She Fell First but He Never Did!!
The Smile That Pulled Me In...
The corridors buzzed with unfamiliar voices....
New footsteps. New faces. New beginnings...
Meihika clutched her journal tighter to her chest, her fingers pressing into its worn leather like it could somehow protect her from the overwhelming chaos of her first day in college...
She walked with her head slightly down, avoiding eye contact, lips murmuring her class schedule like a whispered prayer...
Books slipped from her hands with a dull thud against the floor...
Her apology stopped mid-air...
Because when her eyes met his, the world paused...
He wasn’t just a senior...
Tall. Composed.... Wearing a white shirt rolled to the elbows and that kind of effortless confidence people try to mimic but never quite master!!
But it wasn’t his face that undid her...
A dusky brown with gold flecks, the kind that didn’t look at you, but into you...
Eyes that saw too much...
Eyes that stayed even after you walked away...
He asked softly, crouching down to help her gather her things...
His voice was low, almost lazy like velvet laced with indifference...
Meihika blinked, flustered...
Meihika
I wasn’t looking... I should’ve—thank you....
Their hands brushed as he handed her a notebook...
But it was enough to set off a storm in her chest...
As if she was a puzzle...
As if he’d never seen a girl with trembling fingers and wide, unsure eyes before...
He said, almost stating it as a fact rather than a question...
Meihika
**nodded**
First year. English Lit...
He raised an eyebrow, a slight tilt of amusement in his smirk...
Veer
Figures... Literature girls always bump into people and apologize twice!!
Meihika
**Her cheeks flushed**
I’m not— I mean, not all the time. It was just—
Veer
**He chuckled**
Relax. I was just teasing...
But crooked, lopsided, and criminally calm...
Like he knew the effect he had on people...
Like he had done this before made hearts skip and knees weaken without even trying...
Veer
I’m Veer...
**he added, offering his hand**
Meihika
**She hesitated a second too long before shaking it**
Meihika...
Veer
Pretty name...
**he said, letting go**
Too soon for how her fingers already missed the warmth...
And just like that, the spell broke...
People walked past them again...The air moved...
The moment faded, but not entirely...
Meihika
I should... get to class!!
She whispered, pulling her journal against her again like armor...
Veer
Right, Don’t let your first lecture slip by because of me...
**he teased, stepping aside with casual grace**
Meihika
**She nodded**
Thanks. For the books...
And this time, it was slower...
More like a goodbye than a greeting...
She turned and walked away, each step feeling like it was pulling her further from something she hadn’t even grasped yet...
And yet... she didn’t turn around...Not even once...
But if she had....She would’ve seen that he was still watching!!
She sat near the window, pen poised above a blank page, but all she could think of was him...
Even his name sounded like a poem she'd write when it rains...
She hated herself for how fast it happened...
For how her heart betrayed her logic...
For how one glance had become a memory she kept revisiting within an hour...
Meihika
Stop being dramatic...
**she scolded herself under her breath**
But then, her fingers moved on instinct writing in the corner of her page...
[There are eyes that look at you.... And then there are eyes that stop time...]
Her friends were chatting about professors and assignments and café food, but Meihika stayed quiet...
Her thoughts weren’t in the present...
They were trapped in a single smile, a single gaze...
A storm was growing inside her soft and slow...
The kind you don’t realize has wrecked everything until you’re already under the rubble...
Because something in her had shifted....
Not everything. Not yet....But something...
Hazel [AUTHOR]
(That’s how it starts, doesn’t it?)
Love never arrives with fireworks...
It begins with a glance...
As she walked back through the corridor alone that evening, her footsteps echoed against the quiet walls...
She wasn’t expecting to see him again...
But fate’s cruel that way...
Leaning against the railing of the open balcony outside the library, phone in one hand, cigarette in the other though he didn’t light it...
He saw her before she saw him...
Veer
Hey, Literature Girl...
**he called out casually**
Meihika
**Turned to him**
Oh. Hi..?
Veer
You survived your first day, I see...
Meihika
Barely...
**she smiled, heart hammering louder than her voice**
Veer
Skipped the dramatic exit at least...
Meihika
**She laughed**
Saving it for second semester...
He watched her with that unreadable look again...
Veer
I’ll see you around, Meihika...
But her heart whispered, I hope so....
And he didn’t follow...He didn’t stop her...
But neither of them knew —
That this was the start of something...
Because she already felt the ache blooming in her chest...
He just watched her walk away...
The one that pulled her in...
And would someday destroy her...
Made of Glances and Almosts
Each one measured not by classes or hours... But by absence.
And Meihika had tried not to care...
She convinced herself he was probably busy...
Maybe their paths weren’t meant to cross again...
