It Had To Be You

Chapter 5

I don't know how to react. I promised myself not to think so much about him, but now, the thought of him not being here feels like a hollow in my heart.

"Why? What's the problem?"
Alicia interrupts.
I stare at her for a minute and then look away. What do I say ?

"Hey, what's wrong?"
Alicia asks, concern in her voice.
In times like these, I realise how grateful I am to destiny for bringing Alicia in my life.
I still remember how we met...

It must have been the third standard when we both were in the same class. The teacher made us sit together.
This was the first impression that I got just from her appearance: She had a beautiful face and I felt like she was perfect-an all rounder. She had big charming green eyes. Her face was very sincere. She too was a brunette like me but she was fairer. Her hair was straight and smooth falling innocently on her forehead.
But...
When we sat together, she didn't speak to me at all as though she was least interested.
"Hi. My name is Melody. And your name is?" I asked her.

No reply.

"Did you hear me?"

Silence.

"What's wrong?"

Ignorance.

As a kid, this was like a slap  on my face. My ego has always been more powerful than my real sweet self. I decided not to speak to her ever. Now whatever happened while we sat together, whether my pen fell down or I needed her to move her chair for some reason, I never spoke.

Once, my eraser fell down and it was right under Alicia's chair. I stooped down to pick it up and she placed her foot on it. I looked at her in bewilderment. She didn't look at me but there was an expression of pride on her face. I felt as though she was Anastasia and I was Cinderella. This made me angry. I took it as a challenge to get my eraser back. In the middle of the lesson, I squatted down and with all my power tried to remove her foot from my eraser. She too, applied more force to resist my pull.
Soon after, we began fighting, a complete wild fight. We were pulling each other's hair and kicking each other. It became a matter of life and death, all for a small piece of rubber.

"You idiot!" Alicia cursed as I pulled her ponytail.

"You deserve this" I grumbled.

The teacher had to intervene and stop us. When she pulled us away, we were panting and glaring at each other.
"Come on now, say sorry to each other." The teacher said.
None of us spoke.
The teacher made us hold each other's hands in a gesture of a deal. A few minutes passed, none of us spoke anything. Both holding on to their prides.

"I am sorry." Alicia said at last.
"It was my fault." She surrendered.
Her sincere apology made me surrender too.

"I am also sorry." I apologised.

"Good girls. Now get back to your seats." The teacher said.