passing like that. I had been seeing Harry all the time when I was with Noah. As usual, Harry and Noah kept exchanging angry looks. I started to ignore everything related to Harry. His looks, his anger and his everything. We started behaving like a complete strangers.
The college had started and the same drama from morning to evening. But at evening it was energetic in the presence of Noah. He had been with me most of the time and became a good friend to me after Anna.
I was near my locker taking my books. I heard two guys giggling and talking about me. I noticed one of them as the guy who proposed me at the start of the college, before all the Harry thing. He was looking at me from top to toe. Ignoring him I took my books and started walking away.
“Don’t forget me. If you get your second breakup I’m here for you to entertain you.” The guy shouted looking at me and they both started laughing.
What the hell they were talking?
Ignoring them I reached my class. After few hours Anna and I walked out of the classroom reaching the college canteen as Roman asked her to meet him there. We three sat there and talked for few minutes. They both strolled out whereas I started walking to my classroom. The two guys suddenly stood in front of me smirking. I walked past behind them but was stopped hearing their words “Tim, When will she get over her ex dance mate?”
“Oh she already got over one dance mate, she will break up with another one so soon.” That guy laughed.
Wow they were speaking about Noah. Gossip on Noah and me started. Perfect! Though everyone knew my relationship with Noah, they started to gossip. My fate!
“I don’t understand which dance mate is the first one, who got the chance to lay with her.” They kept laughing.
“We both are ready for you. You can maintain us both at a time, we won’t mind.”
I shut my eyes feeling disgusted. I turned back to shout at them but before I did that a punch landed on one of the guys face. Harry was staring at them with his angry look. The guy tried to hit Harry but he dodged his hit and attacked him again with a hard punch that made the guy bleed.
I put my palms on my mouth looking at them with my wide eyes. Harry kept hitting them like he had enmity with them for ages. The two guys fell down but he didn’t stop. He sat on the top of one guy and kept hitting his face.
Scared of the situation in front of me, I walked fast towards Harry and touched his shoulder stopping him. Harry’s angry gaze fell on mine. His emerald eyes looked dark and his face was reddened in anger. He stood from there holding my hand furiously. He pushed me to the wall pinning my hands on either side of me and kept looking at me clenching his jaw. He was staring at me sharply whereas I started shivering with his look. Neither he spoke nor I. We both kept looking at each other with opposite expressions.
After a minute he stood straight and walked away quickly. I kept looking at his back till he went far away from my eyesight. Then I looked at the guys, who were grunting in pain. There were no students except one or two, looking at us like there was a movie playing there.
I said looking at the guys “Don’t complain to the principal about Harry’s behaviour. If you do so, I’ll complaint to the cops that you harassed me.”
The guys spoke in their low voice “No. We won’t. We are sorry, Stella.”
Without saying anything I walked away from there. At evening when we were walking to our houses, I told Anna everything that happened. We then kept discussing the things, gossips and a lot till we reached our houses.
After having my snacks, I sat on the bed listening to music while recalling the incident that happened in the college. Why can’t he just leave me? With each thing he was doing for me, it’s getting hard to try not to think about him. He was free from me and he can be with any other girl, do anything with anyone. Why the hell he was bothering me and bothering about me? About the rumours? I stopped caring about everything.
I shut my eyes while all the thoughts kept wandering my head. A message notification from Noah made me come out of my thoughts.
“Hey Stella!” – Noah
I smiled looking at his message and I replied “Hey Noah! What’s up?”
“Thinking about you. Call?” – Noah
I called him seeing the message. We started talking casually and told him about the guys, Harry and their fight. Noah told me to just ignore everyone. Of course that was the thing I had been doing. He suddenly became calm and I called out his name. “Noah, are you there?”
“Yeah. Stella…”
“What happened? You became silent all of a sudden.”
“I’m leaving the town within two days, Stella.” I could feel his saddened voice.
His sentence made me feel unhappy. I didn’t want him to leave so soon but what could I do?
“It’s okay. Just come here whenever you get free, when you have time… you know.”
“Yeah. I never felt this way but it’s different this time.”
I didn’t reply anything as I had no words to reply. He continued speaking “Do you know why?”
“Why?”
“Because I’m gonna miss you more this time. I don’t want to leave, Stella.”
“Come on Noah, after college you are going to return to this town again and stay here if you have no other plans. This is our town. We will meet again and again till the very end.”
“Yeah, you are right.”
“So the next time you shouldn’t come alone. Choose a girlfriend for you and come along with her.” I said to enlighten his mood.
He laughed listening to me and kept quiet. Then I started blabbering many things and he kept hearing my stupid talks. After talking for few minutes, I cut the call and continued listening to my music.