I'LL LOVE TO BE LOVED

DOUBLE DATE

I was lost in his thought whole day. Vihaan wasn’t bad. I was all wrong about him. He was good. I opened my diary but accidentally it was my song book. I turned it's pages and opened the page where I had pasted Akul’s picture.
   “My first crush.” I read it aloud.
   “What are you doing?” Aahana bursted into my room.
   “Nothing.” I spoke closing the book.
   “Hmm. Well movie was awesome. Thanks for asking.”
   “I didn’t asked.” I spoke.
   “Exactly. Well you fought with Vihaan after we went?” She asked.
    “How did you know?” I asked surprisingly.
    “Lucky guess. What happened?”
I told her everything completely feeling it all again. I finished and saw her looking at me with big eyes.
    “What?” I asked.
    “Seriously. I’ll say this once. You like him.”
    “What?” I spoke thinking hard. “It’s nothing like that.”
    “Lying. A big lie. Come on spill it.”
    “I’m serious. It’s nothing like that.” I spoke in rage.
    “Ohk prove it.”
    “Very well. I hate him.” I shouted.
    “Chill girl. Got it.” She spoke and  went away leaving me thinking hard.
‘I do care for him. But friends do that for each other. What I feel different about him? I keep on thinking about him and I like him.’ I jumped on my foot thinking about it.
    “No way. It can’t happen. It is not happening. I have to do something.” I murmured to myself. I waited eagerly for the next day and first thing I did was talk to Yash.
    “I want a favour.” I spoke.
    “Oh okay. What is it?”
    “Don’t get it wrong but I want you to act with me.” I spoke.
    “Act?”
    “You told me that Shruti thinks Vihaan and I are dating right? I have a plan to get Vihaan on a date with her.”
    “And how exactly are you planning it?” He spoke in surprise.
    “Double date.” I spoke.
    “Double date? What are you talking about?”
    “That’s where the acting part come in. You and I on a double date with Vihaan and Shruti. Catch is we are gonna leave early to let them spend time together. And another catch, Vihaan won’t know it is a date till he reaches the place. Cause you know otherwise he won’t come. So I give you task to tell Shruti to come to the cafe tomorrow evening. Just tell her we are doing this double date thing ohk.” I explained to him.
    “Yeah! That’s a complete failure. You know that guy if he came to know you planned all this for him he is gonna be angry. But if he came to know I helped you well I will have a very bad day.”
    “Ohk. You are my only hope. We have to do this. For Shruti.” I spoke.
    “I hate to say this but you left me with no choice. I’ll go with you but let me be very clear about this that it’s for you not for that guy.”
    “You are the best.” I hugged him in excitement.
    “What’s happening?” Aahana interrupted.
    “Shravya and her odd jobs.” Yash spoke and left us alone.
    “I am preparing the proof.” I spoke happily.
    “Proof? Oh wait, is it about you liking Vihaan?” She asked and my heart started racing. His name was enough to trigger my feelings.
    “Pfft. Me liking Vihaan? Never and it’s the last time I am telling you. Well I am arranging a date for Vihaan and guess with whom?”
    “Shruti?”
    “Well yes. And this proves I don’t have any crush on Vihaan.”
    “Crush? Seriously? First Akul and now Vihaan. They are best friends. And by the way Vihaan will be very angry when he’ll know about this.”
    “I don’t have any type of crush on Vihaan ohk.”
    “Yeah right. You love him.”
    “I am arranging a date for him. Don’t you get my message.”
    “I get it. You don’t wanna accept the fact that you are falling for Vihaan.”
    “Last time. Loud and clear. I hate Vihaan.” I spoke and went away from her. Focusing my mind on convincing Vihaan to join us in the cafe.
I didn’t spoke a word about that to Vihaan whole day but the next day I just ask him to come for a cup of coffee. After college Yash came to my home.
    “You are early.” I spoke.
    “I want you to think again. Are you doing the right thing?”
    “Of course not.” Aahana busted into my house.
    “Aahana please don’t start again.” I pleaded to her.
    “Remember how he grabbed your neck?” She reminded me that evil Vihaan from school.
    “He has changed. And I’ll do anything to prove everyone that Vihaan and I are friends.” Yash and Aahana shared a confusing look and then Aahana spoke to Yash, “By the way you are looking awesome.”
