Mr.Franklin changed the class timings a week later after i started dating Alex. Now the classes have shifted to twice a week instead of 4days.
Alex stopped coming to the lectures. For now, physics lecture was all about me and my long lost imaginary fictional men of the tome world. However, i couldn't wait for the lectures to get over coz Alex would come to pick me up after the class and we would ride on his two wheeler to somewhere.... anywhere.
However, Alex had clearly asked me not to mention about 'US' to anyone. I guess it was pretty natural to have a doubt about such a thing at the back of my mind despite of the fact that he seemed too perfect throughout the time he was right in front of me. Is he the same person, when I don't get to see him? Is he this much perfect from each angle the way he claims to be when he's with me? Often these wild ideas would hop around my frontal lobe inside my cranium but would doze off when the adrenaline rush would take a peak on his *touch*.
It's been a month of us dating each other, not a single person in the class knows about it except Ross from his side and Riri from my side. By now Ross and i have grown more close to each other kindred to the friendship of Riri and Alex. Ross would accompany me during the lectures more often which Alex did not like. Jealousy. Though that wasn't something i was bothered about. If he ever confronted me about his dislike involving Ross and me, I would shove him asking the same about Riri and him, and then we both would laugh the shit out and shift the topic.
(We both knew the storm was taking it's deep cone shape each time we decided to shift the topic instead of solving it out).
Life isn't always the same flat plateau decorated splendidly with a flower bed full of the wild beautiful small flowers of varying colours with beautiful scent. You can never expect that a person will be exactly same jolly,happy,excited,interested...the way he/she was when you first met them. There will be days they won't feel like talking to you or spending time with you, instead they would just love to have gala time with their colleagues. Sometimes they would snug into you and want your attention the way a newborn wants from the mother. There will be challenges, sorrows, kick outs, days might get worse when you would fight over something too silly, like the grades or what you would wear or things like this, and eventually go to sleep without a smile on your face. However, not everything we see with our eyes and hear with our ears is always true.
Slowly things started to change. More than two months to us dating, Alex and i have stopped meeting. Even once a week was rare. We would meet after every 8/12/15 days. I missed him, but he seemed normal and okay with this routine. Maybe i was worrying a lil too much?
My parents never liked Alex. They were dead against the fact in having him even as a friend. They didn't know that we were dating, and being the typical brown parent, i am pretty sure that if they ever got to know the truth, i would be kicked out from having my educational liabilities. On the other hand , Alex despite of knowing this would often try to prank me by calling me , when I was out with my mom or text me in the middle of the night when I would sleep with them. Hence the fear of getting caught was always a pressure on my mind. And the balance was a heavy scale to carry on between these two.
It's been more than three months now ,we have managed to get along together. However... everything has changed. He neither texts me much nor replies to my texts promptly the way he used to. We talk about meeting after every 2-3 weeks. Sometimes Alex dumps me even on those rare days just to spend time with his friends. Ross is now my partner in everything, starting from the first hour of the day he accompanies me till i get in my room. Riri on the other hand has started getting distant from me and closer to Alex. They would chat over phone till late in the night or sometimes over call for all throughout the night, but neither of them could find a minute to reply me back. Seeing all the doubtful dots scattered around, my sixth sense had already started to warn me about it.But like i said, in the war between what your mind proves and what your heart wishes, it's always the heart we end up listening to.
Riri by then has already said me about her crush on Ross. I and Alex discussed about bringing them together..... But he didn't took much interest in this instead there were times he would gradually get irritated if i would bring up the topic about getting them together. Slowly the I love yous changed to *love you(s)* or sometimes even that was too much to be told to.
Riri didn't like the fact of Ross always sticking by my side and maybe that is why she intentionally tried her best to do with Alex exactly what Ross did with me. One morning, i eventually asked Ross about it.
"Riri has got a thing for you"
"Yeah , i have known that for quite a while now."
"So...how about you guys give it a try? At least we can have a fam circle then"
"She is a back stabber"
That was it. I have grown to dislike certain things about Riri but getting her called by names , I wasn't gonna spare that.
"Whoa! I get it you don't like her but stop being a blabber!"
"I am not" He said calmly .... emotionless tone.... "You know shit about what's happening behind your back".
I snapped, "What do you mean?"
"You'll find it out.You have already got it at the back of your mind"
He got up without spending a minute more with me and hurried to leave.
I had homeworks piled up, couldn't finish revising everything i was supposed to since last week. I got back to my room around 1pm and sat down with all the notes and got drowned in them. I forgot how long i have been studying.
Mom called. It was 6pm.
"Ross couldn't reach you out, so he called me.Can you atleast call him back and let him know you are okay? He's worried". She disconnected.
She didn't ask about me , how was i doing or have i eaten, she called me to let me know that Ross is worried! Wow.
I opened my call history to find 11 missed calles from Ross and 1 from Alex. I switched on my internet and all the notifications popped down one after the another. Admit all , one thing caught my eye.
Alex forgot to bring his power bank, and his battery was dead, so he used my phone to login to his Instagram....but forgot to logout. It's been 6days since that , but i didn't open his account. Call it trust. However the notification that caught my eyes was a message from Riri *let's shift to wp to discuss about these stuffs or that drama queen is again gonna come up with something new* & the other message from Fred read *ou.. she's indeed hot!!*.
Anxiety took the the best turn in me when I tried opening Fred's chat.
Alex posted a pic of me, Riri in the middle and him on the side clicking a selfie on his feed to which Fred replied in his dm.
*Ahh! Stud trying out a new flavour*
*Uh huh. That's my girlfriend*
*Girlfriend??you serious dude?*
*Yeah*
*So...which one?*
*Middle one*
*Ou.. she's indeed hot!!*
Alex didn't see the last message, I did.