YOU and ME..!! – Fifth Shot
* # * # * # * # * # * # * # * # * # * # * # * #
Swara’s dad’s transfer has been done at Delhi where Swara was studying in college, So Swara shifted to her own house from Sanky’s house.
Swara’s mom-dad knew all about swasan and they were happy to be having Sanky as their son-in-law.
Swara’s mom was Christian so Swara was habitual of doing bible study whereas Swara’s ex Sahil was himself Christian.,
One day Swara asked Sanky if he would be willing to come with her to a bible study.,
First Sanky felt amused but later on he agreed and the following Saturday at Red Plum at four o’clock they both went.
Swara’s arrival at bible study caused a bit of an uproar, especially because she had a pretty good-looking Hispanic guy with her.
And Sahil (Swara’s ex) also showed up there and when Sahil saw Swara, he got this look of utter triumph, and Swara’s nervous tic of messing up her hair started up with a vengeance.
Sanky studied Swara’s reaction, frowned, put his arm around her hunched shoulders, caught Sahil’s eyes in warning to not mess with Swara, and went back to listening to Ty, the leader talk.
Sahil sat right across from Swara and when the rest of the group saw him, the tension in the air went off the scale.
Swara tried to be calm, but having Sahil so close to her made her tic even more rampant, and eventually Sanky reached out with his other free hand and grabbed Swara’s to stop her from continuing to mess up her short, fluffy hair and making it stand on end with static.
Swara murmured a quiet thanks, Sanky smiled at her warmly enough to make her blush, winked at her reaction, and gently smoothed down her messed up hair.
Swara was used to Sanky doing things like that, but the others weren’t so the tension in the air became so thick it was almost smothering.
Sahil was going between glaring at Sanky and shooting accusatory looks of betrayal at Swara.
Swara was getting stressed out from the tension and looks from Sahil, and eventually she turned to Sanky who’d been trying to comfort her the entire time and mumbled
Swara : Sanky, I-I’m going to home, I’m really tired. I’ll talk to you later and see you tomorrow at college.
Sanky gave Swara a sad, understanding look and nodded.
Swara got her bag, was standing up to walk away, and to her surprise, Sanky stood up as well.
Sanky smiled at her expression
Sanky : Don’t I get a hug goodbye before you go..??
Swara smiled, rolled her eyes
Swara : Sure.
Instead of just doing the awkward, one arm hug, Sanky wrapped his arms around Swara’s slim waist, forcing her to put her arms around the back of his neck and making her stand on her tiptoes.
Swara squeezed Sanky one more time, then rolled off her toes to her regular height, and started to slide her arms off his neck, expecting him to move his hands as well.
Instead Sanky pulled Swara’s arms off his neck, stepped closer to her, she tilted her head to the right, suddenly confused and looked him in the eyes, and saw his intention a second before he acted upon it.
Sanky pulled Swara against him and tilted his head down to hers, paused just shy of her lips, saw her wide, dark eyes shut reflexively and kissed her.
It started out tentative and cautious, but since she didn’t pull away, he tilted his head, also making Swara’s head tilt, only the opposite way, deepening the kiss.
Sanky regained his control, sighed, putting his forehead to Swara’s
Sanky : Swara, did I just mess things up or freak you out..?? I don’t want to lose you.
Sanky pulled his forehead away from Swara’s and saw her blushed a dark crimson red.
Swara didn’t say anything, just sort of stood there for a moment, almost like she was thinking really hard about something.
Sanky started to say something and Swara held up her hands to stop him
Swara : I’m fine Sanky, but I do still have to go. I’ll see you at college tomorrow.
Swara started to walk away, kind of hastily, so Sanky gently caught her wrist, turned her back towards him.,
Sanky : Swara do u know that how much I love u..??
Swara smiled softly, but also with a twinge of sadness
Sanky : I know,
Swara’s voice slightly twisted with replying this.
Sanky dropped her wrist in surprise and his face grew completely serious as he said.,
Sanky : Swara, I don’t want to pursue someone else, I love you. Nothing is going to change that, even if I was wrong about how you feel about me.
