“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Are you on a vacation? Or in the middle of something?”
“What made you say that?”
“Last night it looked like you had your entire time planned, and we kind of messed it up.”
“Kind of?”
“Well”
“hahahahahaha” William was mesmerized by her laughter. But he looked towards the pool instead to make sure she did not notice.
“I finished college and will be working soon. So yeah, 6 weeks of break before that.”
“It looks like you earned it.”
“The internship and thesis wore me out. I can get a little too caught up while working. So, I wanted to give myself a break, catch up with everyone, and enjoy my brother’s wedding.”
“What a coincidence! I am on a 2 months break. Just finishing up things before heading back to work again. Helping with Ria’s wedding.”
Rosaline smiled and they both stayed quiet for a while, Rosaline’s mood visibly improved.
After what felt like forever and no time at all, Rosaline enquired, “what happened after you got into trouble?”
“What do you mean?”
“You must have rubbed her in a bad way, for that girl to carry a grudge for over a decade.”
William smiled for a few seconds before he rattled the entire truth.
“Her full name is Supriya Lantz, a few months younger than me. We went to the same pre-school. One day Ria brought her home introducing her to everyone saying she has a similar name.
When her mom came to pick her up, we found out my mom and her mom were friends in college. So we all hung out a lot.
Ria was used to following me around. After a few days, Supriya started doing the same. Except, I was not very happy about it. Somehow I never liked her.
I did not want to bother Ria, so I simply played with Ria when no one was around. Whenever Supriya showed up, I made some excuse and shut myself in my room.
Even that young, she was quite perceptive and caught up to what I was doing within a month. Even my mom was not aware of it. I did not know that she knew.
Around that time, Ria started making trouble – like breaking someone’s window, or stealing some nonsensical things only to throw it away in another corner, puncher someone’s bicycle.
After it happened a few times, I coxed Ria and got the whole truth for all the incidents. It was Supriya who had instigated all of it.
Then I kind of asked Ria to role-play as a game, and not tell Supriya about it. I followed them secretly and heard her murmur that she will force me to see her one way or another.
It was then I realized her motive. She was 8 years old at that time.
I told Ria to cut off with her and not play with her at all. I even threatened to never play with her if she lied to me or made trouble again. That ended their friendship.
We were in the same pre-school, so she found some other ways to pester me. That went on for a year before I transferred to Military school.
I could only come back home twice a year, and I kind of forgot about her as time went by. She built a very decent image in front of my family and my mom especially really likes her a lot, even to this day.
After a year in school, I was back for a 2-week vacation. She tried to approach me, but I shut her out completely.
One day Ria teased me on how Supriya was always hovering around me. I scoffed saying if I saw her again after 5 lifetimes, it’ll still be too early. I did not realize she had heard it.
A few months after I went back to school, she showed up with a love letter and deliberately got caught. She was 10 at that time.
The love letter was quite misleading, it looked like I was practically stalking her, secretly kissed her, wrote her several letters, threatened her if she did not reply, etc. My head lecturer showed it to me and was frankly quite disappointed. They called in both our parents.
While we waited for our parents, she told me she would make it all go away if I dated her for real and did as she bid. She mocked me saying she will decide if and when we shall meet, be it in 5 days or 5 lifetimes.
When our parents arrived, they clarified the whole thing. Her mother requested for it to be wrapped up since it’d affect a girl’s reputation. She promised to keep her off me. So, we all acquiesced.
My punishment as per the rules was 10 laps every morning and evening for 60 days and one of the meals be cut by half for the next 30 days. Since I was proven innocent, I did not have to do it, and it would not get recorded in my profile.
I still did the punishment. I guess me accepting the punishment pushed it too far for her.”