Some people fear being alone.
I fear being surrounded.
The noise, the gossip, the fake smiles — it's exhausting.
Silence is easier.
It doesn't ask for anything.
So when our teacher announced, "You'll be working in pairs for this project," I silently prayed I'd get someone quiet — someone invisible like me.
> "Aarav and… Meera."
Perfect.
Not even two seconds later, the classroom buzzed.
"She's gonna eat him alive."
"Poor guy."
I didn't even look up. I already knew who Meera Sharma was.
Everyone did.
The girl with the perfect hair and the loud laugh. The one people stared at even when she wasn't trying.
Half the boys in class had confessed to her. Half the girls whispered about her behind her back.
I didn't believe rumors, but I didn't like trouble either.
And Meera… was exactly that. Trouble with a smile.
---
When the bell rang, I was already halfway done packing my bag, hoping she'd forget we existed in the same classroom.
"Hey, partner."
I stopped. Of course not.
Meera stood next to my desk, sunlight spilling over her from the window. Her tie was slightly loose, her sleeves rolled up, and her expression way too confident for someone meeting an unwilling partner.
"Looks like we're stuck together," she said with a small grin.
"Seems like it," I muttered.
"You don't talk much, do you?"
"Not really."
"Good," she said cheerfully. "Then I'll do the talking."
I blinked. "Wait, what?"
She laughed softly, leaning against the desk in front of mine. "Relax. I'll handle the creative stuff. You look like the 'smart one.' It'll balance out."
She wasn't wrong, but I didn't like being predicted that easily.
"I prefer to work alone," I said flatly.
"Yeah, I figured," she replied, not offended in the slightest. "But since we don't have a choice… library, four o'clock tomorrow?"
I hesitated.
"I can't."
"Then when?"
"…Tomorrow's fine."
"Good," she said with a quick smile. "Don't ditch me. Or I'll hunt you down."
I sighed quietly. "That's encouraging."
---
After class, I walked out, wanting space to clear my head.
The corridors were still full of chatter. The sound bounced off the walls like a wave.
It wasn't that I disliked people — I just didn't get them.
Especially people like her.
Meera was everything I wasn't.
Open, social, reckless.
She spoke like the world was listening.
I preferred to think in silence, where no one could interrupt.
So why did her voice still echo in my head?
---
"Hey, Mr. Quiet!"
I turned.
She was walking beside me again — as if we'd been friends for years.
"You walk this way too?"
"Yeah," I said reluctantly.
"Cool. Now you can't run away tomorrow."
"I wasn't planning to."
"Sure you weren't."
She laughed lightly, brushing her hair away from her face. Her laugh was… strange. Not fake. Not forced. Just too loud for the evening air.
I looked straight ahead, pretending not to notice.
"So," she said suddenly, "you don't like me very much, huh?"
The question caught me off guard. "What?"
"You look like you'd rather do this project with the classroom wall."
"I didn't say that."
"You didn't have to."
Her tone was teasing, but her eyes — they searched my face as if she wanted to understand something.
Before I could think of a reply, she smiled again, brighter this time.
"Don't worry. I don't bite."
"I didn't think you did."
"Good. Then it's a deal. Tomorrow. Library. Four o'clock."
Then she added, half-jokingly,
> "It's a date— I mean, a project date!"
And before I could respond, she waved and ran ahead, hair bouncing in the warm sunset.
---
I stood there, staring after her.
I didn't feel love. Not attraction.
Just… something unfamiliar.
Annoyance, maybe. Confusion.
She was too different, too loud, too much.
But somehow, even after she was gone, I could still hear her voice echoing in my head.
I told myself it was nothing.
Just another partner. Just another project.
But deep down — beneath the quiet — something small had shifted.
And I didn't know why.
---