6 Curious

As soon as I left the auditorium, I headed towards our school canteen. Our canteen is a big room, spacious and well equipped. I looked around for Rachel and heard her call my name from behind.

"Jessicaaaaaa .....Jessicaaaa !!!" I turned in the direction from where I could hear her voice.

"I'm here, come fast," she waved both of her hands at me and had an excited look on her face  while she called me. She called me so loud that people who sat near the table while having their lunch looked at her and then at me with a strange and unusual look. I looked at the floor and tried to avoid people's gazes upon me out of embarrassment, I went and sat where Rachel was seated.

"Where have you been? I was waiting for you," she huffed.

"Actually I.... when I was talking to Justin ...." before I could even complete my sentence she cut me down," oohhoo!! Forget about that Justin, listen to what I'm saying."

I smiled and allowed her to continue. She cleared her throat.

"His name is Austin Ames...." she said before placing both of her hands on the table and looked into my eyes with a proud smile on her face as if she has achieved a trophy.

I turned my head to my right side  and let out a small chuckle and told her to continue.

Pausing for a second, she continued," he is a transferred student,D.O.B :16-02-1994."

'160294'

I repeated those numbers  in my mind  and smiled. At that time, the thirteen year old me didn't know  that I would use his birthday as my password. Silly me, I know.

"Justin  and Austin are good  friends as his father and your uncle  are business partners and also they are  good friends."

"No wonder," I said out loud as I thought how he came to know my name. It must've been Justin who told about me to him, I concluded.

I was surprised at her information and said no wonder. Rachel looked at me with a confused look, the girl didn't understand what was going on my mind. "No wonder ?" she asked, her eyebrows creased together. After taking a deep breathe, I told   her what had happened in the auditorium and I avoided an eye contact with her as I was blushing for obvious reasons. After narrating her about every single detail, I looked at her and saw  that both of her hands which were on the table now covered her mouth in awe.

"I was not with you just for thirty minutes minutes and so many things had  happened?!" she exclaimed.

I giggled and replied with a  yes.

"It makes sense now," I told her biting my lips.

"Sense? What nonsense !! Speak like humans do," she demanded.

"When I heard him calling my name in a casual tone, I was surprised and started to think how he knew my name  and after you told me that he is a very good friend of my cousin, I thought  Justin must've told him about me."

"Ahaan!! Understood," she said and rubbed her chin.

The very next moment, we both laughed in unison for no reason  when we looked at each other and then we received unknown stress which we ignored as always.

Days passed, seasons changed as my feelings for him grew day by day without my knowledge. Even after five months had  passed, I continued to see him at least once in a day. It was in the month of December.  Rachel and I  were walking in our school ground during lunch hour.

I saw Austin while he was speaking to few guys  and he was laughing with his hands in his pockets as always, Justin was there too.

"What  do you think made him laugh?"  I asked her curiously while my eyes were on one particular person in the circle of crowded boys.

"Why don't you just go and ask him, Jess," she replied sarcastically without even looking at me, she was busy with her chips packet and stuffed them into her mouth but somehow she managed to speak with the chips in her mouth.

I cocked my head to her side and  crossed my arms against my chest, I glared at her and waited for her to look at me.

"For god sake !!! stop admiring me," she said, finally she turned her head to my side.

"Not even in your dreams," I said and tilted my head in the direction where Austin and Justin stood and to my horror, I saw them walking in our way.

"They are coming in  our way, Shit Shit!!" I told her and  grabbed her hand and  walked  faster.

"Wait, I'm not able to eat my chips, they are falling down and by the way why are we leaving? why don't you just smile at him and try talking to him?" she asked me and took out more chips from the packet and stuffed them into  her mouth  again.

"Okay, I'll try talking to him next time and for now let's just go somewhere and sit under shade just like you wanted," I replied.

"God should only know when that next time would  be, you've been telling this dialogue since past five months. I'm tired of it now," she replied in nonchalance, her attention was only on her chips.

My heart would start to  beat fast whenever I saw him, my body would become hot and my cheeks would turn red. All those five  months,   I spoke to him twice or thrice  and I always  replied  looking everywhere but not him. I tried to look at him and talk to him whenever I used to meet him and Justin but then I could never look at him. After few days I had my  had my mid term examination in which I didn't do well and then we got holidays for few days.

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At first, Jessica used his birth date as a password only to her diary but as days passed she  started using those  particular digits as her password in everything.

'I  might not be able to talk  to him looking at his eyes even now if I see him again, I guess,!' Jessica thought and turned the page and continued to read the contents in the next page.