The Mazed Affection

Chapter-15

According to Siya

Dev was not as I had imagined him to be. To be honest, he was exactly like me, he also used to earn money to support his family.I admit that I never supported my family because they never understood me.

I came to know that he does part time job to reduce the expenses of his family and that too from where I started the part time job. I am so lucky that Dev is my boss.

Not only that, do you know who was my first customer? That was Om. I didn't realize how the whole day passed today. I was with Dev in college when he taught me history.

I am sure that studying history will be the toughest job he has ever had. But I have to admit that Dev is a good teacher, he helped me a lot. He told me that there is no need for me to go separately because we live in the same house and study in the same college and even our work is at the same place so we can travel together everywhere.

Had it been anyone else in my place, she would have picked it up immediately but I am a bit tough. At first I immediately refused but then I agreed to his request but on the pretext that I would pay one way for petrol.

At first even Dev did not agree but then he agreed. While coming back, I also got the leftover food which I will now eat at night. But when we came home we showed aunty. Aunty was waiting for us, I mean Dev, at the door.

I wanted to talk to her but Dev asked me to go upstairs to the room. At first I thought it would not be right to go like this, after all she is my landlady. But the way his face remained stern, I understood that it was something else, so I came inside the house.

I wanted to know what was going to happen between mother and son, but it would have been wrong to listen to someone's private conversation. So I came to my room.

Today was a very tiring day, so the first thing I thought of as soon as I arrived was to take a bath. It is very cold in Himachal and in the month of February, I did not feel like taking bath with cold water at night but somehow I took bath with cold water.

Once my grandfather told me that when we take bath with cold water, our body gets warm and when we take bath with hot water, our body becomes cold. When I asked him the reason for this, he had something new to say that when we pour cold water into our body, our Brian feels that our body is getting cold and hence he needs warmth. That's why our brain automatically heats our body.

At first this thought seemed useless to me but today after taking bath in cold water I found it to be true. After bathing in cold water, I was feeling very hot, so I came under my blanket and then started eating the remaining food.

Even though the food was leftover, it was still quite tasty. While eating, whatever had happened this morning came to my mind. For a moment I was worried about the boy who competed with me, wondering if he would be okay or not?

I decided to go and talk to him tomorrow. I couldn't sleep so I thought of studying whatever I read in the library today. I took out my book and started reading it. I was surprised because I understood everything.

I had just started reading when I heard someone's footsteps. Sometimes I feel like studying and even then someone comes. I didn't even realize that it had been two hours since I came. I slowly looked outside and saw Dev outside and he had something in his hand.

When I neatly notished at him, I realized that he had a cigarette and a lighter in his hand. Dev came here to smoke a cigarette? I saw that he lit a cigarette with the lighter and sat at a place and started smoking. Smoke was coming out of his mouth and he seemed quite relaxed to me.

I opened the door and came out. At first he got scared after hearing the sound of the door and he quickly hid his cigarette. I think he realised it was me then he started smoking cigarette again and looking at me he said.

" I was scared that my mother would see me."

" Do you smoke cigarettes here, hiding from everyone?"

I said sitting next to him. He looked at me smiling and said.

" Life is too short, I have no interest in being a good boy."

" But you don't have to be, you're a good boy."

This is the same guy whom I was thinking about killing until this morning.

" I'm not a good boy, I just do what my heart says. My heart tells me to study, so I study, sometimes my mind tells me to go out and party, so I do that by hiding from here. Sometimes I feel like smoking a cigarette, so I do that too."

Having said this, he again took a long drag of the cigarette and blew the smoke into the air. After that we talked for a long time and when it was late at night, we went to our respective rooms and slept.

After waking up the next day, I had to do the same thing, the first thing I had to do was prepare breakfast for myself.

Making breakfast is the most difficult task for me because who gets up early in the morning and goes to the kitchen? I don't know why God created this thing called hunger, but for that I have to do this also.

When I came down after finishing my meal, Dev was sitting ready for me. We both talked till late last night, due to which I could not wake up in the morning and could not even go for a walk.

Dev and I started talking while going to college. When I was sitting on the bike behind Dev, I saw aunty who was staring at me.

" Why is Dev Aunty looking at me like she's going to eat me raw?"

" Don't worry about them, their eyes are like that."

When both of us reached college, the atmosphere seemed different today. Where till yesterday when I used to come to college and no one even saw me, everyone's eyes were on me. Suddenly I had become the center of attention.

How awkward is all this?

Dev's class was different so he went there and I was walking alone towards my class when I saw that everyone was still looking at me.

Is there anything on my clothes? Has someone written behind my back that I look like an i***t?

" So popular girl, how are you?"

When I turned around and looked back, she was Kala. She quickly went to him, held him and pulled him closer to her and asked.

" What is all this happening here? How did she suddenly become the center of attraction?"

" Don't you know?"

Kala looked and pointed aside. When I looked at it, there was a big balloon in which it was written I am sorry. It is our fault and from today onwards we will never trouble Siya and from today onwards we will also pay Siya's canteen bill."

I was sure that Leena and Ronnie would never apologize to me but what is this? Are they really apologizing to me or am I still in a dream?