The Guy With The Diary

Chapter 11

BELLA

“Will miss us staying in school together,” uttered Maggy, still walking, as she held my hands. “Just one semester, but we've had so much fun already.”

Pulling my hands from her grip gently, I said, “Then you'll say I'm the soft one. It's just going to be what, five weeks? Before we start school again.”

“I know, but I'll miss it anyway.”

“We are going to spend the holidays together.“

“Still not the same as….”

Maggy stopped her statement halfway as she saw Phil. Phil greeted me with a raise of his eyebrows.

Turning to me, Maggy said, “Will catch you later.“

I smiled at her. “Have you some fun, nerd.”

We were at the love garden at the campus. It was huge so a lot of events usually took place there, especially when it was hosted by student bodies. Today, as I came to learn, CustoDia was observing a festival popularly known as Entangle.

It wasn't just the university celebrating it, but the whole damn city. From what I got from Maggy, the city always celebrated this very day once a year. Some called it ‘Entangle’, others called it the festival of love. Either way, it was a day set out to celebrate love, in every possible application of the word. As expected, romantic love was all the festival was made to be, and couples from all around the city came out to celebrate love. Quite worthy to celebrate, if you asked me.

Maggy and I had walked from our apartment to the love garden. Luke had been the first one to tell me about Entangle. He wanted it to be special for us, and that made it all the more sad for me as he couldn't make it. His family had organised a reunion and everyone had to be there, especially because some came from far places.

I already missed him. Perhaps seeing Phil and Maggy all over each other made me miss Luke even more. But I understood that he couldn't say no to his family. I wouldn't even want him to do that.

“No worries,” I assured myself, speaking under my breath. It was fine. I have had so many good memories with Luke and we were going to have even better ones. Next year’s Entangle included, of course.

The decorations on the garden weren't bad, but truth be told, the garden needed no decorating. To me, it was flawless as it was. Still, I did see how the golden glowing balloons added to the mood. It wasn't entirely a waste of balloons and ribbons.

“It's a fun day, isn't it?” Maggy let out, smiling from ear to ear. “This year’s Entangle is even better than the last one.”

“Because of Phil, I guess,” I teased her, pulling her hands towards me. “Tell me something. Have you guys discussed your… situationship?”

“Situationship?”

“You know what I mean.”

“Is that even a word?”

“Maggy!”

Scoffing as she doubled down for a moment. “No, we haven't. I feel it's a little too early for all that. I mean, if it comes up, then it's fine.” She looked over her shoulders and saw that Phil had gotten the drinks he went to get. “You know what? We'll talk later.”

I watched as Maggy walked away and met up with Phil. Sitting, I watched them spread a wrapper on the ground and began feeding potato chips to each other. All I felt inside of me was genuine happiness for Maggy. While I wasn't sure Phil was the prince I knew Maggy deserved, I was willing to support him in dating my bestie. Man, it seemed like forever since Maggy had been in a relationship, serious or whatnot.

“Hey there,” Cole said, sitting beside me. “You remember me? We met at….”

I cut in. “Yeah, I do remember you.”

“I was sure that you would.”

I gave him a side glance before speaking. “Oh, it's the ego for me. You think you're so hard to forget.”

Cole shook his head and pointed his index finger simultaneously. “Dearie, it's nothing of the sort. I only thought we had a pretty good discussion that was rather hard to forget. It isn't every day you get to discuss people's butt with strangers.” Still, somehow, keeping a straight face, he continued, “Or is it something you do a lot? You can tell me, I won't judge.”

I lost it there. I cracked up, burying my face in my hands as I laughed. It wasn't just his words that were funny, but the way he said it all. One funny guy he was, no doubt.

“You are quite funny. I'll give you that.”

Cole bent his head a little and pushed his eyebrows up. “I don't need much convincing. I do hear that quite a lot, I must confess.”

“I see.”

“Heard you have a boyfriend. Where's he?”

I wanted to ask how the f*ck he knew, but I felt he just guessed I did.

“He's away with his family. It was something important.”

“Here you are,” a voice said, approaching Cole. “Been looking for you everywhere.”

This was quite awkward. It was Niklas. He seemed to have been searching for his brother. I shifted my gaze from Niklas to Cole and I saw the resemblance. It wasn't too noticeable, but now that I had seen it, I couldn't ‘unsee’ it.

“Hi,” said Niklas, smiling at me.

“Hi,” I replied.

Cole stood and exhaled quite noisily. “I will go grab myself a drink or something.”

Cole left and that meant it was just Niklas and me. Not sure how I felt about it all.

“I’m sorry if I've acted rudely to you,” Niklas said, his voice, gentle and calm.

My goodness! This guy was everything. His look was always on point. Not someone you could look at once without staring again at the very least.

I cleared my voice before speaking. “You don't have to apologise for anything. I haven't noticed any form of rudeness from your side.”

Man, this was awkward. I couldn't in a bloody million years have imagined that this was what our first real conversation was going to be like.

“Should have told you my name that first night when you asked.”

I nodded as though in agreement with what he was saying. “I’m sure you were just having a bad day. It happens to the best of us.”

“Yeah, it was just a bad day,” he agreed. “Let’s start all over… I mean, like we just met.”

“Not a bad idea.” I brought my right hand forward. “Nice to meet you. The name is Bella. Bella Thompson.”

He smiled at me, his eyes seeming to paralyse my body and brain as well. “I'm Niklas Dalima. It's nice to meet you as well.”

Soon we dived into general small talks and he seemed to be good company. Don't know whether I was just thinking too much, but he appeared to be quite an intelligent guy. He also seemed like a deep person— like someone who observed everything around him and was quite appreciative of his environment. Very much like my late father.

“So you're alone on a night like this. It's fine, you know. Just thought you would have company.”

“Oh, my boyfriend couldn't make it,” I said more to myself than to him, but he heard anyway. “Luke, my boyfriend, is quite the guy, you know. He'll make it up to me.”

Niklas nodded. “A girl like you deserves nothing but the best.”

Those words threw me off. Maybe it was because our eyes met as he uttered the words. Those eyes, while very unusual, seemed to have a hold on me. I wanted to look away, but I couldn't bring myself to.

I saw him bring his face to mine. It didn't happen fast. If anything, it was painfully slow. I watched it all happen and that made it sadder for me. Even as he lifted my chin with his thumb, I watched in silence. He didn't rush. He was gentle and patient. It was almost as though he wanted to see if I was alright with it.

I felt his breath against my face and I didn't stop him. I knew I should, but I didn't want to. Deep down in me, I felt I couldn't betray that bit of my being that craved for him. That bit that has always wanted him.

His lips grazed past my lips and went lower to my neck. I jerked back a bit as he kissed my neck, but still held on to the collar of his shirt. When he did kiss me on the lips, he was much gentler. He did hold on to my hair from behind as we locked lips, but was in no hurry at all.

I pushed him away and ran off. I knew I shouldn't have allowed him kiss me, but I really wanted him to and I couldn't say why. Luke didn't deserve this. Yes, I did feel a kind of way when our lips met. I felt like having more of him. I wanted him to rip my dress in half, and have me to himself. Do you see? I shouldn't want this. I guess that was why I was crying as I ran, bumping into the crowd and having people turn their heads to the running girl.

So much for the festival of love.