Meant To Be

Chapter 12. Unexpected Plan

   The holidays after the trip, was over in a blink of an eye. Sam's parents started to maintain a considerable distance from Boby and Shammi after that incident. (Sam found out one evening that Shammi came back from her aunt's place). They even excused themselves of wishing Boby a 'Happy Diwali' by taking Sam out for shopping. Sam was never allowed to step out of the house, alone. She spent her time watching T.V, reading books and a short evening walk with her three best friends - Nish, Ro and Dhruv, without whom, her parents wouldn't allow her to step out of the house. She felt a great sense of gratitude for her friends.
    "Why didn't he call them, then, once y'all had reached the hotel?" Ro asked suspiciously, for the umpteenth time when the topic of Boby cropped up. He was now referred to as 'Love of Sam' by them. She had finally confided in her friends about her feelings for Boby. It was last day of their holidays and they decided to spent most of their evening enjoying the warm sunset. "He might not have forgotten, did he?" he added.
    Sam shrugged. She didn't know if Boby had deliberately avoided calling her parents or had he really forgotten it, at that time.
   "It's okay, Mr. Detective" Nish said airily, keeping a hand on Ro's shoulders, "we know you care for her, but too much questioning is not good for health, you know. She enjoyed the trip, didn't you?" she asked, looking at Sam, curiously.
    "Er...yes I did enjoy it." said Sam, looking back to see if anyone was eavesdropping on them. Nish raised her eyebrows towards Sam and Ro instantly went quiet. All three of them laughed at this.
    As they were passing through Boby's house, Sam felt the urgent desire to look up to her right towards his house and see what he was doing, but chose to suppress the feeling and continued chatting excitedly about their school which was going to reopen the next day.
    "Hey!" Sam heard a familiar voice. They all turned around to see Boby and Shammi walking towards them. Sam's heart leapt, her spirits rose. "Happy Diwali!" Shammi wished, beaming at all four of them. "You weren't there in your house during Diwali. We had come to your house to give y'all sweets." she said, turning towards Sam as all four of them wished the couple. Sam felt a great surge of anger bulid up inside her, for her parents. Couldn't they have, atleast wished Shammi di and then, gone out for shopping? Sam's anger towards Shammi had reduced to a considerable amount after that incident. And Sam noticed, that Shammi too was not happy about it. She now looked as if she had to force that warm smile on her fair complexioned face whenever she met Sam.
    "Er...actually we had gone out....for shopping." Sam added hastily. Shammi and Boby both nodded and then decided to walk with them. Sam thought of walking beside Dhruv, for fear of her parents, but she saw that Dhruv was a bit far from her and it would not look good to change places in front of them. Before she could understand, Boby came and stood beside her lazily and Shammi stood on the other side beside Dhruv. Sam's heart started pounding fast. She was so happy to have Boby by her side and  Shammi on the other side... far away from both of them. She wanted to make the most of this precious moment. Ro nudged her and gave her a thumbs up, smiling. Sam went pink.
    "So....how was your holidays?" Boby asked almost in a whisper, leaning a bit closer towards Sam. Sam could feel her cheeks going red. She didn't know why. Of course it was a simple question, but he could've asked it casually. But he leaned towards her as if asking her something important. "It-it was...g-great." she stammered, staring at her handkerchief, which she was now fidgeting with. "Of course it was." he said, still leaning close to her, with a 'you-know-what-I'm-talking-about' smile. Sam went a deep shade of red on the face. She turned to look at Shammi, who was busy admiring Dhruv's new watch and did not seem to notice anything. Boby straightened up and started walking normally.
     They all talked about different things from school to careers and about their families. Sam made sure to keep looking at the four of them.
    After almost about an hour, when the sun had set and the sky was now a light shade blue and orange (Sam remembered the sky perfectly well from her incident, when they were stuck on that deserted road), they turned back and walked back towards their homes. When they were close to Boby's house, Boby and Shammi walked a bit ahead of them (Boby's hand brushed with Sam's and Ro made a fake sound of clearing his throat) and then then they turned to wave goodbye to the four of them. Sam wished she could spend a little more time with him, just walk beside him.
    "Bye Sam!" Boby called out. He didn't call out the rest of their names. Only hers. He had a huge smile on his face and for the first time, Sam noticed that Boby had dimples.
    "Bye...Bob!" she said in an unknowingly loud voice. The smile on Shammi's face faded instantly at the sound of that nickname (which Sam failed to notice) and acted as though she was trying to remove a small pebble which had entered her sandals. Boby blinked at her and both of them disappeared into their houses.
    The school started, with teachers throwing loads of homework and assignments at the students. The students were over - burdened with homework along with their unit test exams, which were going to be held shortly before their Christmas vacation.  Although, Sam was busy with her homework and studies, she  always managed to go on evening walk with her four best friends. And to add to her great happiness, even Boby used to accompany them everyday, but without Shammi.
    The long awaited unit test exams finally got over and as always Sam passed with flying colours in her examinations. She felt quite elated after her results were declared and for the first time, since many days, she saw a genuine smile on her parent's face.
    The Christmas holidays, too, were fun ("But not as fun as the Diwali holidays." chuckled Boby, as they walked passed the fun fair grounds, with her three best friends sniggering at this). It was again the last day of their holidays and like every year, Sam wasn't gloomy about the reopening of the school as it was her birthday the very next day.
    She was lost in her thoughts of how her classmates would wish her, when she'd distribute chocolates to them and  whom would she take with her to give chocolates to the teachers, when Boby stopped abruptly. Sam hadn't noticed it initially but then realising that she couldn't hear the constant chatter of Boby, looked up beside her. He wasn't there. They all looked puzzled and turned to look behind. Boby was standing a few paces behind them, his eyes fixed on Sam.
    They walked towards him. As they came closer to him, he said turning towards Ro, Nish and Dhruv, "Y'all can go. I need to talk to Sam... please." He added after seeing the bewildered looks on their faces. Sam felt her mouth going dry. Her palms sweating, her heart beating faster with every second. Her friends nodded in unison, after giving a puzzled look to each other and giving Sam an encouraging nod. They walked away.
     Boby looked at them for a few minutes to see if they were out of earshot and then turned to face Sam. "Er...I know, it's your birthday tomorrow." he said, looking nervous, his faced covered in sweat, even though the climate was pretty cool. "I've...I've.. actually planned a surprise for you. We can go after your school gets over." Sam's heart did a somersault inside her. She wanted to hug Boby so badly. She couldn't help but suppress a smile, blushing deep red. Her cheekbones hurt badly after a while of smiling continuously but she did not mind. "Thanks a lot." she said brightly. Boby looked at her intently for a few minutes, then said, as if not approving of it, "Even Shammi's coming." Sam's smile faded a bit but she tried her best to keep her voice joyful. "That's great!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands. Boby looked a bit relieved then said, "Yeah...." he paused, "........we'll come to pick you up tomorrow at your school. Bye." and he hastily walked towards his house without a backward glance at her.
    Sam stood there rooted on the spot, a mixture of feeling erupting inside her like volcanoes.
"Surprise?"

Boby is going to give a surprise to Sam on her birthday! What will it be? And.... will her parents allow her to go? How will her parents react?

                

              To be continued.....