The Paper

He bent down and picked up the piece of paper and wondered why it was lying in the class. He turned it around and was somewhat surprised to see a cursive handwriting on it, instead the black ink of a printer.

Rose and Gold.  The two things I cared least about…

He stopped reading. It seemed part of someone’s personal diary or some such stuff. And he had no idea whose it was. He wondered whom it belonged to. In any case, it seemed so personal; he wouldn’t be able to identify the person without reading it. Maybe another look will give a clue, maybe a scribbled name or he could recognize the handwriting.

Rose and Gold. The two things I cared least about. Other flowers, maybe. But rose is just a farce…

Okay. He really hadn’t meant to read that. It was an honest mistake that he didn’t want to repeat.  But still the prose was so captivating, he hadn’t taken a look around the paper to see if a name was scribbled, which was his first intention. He had to take another look.

Rose and Gold. The two things I cared least about. Flowers, maybe. But rose is just a farce. Like a pretty girl with just enough brains and a truckload of attitude. No I didn’t like them at all.

Could be a guy, he mused. Most guys would give the clichéd statement that pretty girls are not brainy or even nice. He didn’t feel that was true at all. Many of his female friends were pretty and intelligent. Yes, must be a guy. Hmm… a guy talking about gold and roses, sounded a bit hypothetical. Well, he still didn’t have the name or any other clue of the person. He decided to take another peek. Internally he promised himself that he wouldn’t infringe upon the privacy of his classmate and decided to just see if a name is indeed present.

Rose and Gold. The two things I cared least about. Flowers, maybe. But rose is just a farce. Like a pretty girl with just enough brains and a truckload of attitude. No I didn’t like them at all.

Gold I found ugly. Just a bit. Leave the cost of gold out and everyone will find the sparkle of diamonds and the brightness of silver much prettier. Gold is overhyped. Just like rose. Just like me.


Interesting. Now this sounded like a girl. Common, guys are hardly overrated. And only a girl could attach the adjective pretty to silver. It seemed like a pretty girl who didn’t like pretty girls. He started counting all of them in his head. Strange, quite a few. He never knew there were so many girls he found cute, actually, there was one particular… He cut himself mid rant and started focusing on the girls who were also intelligent. The prose seemed decent. Some were counted out due to apparent lack of enough gray cells, and others were not over-hyped. He now thought it would be better if he should leave the paper where he found in the class. That way, he won’t have to read anymore. But, someone else might find it and publish it on facebook or something. Even worse, figure out who wrote it and then embarrass the person. No, he must read it himself and deduce the person and return it. It’s quite possible the author might not have another copy of this, since it was hand written. And frankly, he found it too good to be lost like this. He read further.


Rose and Gold. The two things I cared least about. Flowers, maybe. But rose is just a farce. Like a pretty girl with just enough brains and a truckload of attitude. No I didn’t like them at all.
  
Gold I found ugly. Just a bit. Leave the cost of gold out and everyone will find the sparkle of diamonds and the brightness of silver much prettier. Gold is overhyped. Just like rose. Just like me.

No one knows me. My face is all they can see. And they judge me by that. I don’t mind that, why would I bother with another man’s ignorance.

It was so vulnerable and written straight from the heart. He felt guilty about reading it now. He should’ve just left the paper where it was. At least, he would have had a clear conscience.

He heard footfalls outside the class. Maybe the guard had come to close the door. Oh, to hell with conscience. He bent down and read the whole thing.

Rose and Gold. The two things I cared least about. Flowers, maybe. But rose is just a farce. Like a pretty girl with just enough brains and a truckload of attitude. No I didn’t like them at all.
  
Gold I found ugly. Just a bit. Leave the cost of gold out and everyone will find the sparkle of diamonds and the brightness of silver much prettier. Gold is overhyped. Just like rose. Just like me.

 No one knows me. My face is all they can see. And they judge me by that. I don’t mind that, why would I bother with another man’s ignorance.

 But now I care. I have friends no more. Just people who can see just my face. They won’t go beyond. They can’t. I am just a face.

He looked up, folded the paper and put in inside his pocket, just as the prettiest girl of his class came in and looked around. She gave him a smile and asked him if he had seen a missing sheet of paper. He replied in negative and she left. He was now dumbfounded by the fact that this girl could have written something so sensitive and profound. With a smile, he decided to keep track of her during rest of the year. She was quite something.

She walked out of the class. She thought that he looked quite mesmerized.  Mission accomplished, hopefully, she thought with a smile…