The Matchmaker

10. Varun

October, Sunday, 2nd

It was finally the day. The day Sanika came back home. She had lived next to me, the entire childhood. And now, she studied at AIIMS Rajkot.

All my life, she was like a sister figure to me. Older by merely a year. Until I hit puberty. All of my feelings changed towards her. She suddenly then wasn't just the girl who used to boss me around, teach me new things and guide me in life. She became something a lot more.

But, the opposite didn't seem to be true. She continued to treat me as she did. She never looked towards me as someone other than a younger brother. But somewhere in my heart, I had a hope. A hope that all these years of friendship would eventually evolve into something more.

And the only dream of my life was to get closer to her by getting into AIIMS Rajkot. Until yesterday. Something suddenly changed. With Mahi. I started to feel something different. Similar to what I felt with Sanika.

When she kissed me without warning, I was just bedazzled. But I felt really awesome. I had never kissed before, so maybe it was just pure lust. Or maybe not. The feeling was just... Too good.

I thought about it, and wondered that maybe I and Mahi could be a thing. We were good friends from 2 years afterall. But Sanika was my lifelong crush. All my life, I had only one dream and it was to be with Sanika.

So it was now an intense dilemma for me. Sanika or Mahi? Someone who I'm not sure I'd end with or someone who is madly in love with me? Someone who I've crushed on since childhood or someone towards whom I'm not even sure of my feelings?

Or both? I chuckled at that thought.

"Hey, smiling demon!" my mom called me playfully, "Are you going to keep laughing or do some things? Remember what you promised? That you'll do your chores yourselves and all?"

"Oh!! Yeah, yeah, just a minu..." then I remembered that making excuses was childish. "Yeah, I'll do it right away."

I immediately started to tidy up my room and set the laundry. To be able to match with Sanika, I needed to be more mature than my age. That was the only way to make her see me as someone as a potential boyfriend. And mature people did their own work. She often told me how she didn't have anybody's help over there in the hostel at Rajkot.

After a while, when I had finished my revision, I heard my bell ring. My parents' excitement already told me who it was. As I rushed into the drawing room, a figure swooped at me and hugged me tight.

"Okay, that's enough, you're choking me!" I tapped Sanika's arm.

But this was exactly what I needed to make my day better. To be in Sanika's arms.

"How are you, my dear Varu? I've missed you a lot!" she exclaimed.

Her face had changed since the last time we had met. She had grown prettier. Her radiant smile just changed the atmosphere.

"Sanika didi!! What did you bring for me?" my little sister came trutting from her room.

"Meena, she isn't living abroad to always bring something for us whenever she returns. It is rude to ask our guests like that."

"No need to sadden my sweet Meenudi!! I will always bring something for her!!"

Then, she took out a cubical fidget spinner. It was strange but magnificent. Meena gleefully grabbed the toy and began rotating it around. Soon, my parents also had a proper conversation with her, and finally, she did the needful.

"So, Varu. Should we go to our place?" she stated.

And that was how we occurred to be on the highest peak in the area. No, no. It wasn't a hill or cliff or anything like that. It was simply the water tank on the top of our terrace. Of course, we didn't sit on the tank itself. But it had some space around it that pretty much towered everything around. All the other buildings and their roofs were very easily visible from the height, except one under-construction building which was somewhat taller.