Friends...

 We listened to music, sharing his earphones all the way. My heart was blending calmly with him. ‘Did I like him? Within this short encounter? It had only been a week since we met.’ I was ill-mannered to him because I didn’t want to acknowledge that I liked him. I already had something built up inside when we first met in the shop. Those tingling sensations were proof that my heart was leaning towards him. I didn’t want myself to drift apart. I had already seen many couples breaking up and having a hard time. I didn’t want to have a hard time myself, knowing it could end miserably. But this time, I was not able to blow him away. I was even more attracted when I tried to avoid him. Why not try something for the first time, I said to myself. I was so in deep thought that I didn’t know he was staring at me. “So, we’re friends, right? You won’t scream at me as soon as you see me, right?” He was smiling broadly. Oh, how happy I was to see him smiling. Being friends with him was enough, I couldn’t ask for more, for now that is. I was going to give myself some time to figure out this feeling and give him time, may he like me in future, who knows?

“Friends.” We shook our hands.

“Friends, huh?”, Suruchi giggled.

“What? Can’t I make new friends?” I asked her bluntly,

“You want a friend? Or a boyfriend?” Her smile was huge.

I could feel the hotness in my cheek, “What boyfriend? He is just a friend. I repeat he is just a friend.” I tried to hide the happiness that filled my heart when she mentioned the word ‘boyfriend’. 

I was so happy  at home that even my brother was asking if something good happened in college. I just hinted him that something good might happen. While in bed I thought to myself, ‘What was I so happy about? Was I happy that I liked him? Or was I happy that I was expecting him to like me back? Or was it because I finally acknowledged my heart?’ 

I saw him again, a tall boy was standing ahead of me, he was wearing a black hoodie and jeans. His eyes were sparkling seeing that person beside him. Shifting his gaze, he looked at me. He smiled that heart fluttering smile, I was melting. He walked towards me and the other person followed.

“Hey uppss!”

“Hi, what brings you here?”I couldn’t help but look at the other person from head to toe, she didn’t notice though. 

“Oh! We were just passing by and saw you, I can't go ahead without greeting my friend, can I?” He said.

“Oo.” It hit me when he said ‘my friend’ and I thought I saw the girl smirking when he said that. 

“And I also wanted you to meet her, she is my girlfriend Sujata.” My heart dropped. I could feel the blood rushing over my face, I couldn’t maintain my expression. When I tried to say the casual answer, words didn’t come out of my mouth. I bit my lip to the point that it hurt me and I could feel the metal taste of my blood in the tongue.

“Wake up girl, wake up. For how long will you sleep?”, my mom was calling me. With that my alarm also rang and I felt conscious. Never in my life was I so relieved waking up in the morning. 

On the bus, he came and sat next to me again. This time suruchi didn’t say anything and sat with her friend who was already there. 

“Hey, how are you my friend?” hearing that, it put a hole in my heart. I remembered the dream so clearly that it was hard for me to ignore it.

“Call me Upama, I have a name. Do you call everyone ‘hey friend’ when you meet them?” I tried to be logical.

“You’re right. Upama sounds so boring. How does ‘uppss’ sound?” He asked curiously.

“Not so good.” I made a silly face.

“It sounds good. I’ll call you that from now.” 

“Whatever.” I sighed.

Today also we shared his earphones which made my heart rate pulse. My eyes looking at his perfect features, “I know I’m handsome but can you not stare at me. It feels uncomfortable.” he chuckled.

I looked elsewhere, embarrassment pouring all over me.

I could feel him staring at me but I ignored him the whole ride. When the bus arrived at college, I went towards class by myself. Pratima was already there and looking at her face I could tell something happened.

“What happened? Are you alright?” I asked. She nodded but was on the verge of crying. I sat there silently wondering if she was really fine, who had hurt her for her to be like this. 

Avash entered the class and was about to tease me but I asked him to be quiet gesturing towards her. 

It was economics class, our teacher was still there but he had already finished the lecture when she ran out without asking his permission. I was worried, wondered for a while if I should go with her and finally decided to go but with teacher’s permission. I went to the bathroom, it was locked and she was crying inside. “Pratima, open the door, I’m here, please open it.” 

After a while, she opened it. She was a total mess. By helping her to clean up we went to class again. Apparently, she had a boyfriend who cheated on her. “What a scumbag, I said.” 

After what she shared with me, I also told her about Avash and how I felt towards him and how we became friends. She was encouraging me to confess but I declined. I didn’t want to hurry and  make a bad move. If it went wrong, I was to be hurt and I knew I couldn’t handle it well.

Avash, his friend Sandesh, me and Pratima became the lunch partner from then. I used to stay far from her as I thought she and I liked the same guy and it would be messed up if I had to give up without trying. She was far prettier than me. But it was not the case, so we had the chance to get along well.

It formed a nice group of four. Pratima sometimes teased me in front of him and I would give her ‘you’re dead’ looks and she would laugh crazily. Other two looked at us questioningly for not sharing ‘good things’ which they considered it to be.

To be continued...