"It hurts to let go, but sometimes it hurts more to hold on"
Ananya's Pov
"I'm not getting on that thing" I said as Dev was standing in front of me with a bicycle for his picnic.
"But we're going on a picnic" he said beaming enthusiastically and shifted the bicycle towards me.
"Bicycle ka picnic se kya lena dena" I asked raising an eyebrow.
"Arey isse picnic ka pura experience milega" He said.
"Can't we just take your car" I asked pleasingly.
"Come on Arora" He said coming closer with the bicycle "It's fun"
"No, I don't like bicycles" I said backing off.
"Don't tell me you don't know how to ride this" He said and when I didn't say anything he looked at my face and realization dawned over him.
"Are you serious" he asked as if he didn't expected this from me.
"Acha let's do one thing, you just have to sit back there and hold on tight" he said and I shooked my head telling him no.
"Come on yrr, I promise humlog nhi girenge" he said insisting.
"Tumse ladne ka koi fayda to hai nhi coz u don't listen to anybody" I said giving up.
"Exactly, now come" He said happily and went closer to where he was standing.
"I'm telling you if I get hurt, you're dead" I said sitting back and holding onto his t-shirt.
"I don't break my promises, Arora" He said.
________
I almost fell off that stupid bicycle while getting off but somehow balanced myself.
My heart was beating loudly against my ribcage even though I hadn't been one doing all the driving but I wasn't able to catch my breathe.
"I'm not.... going to ride that thing ever again" I said catching my breathe.
"Come On yrr, I wasn't even going that fast" Dev said looking at me smiling.
"You were" I said as I was so scared sitting behind him when he was driving so fast and I thought we were definitely going to crash so I ended up tightening my grip on him.
As for Dev, he gave me his all time amused smile and was enjoying my misery. He chuckled and signalled towards my head and said "Your hair"
"What?" I asked.
"Your hair" he again said and when I reached up to smooth it out, but he bought his hand and ruffled them.
Knowing my efforts were futile I just folded my arms and glared at him and he stopped the second he saw my look "I hope you enjoyed all this" I asked in a sarcastic tone.
"Yes ma'am, I sure did" he said chuckling and then started walking. I walked upto him and and started walking beside him.
I like parks just because they are always beaming with life and happiness. There are children playing, families enjoying, couples walking hand in hand and everything is lively and beautiful.
I felt really good being here but I wasn't going to tell him this and I was really grateful that he insisted me to come out.
"We used to come here a lot" he said smiling and looking around "Di loved to go on picnics and always forced everyone to come here"
"Toh forcing problem puri family me hai" I said murmuring and he smiled nudging me with his shoulder.
"Admit it, it's better that sitting in the house all day" he said and I replied "Yess sir" and we chuckled.
He told me how one day his sister pulled him off the bed just to wake him up and how he fell off with a thump and sprained his wrist but they still went on a picnic.
I started laughing at this imagining a younger version of Dev falling off the bed. He stared at me and when I looked at him he shifted his gaze.
"What" I asked.
"Nothing" he said smiling and shooking his head and started walking ahead.
"Come on" he said started going towards an uneven rocky path, sides covered with trees. I looked around and wondered where he was going "Where are you going" I asked from behind trying to walk carefully on the rocks."
Just follow me" he said and kept walking ahead.
"Dev" I shouted from behind as it was really difficult to walk on this path but he ignored and I don't know how he was walking so normally when I wasn't even able to keep balance.He reached out and stopped near a big tree and looked at it's trunk smiling.
"This was our favorite spot" he said when I was close enough to where he was standing.
"Look at this"I inched forward to look down at the tree's trunk to where he signalled and after looking at the tree for almost a minute I found what he wanted to show me. There was inscripted a big single letter.
I looked up at him and asked "D for Dev?"
He smiled "D for Disha and Dev" he said. [ So guys i made a small change. From now dev's sister name is Disha]
"Both of us carved it here" he said grinning and added "We claimed this tree as ours"
"And why" I asked curiously.
"Dad told us that he was the one who planted this tree here, so we claimed this spot and thus tree as ours" he said smiling and it was his real and genuine smile which was pure bliss.
He stepped back but I stayed rooted on my spot and kept looking at the tree and that letter 'D' and I don't know why but a smile came on my face.
By the time I stepped back he had already spead the blanket on the grass and kept the basket on it sitting down "Come on, bhut bhook lagi hai" he said and I also sat down in front of him.
He opened the basket and took out the food which was still fresh and warm. He picked an egg roll and took a bite. "This my favorite from now on" he said smiling.
"How do you make this it's really good" he said and I giggled.
