It is around 8:00 o'clock in the morning, when my phone rings. it is from my college friend, Priya.I am unable to open my eyes . I pick it up and say in a sleepy voice, "yeah." she asks, "are you sleeping?" I smile and say "yes,but you woke me up." She says "really sorry yaar,but I couldn't find the answer of last question, I need your help." I say "okay but last question of what?" She says " our assignment", I jump from the bed and ask "what assignment?" she asks me back "Raavi,you are joking right?" I explain,"no seriously I don't know anything about any assignment, please tell me." She gives me the details,"on Friday, sir gave us questions, we all have to submit the answers tomorrow." I plead "can you please send me questions?" She says,"okay but help me with last one." I promise her that.
I get out of the bed, go to bathroom, brush my teeth, take a bath. When I come out, Priya already sent me questions for assignment. I read the questions they are easy so I am relaxed, I go downstairs for breakfast. I sit on a table, my father comes too, my mom appears from kitchen having plates and spoons in her hands, I help her, she serves hot upma and tea to us. We eat breakfast talking about Kiara's birthday party.
After breakfast, as I am about to get up, my mom stops me and asks,"dear, how was your meeting yesterday?" I reply without looking at her, "it was okay." My mom giggles and asks, "how was the boy?" Aarav's frame comes into my mind. I shrug and say, "he is good looking, but not my type?" My mom raises her eyebrows and asks,"can you make it clear, what type of boy do you like?" I roll my eyes and say, "c'mon mom it is not some kind of game, that I have to select the character I like, I just didn't like him." My mom says in a calm voice, "look dear, he is handsome, earns well, I think you'll be happy with him, what can you expect more?" I look at my dad, he is busy clearing table,my mom says,"don't look at your dad. He agrees with me.", I furrow at my dad, he stops and looks at my mom. My mom smiles and says,"okay he is not with me but give me proper reason so I can talk to..." I interrupt her, "you don't need to talk to his family, mom!!" My mom asks in a rough voice "why?" I look at the table, nervously biting my nails and say in a low voice " I got rejected, he told me on my face."
My mom is shocked, she says, "tell me everything." I tell her,each and every word Aarav said to me. My mom asks,"what were you wearing." I hesitantly reply, "Saree." She nods like she understood everything. She asks me in a surprisingly calm voice,"it must be your dad's idea." My dad awkwardly smiles at both of us. I was hoping her to be angry but she is not, she says,"if you are wearing Saree it doesn't mean that you are nonsense and stupid." I am shocked but I agree with her and say happily, "exactly mom." She asks,"why didn't you tell him anything?" I reply,"I wanted to but he shushed me." She says " I am sorry beta." I say, "forget it now mom, it's over."
She asks me to change the topic,"what are you gonna eat today?" I smile at her and answer, "something delicious." She smiles and says,"okay." and she leaves. My father smiles at me and says proudly, "so our plan worked, but next time when someone judge you by your cloths, slap him on a face." I sigh,"yeah... but you know what...I don't want any next time, the way he spoke to me, papa I was so embarrassed", I close my eyes, tears start rolling down on my face.
My dad gets up from his chair and comes to me and says, "my princess is not this weak, c'mon wipe your tears. I will buy you a big chocolate." I wipe my tears, laugh and say, "papa I am not a small baby now." and hug him, he sighs "I know I know..." Then my mom comes and asks, "what these dad and daughter duo is doing?" She observes me and asks, "hey why are you crying?, don't blame yourself, its his loss."
I explain, "c'mon mom, he is handsome and rich, he must have girls roaming around him, he just came for formality, insulted me, rejected me and went back, there is nothing he lose, but I lost my dignity." I don't know why but as I thought about his girlfriend I feel sharp pain in my stomach. I ignore the pain and firmly say to my mom, "so I decided that I myself choose my life partner I am really tired of all these formalities. I'll choose the one, who atleast respects me, cares for my dreams."
My parents look at each other then look at me like they did not hear me, I smile at them and say, "I am telling the truth." My mom comes to me, hugs me and tells me in my ear," I am already waiting to hear his name", I hug her back, giggle and say,"even I don't know.."
I come back to my room, open books, start writing answers of the questions, after completing last question, I message Priya and explain the question. It took three hours to complete the assignment work.
It is 12:30 when my mom calls me for lunch, my mom's food is just great, I can eat anything she prepares. Today she specially made my favourite dish so I ear like a horse. So after lunch I want some sleep, I return to my room, take my phone to read messages and chats, when I open "friends group" it was Kiara's message saying, "she wants to meet all of us urgently" I think what can be so urgent, we were all together yesterday, so I message what is so urgent? She replies, let's meet at 'new era cafe' at 5:00 pm then you'll come to know. I wanted to take rest after very busy yesterday, though I agree to meet them, then I fall asleep.
