[Present= Normal; Flashback= Bold]
“Mom we are home,” Keerti, my sister-in-law screamed as we entered with our hands full of shopping bags and I smiled at her. Only if I knew that the smile was going to fade after some moment I would never have entered the house.
Being myself I was entering the house while looking at my phone with my one hand and holding the bags in the other that I bumped into someone.
Shoot! Surely this time I am going to fall down and break a few bones! Then they will take me to the hospital and…. AND I WILL BE GIVEN INJECTIONS! I don’t want to. But I don’t have any option left! Wait I didn’t fall yet! But how? Did the time stop? Or the Gravitation?
I slowly opened my eyes which I closed in fear, only to see Kartik holding me like he used to do before. I couldn’t believe he was here, standing right in front of me, holding me. Our eyes met resulting the memories to rush in my mind and the time really stopped. At least for me. I guess it was same for him.
My eyes filled up with tears and so did his. We met after five months while previously we couldn’t live without meeting each other everyday. We were continuously looking at each other with tears in our eyes.
I could spend the whole day looking at his eyes which are the most beautiful one I’ve ever seen but my family interrupted.
“Naira, are you okay?” Keerti asked resulting us to part away. “Yeah, I’m okay,” I replied trying to smile but I couldn’t as my mind was taking me back to relive those beautiful memories again.
Oh shit! You’ll be late in your first class Naira. Hats of to you. First day of college and you are late!! Good improvement! Now watch movies. You know, you should watch movies everyday till midnight and wake up late so that you are late in class! Now why are you walking so slowly, run. RUN FAST.
Shit! Shit! Watch! Stop!!!! And collide!! Great!! Good start of college! I love it!! Now fall at least or will you float? Wait! I am not falling, shall I open my eyes? Yeah let’s do it. On the count of three…1…2…3…
Wow! The eyes! They are so beautiful. Eyes deep and blue as ocean. Wait..it’s your first day…you are late to class…you collided and now you are looking in his eyes! Wow Naira wow! Now go! You’ll will be too late! But the eyes…GOOO!
“Hi! Uh…umm…Thanks and sorry,” I said to him not even looking at him properly ,” I need to go now.” “Hey! Wait…,” he called me but I couldn’t wait. Well don’t blame me being the good student I shouldn’t be late on the first day, should I?
“Naira, are you okay?” Akash asked me taking the bags from me and keeping them at a side. “I am okay,” I said faking a smile and looking at him from the corner of my eyes. “Are you sure you didn’t get hurt?” he asked again. “Yeah I am,” I said.
Akash smiled and said, ” I guess you met each other already but still for a formal introduction, Naira, this is Kartik our new business partner and Kartik, this is Naira, my wife .”
From the corner of my eyes I saw Kartik flinch in anger when Akash said ‘my wife ‘ but he still maintained his smile.
“Well actually I know her from college, we were in the same college and we were quite good friends,” he said looking at me and then smiled looking towards Akash. “That’s great! I think it’s been long since you two last met. You can spend some time together now,” Akash said to us and Kartik smiled. “Let’s go inside,” he said but his phone rang suddenly. “Sorry, it’s an important call, I need to pick up. You two go inside, I will be back,” he said smiling and left.
I took my bags from the corner and stood beside Kartik to let him go first. ” You go first,” I said slowly and he made a move to leave. Coming close to me he whispered in my ear, ” I won’t be there always to catch you. Take care.” And he walked inside with me following him.
‘He still cares about you!’ My head screamed and Heart smiled. ‘The love didn’t vanish yet. It was true,’- I smiled sadly.
“Naira, what should we order?” my bestie, Gayu, asked me. “Anything,” I said scrolling my news feed. “Will you please keep the phone aside and do the honour to help?” she said angrily.
God she is angry without any reason. I better keep the phone aside before she eats me alive. “I did it my angry bird, be clam,” I said to her side-hugging “Now help!” she ordered faking angry. “OMG! I am scared!” I said sarcastically and she narrowed her eyes. “Okay let’s choose…umm…what about Pizza and chocolate shake? ” I suggested. “Not bad. Let’s order. You wanna come?” she asked. “No, you do it. I need to make a call,” I said and went out.
Finishing the call I was going to enter inside while a voice caught my attention. “Excuse me Miss,” a boy of my age said standing in front of me, “Remember me?” I looked at him and tried to remember if I knew him but I couldn’t looking at his face. Who was he? I looked at his eyes to understand if it was some kind of prank. Eyes. Those pair of deep and blue eyes. That stranger I bumped into my first day.
“Oh yeah! You are that guy I bumped into that day. I am really sorry for that. I was late for my class and it was my first day at college so I didn’t want to be late. I am really sorry,” I said without stopping. “Take a break miss,” he said, ” That’s nothing. Such small things happen in big cities.” I smiled at his words. “Actually that day this thing fell from your bag I called you but you didn’t look back,” he said and I bit my tongue,” and I know nothing about you so couldn’t give it you.”
“I am really sorry. As I said I was in a hurry I couldn’t look back,” I said feeling guilty. “It’s completely okay. Don’t be sorry. Here you go, your belonging,” he said and handed it over to me. “Thanks, for both the things. For catching me before I fell and broke a leg and for taking care of my belonging and giving it back to me. Thanks….umm what’s your name by the way?” “It’s Kartik, Kartik Khan,” he said with a swag making me laugh. “Thanks, Kartik,” I said smiling. “You are most welcome Ms. ,” he said. “Bye,” I said smiling at him and he too waved. I was going to enter but before that I looked back he was still there standing. “By the way, it’s not Miss. My name is Naira and you can find me in the dance hall tomorrow if you want to meet,” I said to him. “Thanks Ms.
Naira,” he said excitedly,” See you tomorrow.” He said and waved. I too waved at him and saw him walking backwards looking at me and smiling and sometimes waving at me. I waited for him to go and then turned around smiling and blushing a bit.
‘Our second meet’ I thought and smiled, ‘How crazy we were!’
Author’s note: Hey everyone! Hope you liked this part of the story. I’ll update the next part soon. But as I am more active in Wattpad than in here so I update it more frequently in there. So if you have wattpad account you can check it in there too!
Story Link: https://my.w.tt/jMILLteNH0