Part I - Girl meets Boy

Psychology says that people's need to always be in control is most likely rooted in a traumatic experience that left them feeling helpless and vulnerable.

It wasn't exactly clear when Astrid became a fastidious, OCD-stricken individual, but her strict habits, the hard-on for cleanliness, penchant for organization and order earned her the title of ‘mom’ among her friends. An observer may have called her stuck-up, she called it "portraying your soul in your surroundings, because how can your mind be at peace when your room is a mess?" 

 

Astrid lived on the fifth floor of a lush-green, well-maintained apartment complex, surrounded by ginormous trees as far as the eye could see. She was fiercely protective of four things - her clothes, boots, books, and personal space. But there was one person who never had any trouble breaching/borrowing any of those - her roommate Dana.

 

 

Astrid was pursuing a bachelor's degree in psychology and Dana was a penultimate year student of chemical engineering. They met a year ago in a paying guest facility where they first realized how cruel the real world can get when you’re outside the safety of your home: an ordeal that they went through together, becoming good friends in the process. They both were certified bookworms, appreciated art, had unbounded love for stray canines, and loved drooling over the wayward Winchester brothers from the CW show Supernatural.

 

Dana & Astrid had one other thing in common – sticking their necks out of their balcony and into the football field, and not just for its greenery. Cute guys in knee-length socks and football club jerseys showed up to practice every evening and would play until it was dark. Astrid and Dana would take their coffee mugs in the balcony and watch the men play with undivided, unadulterated horniness. On braver days they'd stroll down to the field and sit on the benches for a while and then go on for a walk around their residential society.

 

“OMG, the one in the specs is sooo cute” Astrid would exclaim.

 

“Dude, you don’t realize it yet, but you clearly have a type” Dana would answer

 

“And what would that be?”

 

“Average-heighted, cute, clean-shaven guys in glasses. Preferably skinny.”

 

“Fuck you, Dana. I do not have a type.” Astrid would retaliate with a raised middle finger.

 

Dana would answer with a middle finger of her own.

 

 

Ever wonder exactly when did showing the middle finger, or ‘flipping the bird’ become offensive? BBC will tell you that it is a ‘phallic gesture’ – the raised finger represents a penis and the curled fingers on the sides are balls. The ancient Romans had a name for it – digitus impudicus or the unchaste finger, and it was a symbol for anally penetrating a man.

 

Interestingly, a thumb also counts as a middle finger if you place it behind your front teeth and flick it in a forward direction, which caused a lot of problems for Romeo & Juliet too- but let;s take that up some other time.

 

Dana was in a long-distance relationship – something she hadn’t told Astrid. She believed in the fact that the more you keep to yourself, the lesser complicated things will be. Astrid, on the other hand, was more of the winging-it type. She’d gotten out of a serious love-has-bled-me-dry relationship a year ago, and decided not to rush into another one. What she missed out from not having a boyfriend, she more than made up with her three closest friends in college – the bold, dramatic Payton; the studious, supportive Caleb; and her best friend – the industrious idealist, Lisa. Astrid knew Lisa right from the first semester, but didn’t become good friends with her until the second; Caleb got brought in the fold because he was Lisa’s bestie. Astrid already knew Payton – she’d spotted him at the Queer Pride a semester ago but was too chicken to go say hi. Payton had later come and complimented her ensemble.

“Love the rainbow stockings! You look amazing!” He had said

“OMG, thanks! I love your 80s Bollywood look. You’re Payton, right?” Astrid hadn’t expected that.

“Yes, we have Behavioral Science together. Don’t 'You’re Payton, right' me. You’re not fooling anyone.” Payton huffed.

“Oh…I was just….” Astrid didn’t see that coming either

“I’m just fucking with ya.” Payton laughed and Astrid eased out of her discomfort.

 

Together, these four were inseparable. For most of the people in college, friends changed every semester. They liked to go out, click pictures, sleep around with each other’s boyfriends. These idiots liked to cook three-course meals together, watch old Bollywood movies, and travel to nearby cities on the weekend. They brought out the best in each other. Lisa taught Astrid to wing her eyeliners, Payton taught the others to cook, Caleb brought intellectual discussions to the fold, and Astrid was the group’s fashion police.

 

One day, during the classes, Payton gathered the group to share something.

“Y’all I have an announcement” Payton said in a deep timbre voice

“You’re getting another tattoo?” Astrid said, half-attentively

“No, I’m on Tinder & having a lot of sex now.”