Swara took a few steps away, turned away from Sanky so she couldn’t see him or vice-versa and said, almost in tears,
Swara : Bye Sanky.
Sanky started to protest, but she interrupted.,
Swara : No Sanky, I can’t let you…. I-I got to get home. Umm, I’ll call you before I go to bed, just like always, and I would appreciate it if when we do talk.
That having been said, Swara walked away without looking back, leaving Sanky alone, and the other members of the bible study, who had been watching the entire time.
Sanky plopped back down into his vacant seat in sudden and overwhelming exhaustion, not sure how to proceed exactly, just knowing he wouldn’t be able to bear losing Swara.
Sanky dropped his pounding head into his hands and tried to think things through when an annoying voice or perhaps just the person behind the voice said.,
Sahil : Wow dude, you just wildly screwed that up. She doesn’t like being kissed by just anyone, actually she’d been saving her first kiss for someone special, which apparently from her reaction before she left, is not you. She also doesn’t like presumptuous guys. I suppose like me and if you really love her, you wouldn’t even have to think about what you should do. I made the mistake that led to her hating me and never even wanting to be just friends. Dude, don’t make the same mistake I did because I lost a really amazing person, who really trusted me. Don’t put her through the same pain, stress, and confusion that I did, treat her better than that, that’s what she needs and deserves.
Sanky looked up at Sahil who was sitting opposite of him and was very blunt.,
Sanky : It’s your fault that she’s still some kind of afraid to risk the relations, why should I listen to you..??
Sanky looked him straight in the eyes and frankly said.,
Sanky : I’m trying to help her be happy and you seem alright, I don’t want you to mess things up.
Sanky sat there and was thinking over what Sahil had said when his phone rang, he looked and saw that it was Swara calling.
Sanky hesitated, clicked the accept button, put the phone to his ear, and shakily said.,
Sanky : Swara..?? I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have just sprang all that on you, or presumed anything. I’m sorry.
Swara had tried to stop his apology, but he was too preoccupied to hear her gentle attempts, so she ended up just shouting.,
Swara : Shut up Sanky and just let me talk alright!!
Her getting that worked up put him into silence and she said.,
Swara : Sanky, I’m sorry for the way I reacted. I mean I didn’t exactly discourage you when you hesitated, so really I’m at fault here. Please just say you forgive me. Thank you for hearing me out. So, uh night I guess. I’ll see you at college. Bye..!!
For a while things were a little bit confusing and uncomfortable for Sanky and Swara, but they were too close for it to remain that way for very long.
The only real difference was that Swara was a bit less rigid in her opposition to Sanky’s shows of affection.
Such as when Sanky would stroke Swara’s hair, touch her face, hold her hands, hug her, keep his arm around her shoulders or waist, kiss her cheeks, etc. Sanky, he was careful to not cross the little invisible line that he had before, but he did do more signs of affection.
They went on hikes together, rode bikes, kept going to library for study, hanging out with Swara’s graduated friends, and just spent lots of time together.
One Saturday, Sanky dragged Swara to a paintball field in Short wall to play against him.
Sanky showed her how to aim and shoot the gun, and sent her off to attempt to wreak havoc on all of the other paintballers and himself.
Swara gladly pranced off into the surrounding woods, the weight of the gun reminding her of what she was supposed to be doing.
Swara went into the woods a ways and started getting unnerved.
Swara hadn’t seen anyone since she’d left Sanky, and she might have assumed that she was alone, except that the hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end, it felt like there were eyes watching her from every direction, occasionally she heard a twig crack, and she could have sworn that she’d heard a few muffled snickers.
Swara had a very active imagination, so being alone in the woods that she didn’t know, and probably being watched by multiple people, definitely set her nerves on edge.
Swara started messing her hair up, doing her nervous tic, but in order to do so, she had to let go of her gun with one hand, and since she was so small and the gun was so heavy, it kind of drooped.
That show of weakness is what did it, there was some rustling, and all of a sudden Swara was surrounded and one boy shouted.,
“Attack…!!!”
Swara was being pelted with paintballs from every direction and some of them really hurt because the guns were turned up high, her goggles were completely covered, so she stopped trying to attempt to dodge being hit.
