"Truth or Dare?" Sameer asked her, and Naina felt afraid of what was to come.
"D - Dare," she said, "N - No truth. No... Dare!"
What if he asked her something embarrassing?
"Okay, I dare you to go to the other side of the school, alone, and come back," Sameer said with a smirk.
Why was he after her like this? Did he find it funny that she was so afraid?
"Why?" she asked, pouting.
"Because it's a dare. I'm supposed to dare you to do something you don't want to do," he said matter-of-factly.
"Okay fine," she said and balled her hands into fists, trying to get some courage, ready to head the other direction towards the the end of the hall.
Then, closing her eyes, Naina ran as fast as she could all the way across the hall, as Sameer watched her amused.
The crazy girl is running with her eyes closed, he thought. What if she gets hurt?
For some reason, that was bothering him, and so he quietly started to follow her to make sure she didn't hurt herself.
What he didn't realize was that Naina Aggarwal knew this school inside out. She knew where everything was so well, that even with her eyes closed, she would be able to navigate this place. She made it to the end of the hall, and ran all the way back, eyes still closed, almost stumbling into Sameer on the way. However, he had moved out of the way, watching her with a smile on his face.
This girl was not exactly what he thought she was. She was different.
When she got back to the front entrance, she huffed, panting for air, eyes springing open, only to see Sameer smiling and walking towards her a few feet away.
"You were following me?" she asked, "You didn't stay here?"
"I didn't want you to get hurt," he replied, and she felt a blush creep up on her cheeks.
"Oh," she whispered, and sat back down on the bench. He was so caring, and this was making her fall harder for him.
Sameer, on his way to sit down, accidentally pushed his bag down, where a pack of cigarettes fell out.
Naina's eyes landed on those cigarettes and she felt her heart sink.
Cigarettes were bad for health. From what she knew, only bad people smoked cigarettes. Her chachaji was so against smoking that he even said he refused to wed Pooja didi to a smoker. If Sameer smoked, how could she ever be with him?
Sameer quickly pushed the cigarettes back in his bag.
"Munna and Pandit, they just throw rubbish in my bag," he told her, averting his eyes.
He was lying. They were his cigarettes, but he knew that a behenji like Naina would judge him for it.
Naina smiled, breathing a sigh of relief. Her Sameer was a good person. They definitely could not be his cigarettes!
"Oh," she said. "Cigarette smoking is injurious to health."
"Right..." Sameer murmured, and tried to change the subject, "Your turn. You get to ask me truth or dare now."
"Truth or dare?" she asked him.
He was curious to see what kind of dare the behenji would give him, but he was too afraid of her daring him to study or something like that, so he quickly said, "Truth."
"Who is in your family?" she asked him softly, wanting to know him more.
"My family?" he asked, surprised by the question. "That's your question?"
It was the most simple question he'd ever heard in this kind of game. Usually people asked about bad things the other person may have done, or about something that would be embarrassing.
"Yes," she said with a nod, "Like in my family I have my dad, Arjun bhaiya, my chachaji and chachaji, taiji and taoji. I have Preeti and Pooja didi too who are my cousins -- they're chachaji and chachiji's daughters! And Pralay Babu, who is Taiji and Taoji's son. He is only five."
Sameer noticed that she didn't mention her mother, but he didn't ask her anything about that.
"Um, well, my Nanu," he said, looking down, feeling his heart sink a little.
He lived here in Ahmedabad with his grandpa who he fondly called Nanu. Nanu was his mother's dad. His mother was in Delhi with his stepfather who he disliked with a passion. He had a stepbrother who wasn't his mother's biological son, but it still felt like his mother loved Rohan more than him. He also had a younger cousin Deepika, who was about seven years old. She was his half-sister, the daughter of his mother and stepfather.
He hadn't really interacted with his stepfather's family too much because for as long as he could remember, they had sent him to boarding school. It was only this year, when he got frustrated of that hostel life that he ran away from there and came to live with his Nanu.
His Nanu, sensing his pain, let Sameer stay with him and attend PVKM.
"Just your Nanu?" Naina asked. "Your mom? Dad?"
"I don't have a dad," Sameer said quickly. "Mom's in Delhi."
"Oh... I'm sorry," Naina said, feeling bad for asking. She didn't know what to say, because Sameer didn't seem like he wanted to talk about his family. "I don't have a mom."
"What do you mean?" Sameer asked her.
"She died when I was a baby," Naina told him, a little sad. "I never got to meet her. My chachaji and chachiji have raised me like their own daughter. Papa was here, but he was so focused on Arjun bhaiya that he didn't really raise me... but it's okay, chachiji and chachaji are also like my parents."
Sameer felt bad when he heard that she had never met her mother. "I'm sorry," it was his turn to say. After a moment's pause, he asked her, "How can you say your chachaji and chachiji are like your parents? How can you accept someone else as your parent?" He meant it genuinely, not in a way of disrespect, because he had never been able to accept his stepfather as his dad's replacement.
"They raised me with so much love," Naina told him, "I mean, they scolded me and even slapped me when I was wrong, but they treated me like their own daughter, and never differentiated between me and Preeti. Our whole family is close. My taiji and taoji live next door to us, and Papa and Arjun bhaiya live there. We have two apartments, but it feels no different from us having one."
So she was loved, that was why she could accept her family as her own. Sameer wished he could say the same. It wasn't just that he didn't have the love of a stepfather, he felt like he lost his mother's love as well thanks to her new family.
"My dad died too," he said after a little while. "I was five years old."
Naina felt her heart sink. Sameer must have had it worse than her, since he must have had some memories of his dad.
"My Nanu filled the role of everything in my life. My mom, my dad, my Guru, my friend," Sameer said, feeling emotional. He didn't know why he was telling her all of this, but he felt safe. He was feeling very secure around her for some reason.
Before she could respond to him, the school doors opened and Munna and Pandit came running inside with the watchman.
"SAMEER!" Munna screamed, breaking Sameer out of his emotional state. An immediate smile reached his lips.
Naina felt relieved too as she checked the time. It was a few minutes past seven. If she got home now she could make up an excuse, but she had to go quickly.
"I have to go," Naina said to them. "Bye."
"B-" before he could say bye, she bolted out of the front door, and Sameer with a small laugh, shook his head.
Munna and Pandit who noticed this furrowed their brows.
"You were stuck here with behenji," Pandit said, "Then why are you smiling?"
"She's not so bad," Sameer told him.
"Not bad?" Munna asked, gasping, "What happened in this one hour my friend? Don't tell me, LOVE?"
"Are you nuts?" Sameer asked, laughing. "Love? And a behenji like her? No way. I'm just saying she's a good girl. Come on."
He threw his arms around Munna and Pandit and started to walk with them outside the front door, still smiling and shaking his head at the antics of Naina Aggarwal.
Who would have thought that he would open up his life to a behenji?
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