“You wanted to announce that?” Lisa retorted

“Of course. This is the beginning of my hoe phase” Payton said proudly.

Astrid and Caleb giggled
"You were already having a lot of sex way before Tinder, you don't have to sound modest." Caleb remarked. Caleb and Payton were flatmates.
Payton was not amused. "Cal, shut up. What happens at the crib, stays at the crib." Payton continued, “Don’t laugh. Hoe phase builds character. That is a serious thing. And I’ll suggest you girls to try it as well.”

“None for me, thanks.” Lisa blurted

“Well, we all know you have a Venus Flytrap down there, so it’s alright. I understand” Lisa showed him the digitus impudicus

“But Astrid, if you don’t want your vagina to catch cobwebs, you should try it.”

Lisa rolled her eyes. She had nothing against Payton, but she knew Astrid was easily influenced by him. She also knew that while Payton was mature enough to handle idiots on Tinder, Astrid was not.

She was right.

In midst of the banter, Astrid sat there thinking. She wasn’t welcome to the idea of dating yet, but she sure could use some of the sex. Plus, Payton was having fun with it, what damage could it possibly do?

 

A week later, she was on the site.

 

***

1:45 a.m.

 

The more Astrid swiped, the more disappointed she got.

 

“18. Too young.”

 

“I should call the fashion police on this one”

 

“This one’s cute. But lives too far. Nope”

 

“Hmm. I’m pretty sure I go to class with this dude. Hell no.”

 

“Dog pictures? That seems too fake. Nah.”

 

When you’re out on a dating platform, nobody gives a shit about personality. First impressions are the most important. If your pictures are fine, people on the other side might consider reading your bio. Or, in exceptional cases, ignore your picture and read your bio – but the chances of them swiping right on you are as bleak as the chances of Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake’s relationship surviving.

 

 

Astrid suddenly seemed to like what she was seeing. The guy's name was Joel - ripped, national-level swimmer, specs-wearing Joel

 

“Same Uni. Different college. Works.”

 

She swiped right.

 

Almost instantaneously, the app notified that they had ‘matched’. Astrid waited for a while, mulling over if she should text him now or in the morning. She was aware of the fact that women preferred the men to make the first move, but then, she wasn’t like most women. 

 

While she was still trying to figure what to do, Joel had dropped the ball in Astrid’s court.

 

“Not sleepy?” he had texted.

 

“Not in the least. You?” Astrid fired back.

 

“Not really. I’m heading out for some late-night munchies.”

 

“Don’t you have food at home? It’s kinda late to go out for munchies.”

 

“Oh no, I was at a friend’s place for group-studying. I’m going back home. I was thinking if I should stop for some pizza on the way.”

 

“I see. I didn’t know group-studying was a real thing. For me and my friends, it's more of a gossiping-watching-movies-and wasting time thing.”

 

“No, we have our end-semester exams in a week, so I cannot afford to waste time even if I want to.”

 

“Oh, I see. Good luck, then.” Astrid was a little weirded out. What a nerd. Pretty sure he’s one of those people who claims his exams went bad and ends up scoring really well. She never got along well with people who were this serious about exams an entire week before they happened. Joel’s stock had started to plummet.

 

“Thanks! By the way, I just had a crazy idea.”

 

“Yeah? What?” Astrid’s interest was piqued

 

“Would you like to meet?”

 

“Right now? Astrid asked, partly hoping he was joking and partly hoping he wasn’t.

 

“Yes, right now. If that’s okay with you, of course.”

 

Astrid had never met a stranger in the dead of the night, but the prospect excited her. Joel’s stock was on the rise again.

 

“Well, honestly, I think it’s a little weird, but yeah, I’m totally up for it.”

 

“Awesome! Where do you live? I’ll come see you.”

 

Astrid texted him the address. She got up, washed her face, put a little lip gloss, flung her hair open, and sprayed a little perfume on her wrists.

 

 

She glanced sideways to see what Dana was doing and saw a little light emanate from under her blanket. She wasn’t sure what Dana was u pto and decided not to disturb her.

 

Dana was having a little-late-night chat with her boyfriend. She heard Astrid get up, but decided not to react to it.

 

Twenty minutes later, Astrid’s cellphone pinged.

 

“I’m here”

 

“I’ll be right down”

 

Astrid descended down the stairs and moved out of her residential block. She glanced to her left and saw the silhouette of a man leaning against a car. Uncertain, she decided to wait in her spot.

 

Joel walked towards Astrid, and greeted her.