Maybe that brief moment in the corridor was just that a moment...
But hearts don’t follow logic...
Especially not the kind of heart Meihika had soft, poetic, easily bruised...
Still… she showed up to campus every day with her journal tucked in her bag, her eyes casually scanning the corridors, the benches, the entrance gate hoping, waiting...
That one cursed, beautiful day...
The library was unusually silent the kind of silence that felt sacred. Heavy. Measured...
The golden hour sunlight spilled through the tall arched windows, painting the wooden tables in patches of honey and dust...
Meihika stepped in quietly, holding a list of books she barely remembered borrowing...
Seated by the window, one arm stretched lazily across the back of his chair, the other resting on a thick law book that looked untouched...
He was just... existing...
In that effortless, dangerous way of his like he owned every room he sat in...
Her breath caught before she could stop it...
She quickly looked away, pretending to search the shelves...
She found a table far enough that he wouldn’t notice her, but close enough that she could still see him...
A few rows in front, slightly off to the side...
Watching him between paragraphs...
Veer tapped a pen against the table, his gaze occasionally flickering to the people around...
His eyes locked on hers...
As if he was waiting for her to look...
As if he knew she’d look...
Meihika's spine stiffened...She looked down immediately, cheeks blooming crimson.
Her fingers clutched the page too tightly...
When she glanced back up he was smirking...
Like he was in on a secret she hadn’t confessed yet...
She told herself not to look again...
But curiosity is just another name for falling...
He leaned back in his chair, legs stretched out casually, flipping pages without reading them...
And for the next ten minutes, he didn't take his eyes off her...
Every now and then when he knew she was peeking he'd tilt his head, raise his brow slightly, and then look away just long enough to make her crave the next glance...
And she was losing it, beautifully...
She tried to read, but the words blurred...Her heart was louder than her thoughts...
And then just as she was gathering her things to leave a shadow fell across her table...
Veer
Leaving already?
**he asked, voice soft, low. Measured**
Meihika
I— yeah. I’ve been here a while..
**she said, blinking up at him**
He nodded, then pulled the chair beside her and sat down uninvited, unapologetic, completely sure she wouldn’t ask him to leave...
Veer
Didn’t see you around lately...
**he said, casually flipping through her notebook, not asking if he could**
Meihika
You were looking?
**she blurted, immediately regretting the crack in her voice**
Veer
**He smirked**
Maybe...
Meihika
**heart stuttered**
That one word... maybe...So cruel...So sweet...
So full of nothing and everything...
Veer
**He pointed to her notes**
You write a lot. Are these… poems?
Meihika
Sometimes...
**she said quietly**
Meihika
**She hesitated**
I— they’re not that good...
Veer
**He leaned closer, voice just above a whisper**
Then I’ll pretend they are...
Meihika
**She almost laughed**
But instead, she flipped to a page one of the safe ones...
Her voice was soft as she read....
Meihika
[He didn’t say he loved her.
He just looked long enough
for her to believe it...]
She looked up, instantly regretting reading that one...
But he was staring at her again...This time without a smirk.
Just… watching. Quiet. Unreadable.
Veer
That one...
**he said slowly**
—was good...
Meihika
**She bit her lip**
It’s not about anyone, I swear...
Veer
**He tilted his head**
Did I ask if it was?
Veer
But you're scared I’ll think it is...
Veer
**He leaned back, arms folded now**
You’re interesting, you know that?
She didn’t know what to say. So she didn’t...
Veer
**He stood up, slow and calm like always**
I'll see you around, Literature Girl...
Sat at the empty table for twenty more minutes...
Tracing where his fingers had touched the page...
Trying not to smile...Trying not to fall...
Meihika’s journal entry...
[He didn’t touch me...
He didn’t hold my hand...
He didn’t say anything a man says when he’s falling in love...
But he looked...
And smiled...
And asked...
And God, it was enough to ruin me...]
Because what she didn’t know yet was—
And sometimes… that’s the most dangerous thing of all...
Hazel [AUTHOR]
I hope you like this short story...
The Cruelity of Hope!!
A soft, lazy silence wrapped around the campus like a warm shawl...
The kind of day that made even the wind forget how to rush...
Meihika didn’t have classes...
But something inside her tugged gentle, persistent—until she found herself at the library again...
Maybe it was hope pretending to be coincidence...
She picked a quiet corner seat, hidden away behind tall stacks of books, facing the window where sunlight dripped like spilled gold...
She wasn't looking for him... No, truly, she wasn’t.
At least not this time...
She took out her books, opened her journal, and drowned herself in words...
Two hours passed in silence... Pages turned... Pens glided... Her tea cooled beside her!!
Somehow, even before she saw him she knew...
