On our way up the staircase to the first floor, Sneha and I remained quiet as we were both busy looking at the walls, classrooms and the college crowd. The walls were all full of graffiti and the classrooms, although ugly, were large enough to house a hundred people. We stopped outside room number 14 and kept staring at everybody and everything in our proximity.
But amidst a sea of nothings, there was something that truly made me skip a heartbeat. Wearing dark blue denims and a powder blue shirt was a guy who caught my attention as he entered the classroom carrying a laptop bag. He was alone, yet had a big smile on his face as he greeted the people that we would soon be calling our classmates.
"Hello! I'm Ishaan!", he individually introduced himself to almost everyone in the class before grabbing a chair to sit in.
Ishaan seemed like this charming little gentleman who could hypnotise people with his smile. There came a moment when his eyes met mine and all he did was smile. Not realising how I was supposed to be reacting, I simply looked away at the sweeper who was busy dusting the chairs and tables. As the sweeper moved towards Ishaan's table, the latter smiled at him and tried to make some small talk. I saw Ishaan lifting the laptop off his table and the man cleaning his desk while answering some of his questions.
"Do you realise that you've been looking at him for last 876 years?", interrupted Sneha.
"Well, I can't help it.", I blushed.
Sneha laughed as we both entered the classroom and purposely sat in the row next to Ishaan's. Having been warned once by Sneha, I tried my best not to look awkward around him. And as much as I wanted him to make an effort to talk to me, I also had a sever inferiority complex that was stopping me from making the first move. Something in my head said that he was totally out of my league and that I should stop looking at him like a love-struck idiot.
"Hey!"
I heard a faint voice from my right, exactly where Ishaan was sitting. I looked in that direction only to find him staring at me with his cute puppy eyes. I looked at my left to see if there was someone else he was trying to greet.
"Hey! That was for you.", he laughed softly while looking at me.
"oh, hi!", said the under-confident me.
Ishaan wasn't the best-looking guy in our class. There were boys who were far more tall and handsome but there was something about Ishaan that I found way too charming. Maybe it was his smile or the way he behaved with people or his eyes or all of it combined.
"Ishaan here."
"Oh!", I exclaimed without realising that it wasn't the answer he would've expected.
"And you?"
"Oh sorry. I'm Aasma.", I said, feeling embarrassed.
I tried to break the eye contact by pretending to smile at a girl sitting behind Ishaan. With a pencil tucked in her fingers, the girl waved back at me with a smile.
"I'm Kriti.", uttered the girl in a low voice.
"Hi! I'm Aasma.", I responded.
Kriti looked like a perfect Delhi girl who just seemed to have everything that she had ever wanted. In her denim shorts and an orange tank top, she looked no less than a fashion model. She was pretty and the last thing I wanted was Ishaan to turn back and look at her only to find himself besotted with her beauty. And that's exactly what happened the very next moment, except that I didn't know if he was truly besotted with her. I saw him talking with Kriti and the conversation looked like that between two very close friends. Seeing how confidently she was talking to Ishaan, my self-esteem took another hit and I found another reason why I shouldn't be keeping my hopes up.
Ishaan and Kriti stopped talking as the Professor entered the class and the insecure me finally heaved a sigh of relief.
Amidst the introductions and orientations, the first day of college went by without much being learned. And surprisingly, the strange high that I experienced around Ishaan seemed to have faded away as the day ended. Or so I thought.