#44 An Introvert's Move

Fresher's party was upbeat at one of the classmates’ villa. It had been a week or so for the new program and some had already shared acquaintances. In one of the corners of the living room, she was comfortably seated with her legs crossed and all her focus on her phone. She was a Candy-Crush addict.

An introvert from the northeast, who barely spoke Hindi, had found solace in her phone amidst all that party-chaos. She was dragged by her roommates into a place where she didn't want to be, in a mixed group of mainland Indians and the Northeasterners. Soon, the party moved from the pool to the living room and eclectic topics came up but never did she lift her head up. 

A word spread, that he was arriving shortly. Suddenly, her incessantly screen-tapping fingers stopped. A shiver ran through her spine. Wasn't he the same guy who passed scathing comments on the first day of school? She had cried in the washroom.

He arrived, an hour later. Tall and handsome, this mainland dark guy had a tinge of British in his English. This got him attention. A lot of attention!

'...but what took you so long?’ asked one of the heads. 'I was engrossed in a book'. He settled down in the group, where topics about latest movies, cultural differences, sports and how their academic year is going to go were on fire.

Meanwhile, she looked up, probably for the second time, noticed him and went back to tapping on that always-there-for-her phone. He had dropped her a few apologies on WhatsApp, to which she never replied, but they did rub off their intentions on her.

As the night grew, so the level of alcohol in everyone's blood, and so did the readings on the volume meter of the music system and in no time, the living room was turned into a dance floor.

She didn't leave her place, now observing the wave of motion in those psychedelic settings. Her eyes struck contact with his for one too many times and broke off just as fast to not return his wavings. She dismissed all his attempts to strike conversation through her passive body-language. 

Past midnight, when he was about to sleep, his phone beeped.

‘Which book?’