Seize the Clay

Nisha was in the pottery studio near her house. She had come before the regular classes began to get some me time on her day off from work. Rajeev had wanted to meet her. Nisha had suggested an early brunch but he had insisted on meeting earlier & so here he was, standing in front of her.
"Are you going to tell me what was so important that you couldn't even wait enough to feed me lunch?"
"I like you."
"Of course you like me... why else would we be friends?" She was busy shaping the blob of clay into a kulhad.
"Nisha you didn't get me. I like you. I like like you."
She stopped to look at him. She could see his pulse racing at the base of his throat. But his eyes looked steady. He looked as self assured as ever.
He wasn't feeling the confidence he was displaying though. Saying it out loud was the hard part. In fact confessing feelings that he had kept closeted for so long came with a definite sense of release. Relief even. How those feelings would be received, that was a different story altogether. He waited on tenterhooks for her to say something.
"Since when?" She asked after a long pause.
That was anti-climatic, he thought. Since when? Even he didn't know the answer to that question. Since forever... it might sound cheesy but for him since the time he got the sense of him being a man and of her being a woman he had eyes only for her. "Does it matter?"
"I guess not." She went back to her pottery, using a scraper to smoothen the kulhad she had made.
The sense of anti-climax was increasing. That's it? No shock? No how, why? At this point he would even take anger. Her reaction or lack there of was unnerving.

"Why didn't you say anything before?", She asked not looking up.
"I didn't want to be just another person who had a crush on you. I didn't wanna be kept at a distance. Being your friend is something I value. I didn't wanna lose it." He explained.
"Then why are you telling me this now?"
Because your parents are thinking of getting you married off to a stranger. Out loud he said, "Because I don't wanna lose you to someone else. Your mischiefs, your tantrums, your anger... I want all that to myself."
"You make me sound like I'm a handful." She looked at him, laughter in her eyes.
He laughed. How could he not? Her playfulness was infectious. "Aren't you?"
"Then why do you want me?"
"I'd also get your warmth, your intelligence, your kindness..."
"I am the whole package, no?" She laughed, using the cut off wire to get the thrown kulhad off the wheel.
He rolled his eyes at her.

"Aren't you going to say something? Did you not suspect it? Do you feel the same way?"
Nisha didn't say anything right away. She busied herself with another blob of clay on the wheel. She was thinking back to the time they had first met. He had accidentally splattered her clothes with dirt while riding his bike. It was odd how that standoffish guy had become her best friend. He was so gentle and genuine now. The transformation was a journey in itself. Did he change his ways because he liked me?
"Do you remember the first time we met?" She questioned.
"Vaguely." Rajeev said. "I ruined your clothes on the first day of college."
"Did you remember what you did next?"
"Not really..." he raised his eyebrows at her.
"You refused to apologise since it wasn't intentional." She did the air quotes at "intentional".
"That sounds like something I would do." Rajeev sounded amused.
"How did you get from there to here?"
How indeed? "You gave me grief!"
Nisha looked at him not understanding.
"My folks were too busy to notice me. So I resorted to being bad, rebellious. But that went unnoticed by them too. I just never got any reaction from anyone. Like anything I did didn't matter... you made me feel otherwise."
"Is that why you kept trying to rile me up?"
"Yeah..." he said sheepishly, massaging the back of his neck.
"Huh!" She huffed, using the scraper to smoothen the second kulhad. Once she was done she used the cut off wire to get it off the wheel.

"Then?" She asked, putting another blob of clay on the wheel.
"Then what?"
"How did we get here?"
"I saved you from on coming traffic."
"Why?"
"Well I wasn't gonna let someone be pummelled to death when I had the power to stop it."
"That's the whole reason?" She asked looking up at him.
It was Rajeev's turn to be quiet.
"The last fight we had I made you cry." He replied.
"And?"
"It sucked. Because you don't cry. You laugh and you make others laugh. You smile and I feel like the sun has risen. I didn't ever wanna be the reason you cried."
"Hmm."
"Hmm."