"For you? I'd hold the skies on my shoulders, if it came down to it."
*****
He didn't think she'd ever look his way. Let alone, stumble into him- and into his life. But all things happen for a reason, and sometimes- when you love someone from afar...
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"I LOVE YOU," Vineet says, looking deep into my eyes.
Oh no.
I cringe before I can help it and his face falls making him look like a kicked puppy.
"What was wrong with that?" he asks me, crossing his arms across his chest with a small frown.
"First rule to confessing your feelings to someone," I tell him sternly, "Do not say that."
"Why not?" he says defensively, "It's the perfect confession. Short and to the point, see?"
"You can't start off with an I love you," I shake my head in disappointment, leaning my head back tiredly, "Although, if your intention is to make Jade run for the hills, you're on point."
"Hey!"
"I'm serious," I tell him quietly, with a small frown, "Are you sure you've thought this through?"
I had no idea why he had suddenly decided that he wanted to confess his feelings to his long-term crush.
In the nicest way possible, Vineet was the biggest chicken I knew- so to suddenly come to a decision like this was very odd.
I knew him a lot better than he gave me credit for. And I could tell, right from the beginning of this conversation, that his heart wasn't in that confession.
Now I had to figure out why.
"I mean, this is what it comes down to, right?" he says, but he sounds more like he's telling himself that, "For so long, it's only been from far- but now I have a chance, I should just take it."
"You really mean that?" I ask him, a tad bit skeptical.
"Yeah, what's the worst that could happen?" he says, looking down at his hands, "If she says no, we'll still stay friends. At least, I'd hope so."
The Vineet I knew would have sobbed at the possibility that he might get rejected. There was definitely something wrong.
Or maybe, it was the lack of sleep that was making my mind go in circles.
I had gone to bed super late because I had tried baking last night. Baking red velvet cupcakes from scratch was a lot more tiring than you'd think.
And why did I decide to do it, you ask? While I would have loved to eat them on my own, I had actually made them for someone else.
Atlas had mentioned that he liked red and I thought, oh what the hell, might as well try making him something red.
Turns out, it was not easy. It took two failed batches for me to finally perfect it, not to mention I messed up the cream cheese part both times too. Needless to say, my kitchen was a hot mess at the end of it.
