le début -1

He leaned down and whispered something in her ear which made her eyes widened with delight, she blushed.

I smiled. From the past 20 minutes I was blatantly staring at a young couple sitting at the table across from ours because every act of theirs reminded me of a certain 17 year old girl who was young, wild, confused and ready to face new adventures.

This young couple across me were with a big group of friends but it was evident that these two shared their little secret, it was palpable from the way he peeked at her when he thought no one was watching or the way she rested her body against him instead of the chair. After a couple of minutes he slid his hand under the table and clasped her hands, his grip was so strong that I could see his knuckles became pale. She glanced up and her eyes sparkled with affection while mine—blurred. My heart seized my body suddenly, overflowing it with emotions. I don’t know how such a simple action had an impact on me, but it did. I just closed my eyes for a moment and was transported to Nikki’s Birthday Party, May 2014.

—

Nikki’s birthday party was just flawless, the entire terrace buzzed with music while everyone got tipsy taking shots and chugging beer. Her apartment was bustling with a lot of people, many of my batch-mates, seniors, acquaintances, crushes of my friends, and everyone else had formed mini groups where some stood in circles and others stood in corners. I mostly stuck to my group as I didn’t know many people that well and my girls and I had a gala time as we gossiped, danced, got drunk.

“Shriya, do you want to grab some munchies?” Nikki pulled my arm.

“Yes dude! Let’s go.”

We walked arm in arm towards the other end of the terrace to the table full of snacks. There were a few people drinking and conversing near the table and Nikki pulled me straight to their midst instead of the snacks.

“Not now dude, after an hour almost everyone will leave, that time we’ll just take the car and drive somewhere.”

“Bro, can you drive though?”

“I’ll be sober in an hour, so I can definitely drive! Oh, hey Nikki and Shriya!” A senior of ours said, finally noticing us. I just waved my hand and smiled.

“Well, Mohit, did I just interrupt a drive plan without me?!!”Nikki sounded, rather, acted pissed.

“Of course we were going to call you, it’s not now anyway, so chill!” someone convinced her and their banter continued.

I looked around to see if I was familiar with anyone and suddenly found Nikki’s best friend staring at me. Even though I caught him staring at me he did not look away instead he slowly smiled. My heart skipped a tiny beat as I returned his smile. He was comfortably sitting on an icebox and nodded his head, motioning me to go to him and I did. I thoughtlessly walked towards him.

“Hello Ms.Shriya Prasanna, remember me?” he mocked.

Of course I remembered him, he’s Nikki’s (My best friend) best friend and we both had a silly argument on her birthday over the phone regarding who wished her first.

“Oh Hello Mr. Dev Arhan, who are you again?” I teased, my face was deadpan.

“Oh! So Ms. Shriya has memory problems? Let me help you out. I’m Nikki’s best friend who always wished her first on her birthday.” He smirked.

“Oh, shut up! You can’t prove it!” I challenged.

“Oh, I can! You delayed wishing her by mere seconds and that window was enough to make me first.”

“Nope. I don’t believe you.” I folded my hands over my chest and looked down at him, it struck me that he looked very charming sitting on an icebox as though it were a throne.

“Alright. Would you believe me if I said you look really pretty?”

My heart skipped a beat again and heat gushed into my cheeks, I looked away unable to hold his gaze and stole a few seconds to myself. “Oh, that’s nice of you Mr. Dev. Thank you.” I smiled.

“Oh, so you actually believed me?” he said with an incredulous expression.

“Excuse me!” I glowered.

“Hahahahaha” he started laughing and extended his arm with his drink “So we finally meet.”

“Finally.” I smiled and clinked my drink and then the magic began. It seemed as though as soon as we clinked our drinks, the action released specks of fairy dust sprinkling over us transporting us to a land of our own. As we flew towards that land so did our conversations, we started speaking about anything and everything as all the people around us blurred out. I was a little silent at first but soon he put me at ease and I opened up. Our talks revolved around really serious things like my past relationships and love life and also sporty things like F1 racing.

The skyline began to grow thinner and so did the people around us, within no time the sky was devoid of clouds and I looked around to see very few people left on the terrace! Holy!

“Dev, what time is it?” I interrupted “There’s barely anyone around us!”

He was startled for a second when I interrupted him and he instantly stood up, scanning the entire terrace and nodded in affirmation. “I think we need to go get dinner, let’s go.” He offered his arm and a crooked smile.

My breathing hitched because this is the first time I could properly see him and Damnit, he was feast to my eyes. He was very tall with toned arms and the right amount of biceps, his tummy was flat and he was built like an athlete. His hair was tousled and lay on his forehead which complimented his facial structure. And oh, I was slowly falling for that smile of his!

I tucked my arm in the crook of his elbow and we walked down to get dinner oblivious to what was in store for us in the future, but I could feel the start of something new which would deviate the path of my life. I smiled.

The night was still young and so was our tête-à-tête.