The Devil's Sweetheart

Days passed, Leena, Reese, and Jane were getting close to each other. They belong to different departments but still make time for lunch in the afternoons. As Leena hoped, she was truly enjoying going on outings and sometimes treks with her friends. Life was fun with them around.

On one weekend, Leena was still on her bed watching cartoons while Jane was reading a novel.

"I heard you rejected another guy, Leena." Reese started. "It\'s a talk in the university."

"They haven\'t yet learned lessons even after knowing about her?" Jane chuckled. She lost the count Leena has rejected the proposals until now.

"They are boring candidates." Leena sighed. "What about you, Reese. How far you went in a relationship with my brother?" Leena asked. She felt Wilbur is trying to court Reese with the way he was taking care of her.

"Zero progress because I hate him," Reese lazily said.

"Don\'t you have any other thing to talk about except your brother?" Jane shouted at both and walked out of the room.

Leena and Reese: " "

....

A group of friends gathered to have fun on the campus...

"I heard that girl has rejected another one. She sure has guts." A man named Joerg commented.

"I like her attitude. A true beauty with the brain," Flynn added.

"Even you are smitten by her, Flynn?" Luke, another one from the friend\'s group commented.

"Aren\'t you?" Flynn chuckled and turned towards his friend. "What do you think of her, Ethan?"

"I haven\'t seen her." Ethan shrugged lighting a cigarette. "But no one can match my Casey."

"It\'s because you haven\'t seen Leena," Flynn commented. "Damn! Why is it hard to court that girl?"

"Don\'t worry, Flynn...I will make her fall in love with me," Luke remarked.

"Impossible."

"Let\'s make a bet," Luke said. "If I don\'t make her fall in love with me, I will run naked in the streets."

"Then get ready to run naked."

Everyone burst out into a fit of laughter...

"Nothing works on her_"

"Hold the bet. I am in." Ethan turned serious throwing the cigarette.

"We were just joking_"

"But I am serious." Ethan interrupted. He hasn\'t seen her but everywhere on the campus, he would hear her name. Once challenged, he never loses bets, besides, he needs a little distraction from Casey\'s thoughts.

...

In the vast library, Leena was sitting with a book in her hand, and not before she flipped a page, she heard a voice.

"Excuse me? Hello Leena!"

Pressing her lips in irritation, she gazed at the man furiously. Another one! I can\'t even have a peaceful life in the library?

Her ignorance bothered Ethan and he hastily got an idea to bring her into his track.

"Are you Jane Evans friend?"

Leena stopped her work and looked at the man in front of him.

"Your friend has hit someone in her class and it is_"

Leena dashed out of the place even before Ethan has finished his thoughts.

"Hey relax. She is fine, Leena." Ethan quickly followed and held her hand but she jerked him away. "Don\'t touch me. Who the hell you_"

"Ethan. Ethan Davies."

That\'s how she met him for the first time. After the brief conversation with him, Leena walked home in irritation. She got used to people confessing to her but the man she just met has over boarded this time. Without her willingness, he took her number and that infuriated her.

"Useless fellow." Leena blabbered everything that happened with Ethan to her friends.

"He dared to use my name to talk with you?" Jane gritted her teeth. "I will kill him tomorrow."

"Are you going to accept him, Leena? He is very famous around the university." Reese spoke up ignoring Jane\'s irritation. She was more curious about Leena and Ethan now. She heard he is not an approachable man but he is behind Leena.

"Not my standards." Leena shrugged.

"I wonder there is a person who can meet our narcissist standards." Reese and Jane chuckled.

"No one is born on this planet." She winked. She hasn\'t met anyone who can bring sparks to her heart."By the way, ask Jasper to come on the weekend. We are going to empty his pockets."

"That\'s a good idea," Reese was amused with the idea and immediately made a call to her brother.

"Aren\'t you calling your brother, Leena?" Jane inquired.

"He would eat my brain, Jane." Leena slumped on the floor thinking of her bathroom brother. But suddenly a thought entered her brain. Why does Jane ask Wilbur all the time? Does Jane like him? But he seems to like Reese. Whenever Wilbur comes to see Leena, he treats Reese with the utmost respect. Perhaps a love triangle? She brushed off the thought from her mind for now.

....

A year has passed already and Leena has become a sensation on the campus for rejecting Ethan in a basketball match. But she did not care about the comments behind her back.

One fine day, Leena was lying on the bed and smiling like a giddy teenager looking at her mobile. All of a sudden, her mobile was snatched.

"Reese," Leena screamed and tried to yank the mobile from her grip but Reese tricked her and held it higher. "Give it to me."

"No!"

"I will give the dress you asked for," Leena begged. "Please give it to me."

Reese\'s eyes twinkled with that thought and she immediately lent the mobile to Leena.

"With whom you were chatting?" Reese asked in curiosity.

"No one." Leena closed her mobile when Reese tried to peek into it.

"Is it Ethan?" Reese asked again.

"No." She cut off. Despite Leena didn\'t have any feelings for Ethan but she would talk with him now and then. The first encounter was bitter but he becomes a good friend to her recently.

"You have been behaving weird recently." Reese pouted.

Assuming that Reese will catch her, Leena shut her mouth and dragged her to the walk-in-closet.

....

In a blink of an eye, three years passed, Leena, started designing applications for companies. While she was busy performing some tasks on her laptop, all of a sudden, she received a message from Ethan reminding her of the lunch. With a sigh, Leena got up to meet him for lunch.

"Finally you have made time for this poor friend," Ethan spoke up the moment Leena entered the hotel.

"I was super busy converting oxygen to carbon dioxide." Leena settled in the chair.

"You are really crazy, Leena." He chuckled with her witty reply and ordered her favorite banana foods.

Silence prevailed and both didn\'t talk for the entire time. Leena knew he would start the topic. "Ethan_I_"

"Can you give me a chance, please?"

"You know I am not interested in love." She has rejected everyone without any guilt because no one could ignite the sparks in her until now. Maybe her heart is waiting for the soulmate.

"Give it a try, Leena. You wouldn\'t know unless you give it a try." He smiled and anticipated she would say yes this time.

Leena has been thinking about it for a long time and she asked Reese and Jane\'s opinion. Obviously, it was a no from Jane\'s side but Reese has given a green signal.

\'I am not going to lose anything. So, why not try for a couple of months. If it doesn\'t work out, I will break up. \'

"Fine. But if I am not comfortable, I am going to call it off." There was neither happiness nor excitement when Leena accepted to be his girlfriend. But Ethan was adamant to change the viewpoints and make her fall in love with him soon.

"Thank you, Leena." Ethan got up and tried to hug her in a moment of happiness but Leena backed off.

"I_I am not yet comfortable." She awkwardly spoke up.

"It\'s ok. I will wait for you." Ethan was on cloud nine now. His four years of futile attempts in courting her didn\'t go to waste. Now his goal was to make her fall in love with him.. Little did he know, there was a surprise waiting for him.