 

He had his glasses on. She couldn’t help but think how cute he looked. I do have a type, she said to herself.

 

“So, what do you want to do?”

 

“Would you like to take a walk?” Astrid proposed

 

“Love to.” Joel began to follow Astrid’s lead.

 

 

“How goes the studying?” She asked

 

“Oh, it’s fine. I hate accounts.” He answered

 

“My mom is an accounts professor”. 

 

“That’s cool. She must be really strict too.”

 

“You have no idea. Let’s not talk about my mom, though.”

 

“So, tell me, what are you looking for on Tinder?”

 

Ah, the classic question. “I don’t know, really.” That was her answer to almost everything.

 

“Oh, alright.”

 

“How about you, what are you looking for?”

 

“Well, definitely not relationships. I’m in my last semester of college, and I’m planning to go to Singapore for post graduation. I don’t want any loose threads. I just wanna have fun.”

 

“That’s cool. Had any fun yet?”

 

“Nope. Still looking” Joel laughed a little.

 

Astrid was starting to regret this. This is not working out for me. I shouldn’t have asked this dude to come over. Tell him you’re sick/sleepy and get rid of him.

 

“Are you usually this quiet or are you thinking this was a mistake?”

 

“No, I’m just a little shy. I think.”

 

“I see. By the way, did you know, the buildings in your society are named after Italian architecture?”

 

“Are you serious?”

 

“Totally”

 

“Wow, I didn’t know that.”

 

“Also, did you know, you look really pretty in the moonlight?”

 

Astrid raised her eyebrows. Then let out a laugh.

 

“What, you don’t believe me?”

 

“No, I’m just really bad at taking compliments. Also, there is no moon tonight. I think you meant the lamplight.”

 

Joel laughed.

 

“Just glad the message got through.”

 

“Oh yeah.”

 

“Would you like to go for a drive?”

 

“Um. Where?”

 

“Anywhere.”

 

“Okay, just not too far, okay?”

 

“Whatever you want”

 

They walked to his car and turned on the heater. It was chilly outside. Astrid rubbed her palms together as Joel watched her.

 

“What?”

 

“What?”

 

“Stop staring, dude. I’m cold.”

 

“Here, gimme your hand”

 

He held her small hands in his big ones for a minute. Then almost mechanically, he kissed them.

 

Astrid smiled but hid it.

 

“How about we sit and chat in the car instead of going out?” Joel offered

 

“Sure” Astrid acquiesced.

 

They sat and rambled about their hectic college schedules. The discussion shifted to past relationships, and then to their favorite movies.

 

The prospect of asking someone what their favorite movies are, has manifold advantages, a) you get to know if the person is an industrial-grade idiot who doesn’t bother taking time out for movies, or a person who appreciates art; b) you get to know what wavelength their perception is on – if they understood Inception the first time they watched it, or didn’t bother watching it at all; c) if they watch movies for the sake of watching movies or they’re actual cinephiles who devour all the Wikipedia information about the movie, the cast, and the director.

 

 

Astrid was a die-hard movie-fanatic. She not only watched the movie with undivided attention, she read everything about the movie, its development, the characters, and had numerous movie soundtrack playlists. As a token of her appreciation for art, she had started to offer to download movies for people in her class. In the past two semesters, she'd earned the reputation of a 'movie pimp'.

 

 

Joel, however, wasn’t too big on movies. He only fed on self-help books and TED talks. He was wired differently - he didn’t give a shit about movies unless there was one that had the media spotlight – like Birdbox.

 

Astrid sensed the fact that he wasn’t of an art-appreciating mindset, but was blindsided by his good looks and the unending charm Joel was pouring all over her.

 

When it was time to leave, Astrid was in a dilemma. Do I kiss him? Do I save the kiss for later? She was still on the fence with that decision while they walked towards her residential block. As it neared, Astrid stopped.

 

 

“It was nice meeting you.” She said, half-heartedly

 

“Likewise, beautiful” Joel continued

 

Before she could decide, Joel leaned in for a hug. She obliged.

 

He smells great. Kiss him. Astrid went with her instinct and drew closer to the sweet-smelling swimmer. She planted a kiss on his lips.

 

As if on cue, Joel pursed in his lips before Astrid could take hers away.

 

They then exchanged numbers. Astrid smiled and waved Joel a good night as he drove off.

 

 

Somewhere not so far, a mysterious set of eyes saw Astrid smiling to herself and heading back to her apartment.