I open my eyes at 4:00 o'clock, make my self ready, I tie my hair in a pony tail, wear pink top with black jeans and sneakers. I go downstairs, make myself a cup of tea, go to my parent's room to inform them, then I leave for the cafe.
When I reach, Anisha and Ved are already there, I wave to them and go to their table, and sit on a nearby chair. Anisha asks me, "do you know anything?" I reply by twitching my lips "No".with in fifteen minutes everyone is there except Kiara. We all are excited, because none of us is aware of the reason behind this urgent gathering.
Then she enters, Ved sees her and waves his hand to show her our place, we all look at her, but what I see!! I blink my eyes to believe it, Aarav is with her. I ask, "what is he doing with her?" Tina says, "who cares, I am happy that he is here." We all are looking at each other in confusion, except for Tina, she is busy looking Aarav. I am thinking what is he up to now? They come to our table, I wave 'hi' to Kia and ignore that jerk, they say 'hello' to everybody. We all are looking at Kia, Anurag asks "so Kia we all are here, now tell us what is that "urgent" thing? Kia doubtfully looks at me. I am staring at her, she speaks,"First let's order something. How about chocolate milk shake?" We all say, "okay". So she asks Aarav to go and give the order. I feel relaxed after he leaves.
Kiara speaks in a low voice," guys I want to ask all of you one thing." then she pauses and looks at me. I ask "and what's that? She asks, "can Aarav join us?" I laugh sarcastically and say, "he already joined us, now come to main topic." She rolles her eyes and explains,"no you are not getting me, I mean can Aarav be part of our group?" I furrow my eyes and ask,"what?" Tina claps her hands happily and says, "I don't have any problem." Anisha,Ved and Kartik agree too. Kartik says,"he looks cool." Anurag and Kiara are looking at me, I furrow my brows and ask "what?, Obviously my answer is "No", I don't wanna face him whenever we meet. Anurag asks,"why is that?" Kiara explains what had happened between me and Aarav in brief to everyone. Anurag asks to Kia,"why does he want to be with us?" Kiara inhales deeply and replies," Aarav and his family left India when he was very young, my maternal grand father was taking care of the bussiness, now when he is ill so his parents moved here to take care of the bussiness, and around four months ago Aarav came unwillingly because of his mom's pressure, so he doesn't know anybody except my family, so I think he must be part of us too." Anurag nods," hmmmm." I argue he is the businessman he must have friends from business. Kiara says,"yes he has but they are just for business not to hang out like us.." I am feeling very upset, Kiara looks at me and says, "Raavi, put your personal issues aside, give him a chance, he is a good person." I say," yeah he might be. But I don't like him, he has insulted me very badly, he is so arrogant and proudy. I can't bear his presence." I again feel a sharp pain in my stomach. I really hate myself for telling that I don't like Aarav.Everyone on the table is looking at me with wide eyes. Tina speaks, " oh, c'mon don't think that much about it, I think you are making big issue of a small thing." I slam my hands on a table and say " it's not a small thing for me." Anurag take my hand in his hand and says, "calm down, if you don't like him then you can avoid him, you don't need to talk to him, but just think about him he is trying to adjust here and we should help him." Kia says in a appealing voice "yes Raavi, I want to help my brother, you can't disagree to that." I inhale deeply and look at Kia and say, "Don't worry Kia my answer is yes. Your brother can join us." Kia smiles and says," thank you." My all friends cheer "yeah......".
I smile at them, stand up from the chair and say, " now if you excuse me, I have to leave, I have an assignment to do." Kia asks,"you are not angry, right?" Of course I am angry but no one is ready to understand me and I don't want to sit with that person Aarav, if I had knew then I won't have come. So I fake a smile and say "of course not dear, I really have to go." Kia says " but our Milk shake hasn't come yet, where is Aarav?" I take my purse and say "it's okay, Tina can have my glass." Tina rolles her eyes and smiles.
I hurridly walk out, I am happy that Aarav is nowhere to be seen, I go to my car and what I see there that Aarav is smiling at me by resting his elbow on my car, I press my hand on my forehead and close my eyes, inhale deeply, open my eyes, put my hands on my waist, look at him. I feel butterflies in my stomach, he is looking so much handsome in casual light yellow shirt with rolled up sleeves and blue denim. He smirks at me and says, " hey Raavi, we meet again." I think this is the third encounter in two days. He lifts his brows and asks, " why are you leaving this early?, you should celebrate that I am part of your group now." and laughs loudly. I cross my hands on a chest and furrow my brows at him. He looks at me, scratches his head and says, " what did you say yesterday that you don't want to meet me?, now I am part of your group, what will you do? Leave them?" I laugh and say, "oh so this is all you want, but remember I'll never leave my friends." He smiles and says,"I know, but don't you hate me?" I look at him and smile and say,"I don't hate you but I pity you that you don't have any friends except us, now let me go. " He puts his hand on his mouth and widens his eyes and speaks,"oh so you are telling me that you are my friend." I am taken a back, I clear my throat and say "no I am not wealthy to be your friend, but you are my friend's friend, so enjoy with them and leave me alone."
