The next morning Nia prepared a light breakfast of porridge oat. She did not feel like eating, yet forced the food into the mouth. She ate a medium sized bowl of the porridge. Then gave a very small bowl to Fluffy, her white Persian cat. She next prepared a bowl of cat food and poured water in another bowl, kept them in the balcony closed with glass windows. Fluffy loved to watch the outside world from this balcony lying on the wicker basket chair.
After taking shower she wore a pastel pink chiffon sari and wore light make up. The female faculty members had to wear traditional attire to the college. When she left for college it was nine thirty in the morning. Her college was at a distance of 1km from her apartment.
When Nia entered the common stuff room for the faculty members she found Rhianna talking idly with some female colleagues. Nia greeted them and sat down near her bestie. They were talking about clothes and accessories. She was not interested and waited for the bell to ring while leafing through the book on marketing.
*******
It was two in the afternoon when Nia's classes ended. It was never her habit to linger around for idle chit chat with other. She collected her things from the common room and walked to the car parking. As she was about to slide into the driver's seat Nia heard Rhianna calling her from behind.
"Hey Nia, don't run away. You didn't exchange even a few words this morning. You have yet to tell me how the party was that day. I've things to ask."
"Ohho Rhi, you know that your parties are always best. You don't need me to tell you that." Nia's instinct told her that Rhianna had some other questions for her. Immediately she became alert.
"No."
Nia disliked the monosyllabic reply. She knew what was coming on her way. But she was not yet ready to confide in her friend about the past. 'He seemed to have not recognized me. Maybe he pretended not to recognize me. Anyways it doesn't matter. I will just ignore the devil if we cross paths again.' She smiled brightly at Rhianna.
"Do you want to know how you looked that night? Nia tried to sound light and playful. They were referring to the night of Rhianna's birthday party. "Well, didn't Nicholas tell you that you were the most beautiful one in the party. You..."
Nia was going to say something more in praise of her friend in a bid to distract her from what was in her mind but Rhianna cut her short.
"Oh Nia, just stop and listen to me. I want to ask you something else. And judging by your expression that night my party was definitely a disaster."
"Okay." She tried to look nonchalant, not alarmed or wary. She was clearly trying to evade the question Rhianna was about to ask but she now guessed she had failed to do that. Nia looked at her friend with a resigned expression on her face, like an accused waiting for the sentence which he knew would not be in his favour.
Rhianna stared at her bestie, then she shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. For a moment she hesitated and wondered if she was being too intrusive and inquisitive. But she wanted to know. Nia appeared distracted and moody after she had been introduced to a certain person. It might be her imagination but Rhianna felt a need to know to make sure that her thought was not a product of her mind.
"Well...it has nothing to do with my appearance or of the outcome of the party." Rhianna waited for a moment, then she changed her stance to an accusatory one, "You know what I'm gonna ask you, don't you? What's the deal between Yougal Lucas and you?"
Nia stared at her bestie as if the latter had gone crazy. She would not divulge the past to Rhianna, not because she wanted to hide it from her friend but because she did not want to linger in the bitterness of that dark memory. So she smiled at Rhianna as one would smile at a child asking silly question, her gaze held reproof.
"Tsk tsk, girl, you let your imagination run wild." Nia's tone was full of rebuff.
Rhianna pulled a long face. It was one thing to not share something personal by her friend but to rebuff her in an attempt to prove her wrong, that was so much not Nia. She was okay if Nia did not want to tell her, 'Well...not okay actually. I want to know what's going on between the two of them. I've a right to know as her friend.' She further thought that as a March born, her intuition was strong and could not be wrong.
"Oh Nia, just tell me to fuck off if you do not want me to know." Rhianna's face showed indignation. "You looked so distant after you had met him, as if you did not exist in the party. Nicholas said that Yougal Lucas' mood changed too after you had left."
"Rhi, I don't understand why you are bent on making me acknowledge something of which I've no idea. Maybe his girlfriend ditched him or perhaps someone died in his family." Nia generously offered those suggestions as plausible reasons for Yougal Lucas' sudden sullen mood at Rhianna's party.
"How generous of you! Sometimes you can be very cruel, you know." Rhianna said with a scowl on her face.
"Okay, if you think I was being cruel in my suggestions...umm...then maybe his girlfriend was pregnant or his rival snatched a business deal from him." Nia poured more of her generosity as she did not want to be called cruel by her friend. She then paused dramatically and added, "Maya Seth's advice yesterday reminded me of something, which I forgot to share with you. You remember the last time you dragged me to the supermarket and Nicholas drove us to there?"
"Yeah, so...?" Rhianna sensed something fishy.
"Yeah, you should remember. It was only two days before your birthday." Nia smiled, a wicked smile. "I caught Nicholas eyeing sneakily the packs of condoms, those they say come with flavour, with the longing of a child for a lollipop. I quick read the labels after he went looking for you in the grocery section."
Rhianna's scowl turned uglier. Suddenly she broke into laughter at her friend's way of getting back at her and also at Nia's outrageous and specious ideas as one of those being the reason for Yougal Lucas' gloomy mood. Her friend could really be funny and malevolent at the same time. Rhianna curbed the curiosity surging up in her. She was more sure that her friend and Yougal Lucas shared some kind of story. She observed her friend thoughtfully, then remarked suddenly,
You know girlfriend, though I've wanted you to marry Mark, I will be equally thrilled to see you as Yougal's wife. He and Nick are childhood buddies. Yougal is a great person, caring and responsible."
"Yeah, I've no doubt about that. I mean him being caring and responsible, like the devil being a responsible person or like a monkey being caring that eat its baby." She smiled at Rhianna, a mirthless smile and drove out of the college.
Nia hated the fact that she had to hide the truth from her friend. She resorted to playful wickedness to refute Rhianna's suspicion, to navigate her friend's mind away from the thought that she, Nirvana Sonowal knew that devil. She had no desire to discuss that evil shadow from the hell. It was true Nia and Yougal Lucas had never met formally. But she was not going to admit to her friend that she had even heard the name of that trash before he was introduced by Rhianna.