Untitled

 
Chapter 1
As he gazed at her face while she was talking, Ray could not help but stare at her beautiful smile. A smile like none other, in his mind, he thought “This is the most beautiful smile I have ever seen in my life”. A smile he would do anything for. And as she talked, he started seeing other details of her face, and her actions. The twitch in her eye when her hair falls on her face. The way she would put that few strands of hair which landed on her eyes back behind her ears. The glow in her eyes when she would talk about something she loved. But more than anything, that smile. Ray was madly in love with that smile.
At 17 years old, this was the first time Ray had experienced something like this. This feeling of overwhelming rush. The feeling of caring about someone more than himself. Lisa was not someone he would characterize as the hottest girl he had ever seen. But she was no slouch either. Her naturally auburn hair with curls came running down till the palm of her neck. Her eyes were like magic. Lisa had Heterochromia, a medical condition where the color of both her eyes were different. Her left eye was a blue so deep, you could get lost inside it. Her right eye was a dark hazel, which could easily be mistaken for brown. But when the sun shone on her face, you could see just how beautiful her hazel eye looked. Ray had never seen someone like her. Her lips while full, were slightly cracked, and were bright pink, and when she smiled, Ray fell for her even more.
Lisa was of average height and medium build, and Ray was tall. At 6 feet, he was a towering hunk, but he was not athletic. With brunette hair, Ray looked good when he put an effort in his appearances, but he rarely did. Everytime Ray saw Lisa, he was transported to some other land in an instant. A land where he was alone with her for every waking moment. Ray had known Lisa for about 5 months now, and while it was evident to everyone around him, it took him that long to figure out that he had feelings for her.
As they were talking about what to study for the upcoming grade exams, Ray thought back to the time when he first realized that he had feelings for her. It was the first day of their college exams. 9 o’clock in the morning. Ray had just entered into the college campus with a book in his hands. He went and stood at a corner trying to read with all the noises around him. He was not a nerd, but always focused on his career. In the hoard of different colored t-shirts and dresses, Ray stood right next to the canteen when he happened to glance upon the entrance, and there she was. She entered with a couple friends, books in hand, smiling at the stupidest joke her friend had cracked. And Ray’s face lit up like a Christmas tree. Without even realizing it, Ray was grinning from ear to ear.
And that would have been the end of it. But in between the exams, suddenly Ray flashed back to her entrance. And he just sat there for a good five minutes smiling like an idiot, all the while imagining her smile. “Focus on the paper you idiot!” Ray caught telling himself when he realized it had been a good five minutes where he was spaced out. Something was wrong. Something was different. Ray realized there and then that she was no ordinary girl. It hit him, that he liked her.
“Are you even listening to what I am saying?” Lisa blurted out angrily when she saw that Ray had spaced out once again. “I am. Of course I am” replied Ray. But Lisa knew he was lying. “What was the answer to the third step of the differential equation we are solving again?” Ray did not know the answer, as he was flashing back to that day of college for a good fifteen minutes now. Even still, he blurted out, “Five to the power Minus Three”. “Lucky guess” Lisa muttered. “I know you weren’t paying attention. You promised you’d teach me this stuff. And so far, I don’t know a single thing. I am gonna flunk the test tomorrow.” Lisa said looking as if she was about to cry. “Hey. You know I’d never let that happen. I’ve got you covered Lisa” Ray said, trying to give assurance. Truth is, Ray knew she was not able to catch up with what he was teaching, but he still promised her that he would get her in good shape to get her to pass tomorrow’s test. Ofcourse what Lisa didn’t know, was that Ray was madly in love with her, and that Ray would do anything for her.
For the next four hours, Ray taught her everything he could about the subject. By the end of it, Ray knew that she would clear with ease. Ray and Lisa practically spent the entire day with each other every day, as they were in the same class in college, doing the same Bachelors, and even though they didn’t hang out in the same circles, they would always be on text with each other.
The next day, after the test was over, Lisa saw Ray and she ran towards him and hugged him tight. She had gotten a B+ in the test, all due to what Ray taught her. And looking at her happy, Ray was delighted as well. As he stood there hugging her, Ray could not help but smell her perfume. Her intoxicating perfume. It smelled of strawberries, with just a hint of daises mixed in. As Lisa was going back to her friends, she said, “I owe you one Ray! Thank you so much. I would have failed had it not been for you.” “Don’t sweat it.” Ray said, not knowing how to flirt at all.
To the onlookers, it seems quite evident that they both had feelings for each other, but Lisa was oblivious, and Ray was afraid. He had always been the shy, reserved guy, who did not have many friends. Whereas Lisa was the complete opposite. She was outgoing, bubbly, and had a lot of friends ever since school. Where Ray found difficulty in making friends, Lisa always found it easy, as it came naturally to her.
They had met on the first day of college, but it took them another 2 months to get talking. It was during a college project that they ended up in the same group, and with both of them being the smartest in the group, it fell on them to do most of the heavy lifting. Once they started talking, there was no stopping them. It was less than a couple weeks since they started talking, that they felt that they knew each other since years. Texting each other the whole day, from Good Morning, to Good Night, and talking on calls for hours on end every night, they quickly went from being acquaintances to friends, to best friends.