Music professor Lucy Joseph was flowing out lectures and
everyone in the class seemed happy and concentrated but that
wasn’t the case for Leo. His eyes were on the moon shadowblack hair of a girl at the front seat. He didn’t know why but he
couldn’t stop staring at the girl. To him, maybe that was cooler
than the long dreary lecture.
“Who dreams of becoming a great musician?” Lucy said
Everyone’s hand was up except Leo’s.
“Young man at the back!” Lucy shouted
Leo quickly dug into his notebook
“Talking to you, backbencher…”
“Me?” Leo mumbled
“Yeah, you in class..?”
Leo nodded
“What’s your dream?”
“What?”
Her face got red, “Your dream..?”
“Living alone…” Leo wheezed, “In a beautiful faraway place.”
The class giggled.
“Then, I don’t know why you are attending the music school”
Neither do I
“Listen, guys… you all have something special inside you. Something you know, something you do, something you can teach. You are all experts.
“We all in here have this something special inside us and if we use it right, we can change the world and eventually become rich in the process.” Lucy wounded up her lecture and walked off the class.
It was break time. Leo rushed to the school canteen and took a bag of roasted peanuts. Each table was surrounded by at least five students chattering and squabbling. He looked at the empty table and sat. His thoughts were still on the girl he saw in class. For four years now, he had lost interest in ladies or perhaps life in general.
20th October 2016, he remembers the day very well. It was on that morning when even a little hope he had in life, vanished utterly. But now, out of blue, a girl was circulating in his brain. The girl he had just seen once. Who was the girl? Why is she in his mind? He kept scratching his head.
What jolted him from the deep imaginations was an hourglass figured lady with long ebony-black hair, standing in front of him.
“Hello!” the girl said
Leo raised his eyebrows
“Can I sit?”
Leo nodded
The girl placed two mugs on the table and sat, “I’m Rachel Simon” she said, extending her hand to Leo with a luminous smile enough to catch any man’s attention but not Leo’s.
“Leo Felix” he accepted the hand
“Seem aggravated. You okay?”
“Expecting a friend?”
“Why?”
Leo pointed his finger to the two mugs resting on the table.
Rachel smiled, “No… it’s our first day in school and all I see around are new faces. I hoped to share this one mug with a new first friend I’ll find.”
Leo smiled for the first time. The smile relaxed Rachel.
“Mind taking one?” she said, pushing one mug to Leo.
“What’s inside?”
“Coffee”
“Heard it’s not good for health”
“Once a week is not bad”
He smiled, “take some peanuts” Leo pushed his peanuts bag to Rachel
“Ooh no! Thank you.” The smile on her face disappeared “Don’t take things from strangers?” “It’s not like that Leo, I just─”
He pushed the mug back, “it’s called give and take.”
“Fine! I’ll take some” Rachel smiled, putting a peanut on her puffy lips.
Their conversation grew hot. Smiles and laughs conquered the table. It was as if it wasn’t their first meeting.
“You alright..?” Leo said suddenly Rachel nodded, “why?”
“Didn’t put blue lipsticks, did you?” Rachel smiled, “of course!” “Look pale. You really okay?”
“I am ─” Rachel’s hands dashed on her neck, holding it as if somebody was snatching it.
Leo licked his lips “What’s wrong?”
She was breathing heavily, the paleness of her skin increased. Her eyes grew weak and looked like they were fading out at any second. She started retching. Leo promptly sprinted to her side. As he reached there, Rachel’s eyes were fully closed and she fell into Leo’s arms.
Cold sweat seeping all over his tremulous body, he shook Rachel’s body
“HELP” he screamed.