"It's not that good" I said and added "btw thanks"
"You should by a chef or something" he said and I smiled saying "I don't want to... I just happen to love cooking"
A curious expression came over to his face and he looked at me and asked "why"
"Dad ko cooking shows dekhna bhut pasand tha, I guess I ended up liking them too" I said and smiled at the memory of him and mom fighting over the remote when mom wanted to watch something else.
"Was his cooking as good as you" he asked genuinely.
"No Unko toh thik se chai bhi banani nhi aati thi" I said laughing a bit.
"Seriously" he asked furrowing his eyebrows.
"Yess, but he just loved the was they cooked everything in those shows" I said.
I don't why I felt so free while talking to Dev about my dad when I never did to anyone and i ended up telling his everything about my dad, how he met mom in college, how he had a crush on mom's friend but ended up loving my mom.
"He sounds awesome" he said looking at me with a small smile.
I looked down at my hands "Yeah" I muttered "I always thought so too"
After that neither of us said anything for some minutes and sat thier in silence and after sometime suddenly Dev looked up at me and said.
"Heyy, question game?"
For a moment I just stared at him wondering what he wanted to ask me right, of all the time, I sighed as I knew I can't back out without completing this game so I nodded
."Okay"He looked down, hesitation was clear in his voice when he spoke up "Why did he... did he left you and your mom?"
It's been eight years since dad left us and I haven't talked to anyone about him, not even Aditi or Ray. Mom also never talked about him and I thought it would help me to forget him and bear the pain if I don't talk about him.
But here looking at Dev I realized that I still missed and I could talk to him easily bcoz his sister also just left him like that and he understood what it felt like.
"He went abroad for his work, and eventually he fell in love with his colleague and then decided to never come back" I said looking down at my hands.
"You still miss him right?" He asked.
I slightly nodded and then took a deep breathe and spoke "I miss sll those little things he used to do for me, jab bhi mera mood kharab hota tha vo mujhe ice cream parlour leke jaate the, silly jokes sunate the just to lighten my mood."
"He always used to talk using food terms like one time he told me, 'Kid someday if you mess up really bad just remember that it take only a little bit of spice up to turn around things'."
"You still remember that?" He asked and I nodded smiling.
"It must have been hard" he said in a soft voice and picked up stone and threw it in the lake. "To lose someone whom you love"
I looked at his face and it had a sober look and he kept staring at the lake.
"It must be hard for you too, your sister" I said.
"It's all the same" he said and again threw a stone in the lake.
____
I didn't noticed that it's been three hours since we're here and now it was three o'clock.
We got up and packed everything and Dev again started walking through that uneven rocky path. I tried walking carefully on it and as soon as I thought its finished I stepped on a big stone and lost my balance.
Before I could touch the ground Dev rushed over and caught me "Be careful" he said holding balancing me holding my waist and I looked in his eyes.
He left me once I balanced myself and offered me his hand to hold. I first looked at his hand and then at his face and then sighing he just grabbed my hand and started walking.
"You're always like this" He said walking without looking at me "You always... always insist on doing things on your own" I kept looking at his back "There's nothing bad in letting people help you"
I was speechless, his every single word had a different effect on me and I couldn't have imagined that the Dev whom I thought was just a spoiled brat who used girls was someone who would help people when they didn't even ask for.
His hand was still holding mine and it was warm and he slowed down just to meet my pace and he left it when we finished that path.
"Thanks" I said not able to look him in the eyes.
"Nah" he said adding "It's fine"
"Nhi sirf iske liye nhi, for everything" I said still looking down.
"OH" he said.
I looked up at him and he had a small grin on his face and he came closer, and keeping his hand on my head he ruffled my hair.
He did it again.
He started walking again and I was still on my spot thinking of everything he was doing and did for me and I couldn't stop myself from saying "Question game"
He stopped walking and looked back fr his shoulder shrugging a little saying, "Yeah" and turned back.
"Tum apni marzi se meri help kyu kar rhe ho" I asked.
"What are you talking about" he asked confused.
"I just don't get it, tum ye sab kyu kar rhe ho tumhe isse kuch mil bhi nhi rha hai" I said.
He came closer to where I was standing and kept his hands on my shoulders.
"Hey" he said softly and when I looked at him he gave me a soothing smile and said "Honestly mujhe bhi nhi pta mai ye kyu kar rha hu, par mai karna chahta hu, and that's enough for me."
We again started walking in silence that didn't needed to be filled with words and only when I thought I was having a good time and I was something.
I frozed on my spot.
A million thoughts raced my mind but none of them made any sense and and I kept looking in one direction like someone just punched me in the heart. Dev looked at me and then followed the direction where my eyes were fixed.
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Heyy guyss back with a biggg chapter. Hope you all will like it❤️
So Ananya and Dev are opening up to each other and are unknowingly enjoying each other's company.
And what do you think Ananya saw that she felt like this? Any ideas!!
Keep reading to know and don't forget to vote and comment.