The Ocean

Chapter 21

--- 2 months later ---

It's been a while now. Serena.. the girl I loved... I couldn't have her, and it was my mistake. Not confronting my own feelings at the right time was the biggest mistake I had ever done.

Things are not the same anymore. After that night, Serena and I hardly talked anymore. I didn't even see her again when school started and we were promoted to class 8 after the summer break. I really miss the time when we both used to hang out together during recess and play like little kids. Looking back on it now, it all felt like a dream.

A dream that meant nothing. A dream that only brought pain when broken.

My life turned upside down horribly. For some reason, people think I'm a depressed jerk, and they avoid me most of the times. Not many people talk to me, and out of the ones who do, none are real friends. I hardly have anyone left in my class that actually thinks of me as a friend. Snakey, huh? Well, he sort of found new friends. Cool ones. He then abandoned me because the cool kids didn't want a loser like me around.

I still ace my tests, but I have no friends. And it absolutely sucks. I spend most of my time reading books in the library, and don't talk much with anyone. I really hope this changes, though. It's not been much long since school started again anyway. 2 weeks, that's all. I hope I find new friends as time passes.

The seniors are still nice to me. Arya and Sydney are my best friends, and they never make fun of me. They think I'm a nice guy, and they even invite me to their class to have my tiffin there sometimes in the recess. Only thing is, they are around only in the recess. Rest of the day, I'm all alone.

How I wish things could go back to how they were a few months ago... when Serena and I were still best friends.

...

The school bus was moving a bit too much and I was trying my best to avoid my head hitting window glass. It was monsoon, and there was a slight drizzle going on. The window didn't close fully because of a dent in the metal over which the glass slided, and that left a small opening, around a centimeter wide, through which small drops of water came and landed on my face. It wasn't bad though, and I kinda enjoyed it. With no one to talk with, that's the best you can hope for in a weather like this.

The bus stopped at a place around 2 kilometres away from my bus stop, and I think I knew who was gonna come in. It was just a faint memory, though, and I couldn't remember much. I held my gaze at the bus door, and waited for the person to board the bus.

She boarded the bus and immediately met my eye. She recognised me and smiled at me. I felt kinda awkward, I don't know why. She then came and got seated on the seat beside me. "Sup, Ray?"

"Hey, Penny."