Maira was dressed in a light pink gown, her hair was tied up in a party low bun. She sat on a chair in front of her dressing table. Her mom and dad stood behind her. But her big brown eyes were smudged of kajal because of her tears.
Everyone says that she had everything she wished for. A perfect life with reputed parents. Slowly things started to bother her. And interfered with her dreams. She wanted to become an artist. But being the younger daughter of two famous doctors of Delhi, becoming an artist is something similar to taboo. She was born to become a doctor. And was forced to play with plastic stethoscopes and syringes when she was a toddler.
A few minutes ago she was happy as it was her birthday and her parents had thrown a party for her. She turned eighteen on that day and had a small surprise for her parents-her admission approval to the Art college. But when her family surprised her with an admission letter to medical college, she couldn't bear the agony of seeing her dream crumble into pieces.
"Stop it, Maira!" Tashi Desai preached to her daughter. Maira sniffled, staring at her mother's reflection in the mirror.
"My girl, you will live a reputed life!" Moksh Desai mentioned, softly. "If you will become a doctor like your brother." She intermittently glanced at her father and mother. They never understood her.
"I didn't want it but!" Maira implored, wiping her tears.
"Stop creating a scene. Everyone is downstairs to celebrate your birthday and to congratulate your admission to the medical college. You are gonna be a doctor like us." Then she caught her husband's hand and pulled him out. "Come downstairs in ten minutes, Maira!" Her mother ordered before walking out. She gave a final glance at her Art college admission letter and put it inside her drawer. There is no way for her to live her life with her dream in this generation.
After a few minutes, Rithwik stood in front of her room with a guest Maira hated the most. It was none other than Abeer Arora.
"Kiddo!" Rithwik voice. He is mean too she thought. "Look there is someone to meet you."
"I don't care about anyone. Not even your friends. Tell them to have cake and leave."
"Ouch!" Abeer spoke in a soft and pleasant tone. There was a trace of mocking too. "I feel insulted!" There was a strange enthusiasm in his voice that attracted Maira's core.
"Sorry dude, she is like an angry bird today," Rithwik apologized on behalf of her.
A small smile formed on Abeer's lips, "If the birthday girl is angry, should we tell the guest to leave with their gifts?" Abeer stared at her puffed eyes through the mirror. Abeer was the only best friend of her brother, Rithwik, whom he trusted to let in their mansion and even speak with Maira.
Now and then they used to make tiny encounters. Maira has despised Abeer since her sophomore year. It's because he was smart, intelligent, and talented. They used his prototype to motivate her. Unlike Maria's family, Abeer's family has no doctor. He did hard work to claim a seat in the medical university without anyone's support. So they always bullied Maira to get inspired by Rithwik's best friend.
Maira scowled at Abeer's reflection in the mirror in front of her.
"Rithwik!"
"Coming, Mom!" Rithwik responded to his mother's call-out. Then he muttered, "All the best!" in Abeer's ear before walking out and leaving him for the first time alone with his little sister. Rithwik bribed Abeer to convince his sister by offering the notes from the last orthopedic class. Unfortunately, he couldn't attend the last class of Dr. Sandeep as he had to take his grandfather to a neurologist for his hemiplegia.
Now they were left alone. Not even an insect was present to interfere with them.
He stared at her reflection in the mirror. She was a spoiled brat. A pampered kid. A girl born with a silver spoon. If he had worked hard for admission, her father bought the admission for her in the medical college.
She stared back at him, without turning around.
He sighed stepping inside her room. She shifted in her seat feeling uncomfortable, as no one of Rithwik's friends was allowed to step inside her room. "He wants me to convince you," He mentioned.
She rolled her eyes, "Of course. Everyone trusts you in my home. And believes you as a scholastic god."
Abeer smiled handsomely, hooked his brow, and probed, "And why do I sniff despise in your words."
"I never liked you!" She replied truthfully.
He laughed. "Do you like hurting me, baby girl?"
"Excuse me!" She crossed her arms in front of her chest, "Don't call me that again." She implored, as she just turned eighteen on the same day and was not a baby anymore.
He caught his ears and mouthed, "Sorry."
His voice, his smile, and his presence were doing something inside her body that she felt strange and couldn't determine what was that. "Can you just leave me alone?" She ordered, avoiding his gaze.
