11:11 (Ongoing)

Movie

Chapter 22

Ishita seemed to agree with my idea. We didn't really have a place to go, so we just started going out. At 8:30 in the morning, not much would be opened up anyway.

We were just walking around; I am not good at deciding places, so I just asked Ishita to decide on one.

By the looks of her, Ishita seemed to know a lot of shops; she burped out names like they were hers.

Neither one of the cafes or shops she told me about interested me enough to go there. I was way tired, and I wanted a place where no one would disturb me. We were just standing outside the college, and I came up with a mind-blowing idea.

"Why don't we go and watch a movie?" I asked

Ishita seemed a bit startled as she was facing me; she kept on staring at me for quite some time.

"Hello?" Are you there?" I asked.

She finally snapped out of it and replied.

"Sure, why not?"

We went to the nearest theatre in our college vicinity. We reached the theatre, which was a multiplex, and the show was going to start any minute as per the timings. We rushed to the ticket counter and asked for two tickets. The ticket guy looked at us and was just smiling. He had a pretty creepy smile to him. I just told him to hurry up and give us the tickets.

Sir, do you want corner seats?" the ticket person asked.

Without any hesitancy, I replied back to him.

"Sure!" "We don't mind."

I grabbed the tickets and started to run since the show was going to start any minute. Ishita seemed to be surprised, and I thought maybe it was the first time she ever went to a theatre. I caught ahold of her hand and started running.

I could feel the warmth of Ishita's hands while running; her hands were soft as if my hand were holding a stuffed animal rather than her hands.

We reached inside the appointed screen, and Ishita's face had turned bright red. I got tense and asked her if she was feeling okay.

"I'm okay," she replied.

We went ahead and sat on the allotted seat; although our row was empty, the corner seat seemed comfortable, so we sat over there.

Ishita seemed to be a bit nervous. She always had been the bold one ever since I met her; this was the first time I saw her getting nervous.

The movie started, and I had no idea what was going on.

Ishita tends to look at me frequently as if I were her big screen.

"What happened? Why are you looking at me instead of watching the movie?" I asked.

She looked at me; her face blushed, and she made no eye contact with me. It didn't matter; I had finally found some alone time, and now it was my time to make a move.

I am watching around to see if anyone is there behind or ahead of us; I saw no one, so I relaxed my body, keeping my hands on the armrest. I saw, looking at Ishita, that she was still red as if she had a fever. I went closer to her, and she looked at me coming at her and got startled. I got closer to her, which made her heart beat faster. She wanted to push me away but couldn't in the heat of the moment.

"Y-yohan, what are you going to do?" She asked.

I reached my hand out to her and kept it on her lips.

"Nothing, just stay quiet," I replied.

I could feel her soft lips on my fingers. I went ahead and reached out my other hand to her. She closed her eyes in a hurry and didn't open up. I went ahead and kept my hand on her forehead.

"That's good; you haven't got any fever," I said.

"Fever?" she replied.

"Yeah, ever since I gave you the idea of going to the theatre, your face has been all red," I said.

"That's because you do these things on a date with an actual girlfriend. I just got scared by what was on your mind." She replied.

Looking back on all the things I did, I was ashamed of myself, and I apologized to her for giving the wrong idea.

We laid back and were watching a movie.

"You weren't coming running after me right; it was due to Sarah, I assume." She asked.

"Yeah, you're right," I replied.

"She just fights me ever since I have maintained a distance from her," I said.

"Are you over here?" Ishita asked.

"Well, honestly, I don't know, but whatever I do, we can't stop fully talking with each other. She won't let that happen." I replied.

"What about you?" I asked.

"Well yeah, things seem to be sorted out at the moment." She replied.

My eyes were starting to go numb, and I couldn't hear a word that Ishita said after that. I was too tired to hear her out; my ears gave out, and I went on to sleep on the seat, with my head tilted onto the shoulders of Ishita for support.

1 WEEK LATER :

I got up, but it was apparently too early for me to get up. We had no practice today. I tried to go back and sleep, but couldn't. I went out for a light jog, which made me stumble upon Sarah. I looked at her and instantly turned my body away and started jogging towards home.

Sarah caught up to me. As I saw this, I increased my speed to get away from her. We hadn't talked after what happened that day.

She got a hold of my elbow and stopped me from running. I had no choice but to stop.

"It's okay if you don't talk to me, but I still consider you my friend. So as a friend, I won't let you run because you've got a race tomorrow. Go home and rest yourself," Sarah said.

Her concern for me was valid, and there was no reason for me to run away from her. I stopped and turned around to look at her.

"Sorry," I replied.

"It's okay; you must have been tense; that's why you're running, I feel. But you'll do well; don't worry. My best wishes are with you." Sarah said.

She motivated me, which made me feel stronger.

"Sarah, it's not like I don't consider you my friend, but..."

"But? But what, Yohan? Sarah asked.

"I-its nothing." I replied.

I stood up and started walking. I didn't turn around to watch what she was doing.

"It's strange that I came across you this morning, but that's okay, I'll see you tomorrow.

Next morning :

I woke up as usual, but today was different. I was filled with excitement and fear because the much-awaited districts were now on site.