That first girl

Angelica- She was the first girl I had a crush on. Same height as mine, a divine combination of straight and curly hair extending till her waist, a black mole below her lower lip and a sea of smile on her face.
There are infinite things I can describe about her, but I won't, or else you will fall in love with her.
I met her at a friend's place in which both of us were invited. It was a marriage event. After all the processions were over and the bride, who was my friend's sister, left to the groom's place to spend a happy life ever after, I
went to the roof of the hotel to puff few cigarettes before going to sleep.
As the first puff exhausted to perish in the darkness of the night, there seemed to what can be called as a squealing tone. I moved forward towards the back of the water tank- a girl in her early 20s was sobbing bitterly.
Sensing someone sit next to him, she tried to control holding back her tears but it was already too late.
"Hey!", I said in an attempt to start a conversation.
"Hello", her voice coming in disconnected network.
"You seem sad in a happy occasion."
"Its nothing like that. I haven't seen you earlier by the way."
"Yeah sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Krish, Anmol's friend"
"Angelica Matthews. Anjali's friend."

I calculated a gap of 3 years in between us. Anjali didi got married off right after her B.TECH and me and Anmol would be starting our second year of graduation.
At this point of time, I realised the smell of my cigarette was disturbing her. So I excused myself to rejoin her after finishing it.

She was the in the same condition as I had left her. Saddened and being there, I could feel that despite being alone she wanted to talk to someone. Heroically, I took two small water bottles I picked up from the reception and offered her one. She looked at me and laughed. It looked painful, maybe she had been crying since long, the marks of the kohl drained on her cheeks were a clear mark. Finishing the entire bottle, she said "You might be tired helping in all the chores. Don't you think we should just go to our places and take rest. The day is over, after all."
"No, no, no. When the options are sleep and story, definitely I will choose story"
"What? I am not telling you any story."
There was a shock over my face.
"That means... I have to tell everyone that one pretty girl is crying since evening on the rooftop" I said, intending to make an amusing threatening.
She held my hand.
"Hey! No, no. Come on, sit down. We can talk."

I was infatuated to her in the first sight and that's the true reason why I stayed there. No sooner had she begun her story than she received a call.
She expressed panic, "Shit! Aunt is calling."
Briskly, Angelica stood up and started running towards the staircase. I shouted, "What about the story?"
Running towards me again, she asked for my phone and saved her number.
"I will call you tomorrow."

The next day she called me to her place. I had no idea that the house hardly a block away had been keeping such a charming gem all this time.
We had coffee together. It was the beginning phase of a decent friendship and forgetting everything about the previous night, we started talking. On the first day, she said me how she ended up at her Aunt's place after her parents died in an accident and how she continued her education through distant learning.
"And you caught me up doing that melodrama over the roof last night because the only friend of mine is now away. I will have no other friend."
"Why would you think that? Even I have no friends for the summer. We can be friends."
She laughed and asked, "Don't you think we already are?"
And we both laughed together. The evening went into a smiling spree.

Eventually after few days, we started hanging out together. Everything was happening so naturally and felt so nice, little did I know that bondings can be gravely serious when it's not the same the other way round.

Her voice, it was something which always kept running on my mind like Clay Jenson had those of Hannah Baker in 13 Reasons Why. Slowly and slowly, there was a romantic development in our plot after continuous texting and hanging out. Then it happened, after 3 months from the beginning of my summer and I had 3 days left with me to go back to the University. I went to her place with a bouquet of roses.
"Let's get some fresh air", she insisted.
"Okay"
Finally upon reaching the roof, she asked
"So... You are going back to the University?"
"Yes Angel, I have to. And see how soon the time passed by..I...I cannot understand whether I am happy or sad."
She giggled, "And why is that?"
"Sad because I would have to wait for seeing you in person! I think my days won't go off well! And happy because if I would have planned to stay the vacation elsewhere I wouldn't have been such a fortunate person..."
Before I could complete saying anything more, she leaned forward and kissed me.

I closed my eyes to let go all the summed up emotions and mugged up lines I was having in my head. The twist appeared when I opened my eyes and saw Angelica sobbing with her face down.

I was scared and confused at the same time just like I was happy and sad a while ago. Scared thinking how can she express grief when it was meant to be a heavy moment for both of us. And confused because I have seen heroines in the movies cry when the sex goes unprotected. Did she think by kissing she lost her virginity or something? An amusing me didn't even have the idea what was coming.
"What happened Angel, why are you crying now?"
She didn't reply. She sobbed even more and finally hugged me. I was all the more confused.
"I... I...I don't know what to tell you Krish!", she  was struggling to complete even a sentence yet she continued, "There is something you won't understand."

This eroded the atmosphere of romance or whatever it was meant to be.
"Wait, what! Tell me what it is!", anxiously my voice grew louder.
"I cannot stay dependent on anyone anymore. I had been applying to jobs much before we met and I received one offer letter this morning."
I stepped back from her.
"So?"
"Don't you understand what that means? That means we can't meet anymore. I will be posted to Singapore."
Still calm, I asked "Why don't you find a job nearby? "
"I cannot do that now and I don't know how much time it will take."
"No problem! All the best". It was all I could say after mintues of thinking. I left her place and started packing for the University. I never communicated with her after that evening. Even if I wanted to clarify whether by "being independent" she meant to get rid of me or something, I didn't ask because it would do no better.

The picture of her smiling was beyond my urge to get off my head. I started smoking again and life was all normal as it had been before the summer.

Later that year, one friend from hometown phoned querying when I would be arriving there for a reunion. Upon asking about the town whereabouts, he told me that my half-girlfriend's (Half because the proposal was stuck midway) Aunt died few days ago.

The Aunt- She was the only one left for Angelica to care about and she was gone.  The smartphone was something only the rich could afford. While getting hooked up with her, I remember mailing her some sketches of mine and thought to retrieve the same mail id for contacting her. I opened my mail where I was horrified to see that the full front page of inbox was filled with mails of Angelica, each having "Urgent" and "Help" as the subject line. I read each of them in the order she sent and to my worst of nightmare, she was in great trouble. The company offering her a job was a fraudulent one and she had no money to get back home or do anything.

I typed a mail to her fast, with trembling fingers, "Dear Angelica, tell me how to contact you and how to send you money? Reply ASAP." Her last mail to me was two days ago and I was shaking with fear thinking what condition she would be in.

Coming back from the cyber cafe in the campus to my hostel room, the photo on the front page of the newspaper, that my roommate was reading caught my eye. The headlines said "Indian girl found shot dead in red light area" and below that the picture of the dead body. Though the face was blurred, I identified the bracelet which the girl was wearing- It was the same bracelet I had gifted to nobody other than Angelica.