“Hey, sleepyhead,”I whispered and gently touching his shoulder to help to wake him.
“Umm,”he murmured and stretched.
“We need to get ready or else we will get late,”I whispered and bend down over him.
I run my fingers through his hair; he stirred a little and I bend down and kissed him softly on his head as I felt bad for ignoring him and then looked at his face, his eyes were open and he was looking at me.
“Hie sleepyhead,”I said, smiling. “Hie,”he whispered smiling.
He got up, and I sat down beside him. “You need to go and get ready; it already quarter after six and we still need to go to the reception,”I said, apologetically.
“Hmm, are you still ignoring me?”he whispered softly looking at me. I bit my lips and nodded yes; I knew it was not the right thing to say, but he deserved the truth.
“But,”he opened his mouth to say but then avika voice entered the room before her.
“Let’s get ready guys,”she said, hurriedly, Aly rolled his eye; as again our talk was interrupted again by our friends.
“We need to check out today. Don’t forget fantasy world is over back to reality,”avika said, loudly.
She was mumbling words childishly and stopped when she saw Aly was still here; I bite my lips to stop myself from bursting in laughter.
“Oh Aly,”she said, embarrassed. “Hello.”Aly waved his one hand and gave her a polite smile.
“Excuse me, ladies,”he said, and got up.
He took his Vest coat and left for his room.
“Some warning girl?”she said, in disbelieve. I started laughing. We were all dressed up and started our photo section in our room itself.
I was wearing an Indo Western Lehenga; an off-shoulder off-white crop top and traditionally embroidered royal blue skirt. In jewellery, I wore my diamond watch and on the other hand a diamond bracelet and long diamond earrings.
As we clicked photos nidhi joined us. We clicked photos with her and then left for the reception. The stage was redecorated again, now with a purple and white theme.
The chairs were not arranged in circles around the stage as it was done in the morning, but instead, it was arranged theatre type.
DJ was playing and one by one guest was coming. Due to our little photo section, we were late and disha and rahul were already seated on the grand royal red velvet chairs, dresses just like a king and queen and they were chatting with each other and laughing.
The waiters were serving beverages and starters. We were standing by the stage talking with guests our other schoolmates. I was speaking to two girls from our school; it was always nice to meet our schoolmate, bharti and avika were beside me and they were having a deep conversation with a boy whose name I don’t remember but was our schoolmate too.
“Excuse me, ladies, I need to borrow her,”Aly said, charmingly and gave me his hand.
He came out of thin air, and so politely he asked, to borrow me, it was impossible to say no.
I took his hand, and he pulled me out of the group and started walking at the corner, I turned my head to look at bharti and avika with “help me”look and avika winked.
“Don’t go far”I ordered, and he stopped.
We were not far away from my friends, but we were at the corner where no one could hear us.
“I’m sorry but I couldn’t help myself but not saying anything, you look stunning,”he said, amazed and looking at me from top to bottom and again top.
I had to giggle, the way he said, was both charming and funny.
“Hey, did you see yourself in the mirror?”I asked, yet again dazzled by him. He was wearing a white-coloured oxford shirt with the sleeves rolled up and I could see his muscular forearmed. Along with navy coloured bow ties and braces with a pair of grey trousers. He completed his look with a pair of dark navy chinos and a silver watch. His look was both elegant and classic at the same time.
“Oh please,”he rolled his eyes. I laughed and then I was distracted by my friends. I saw the two girls I was talking to earlier were staring at Aly with lust in their eyes; they were giggling and talking in each other’s ears.
As I watched them, I looked at Aly one more time from his shoes to his slicked hairs.
He really looked gorgeous and handsome.
“You should tell your other admirers that,”I said, still giggling.
“Admirers?”he asked, with narrow eyes.
“Oh yes, you have quite a number of admirers here.”I teased.
“Sure maybe, but definitely lesser than yours,”he said, smiling widely and showing me his perfect set of teeth.
“Mine? No way, I don’t have any.”I disagreed with him; shaking my head no.
“Do you want a list?”he challenged. “No, but you definitely have more admirers than me, look at your left,”I said, still giggling.
“Are you one of them?”he asked, seriously without turning.
His question was all sudden and unexpected; I stopped giggling and looked at him.
“Maybe,”I whispered looking into his eyes.
“Good, cause I was yours too,”he breathed, I looked at his lips as he said, that, and was distracted instantly. And again, I had the sudden rush of kissing him, here and now.
“jasmjn! We need to go,”bharti said, as she approached us. And I breathe in relief.
Bharti!”Aly greeted her sharply, annoyed at her.
“Aly”bhartii greets him in the same manner. She didn’t wait for my answer; she took my hand and started walking towards the stage, and while going I saw both the girls walking towards Aly, I turned and winked at Aly, who was still looking at me with annoyance as I walked away.