Swara heard a gasp along with some cussing and then another one, and another, as the gasps and cursing continued, the amount of paintballs hitting her went down.
Her imagination started racing, trying to figure out what had stopped the full on attack, the suspense finally got to be too much and despite the risk, she ripped off her goggles to see what was going on.
Sanky was standing up the hill from Swara, gun raised as he shot the last of her attackers.
Sanky smiled triumphantly, came down the hill towards Swara, and said.,
Sanky : Was that fun or what..?? Can’t you see why so many people love playing paintball..??
Sanky was a couple of feet away from Swara now and didn’t seem to notice that her eyes were narrowing into a glare as he went on talking.
Swara raised her gun and shot him in the forehead, Sanky stopped walking towards her, his mouth open in shock, and Swara shot him again and again.
Sanky finally closed the gap between them, pulled the gun out of her hands, threw it, and when she punched him, he wrapped his arms around hers to restrain her.
Swara kept struggling, they both fell to the ground, and Sanky landed on top of Swara, but quickly grabbed her as he rolled over so he wouldn’t be crushing her.
Swara twitched with annoyance until Sanky cupped her face between his hands.
Swara closed her eyes and sighed, he whispered.,
Sanky : Swara, why are you so upset or annoyed, whatever..??
Swara slowly opened her eyes to look into Sanky’s and said.,
Swara : Sanky, did you set me up..?? Why were all of those people so good, where did they come from anyway..?? And how did you manage to not get hit with anything??
Sanky started laughing and when Swara started to glare, he held up a hand to stop her, and said.,
Sanky : Swara, I didn’t set you up to get attacked. They’re good because they play a lot, it’s an open paintball course, so that is why there were so many, and I managed to not get hit by anyone, except by you of course because the prospect of “nailing a newbie girl” was too strong for all of those egotistical guys to resist, so no one paid me any attention, and I was able to talk them all out. Look Swara, I’m sorry they all chose to gather together and ambush you and I’m sorry they all chose to gather together and ambush you and I’m sorry that I didn’t get here sooner and take them out quicker.
Sanky smiled with a twinge of remorse and stroked Swara’s hair that was now standing on end and bristly with all the drying paint and said.,
Sanky : Swara, you’ll probably have to wash your hair quite a few times before all of the paint will come out.
Swara shrugged lightly and said.,
Swara: Ah well, I’ve been wanting to add some color to my hair anyway, although I have to admit I was only thinking of having one color added, not a million and a half, and not all of it.
Sanky had the good sense to look down with a look of embarrassment on his face when Swara got done talking, looked at his watch, started, and then swore.
Swara raised an eyebrow, rubbed her ears mockingly for blood, he ignored her, and said.,
Sanky : We were here longer than I planned, your bible study starts in fifteen minutes and it will probably take that long to get to Red Plum, so if you still want to go, which I’m guessing you do..,
Swara nodded her head and he nodded back.,
Swara : Okay, well there’s not really enough time for us to drop by our houses and shower, so I guess we’ll just go as we are. It should be fun, be quite the ice breaker, huh?
Swara laughed lightly.,
Swara : Break the ice..?? There something you forgot to mention Sanky, who do we need to break the ice with…??
Sanky smiled slowly while saying.,
Sanky : Really? You don’t realize…??
Sanky laughed heartily and when Swara’s cheeks slowly started to turn red in annoyance, Sanky held up his hands in surrender before saying.,
Sanky : Swara, relax. You’ll understand who I’m talking about soon enough. I’m sorry I’ve agitated you, that weren’t my intention. You forgive me..??
Swara’s face eventually regained its normal color, she sighed, nodded, and gestured that they should be going.
During the ride from the paintball field to the bible study at Red Plum, Swara tried to figure out what Sanky had been talking about earlier when he’d been saying something about breaking the ice, and had a sinking feeling that she knew exactly who he’d been speaking of.
Sanky tried to hide her sudden unease from Sanky, but of course failed miserably.