"So that you can dig your head into a pillow and cry."
"Why does it matter to you? You are like them."
"Ahh...then are you an alien?"
"I don't have any interest in hearing your BAKWAS jokes," She yelled at him.
He ambled to and fro in her huge bedroom and expressed in a dramatic, sad tone, "You do feel my sense of humor is shit too." She turned her head, avoiding him by blocking both ears with her index finger. "Now you are making it difficult and impossible, baby girl!" Suddenly it gave a tingling sensation in her belly as if she had swallowed some butterflies.
She didn't expect to feel that for the man she hated most. It was inturn frustrating her. Instantly, she took her foundation and threw it on him by spinning. "I told you not to call me that!" He caught it and glanced at her with a bright smile. Out of the blue, she appeared amazing to him. Is it because she turned eighteen or because she dressed marvelous tonight?
Task! He reminded by focusing on the work he stepped inside her room.
"What is your favorite organ?" He started.
"Are you asking regarding males?" She teased him with a smirk.
"So you are coming in that way. Whatever, tell me, then?"
"Penis."
Abeer took a folder and a pencil from her study desk and handed her, "Why don't you draw it?"
She scowled at him and angrily at his stupid attempts, "Get out, Dr. Abeer Arora."
"Are you feeling shy to draw it in front of me?"
"Shut up!" She scolded him and added, "Heart. I like heart."
"Draw it!" He demanded with stubbornness. She sighed and took the folder and pen. She recalled the diagram of the heart, the one she drew for her brother a few days ago for his assignment. Abeer couldn't drift his gaze from her while she drew the human heart. He sighed mentally when she pulled her lower lip between her teeth.
What the hell is wrong with me? He scolded and shut his eyes. But when he opened it, a small smile was occupying on her lips because of her heart's contentment to see her talent.
Abeer was astounded to see, how perfectly she drew the pumping heart of the human body without giving a glance to an image.
She stared at him, contentment revealed in her pretty, hazel eyes. "That's it!" Abeer spoke. "This is what medicine is. Look you can keep your art passion alive in it. You have an excellent brain. And you should know that you are eligible for multiple things. Here you can draw your own body parts which you never knew how beautifully it is assigned and even learn medicine."
She gulped and muttered, "It's not that easy!"
"I write books. I have no time but still, I want to live with my passion. My mom is a writer too. But her main work is to take care of her home. Sometimes we have to live two lives. However, my knowledge has improved since I started reading medicine books. They are nothing but storybooks with different love stories and beautiful diagrams."
She listened attentively to him and only one word attracted her, "Love stories."
"Exciting one. You will fall in love with how one is connected to the other. And at the end, you will realize that medicine is so beautiful with amazing characters." If only she knew he was referring to the connection of the brain with the heart, lungs, and liver.
"You are convincing me!"
He smiled again and her eyes couldn't stop admiring, how amazing and beautiful this man is.
He had a silky black hair like his eye color. She scanned his face. His long, straight nose was cute. She got a sudden desire to draw him as she apprehended he was handsome and his beauty should be tasted by her pencil and paper.
"I am showing you a different world. Now gather yourself and show the people who think you are nothing but a spoiled brat and a loser."
"Loser!" She inquired.
"Your parent's guests were gossiping about you. Like...Huh! What if there whole family is a doctor his daughter should have the same brain right?" He expressed in a manly tone.
"I am sure she will fail in the first semester." This he spoke in a female tone.
"She is an empty goblet, I heard her father cover up her education with donations and funds to the school." Again he spoke in a female voice.
"Stupid. Witchy people!" She stood up and encouraged herself, "I will show them that I am not what they are assuming me."
"Wait!" He moved close to her. She was again startled by their proximity but the moment she inhaled his smell, she felt captivated by Abeer. Then he took a wipe from her dressing table and cleaned her smudge kajal. Her make-up was intact, though.
"Now you are ready to go!" A small blush crept on her cheeks.
Immediately she whirled and walked out of the room. He exhaled a long breath. That was not easy. Good that he has an elder sister.
"You are not coming" She snooped.
"Behind you baby girl."
"I said you..." She warned him by raising her index.
"Zip!" He responded with fright and pressed his lips. She chuckled as she enjoyed frightening him.
