Someone said once to me, "Our lives are like that of those cliché online novels we read on our way to work. It is sweet, cringy, and full of unbelievable scenes and angst that make readers scream at their phones."
Back then, I had just laughed it off, for how crazy it sounded, but now, I would frame it on my wall as a constant reminder of my love story. To tell you why, I must take you back in time, when it all started with a little crush over a guy and snowballed into something crazy.
All my life, I never had any motivation to do something other kids of my age did.
While my peers were obsessed with music that played on the radio in a loop and sang it in class the next day, I would listen to underrated musicians and gatekeep them. While my friends would watch the latest movies and hit the movie theatres together, I would wait for the same movie to play on the TV and watch with my family. While my benchmate would talk endlessly about her celebrity crushes, I would read the craziest, dark-themed novels beside her.
I was never the person who blended in with the crowd; I stood out.
Not because I wanted to.
Because I never understood the social trends of the time. Not like I still do, but back then, it was worse.
My peers would come to school in fashionable hairdos, and I would come with two Dutch braids and hair slicked back and held together with numerous hairpins that sometimes scratched my scalp and thick oil that gleamed in classroom lights.
And at the young age of ten, standing out was an open invitation to all the bullies. When I say bullies, I don't mean the ones who tease you with cute banter. No, these were real mean ones. The ones who could make you cry.
"Hey old maid, you look like no one will date you." The boys would laugh at me.
"Stay away from us, you nerdy freak." The girls would avoid me.
Then, as usual, any other person would say, "Get a friend; make friends of your age. They are picking on you because you don't have any friends. Talk to other kids of your age."
I, really, would like to show such people that making friends isn't an easy job when you stand out and have parental restrictions on not being friends with quite a lot of girls because 'they don't study' or 'they aren't academically studious enough' or any Asian parent's favourite – 'they look like the bad lot; stay away from them'.
"Hey, you look like the kind of person teachers would love to make a role model out of. We can't be friends with you. It's suffocating. We need someone cooler, not this." The girls would keep a metre's distance from me.
"It doesn't matter to me," I told myself.
"I am not like them. I always knew I was meant for something bigger and better from them." I kept telling myself.
A director gives the villain's role to the most seasoned actor, as it's the most difficult thing to be different from others.
And I happened to be the most experienced actor in this realm, for I have portrayed everyone's antagonist in the narrative.
Did I care?
No, I loved being someone's villain of the story. It made me feel important, for a hero needs a group of his trusted members to stand against one villain, indirectly showing how weak a hero is against one person he is supposed to fight against.
By now, you might have realised, I love villains, especially if they are women.
Why shouldn't one love them? Why shouldn't a woman be strategic, calculative, and selfish in life? That too, in this economy, everyone should be selfish. Everyone should be calculative. Everyone should be strategic.
Anyways, just as I thought I was used to being alone, I met someone who changed my life for the better.
It was a usual lunch break in the first month after school reopening. We had been shuffled into new classes and everyone was still in the introduction phase. All the boys in my class left for the football ground to play and most of the girls took their lunch boxes with a picnic blanket and leaving for the golf course to eat their lunch. The summer heat had made everyone excited to go out. The only people left in the class were a girl who was quite favoured by the teachers due to her older sibling and me. The outcasts who didn't give a shit about becoming part of the social environment. That girl didn't care whether the person opposite to her was an idiot or a genius; as long as that person interrupted her peace, she would put them in their place instantly. She never smiled, not even at a cringe joke out of politeness.
She was sitting in her seat during our fifty-minute lunch break, quietly humming an underrated song that blew up in the far future, and was writing the lyrics of the song in her tiny black diary, which had a small lock to lock it. The sunlight made her short, brunette hair turn into an orangish-brown ball of flame. She quickly fixed her black-rimmed glasses and locked herself into the vibe of the song.
She was sitting alone, with her lunchbox open and half-eaten lunch. Mustering all the courage of finding out a fellow fan of the musician, I took my lunchbox and asked, "Is that... Do you like that song too?"
She looked up from her notebook and said, "You know CJ?"
"Yeah, been a fan of his for a very long time. I love his first album – See For Yourself. Especially his side track – 'All My Life'". I geeked out, for I finally found someone to talk about my obsession with his music. I sat down next to her and opened my lunchbox. She closed her notebook and made space for me.
"Hi, my name is Katerina." I introduced myself and readjusted my glasses.
"Hi, I am Aveni. Nice to meet you." Aveni said, and smiled for the first time. "Want to try my mother's paneer? She really makes them amazing." She offered.
"Do you want to try my father's chicken pulao? It's really amazing," I assured her.
"Damn, it's really fucking good!" Aveni exclaimed and quickly tensed up, pursing her lips. She cursed without thinking twice. She looked at my face, waiting for judgement. After all, we were a bunch of ten-year-olds in a school. You wouldn't expect us to speak profanity.
"I told you. My dad is a really good cook." I said without skipping a single beat, not minding her language. I had an even worse mouth than her. All that dark-themed stuff really made me indifferent to profanity.
Aveni relaxed and took another spoonful of rice from the box.
And that's how, ladies and gentlemen, we became the best of best friends. Like 'ride or die' best friends.