On the way inside the coffee shop, Sanky took hold of Swara’s hand, cupped her face with his right hand, quickly planted a kiss on her forehead, and said.,
Sanky : Swara, don’t worry about how he’ll react. It’ll be fine and I’ll be with you the entire time.
Swara managed to relax, unfortunately that ended as soon as they walked inside, and the bible study noticed the blotches of paint mottling Swara and Sanky’s clothes.
Sahil had just started warming up to Sanky and his very close relationship with Swara, that mindset was destroyed when he saw his ex-girlfriend covered in paint splotches.
Sahil shot Swara and Sanky such a venomous look, Swara frozen in place and her whole frame was wracked with a violent shudder.
That shudder seemed to empower Sahil because he then smiled coldly and said loudly enough to draw the attention of the rest of the bible study.,
Sahil : Oh, how nice of you two to join us, I am sure we were all thinking the same thing ‘Swara and Sanky are probably off somewhere committing sins together, probably rolling around in some bushes’ I don’t know why you two even bother coming to this, you’re almost late, this time you both are filthy, and neither of you appear to listen.
Swara turned bright red and was furiously rubbing her short hair while staring at the ground.
Sanky scowled magnificently, wrapped his right arm securely around Swara’s slender waist, and tugged her over to the empty section of one of the booths without saying a single word.
The lesson started back up tentatively and no one else tried anything, Sanky was giving off this angry air the entire time, just challenging anyone to try messing with him or Swara.
As they were leaving Swara’s phone vibrated, she flipped it open and saw a message pop up, she read it, and all it said was :-
“That was the ploy of a coward; you won’t always have your guard. At some point he’ll get sick of you like I did.”
Swara frowned after reading it, Sanky looked at her, frowning in concern and asked what was wrong.
Swara managed a tiny smile, rolled her eyes, and told him it was nothing, he looked skeptical, but just accepted it that she wouldn’t tell him what was going on unless she wanted to.
They drove back to Swara’s house where they raided the fridge and then barricaded themselves in her room and watched the Disney Beauty and the Beast for around the hundredth time, a longtime favorite of hers.
Eventually they were called to dinner, they were eating tacos, and Swara’s parents asked how their day had been and if they’d had fun.
Swara assured them that it had been an awesome day, even if she did get nailed by almost everyone at the paintball fields.,
It had been worth it to nail Sanky. A little while later Sanky hugged Swara and left her to head back to his place a couple blocks down the street.
As Swara was lying in bed she reflected back on what Sahil had said and it caused a tight, cold feeling to take root and expand in her chest, her despair was growing and growing until it became hard to breathe.
Her phone started ringing and she answered reflexively before remembering that it could be Sahil and her anxiety kicked up a notch, until Sanky greeted her warmly, and the cold knot was replaced with pulsing, pleasant warmth that grew and soothed her frazzled emotions.
Swara exhaled her breath that she had been unintentionally holding and returned his greeting.
Sanky had noticed the exhalation though and asked her about it, she laughed nervously and just muttered something about how it had been a yawn.
Sanky was silent for a moment, but ended up saying.,
Sanky : Were you thinking about whatever had upset you earlier…??
Swara silently cursed herself for that sigh that had alerted Sanky that something was wrong and cursed him for being so perceptive.
Swara sighed again.,
Swara : Ya Sanky, I was, but its fine. Not important. So, you got home I guess??
Sanky was silent again, but ended up just saying., “
Sanky : Alright, I’ll let it go, won’t press you for any details, but if it keeps bothering you, I think that you should talk it out with someone. If not me, then at least one of your other friends, Ragini, Shanaya, Komal, or Natasha, or all of the above if need be.
Swara : Sanky…,
Sanky : No, just listen. You don’t have to tell me whatever it is, but since you’re still upset about it, hours later, I do think you should talk it out with someone. I’ll stop lecturing you now and let you get to bed.
Swara gave a dry thanks, which got a laugh from Sanky and he said.,
Sanky : Sure thing Swara, good night, I love you.
There was a sigh over the line from Swara and she said good night back before ending the call.
*”*”*”*”*”*”*”*”*”*”*”*”*”*”*”*”*”*”*”*”*”*”*”*”*
That was it..!!