Chapter 13 - Past

“What about you?” William asked.

Rosaline was not sure what he was asking. “What about me?”

He asked clearly. “Are you on vacation? Or in the middle of something?”

“What made you say that?”

“Last night, it looked like you had your entire time planned, and we kind of messed it up.” 

“Kind of?”

“Well”

“Hahaha!” William was mesmerized by her laughter.

But he looked towards the pool instead to ensure she did not notice. 

“I finished college and will be working soon. So yeah, six weeks of break before that.” 

“It looks like you earned it.” 

“The internship and thesis wore me out. I can get a little too caught up while working. So, I wanted to give myself a break, catch up with everyone, and enjoy my brother’s wedding.” 

“What a coincidence! I am on a two months break. Just finishing up things before heading back to work again. Helping with Ria’s wedding.”

Rosaline smiled, and they both stayed quiet for a while.

Rosaline’s mood visibly improved. 

After what felt like forever and no time, Rosaline enquired, “what happened after you got into trouble?”

“What do you mean?”

“You must have rubbed her the wrong way for that girl to carry a grudge for over a decade.”

William smiled for a few seconds before he rattled the entire truth. 

Her full name is Supriya Lantz.

A few months younger than me. We went to the same preschool. One day Ria brought her home and introduced her to everyone. Ria was thrilled that she had a similar name.

When her mom came to pick her up, we found my mom and her mom were friends in college. So we all hung out a lot.

Ria was used to following me around. After a few days, Supriya started doing the same. Except, I was not very happy about it. Somehow I never liked her.

I did not want to bother Ria, so I played with Ria when no one was around. Whenever Supriya showed up, I made some excuse and shut myself in my room.

Even that young, she was exceedingly sensitive and caught up to what I was doing within a month. Even my mom was not aware of it. I did not know that she knew.

Around that time, Ria started making trouble - like breaking someone’s window or stealing nonsensical things only to throw them away in another corner, puncturing someone’s bicycle.

After it transpired a few times, I coaxed Ria and got the whole truth about all the incidents. It was Supriya who had instigated all of it.

Then, I kind of asked Ria to role-play as a game. I told her not to tell Supriya about it.

I followed them secretly and heard her murmur that she would force me to see her one way or the other.

It was then I realized her motive. She was only eight years old at that time.

I told Ria to cut off with her and not play with her at all. I even threatened to never play with her if she lied to me or made trouble again. That ended their friendship.

We were in the same preschool, so she found other ways to bug me. That went on for a year before I transferred to Military school.

I could only come home twice a year. I sort of forgot about Supriya in time.

She has built a decent image in front of my family. My mother, especially, really likes her a lot, even now.

After a year in school, I was back for a 2-week vacation.

She tried to approach me, but I shut her out completely.

One day Ria teased me about how Supriya was always hovering around me. I scoffed that it would be too early if I saw her again after five lifetimes.

We did not realize she had heard it.

A few months later, she sneaked inside my school with a love letter and deliberately got caught.

She was ten years old at that time.

The love letter was quite misleading. It read like I was practically stalking her, had secretly kissed her, written her several letters, threatened her if she did not reply, etc. My head lecturer showed it to me and was frankly quite disappointed. They called in both our parents. 

While we waited for our parents, she told me she would make it all go away if I dated her for real and did as she bid.

She mocked me that she would decide if and when we should meet - in five days or five lifetimes.

When our parents arrived, they clarified the whole thing. Her mother requested to hush it up since it’d affect a girl’s reputation.

She promised to keep her off me. So, we all agreed. 

My punishment was running ten laps every morning and evening daily for 30 days and only one-half of dinner or lunch for 60 days.

Since I was proven innocent, I did not have to do it, and it would not get recorded in my profile.

I still did the punishment. I guess accepting the punishment pushed it too far.