With this I walk to my car, open it's door. I am about to sit inside that he grabs my hand, at that time l feel like an electric current passes through me, he smirkes at my reaction, I am red with shyness, I gulp my saliva and ask "what?". He asks, "so you know your worth now?" I reply,"exactly, and I thank you for that." He smirks at me, I snatch my hand, though I liked his touch, Close the door and drive my car away to my home. I don't know I am feeling anger, pleasure, frustration.I am not sure how to react. I hate him but when he comes in front of me my body reacts differently.
Why on earth he doesn't leave me alone, I mean he left me devastated first time we met, then again at Kiara's place he was jocking on me and insulting me. So what does he want now that he convinced Kiara, to be in our group.
My friends are family to me. We all are together since childhood. First there were only me,Anurag ,Kiara and his brother , then gradually Kartik, Tina, Ved and Anisha joined us. As a child we all played together, done our homework together, sometimes we quaralled too, but these all things make us what we are today, almost inseparable.
We all have a weak points, but we never try to point out those to each other, we always try to cover them. As we completed our high school, we all choose separate lines, it was impossible to be together so we decided that we all keep in touch with our social media group, and at the end of a week, we meet at any decided places, it may be cafe, restaurant, house of any of us, farm house, park etc.. if anyone is unable to come then it's okay, but reason must be genuine. When we meet,we discuss about our carrier, future plans, sometimes we play games, sometimes we watch movies. We do so much fun together, no one keeps secret. We are very much open to each other, we criticise too, but we all have our personal space, so in short we are like family.
Like all families have some intelligent,some funny,some crazy, some beautiful,some flirty. In Our family I am the crazy and fun loving, Anurag and Kartik are intelligent, Tina is flirty, Anisha is beauty, Kiara and Ved are serious type. But I love them all. We love each other, respect each other. Besides all these I am a secret keeper in my group, so any of my friend can talk to me about anything. Like I know that Ved is madly in love with Anisha, Anurag has a soft corner for Kiara, Kartik wants to go abroad, Tina has dated 17 guys untill now. Kiara is waiting for a charming Prince.
On the other hand I am like an open book, I don't have any secret to share. I never had any boyfriends, it's not that I am not beautiful, but I don't believe in things like love. It doesn't end well. Tina always calls me crying after her break up. Poor Ved, he can't express his love, because he is afraid that he'll lose Anisha. Anurag is waiting for Kiara to come out from her fairy tale dreams, he wants to explain her that there is no such things like a charming prince.
We have seen bad times too, like when Kiara's brother went Canada, we all cried. We were feeling so sad after he left, that we didn't meet for six month. Anurag was all broken when he lost his only family, his grand father,we had to make many efforts to take his life back on a track. Life is not that easy to any of us. Like I have to study hard. I have to attend many seminars, have to submit many projects. Anisha is struggling in modelling. Kartik is doing some course in adventures and hotel management, he is trying for new zealand. Tina is doing journalism, Ved and Anurag are doing MBA and running family business too, Kiara is studying law. So we all have a very hectic schedule, still we fetch sometime to be together,and cherish our friendship.
Now that strange person suddenly enters in my group, be part of us. I can't handle that. I've seen his worst mood, he is not worth of our friendship. I don't like him cause his presence make me nervous like a hell, my stomach start aching, my mind and body acts differently, l loose my ability to think wisely but what can I do now? he is already part of us.
In these thoughts I reach at my home, I am feeling very low, I feel like my friends betray me, they choose unknown over me. Since when I met him I didn't come home happily.
When I enter into the hall, there is a note on a table saying that my parents went for a walk in near by park. So I sit on a couch, turn on the tv, surf the channels find nothing interesting so I turn it off. Take my cell phone, open my group,and I see photos of all my friends laughing and celebrating with Aarav posted by an unknown number. I know who is it?
I become furious. So I throw my mobile on a table, lie down on a couch and close my eyes, it's been only five minutes and my cell phone rings, whoever it is I don't want to receive so I let it ring until it stops, but it starts ringing again, so I open my eyes and get up to look, who is it?
So I take my cell phone in my hand and look at the screen, can any one believe, it is the same unknown number, who posted photos in my group.....
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