It Happened On One Monsoon

02: Once Upon a Time a Crush

[ Kavya's POV ]

My cheeks hurt from the forced and fake smiling at all the random relatives.

I let out yet another yawn, forcing tears to settle on the corners of my eyes. From a distance, Maa throws a look of disdain at me, between her serious conversation with her sisters; I'm certain they're judging my dad's side of the relatives. They're definitely bitching about how ugly the Saree colours are. Finding flaws in my dad's side of the family - it's one of their favourite things to do. I won't entirely blame them though; my dad's side is actually full of horrible people.

"Stop acting all uninterested around everyone. You know they love making stories", she hurries over to me, making a face. "Do you want a coffee?", she makes an offer. "How about some sleep?", I shrug my shoulders.

"Maa. You didn't think it was important to give me a heads up about this whole party, right?", I frown at her. "It was a surprise for you. You're back after three years", she states. "Well surprise - it was a twenty hour journey and I didn't sleep one bit", I break it down for her. "We need to make it loud and clear that our Doctor is back", Maa shrugs in her defense. "I'm not a doctor yet, Maa!", I throw my head back. "To us, you are! Now, just hold on a little longer. For me. Please", she begs and I simply agree.

"If you see Chinu around, ask him why Darshan's taking so long!", Maa orders, almost walking away.

"Darshan?", his name spurts out of my mouth within a split second in surprise. "I mean---he's coming? I--I didn't know", I make an attempt to cover up, looking around in a supposed casual manner. "You have a problem with that?", Maa sounds dubious. "No. Absolutely not. Why would I?", I shrug my shoulders. "I didn't know he was coming. Like, you know, Darshan never really was a party-person", I explain. "But he'd come for me", Maa flaunts and walks away, stranding me behind with butterflies in my stomach and a pounding heart.

I swallow my jitters and nerves down, and rush towards the mirror in our dining room.

Oh good lord, I look evidently jet-jagged with the dark circles and the no-will-to-live look written all over my face. Why couldn't Maa talk about this a little earlier?

I take a deep breath in and fix my hair. A touch of lipstick would possibly do the repair. Anyways, that's all I have with me right now. The rest of my make up has been locked away in my luggage...and I have no idea where that is.

Oh God, Darshan.

Darshan Raval. He's Bhaiya's best friend, and now - his band-mate. But to me, Darshan was always a tad bit more than just 'my brother's best friend'.

I've had feelings for Darshan ever since I've known what feelings and love actually meant. He was practically around my entire life, and I honestly don't remember the exact point where my heart began to churn feelings for him.

But I distinctly remember one evening, when I was forced to tag along with the two of them to a beach because Maa thought that I would simply rot away by staying indoors all the time. And while the sun was setting in the background, I glanced at him only to feel a thousand things I couldn't comprehend.

I know that he's a nice person, because Chinmay and Maa are all praises for him. All the time. But I honestly don't know much about him, for the person he is, because he's so reserved and we barely talked, despite being family friends.

There was just something magnetic about him. Infatuation - as they call it.

I honestly thought I was over him because 1) thanks to the painfully introverted-person I am, I have never really talked to him; we've only had small talks and 2) it's been three years since I last had anything to do with him. But I guess, people never really get over their first love. Even if it's one-sided.

"What took you this long, Darshan?", through the indistinct chatters, I could somehow still find Maa's words and my heart races in my chest.

Does he remember me? Chinmay must have mentioned about me to him - here and there - right? What if he's here with his girlfriend? God. I hope I don't breakdown into tears. How does he look now? Chinmay has sent me some pictures of them from their gigs, but they're all just horribly captured that sometimes I don't even know where Darshan is.

Battling my thoughts, I make my way to the living room and it takes me a moment of search to find him amidst the ocean of my relatives.

My heart takes a leap. I'm almost going through all the things Karan Johar talks about in his movies. Minus the dramatic, romantic music. My heart beats are louder than everything around me.

He looks...so different. But in a good way. He looks...divine; if that's how you use that word. He still does have a little bit of that lost look. But then again - there's just something about him that could force one to stop and stare. Perhaps I think about him that way because, I'm just still obsessed with him.

The fifteen year-old Kavya always believed that Darshan was magic; it didn't matter what the world thought about him - to her, he was all the good things in the world in one person. And she was nothing. She was just Kavya; an ordinary fifteen year-old nerd, whose world revolved around books, One Direction and as stupid as it sounds - him.

But it's all in my head and heart. He doesn't look at me that way. He doesn't look at me at all.

"Ah, look who's here!", Maa grabs my hand and tugs me towards her. "She was whining about how she hates the party the whole time", of course, Maa and not embarrassing me - impossible.

The corners of Darshan's lips curl into a small smile, before he lays his beautiful eyes on me. "Hey", he utters softly, running his fingers through his hair and God, he reminded me why I fell in love with him.

"Hi", I smile back, timidly. Maa runs off, without a warning, stranding the two of us together and I swear on God - I haven't been this nervous even during the toughest exams this year. It's so quiet, even though we're surrounded by all our loud relatives.

What do I talk to him about? I'm pathetic at initiating conversations. I should've taken socialising lessons in university when I was offered.

"It must've been a long flight", he prompts, breaking the ice between us. It takes a moment to perceive what he just said. "Yeah---", I respond, blankly. "I had a nine hour transit", I add on and he nods, slowly. "Where did you---uhm---have your trans---", even before Darshan could finish his sentence, Chinmay pops up out of nowhere.

"We have an offer! You should come now", he gasps. "May I please steal my band-mate from you?", he looks at me. You always have, Chinmay.

"Why are you asking me?", I shrug my shoulders and step back from them. "I'll see you around", Darshan chips at me, before running away with his first love - Chinmay.

I already know that I'm going to re-run his words in my mind the entire night. About him, I haven't changed one bit.

After whatever meeting they had, Chinmay had to ditch Darshan for something. Darshan spent the rest of the party in the porch. Alone.

Every cell in my body wanted to walk over to him and talk about something. Anything. Or I could simply stand there and stare at him for a while. The bad news is - I couldn't do either. My extremely judgemental relatives would bad-mouth me for years!

But I guess, I found a loophole. "Maa, didn't you serve drinks to Darshan?", I question Maa. "I must've forgotten", she answers. "Can you please do it?", she looks up at me, pleadingly. "Fine", I utter in a forced tone of disinterest as I fetch a glass from the counter.

And ladies and gentlemen, that's how you create opportunities.

♡

[hello, again, my cuties! As you can see here - the POV keeps switching between Darshan & Kavya. So before you take a dive into the chapter, be mindful of whose POV it is! Anyhoo, HOW WAS THE CHAPTER? DROP YOUR COMMENTS BELOW ANDDDD...KEEP SUPPORTING.❤]