the year

She was sitting alone in the train. She was frightened of her ghetto surrounding and her equally new classmates. The boys were eve-teasing her ever since she entered the class. She hated them the most. The girls only found fun in it and sympathized with the crude behavior. Diana was a shy girl, used to living in a female environment; she couldn’t bring herself to believe that she would get such attention from guys. That was something she felt she would never get. In all her previous years she had been a sister, a friend, a clown, a daughter, a niece but never a “beautiful” girl enough to be an object of attention of a class of guys just a year younger than her. She was adamant at not being scared; she was older than them and had that tiny authority. Diana was 22 then. She never understood why only that batch of guys took notice of her so much!. One can never tell what makes a man’s head turn; neither the look nor the time seems fixed. She knew she looked good those days because of the looks she had begun to receive from the locals during her trip to Montana.
She looked straight in the window and concentrated on other thoughts, nice thoughts that would distract her mind from the constant taunts of her offenders. She knew she wasn’t alone there; there was this whole bogie of train filled with these students who were found of her loveliness and wanted to speak to her. And Diana was frightened of just that because the whole atmosphere was so over-whelming for the simple-Jane. There was this one guy named Reginald who slowly came and sat on the seat next to her. He wasn’t that good looking, but he was smart and was the captain of the class. Something was to happen between them that night-something unexpected and unpredictable. He was a gentleman, however in the start. He seemed seriously offended by the way she treated all boys as untouchables. In fact all she was really doing was what she had been brought up to behave. This only guy took the extra step and became a bit physical in a mischievous way. It started with a nod of the head from side to side. The expression was in a way when one gets while feeling sleepy. Then he placed his head on her shoulder. This offended her. He was doing that on purpose. It was night time and most of the people were asleep. All her classmates were his friends, so she couldn’t complain. However, after some time, Diana liked the feeling of his broad shoulders against hers. The feeling was warm and intimate. After that night the next morning appeared as if nothing had happened, yet his behavior changed from being a flirt to being a man constantly seeking her kind attention and in return she became shy of him and tried to stay away.
Her reason to stay away from him was because she had already someone in her heart. His name was Freddie, a year senior to her, tall built, muscular and smart. She was more sophisticated than him, that’s why she always undermined him to start with, and he made sure she was brought down to his level. Diana was in love with her friend’s boyfriend. It was an evil she couldn’t accept. She kept the secret hidden from everyone including her best friend. He always had paid attention to her, encouraged her to move ahead in her social life. He made her feel uninhibited around him. He made her come with him and friends to places where otherwise she was very shy to go alone. But most of all-in the start he was very protective about her. She didn’t need that but he provided her with an emotional security no boy had ever given her before. Besides that she understood that there is something about her he liked from the start. It used to amuse her that he blushed at what she called her own eccentricities. However what made her fall in love with him was when one evening there was a fight between his girlfriend and her. His girlfriend was used to publicly humiliating people to bring them down. Diana wasn’t used to her methods and found herself cornered. It was then that Freddie came forward when no one did and sort of rescued her from the situation. Once secretly in love with Freddie, Diana couldn’t understand and how to get back with his girlfriend without compromising her stand with Freddie himself. She didn’t understand then that it was love, that she was being scared of him now and continued to take abuse from his girlfriend. Then one final day, it was the month of winter when Freddie and his boys went on a road trip, that finally Diana lashed back at Heather, Freddie’s girlfriend. She had that courage then because he wasn’t around and that made it easy to talk back to Heather. It was unexpected however that Heather will remain calm after that and she did. But that frightened Diana a lot…was Heather asking Freddie to take revenge on her part?. When you throw fireballs on a castle you expect some fireballs or an act of defence in return. But there were none from her side.
Freddie came back from his trip. He showed no signs of anger but his eyes told that he was upto something because he had always sort of scolded Diana in the past for her nature to remain away from people. He even wanted her to cry once because he felt she was too proud a person. However, those eyes seemed sexy to Diana. He had never looked at her that way before. She didn’t like him then and stayed away from him. Freddie didn’t stop interacting with her even then. He became a bit cautious while talking with her, but that’s all. It was only in the later year that he flirted with her because she had grown too pretty and was showering all her affections on a handsome dude named George.
That’s the time she was angry with him. She would have kept the secret alone, in her heart, an undying love. But Freddie had to come out like a person who is cheating on his girlfriend. She despised his style of flirting, he lead her on by jumping in an unmannerly manner whenever she came around him. She didn’t like it, but that was also a seal that there did exist some feelings on his side. She knew he had sadistic undertones to a protective side which made him so sexy in her eyes. She liked the feeling of fighting back and she also knew that if she will have to remain in a relationship with him, it would be damaging to her ego. She backed off.