While she climbed down, everyone standing in the living room admiring her. She walked and stood between her parents. A cake of three tires was dragged upon a trolley in front of her by a maid.
As soon as she cut the cake, her father began the speech.
"I am so proud of my daughter. Soon she is gonna walk in her parent's and elder brother's footsteps and will become a famous doctor...." he went on and on.
Maira's heart dropped so did her facial features. She appeared discouraged to Abeer as he kept staring at her.
The main reason for her to not go to medical school is because of her family's high expectations. She wants to be a normal girl not a famous doctor like her parents.
Her eyes fell on Abeer. He waggled his brows. She shook her head smiling at him. Unknowingly Abeer has done a charm on her in only a few minutes.
They didn't stop interacting with gestures. Maira stood at the center of the living room to receive the wishes and gifts from the two-faced guests of her parents. While Abeer was devouring the tasty cake of her birthday, at one corner.
He took a spoonful of cake and gestured to her that he would leave after eating the cake.
She smiled sheepishly and shook her head, as a gesture to stay. Then she lifted her hand, holding a gift, and asked where is his gifts.
He dramatically slapped his forehead. She pursed her lips.
Then he approached her with a cover bag hiding on his back.
"Happy birthday, doctor."
She crossed her arms around her chest. "Just happy birthday Dr. Abeer. Where's my gift?"
"I told you, I didn't get it."
"I know, it's behind you."
He gave her the gift. She was not too enthusiastic to open but curious to see what he had got her. It was a box full of colors and paintbrushes. She glanced astounded at him.
When everyone brought her gifts related to medical stuff like a stethoscope, an Apron, a dissection kit, a dissection manual...Abeer bought her what she actually loved.
But they were unaware of the pair of eyes watching them constantly. Maira's granny. She saw that happiness in her granddaughter's eyes for the first time. And the foremost time Maira didn't even glance at her Granny throughout the party as her eyes were captivated by Abeer Arora.
"But why this, when you were the one to convince me?" She asked.
"I have known you for four years and I apprehended that painting is your first love. And I want you to keep it as first love still."
"Thank you!" She whispered and wanted to hug him but couldn't. She realized something that night: Abeer was the one who understood her other than her Granny. Yet, she always thought him to be a villain.
"I will be leaving now."
"Did you have the dinner?"
"Yes, baby...Maira," I cut off correcting.
"You can call me that."
They stared at each other for a moment. Both assumed for a second that there was no one surrounding them. They are the only two. Abeer might have cherished her cheeks and Maira would have hugged him.
After he walked out with Rithwik she kept staring at the door already missing his absence.
But someone interrupted her gaze, "Ehem!"
"Granny!" she covered her embarrassed blush.
"What magic did he do that you didn't even drift your gaze from him and what was that Nazron Ke Ishare?" (Nazron Ke Ishare: gestures!)
She shrugged her shoulders, objecting to her, "It's nothing, Granny!"
"I am seeing something."
"What?" Maira asked with an innocent smile.
"You just turned eighteen and now you are blushing too, by seeing some handsome boy."
"Ahh...granny he is my big brother's BFF. And you know they are out of limits."
"I don't remember saying Abeer's name." Maira bit her lip with abashment. "Well, well..isn't he handsome and caring too?" She expressed drifting her eyes at the gift box, Abeer gave her.
But Maira felt something more about him that she couldn't reveal in front of her Granny.
But atleast she can admit to herself with honesty that she started to like him. And she felt happy that she would attend the same medical college as Abeer.
****
So, how did you find the cute encounter and conversation between Maira and Abeer?
I liked the Nazron Ke Ishare of Abeer and Maira.
Let me share a small story about me and what inspired me to write this story. As Abeer, my husband is also the best friend of my elder brother. I hadn't seen him cause my brother didn't like to introduce me to his friends. But my husband knew about me and always liked to hear about me from my brother(Which he shared with me after our wedding.) Then I joined the medical college in Hyderabad and the same year he went abroad to do his postgraduation. After 5 years his mom gave a surprise visit to us with a wedding proposal. And then we got married😊. However, we passed through multiple misunderstandings and problems before and after the wedding too. But whenever he shares his past feelings towards me, I feel happy.