Meihika
**Her skin prickled**
Meihika
**Her breath caught**
And then she lifted her eyes...
Wearing black... Hands in pockets... That same unreadable calm painted across his face like a masterpiece of indifference!!
He was walking towards her....
Their eyes met across the quiet room...
He saw her... And still… he looked away...
Only to take the seat directly in front of her...
One table away...Facing her...
Close enough to notice the shade of her eyes...
Far enough to say it wasn’t intentional...
She tried... Oh, she tried not to look...
He sat there, pretending to read turning pages he didn’t glance at, drumming his fingers against the wood, his lashes lowering just enough to look sinful every time he peeked up at her...
Meihika
**dared a glance**
And then he looked away... Slowly... As if letting go of a secret....
Minutes passed like molasses...
They didn’t smile... Just… eyes.
Veer
**His gaze flickered again**
And this time his smile came with it...
A half-curve...Soft...Dangerous...Made of “maybe” and “what if.”
Hazel [AUTHOR]
[Like he was saying, I see you...I feel you... And also, But I won’t say it...]
Meihika swallowed hard, her fingers trembling slightly as she underlined a sentence in her book she wasn’t reading...
Hazel [AUTHOR]
[He gave her attention in pieces...]
Hazel [AUTHOR]
[Was that it?]
Hazel [AUTHOR]
[Was she just a pastime?]
Hazel [AUTHOR]
[A weekend distraction?]
Hazel [AUTHOR]
[Then why did he look at her like that?]
Hazel [AUTHOR]
[Like she was sunlight on the edge of winter.]
After a while he stood up...
Meihika
**Her heart dropped**
He walked around the table… and sat beside her...
Not across... Not diagonally.... Beside.
Veer
Reading anything good?
His voice was a whisper... Measured... Lazy... Like velvet smoke...
Meihika
**She blinked, startled**
Trying to...
Veer
Not trying hard enough...
**he teased**
Meihika
**She smiled, nervously, her heartbeat galloping against her ribs**
Veer
I thought you liked sitting by the window...
Meihika
I do...
**she murmured**
Veer
Then why this dark corner?
**His eyes burned into her**
Meihika
**She shrugged, whispering**
Sometimes I don’t want to be seen...
Veer
**He leaned closer, voice low**
And yet I still found you...
That single sentence—it undid her...
They didn’t speak for a while... Just sat... Breathing...Existing...
Meihika
**She focused on her book**
He didn’t touch her... But his presence was loud...
And then... A brush of fingers...
Their hands met as they reached for the same pen lying on the table between them...
Veer
**He picked it up, Handed it to her**
But his fingers lingered...A second too long...
Meihika
**Her skin sizzled**
Her soul?... It imagined a future.
Veer
I like your handwriting...
**he said suddenly, looking at her notes**
Meihika
**She smiled shyly**
Thank you...
Veer
You always write in cursive?
Meihika
Only when I’m not thinking...
Veer
**He chuckled**
That must be rare, You think too much...
He turned his face toward her... Closer than before...
Veer
You bite your lip when you overthink...You’ve done it five times since I sat down!!
Meihika
**She flushed**
You count?
Veer
I notice...
**He said it with a shrug**
But it hit her like a confession...He notices her...He sees her...
Or maybe... He just knows how to make her believe he does
Their arms rested inches apart...His shoulder brushed hers when he leaned to check the time!!
Hazel [AUTHOR]
[It was nothing...]
Hazel [AUTHOR]
[It was everything...]
Finally, after what felt like an entire lifetime packed into fifteen minutes, he stood up again...
Veer
Same time next Saturday?
**he asked casually, slinging his bag over his shoulder**
Meihika
Maybe...
**she replied, smiling like an idiot**
Veer
**He winked then walked away**
And Meihika sat there...Still...Silent...
Her book forgotten...Her tea cold... Her heart… foolishly loud...
That night, she wrote in her journal...
[You didn’t promise me forever...
You didn’t say love...
You didn’t say anything at all...
But your eyes…
God, your eyes lied so beautifully...
And I keep believing them...
Because hope wears your smile...
And I’m too in love with both...]
But what she didn’t know was…
He knew she was imagining things...
He knew she was building stories in her head...
Because it felt good to be adored...
To be looked at like the sky...
Even if he never planned to land...
Because Veer was never falling...
He was just… enjoying the view...While she plummeted...
One cruel whisper that sounded like something it wasn’t...
I hope u are liking it...
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![Hazel [AUTHOR]](https://up-pic.mangatoon.mobi/contribute/fiction/11452010/avatar/49928807/1754586510303.jpeg-s200webp?sign=22315cef012e0205551547ab4419b41e&t=68adc878)
