I stayed in the kitchen, cutting peppers and onions in preparation for dinner. I had asked Melanie to join me in cooking dinner, but she had declined, claiming she was tired. I knew she just wanted me to leave so she could continue whatever she was doing on her system. It was weird, though, because Melanie never declined to cook with me any time I asked. We always prepare our meals together.
She had been acting a bit strange from our discussion in the restaurant. I couldn't figure out why she worked strangely because I did not remember doing anything wrong.
Except if I had said something that upset her, but I didn't know it did. I thought back to our discussion, trying to remember what I had been told that bothered her.
At the restaurant, her bright, happy mood had changed to a somewhat gloomy one.
She had become quieter as the date progressed. But I had thought it was simply because she wanted to focus on the delicious dinner.
When we got to the car, she was still reticent. And when I started driving us home, that was when I noticed that something was genuinely wrong. She was not her usual chatty self.
And even when I reached my right hand for her thigh and started to caress it, just as she liked it, she had coughed slightly and stylishly taken my hand off. Then she started talking about something entirely different that might not be suitable for a romantic atmosphere. So, all carnal thoughts left my head, and I stopped trying to 'touch' her. I had even wanted to ask her if something was wrong or if I had done something wrong. But I stopped myself because if I did, there would be something wrong, and she would have more reason to be mad at me. I was not ready for a quarrel this evening.
Now that we were home, Melanie had utterly ignored me, immediately gone into the bedroom, and started doing something on her laptop. I had waited almost two hours for her to get downstairs, but since she didn't, I went up to meet her.
She was so focused on her scrolling that she did not hear me come from behind. I saw that she was on Instagram and was scrolling through someone's account. The person looked familiar, but then she turned her head.
"Baby," I had called her.
She had looked back and replied. I had gone ahead and kissed her. Then I told her about my parents and how I wanted her to meet them. She had at least seemed excited and interested in what I had just said. She told me she would be happy to go with me.
I noticed the images on the laptop again. They still looked familiar. I wanted to look more to see what it was, but she hurriedly shut the computer, smiling at me sheepishly. I knew she didn't want me to know what she was doing, so I didn't proceed further, even though I was inquisitive.
Then I asked her to join me in the kitchen, but she declined. And now here I was, slicing tomatoes alone and wondering what I could have done wrong.
I decided to make omelet as well.
I was cooking the egg with too much force and it ended up falling to the floor. I hurried to pick it up but it had some dirt smeared on it.
The scene of the omelet falling on the floor reminded me of a scene of years ago- during my freshman year; that day when I was just a freshman hurrying to class with my lunch and I had bumped into Melanie and my lunch had fallen to the floor, the omelet I had made that morning lying miserably on the ground.
We had both bent to pick the poor lunchbox up and then our heads bumped into each other. I winced and looked up to see who it was.
It was a girl with long hair and the most gorgeous eyes I had ever seen in my life.
"Sorry about this," Melanie apologized about the egg.
I was lost staring at her and did not reply on time.
"Oh…It is okay," I replied.
"I don't think you can still eat this omelet. What a shame. And it looks like it would have tasted good," Melanie said.
"Yeah," I said, trying not too sound too pained.
"Why don't I buy you lunch? There's a cafeteria not far from here. I can buy you lunch to make up for ruining your meal."
"Really?"
"Yes," Melanie said.
We left together to have lunch at the cafeteria and it was at that place that she told me that her name was Melanie.
That was our first meeting together.
Now looking at my miserable omelet lying on the kitchen floor, I smiled to myself and continued thinking about our interactions in college.
Flashback
The classes for the day had ended. The class I had just had, Introduction to Mechanical Engineering, had a difficult professor in charge of the class.
He yelled on and on about how he had worked extra hard to reach where he had reached today and how we youths and students of this generation were the laziest things.
I didn't hear anything useful in the lecture. The only thing he spoke of was his achievements in his years of teaching. And after almost two hours of boasting, he slammed us with a very difficult assignment.
But then I saw Melanie standing at one of the doors of the large halls, talking to her friends. We had only resumed college for a few weeks and she had made so many friends already. I felt a bit jealous. I had not made any friends at college at all, aside from my hostel mates, and none were in my department.
I passed by her. Melanie was in the middle of a conversation with a group of girls and boys, yet she noticed me passing by and smiled at me. I nodded in greeting as a response and walked past him.
I didn't see Melanie again until the next class. I happened to sit beside her that day. She smiled at me with his soulful eyes that seemed to draw you in when you looked.
"Hey, you are the one I bumped into the other day."
"Yes, it is me."
"How're you doing?" she asked.
"Cool. You?"
"I'm great. How's college for you?"
"Well, college's not been bad. The system is more advanced than that of the traditional high school but I'm adapting," I said.
Melanie chuckled, her dimples etching deep into his cheeks.
"I'm just so excited to be here," she said.
She seemed excited. Just here, bursting with all this energy.
Everyone was excited to be here though. It was Yale University, one of the best in America, and in the world. I just wasn't someone who got excited about things.
And no, I wasn't some loner or antisocial kid with no friends. I was quite normal, just calm.
The lecturer entered the class and started to lecture.
All through the lecture, Melanie kept poking fun at the lecturer and our classmates.
I could barely listen but I was not complaining. Melanie was quite funny.
"Look at the lecturer's shoe, it seems he's been wearing it since the start of time!"
"Why's our class rep dozing off so soon? I guess the class truly is boring?"
"What's that catastrophe on Dave's head pretending to be hair?"