[featured on @ShortStory 2024]
Neil had just arrived in Delhi, a few days ago to meet his sister. Exhausted by her endless rants about how he doesn't have any time for the family, he finally decided to show up and make his sister happy! One fine day...
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A bundle of days summing up a month, filled with butterfly smiles and teenaged-fashioned heartbeats had captured the essence of the new bridge that had been built between Neil and Vedika. The one that accompanied much more than just shy cheeks and short awkward smiles. A bridge that was constructed upon the strong foundation of comfort and honesty. A bridge that harboured the cargo of Neil and Vedika's secret hearty whispers. Whispers that sneakily transported themselves to the core corner of their heart and settled comfortably, cuing the butterflies in their stomach to take control rather.
Neil had never felt this sort of joy in his entire life. Nothing had calmed his heart and yet given it a sweet timely attack in this dramatic manner, back in the past — not even his work for that matter. Sure, he was thrilled about his work. Passion-driven zeal exuded from his aura every time he worked on building his application, but yet he hadn't felt a comfort of this kind — the one that didn't make him anxious about the consequences, the one that was just enough to make his lips curve upwards, the one that he wanted to experience without all the what-ifs.
Things had been no different for Vedika. For the longest time she had believed, that love and romantic feelings came with an explosion, especially in the gestation period of something real and strong, however, Neil had broken all her misconceptions. Meeting Neil, spending time with him, listening to him talk, and making his cheekbones fluff up had her realise, how comforting and homely could the feeling be. How normal and healing it could be. Everything he ever said to her, always felt like a song to her ears. A song that she never wanted to end. A song that she wanted to keep on loop all her life.
The beautiful feelings had sure taken a deeper turn into both of their hearts, however, both of them yet seemed to hold themselves back from a proper confession. Perhaps, they didn't want to rush. Or, perhaps, they feared losing each other, had the other person not been swimming into this same sea of feelings. So, they chose to wait, until the other realised, unaware of the same decisions that their hearts had taken in unison.
In this newfound comfort and contentment, Vedika had created five more songs, a couple of which were Neil-inspired. The flirty remarks he casually tossed her way were no less of a torture to her poor heart after all, so much for keeping the feelings in.
Neil had shown her so many sides of his in this past month which had successfully played a key role in strengthening Vedika's crush on him, however, the one side of Neil which stood up on the pedestal engraved with the title of 'unforgettable and unfathomable' was — his caring side. She had an idea of how caring he could be, given his soft and understanding nature that he cast on every time she saw or heard of him, however, thinking that he'd keep the world aside just to tend her cold, wasn't something she had dared to entertain in her mind.
The past week when Vedika had to kiss the bed due to the bad cold she was inflicted with, she couldn't pick up any calls from Neil. Panicked, Neil had called his sister and asked Sunny to check on Vedika. Sunny had not only come in with a soup — that Neil had instructed him to make — but also had made his Vedu Vada video call with Neil. Neil had only breathed a sigh of relief when he had seen her temperature coming down to normal from 102 degrees. He had only cancelled his flight tickets upon Vedika's threat about not taking her medicines on time.
