Ella was a final year undergrad student, top of her class. Shy, introvert, she mostly just kept to herself. You could always find her buried in her books or with her only friend, Noreen. Ella wasn’t very good at talking with people, but her scripts would speak volumes of her magic with words. She enjoyed being the playwright of the dramatic society. That was the one place she could let her imagination run wild. Everything was going great for Ella. That is until Ryan entered her life.
Never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined falling for the irritating guy she called her friend. No, it wasn’t love at first sight, more like an annoyance. But something changed. Maybe it was the first fight, or the endless discussions on their drama club scripts, or the disagreements on the littlest things possible, or the constant banter between the two. It is difficult to tell the exact moment her feelings changed, but nothing was ever the same again.
Witty, funny, and cheerful, Ryan studied in the same college as Ella. He was trying out various trades just for the heck of it when he stumbled upon acting and joined the dramatics society. Starkly complementing the seriousness exuded by Ella, he would go about playing pranks on everyone during the practice sessions. Needless to say, both were at each other’s throats all the time. The relentless hatred soon subsided as Ryan became serious about acting and Ella loosened a bit, and it soon bloomed into a strong friendship.
They would spend their entire days working together on their play and taking jabs at each other. They would fight, make up and then fight again. Slowly, the two of them became inseparable. It was all very new for Ella. She had never been this close to anyone, not even Noreen.
She would keep thinking about him all day long, replaying their conversations, his laugh, his face, his lips.. wait, what? No! She couldn’t let a guy consume her mind like this. It wasn’t like her. She was always so focused and driven, but what she was feeling was something from another world. She was falling in love with him.
A couple of months passed by, and her feelings only grew stronger for him. She wanted to share these feelings with Ryan, but she didn’t want to threaten their friendship which she had come to cherish more than ever. She kept her feelings suppressed and only let them out through her writing.
As she was pouring down her overwhelming emotions in her journal, she realized she was late for her class. In a hurry, she scooped up all her notebooks and rushed to college.
“Morning, sleepy-head! Here’s the first draft of our latest play. Eww, you smell gross, Ryan. Did you not take a shower or what?”
“Chill, El! It’s not the end of the world.”
“Whatever! Don’t forget to return it to me by the end of the day. I need to work a bit on the ending. And can you please write your notes with a pencil this time? You make it too messy.”
“Aww.. somebody wants to keep her perfect little script clean and tidy. Maybe I can bring it to life with some of my doodlings.”
“Don’t mess with me, Ryan! I’ll literally kill you!”
“Then you’ll finally do something fun. Later, loser!”
Ella watched Ryan go, with dreamy eyes and a smile adorning her face. Hmm.. No! She couldn’t let her emotions get the best of her, she thought. Focus. Focus. FOCUS! She snapped herself out of the weird feelings she was experiencing and concentrated on her day ahead.
Finally done with the day, she was waiting for Ryan to return her notebook when Noreen caught up with her.
“Hey, girl! I haven’t seen you since forever. You’re always busy with Ryan or buried in one of your scripts. How have you been?”
“Heya Noreen! I’m so sorry. I have been so busy with the new play coming up, and Ryan is no help at all.”
“Oh yeah! How are things between you and Ryan? Have you guys finally started dating?”
“What?? No!. We’re just friends. Nothing is going on. I mean, he’s a great guy and everything, but he’s not my type”, said Ella turning a deep hue of red.
“I’m not?”
Ella sheepishly turned around, dreading the obvious and saw Ryan standing with his brightest and widest smile, holding her diary. HER DIARY!!! She had handed over the wrong notebook to him in the morning, the one with her stupid feelings written all over. He should be the last person reading her journal. It was her worst nightmare come true. But wait, why was he smiling?
“Because I really liked your new script. Care to enact?” said Ryan with a quick wink leaving his eyes.
The Reverse Alphabet 