The Mistake

It was only after a while that Rhyme spoke anything. She was wrapped in Jay's arms while he played the guitar. She could feel his warmth. It felt cozy being wrapped in a pair of long and gentle arms. The feeling was surreal.

"Do you get it now?", Jay whispered in a slow and soothing voice into Rhyme's ears.

Rhyme was way too discomposed to give a reply. She just stood there hooked to the spot.

Jay then gently released Rhyme from the little cage formed by him and the guitar, and then kept the guitar back into the shelf.

"Let us learn some basics about playing a guitar before actually playing it. " Jay said after he returned the guitar to its original spot.

Rhyme was slowly becoming normal again. "Okay, let's do this" , she said in a cheerful voice.

The rest of the lecture, Jay taught the working of a guitar and some basic, easy notes which she wouldn't have any problem playing on the guitar in the next class.

"I really hope to see you soon again" Jay said while getting his stuff together before leaving the music room. And I also hope to see you every day, every minute every second of my life.... he thought, but wasn't yet able to speak it out loud.

"Me too" Rhyme said with a cute smile as she was standing near the door waiting for Jay to come out, so that they could leave together.

But why did she wanted to leave with him? She didn't knew it either. She wasn't very clear about her feelings yet.

As they left the music room together, they witnessed the beautiful evening. The sun was still visible at the horizon, red and fierce, with various colours like orange, pink, blue and red dancing over it. The atmosphere was very romantic. Jay wanted to do something but he hesitated, as he thought that it would be too early, as he had just met her that afternoon.

He gained the courage to ask just this much, "Would you teach me some math tomorrow? I've heard that you are the best when it comes to mathematics"

"Don't flatter me, I'm not that great at it. I have to see..... mm tomorrow...."

"Please?"

"Okay"

"Tomorrow morning, Junior's Cafe, 9am before class, is it fine?"

"Yeah"

Jay was more than delighted at the thought of meeting her again so soon.

Rhyme was also thinking of an excuse to see Jay again, but he asked her to meet him before she did. She too was looking forward to meeting the tall, handsome guy with the best hazel eyes in the whole world.

Jay then inconspicuously slipped his hand into Rhyme's hand while she was lost in some thoughts. They walked together, along the deserted balcony outside the music room, with an amazing view of an evening in Paris. Rhyme didn't notice this action of Jay, as she was busy embracing the beautiful view in front of her. Even after she realised that they were holding hands, she let him hold her hand in his huge hand. Their hands were gently intertwined into each other's.

"See you tomorrow then", Jay said as they reached the main gate of the school.

"Okay. Bye", Rhyme said as she tried to turn around to the opposite direction, so that she can get on the way to go back home, but she suddenly realised that they were still holding hands.

Jay definitely had a firm grip and he was feeling very flirty that day.

He pulled Rhyme back into his arms when she tried to turn around, and her head sunk into his chest, thanks to his tall height.

"What are you doing?" Rhyme whispered slowly, in a tense tone, but he hugged her even tighter at this question. Rhyme was shocked but she didn't back away this time too. This man sure is unpredictable, she thought.

"Nothing", he said, after a few seconds, "See you tomorrow" he said with a sweet (kinda satisfied) smile as he turned around and started walking on his way back home.

Rhyme stood there, still trying to process what was happening, but she too left, when Tervey came out and waved her a goodbye, after waving him back.

Tervey was astonished at the way Jay acted around Rhyme. He had never seen this side of Jay before. Jay was usually cold and rude to people around him. He had a very few friends. Only those friends knew that Jay was cold on the outside but a little toddler in a grown up teen's body.

Even Rhyme didn't knew why she didn't stop someone from entering her personal space bubble, that too getting so close and almost giving her a back hug. Rhyme was a very conservative person and she does not like people who invade her privacy in any way.

But this time, it was Jay. Was she falling for him?

Jay had never been involved with any girl before, and he himself didn't knew where the flirt came from. He just thought that he somehow wanted to get closer to Rhyme and become an important part of her life.

Future Rhyme spent a few more minutes seeing the setting sun from her school balcony, before deciding that she should return back to the time realm from where she came.

She held up her locket and it suddenly struck her, how does she return to the present??!!

Rhyme's eyes widened, pupils dilated, and her legs started shaking. She listened to each and every detail on how to enter into another time realm, but she forgot to ask how to get back to the time realm where she lives.

Mr. Robert said that it takes only one time capsule to make a round trip to the past or the future, so she was sure that she couldn't use another time capsule to get back there, as it might cause complications in that time realm, eventually having two Rhymes in that particular time realm.

Now it seemed like Mr. Robert explained her after everyone else, as she was the last one to join the team, but then forgot to explain how to get back to the present. He explained everything from how to set the latitude and longitude with the help of the respective dials on the time locket, and also told her exactly how to insert the time capsule in the socket present on the locket, but there was no mention of how to return back.

Whatever the case was, for now, Rhyme was stuck in the past.

Rhyme then took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. She had to somehow find a way to get out of here. She cannot be stuck into her past with nothing but a locket and a briefcase.

She even recalled the process of forming a chorisis to travel from one time realm to another, but it was of no use, as she wasn't able to think of a way she could get back. She even explored other options, like any physical means to turn the locket to its initial state and she got nothing else but disappointment.

As she was converted to dark matter, she didn't had the need to eat or drink to make her full, as she practically didn't exist. So, there was no issue of not having money to curb her hunger or thirst, but she didn't had any place to stay. She didn't even had anything else to do in this time realm. She even saw the memory which she wanted to witness again. There was nothing else to do.

It was a huge mistake. She could have been more careful. It wasn't a normal science experiment after all.

Stay tuned to find out if Rhyme could figure out a way to get back to her timeline.