Pehli Mohabbat

Chapter 7

Next evening Darshan took extra care to get ready. Shruti had thrown a party at her house. Everyone she knew was going to be there. Darshan had decided that if all went well, he would confess to Shruti about his feelings at the end of the party. He reached a bit early to help Shruti with the decorations. He was stunned when he saw Shruti wearing a lilac gown.
“Hey…you..er..you look pretty” was all he could manage to stutter out. Shruti smiled and pulled him inside the house.
“Thanks yaar.” She said, gesturing to his gift that sat on the table beside her bed.
“Arre, mere ko thanks bolegi tu?” Darshan said, faking to be hurt and Shruti giggled.
“Chal chal, jyada nautanki na kar. Come help me with the décor.” Half hour later, the living room and the backyard were full of people and they were lucky that it wasn’t snowing. They had built a campfire and set up seating arrangements around it. All of Shruti’s friends, around 20 boys and girls including Kabir were there. Darshan wasn’t pleased when he saw Kabir hugging her and giving her a large gift. But he grinned smugly when Shruti tossed the gift away when Kabir turned towards the glasses of soft drinks. The party went on fine until Kabir came to sit beside Darshan. He had noticed how Darshan kept stealing glanced at Shruti, and he had also seen how Shruti looked at Darshan when Darshan wasn’t aware. He had decided to do something about it.
“What’s up dude?” Kabir greeted Darshan cheerfully as he took a seat beside him holding a glass of orange soda in each hand. Darshan stared at him for a moment, confused before answering, “Nothing much.” Kabir smiled at him and offered him one of the glasses. Darshan accepted the glass without giving it much thought, he had been feeling thirsty anyway. He took two large sips before realizing that the drink tasted odd. He took a sip again to find what exactly was wrong. The drink tasted fine, just different. He shrugged, maybe Shruti had ordered some different brand of soda, which he had never tasted before. He emptied his glass and put it down. Kabir made small conversation with him and offered Darshan another glass of the soda in middle of the conversation. Darshan who had just seen Shruti walk towards him took it absent mindedly, not even knowing what he was doing as he was busy staring at her and drank half of it, noting that this one tasted odd too. But he didn’t think much about it. It wasn’t until Shruti came to sit beside him did he realize that something was wrong. He had a sudden and strong urge to kiss Shruti. The sight of her lips, coated in red lipstick, made him want to do things… he shook his head. This was inappropriate. He kept staring at her, fighting the urge to touch her and kept his hands to himself with great effort. He felt ashamed of himself for thinking about her in that way, he loved her, he was not supposed to lust after her body, not without her consent. Finally, when it became too much for him, he rose abruptly and walked unsteadily outside in the garden. He sat in the cold air, on the hard ground, trying to bring his mind to senses. But his thoughts kept getting jumbled. After a few minutes, his eyesight began to blur. Shruti who had noticed his absence from the party, came to find him and found him sitting on the ground, shivering.
“Darshan?” She called out as she knelt beside him. Darshan stared at her like he was seeing her for the first time.
“Hii.” He said a little dreamily and Shruti smiled. “You know, you look beautiful when you smile.” Darshan said in a cute voice, almost childishly and Shruti frowned. Something was wrong here. The way he was looking at her… though it felt good, she realized that Darshan was not in his senses.
“Darshan? Are you alright?” She asked at Darshan swayed even though he was sitting. He looked at her with a crooked smile, a smile that always melted Shruti’s heart.
“Am I alright? I am…feeling…suupperrrr. It’s like…I am flyyyiiinnggg.” Darshan spread his hands and mimicked wings with his hands. Shruti didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Darshan was clearly drunk. But how? There was no alcohol at her house, and Darshan seemed fine half hour ago. She had been staring at him all the evening, but she hadn’t seen him drink anything except a glass of orange soda, which was the regular brand they drank all the time. But somehow, Darshan was drunk. She knew Darshan would never willingly consume alcohol, it went against his principles. In fact, he hated alcohol. So there was only one logical explanation that someone must have spiked his drink. Shruti was suddenly angry at the thought. How dare they try to harm Darshan? She swore to herself that she would find out who did it and make them pay for it. Darshan had started to try to get up, but he couldn’t seem to find his legs. Shruti helped him up and found that Darshan was staring at her as if seeing her for the first time.
“You are prreeetttyyy” he slurred. Shruti had to turn her head to hide her smile. Darshan continued to stare at her as she led him through the back door into the house. It was quite in this part of the house as everybody was either in the living room or in backyard.
“Stop it.” She said, laughing as Darshan stared at her intently. She pushed his face away, but he looked at her again. “Arrre yaar Darshan.” She smiled as he stared at her with that puppy faced smile. “This is really creepy now.” She said as she helped Darshan to climb the stairs and Darshan stared at her, not looking at where he was going and stumbling. She hoisted him up and supported him.
“Main na muh tod dungi tera.” She said as they reached upstairs and Darshan hadn’t moved his eyes away from her.
“Tu haath to laga ke dikha…maarunga.” Darshan mumbled sleepily gesturing a punch weakly. Shruti laughed at this comical sight and pulled him into her bedroom. She didn’t want anyone to see him like this and hiding him was the only option. She was lucky that Darshan’s head had already stopped functioning and he was very sleepy by the time she heaved him onto the bed. Though he was lanky, his 5.8 foot tall frame had made it a very hard work. Shruti sighed as she piled covers onto him and pushed his messy hair away from his face.
“I am sorry for this, I don’t know who did it, but I will find out and when I do…” She didn’t know what exactly she was going to do, but she was definitely going to make that person pay.

//Guys this a big chapter. How's the story going? Also please vote. I have noticed this story is getting very less votes, so is there a problem? Is the story boring?//