“You better have a good reason for not being with him because apparently, he can’t stay away from you,”bharti said, in a stern voice.
I looked at her; she was having a straight face. I really felt bad, when bharti pointed out why I ignored him.
In all this ignoring and staying away mess I forget the real motive behind it, why on the first place I did this.
I ignored Aly because I thought it would be easy to say goodbye because I had made my decision and I was going to stick with it.
The rest of the evening passed in a blur, and it seemed like time was running fast.
After bharti pulled me away from Aly, he never came back to talk to me.
We stared at each other from the distance, but we never went near each other. The day was at its end; the time was up and it was time to say goodbyes.
I was already nervous how should I say goodbye? Did Aly suffer the same way, I’m suffering now? And that’s the reason he didn’t say goodbye because it was really difficult?
But I remember his letter where he clearly said, he didn’t want to stay my friends too. Thinking about the letter gave me hope that I could do this. So, I started making the notes in the head what I needed to do.
I requested Avika to take my bag with her and bring it tomorrow at my house and requested bharti to make a cab booking under her name any time after midnight.
I was sure they had many questions, but this was not the time to answer. I requested a favour with no question asked.
They didn’t say anything but did as I asked. I gave my room key to avika, and she got the bag and kept it with hers and gave me the key back.
And bharti confirmed that she had done the booking for the cab. It was 1: 00 a.m. when nidhi, avika, and bharti did their check out together.
Luggage was already placed in the cab and they all said, their goodbyes to me and disha.
The reception event was almost over and I said, my wishes and goodbyes to disha before going to my room.
As I entered the room, my book was still at the table and I walked straight to my room. My clothes were kept neatly on the bed, shorts, and t-shirt that I wore in the afternoon and my handbag was lying on the bed too. Once I was all freshened up and changed into shorts and a t-shirt, I folded my worn clothes and kept in a cloth bag and then placing that in my handbag. I had a big bag, so it fitted perfectly. I remember my diary, so I stepped out of the room and saw Aly standing.
“Please tell me you are not going to tell me goodbye,”he asked, gently. It really broke my heart listening to the words from his mouth that was exactly the thing I was planning to do.
I said, nothing I stood where I was, at the front of the B1 door. Slowly he walked towards me; we both stared at each other.
My brain was processing faster than usual; What should I tell him? Then he stopped in front of me; not very close but close enough for me to breathe fast.
“I want to talk to you before you decide anything,”he whispered. I was quiet; lost. Then he took a step forward, and I took a step back. He stopped panicking. His eyes were alarmed, and it disturbed me.
“Please let me explain.”he pleaded and took a step forward and I stepped back again and my back touched the door, there was no more space left to go back.
The door was closed. Now it was my turn to panic, and I was not prepared, not ready; I have forgotten what I should do, or say. The words didn’t seem to come out of my lips; the lump was back and I couldn’t speak. And the way Aly was stepping forward one step at a time; It reminded me of our first and only kiss behind the tree.
As I remembered that day all the other emotions were gone and only the emotion that was on the surface was Love, and I loved him.
“Jasmin?”He called my name in panic, I blinked.
“I want to talk to you,”he said, once again. I kept looking at his face blankly and then my eyes moved to his lips.
“Don’t.”I barely whispered the word.
And without any warning, I grabbed his shirt, pulled him closer, and kissed him. For a few seconds, he didn’t kiss me; He seemed like a statue as I kissed him, but as the minute passed by, he placed his hand on the waist and kissed me back with passion.
I pressed my body to his body, and he pushed me back at the door in response. It felt the same as I thought it would be; magical and full of emotions.
Though it may only seem like we were just kissing, but as our lips touched it felt more than a simple kiss, it was like a flower blooming inside of you, like a piece of music playing inside as
you with the sync heartbeats beating, like you’re drifting in the river; you want to stop but you can’t.
It feels like I was climbing a mountain and with closed eyes as I kissed him. I tried to climb on him. His lips were just as I remembered; soft, warm and fat.
I felt overwhelmed when his lips rubbed against mine . I forgot every other emotion; pain, suffering, guilt, anger, loss. I left behind all the worries.
Only thing I wanted at that moment was him; It was oblivious that he wanted me the same way I wanted him.
He touched my face my neck my back my waist one by one; It heightened my senses by his very touch. He had also raised a new feeling or the pull for him inside me, that was missing before and now it was stronger than ever.
I stopped and pushed him away lightly. He broke the kiss and looked at me; breathless. We both were panting for breaths; I could hear my heartbeat in my ears.
My body was aching for him, to be in his arm and continue. I had forgotten everything; The only thing I knew was: I want him, not a need but a desire.
I took his hand and opened his room’s door and without breaking the eye contact I walked in backward in his room pulling him along and locked the door.