    “Thank you, Miss Aahana. I am pleased to hear that.” Yash bowed like gentlemen. While Aahana bend down in courtesy.
    “You know Aadi will be back right?” I teased her.
    “He is there in my heart.” She spoke and that was funny. I looked at the clock and knew we were late. I grabbed Yash’s hand and wished goodbye to Aahana.
    “Slow down.” Yash spoke.
    “We have to reach before Vihaan.” I spoke. After a while we were right in front of cafe's door. And everything happened after that is quite dramatic.
As I reached for the door, Vihaan was going to do the same action. Our hands were going to touch each other’s hand but alas he noticed me and pulled his hands back.
    “What’s this guy doing here?” he asked glaring at Yash.
    “I have a date.” Yash spoke.
    “Date? Like who is so blind to date you?” Vihaan commented.
    “This girl right here.” Yash spoke putting his hand around my shoulder then whispered to me, “It is fine with you, right?” I nodded.
    “Am I doing okay?” he whispered again. I nodded in reply.
    “Well, This girl’s really gone blind. You are dating him? When this happened? Fake brave. And why am I unaware of this? Friends aren’t suppose to hide anything. Well of all the boys in whole world you chose that?” Vihaan spoke in a mixed tone of surprise and anger and I was smiling cause he cared about it.
    “Let’s talk later about it.” I spoke and rushed inside and noticed Shruti sitting there. Yash followed me and we settled in front of her.
    “Where’s he?” She asked. I noticed Vihaan didn’t come in.
    “Chill. He’s absorbing the fact that we are here on a date.” Yash spoke to me. A while later he entered and froze to see Shruti.
    “More surprises?” He whispered to me before becoming the victim of Shruti’s hug, full of love and strangling.
    “I can’t believe we are on a date. Finally.” She spoke. That was the one of Vihaan’s expressions that I can never forget. He looked at me with eyes wide open trying to speak a lot but unable to utter anything. I saw anger spreading all over his face. His fingers clenched to fist. I was so doomed. He started glaring at me. I stole my gaze and looked at Yash who was looking at me with, ‘told you so’ look on his face. At least Shruti was happy.
    “I am so happy that you agreed for a date.” Shruti spoke.
    “Will you stop?” Vihaan spoke in rage. I was just praying for his anger to melt.
    “And you?” He spoke to me.
    “Huh?” That’s all I uttered in fear. He squeezed his lips in anger and closed his eyes.
    “Okay.” He opened his eyes and looked at Shruti and smiled and I knew it was fake.
    “I guess we are doing this double date thing.” Shruti spoke.
    “Double date?” he looked at Yash and gave an irritating look. And now was the time for the main thing we were there for, leaving them alone. I signalled to Yash.
    “Hey I got a message from my mom. She needs me. I got to leave.” Yash spoke exactly the lines I wrote it for him.
    “What will I do here then? I am coming with you?” I spoke and found Vihaan glaring at me. I noticed Shruti holding Vihaan’s arm and I can’t explain how much I wanted to push her hand away.
    “Can we take selfies?” Shruti spoke.
    “Sure.” Yash spoke and soon we were pasted on screen of Shruti’s mobile.
    “Thanks Shravya for arranging this for us and sorry for getting you all wrong. I’m sad that you guys are not joining us. Thanks again.” She spoke and that was sweet but her hands around his arm was troubling me so much.
    “Yeah! Thank you very much.” Vihaan spoke. I observed his clenched fist and came out as soon as possible. As we came out Yash started laughing.
   “What?” I asked.
   “You are such a fool.” He spoke.
   “Why?”
   “Vihaan know we were acting.” He spoke shocking me.
   “How can you say that?”
   “Didn’t you notice it. Since Shruti cleared that Vihaan and she has a date he calculated what happened? He knows you arranged everything. His look said it all.”
   “Am I doomed?” I asked.
   “Depends how his date goes.”
Yash’s words left me thinking. But the thing that was troubling me wasn’t that Vihaan was angry but was what happened between him and Shruti and that kept me awake whole night. Next day as I met my friends, they bursted upon me with questions, a lot of them.
   “When this started?” This was the first thing that I heard clearly among different other questions.
   “Okay. Will you guys stop and speak one by one. Vineet you go first.”
   “Got it. Since when you and Yash are a couple?” He asked and I was shocked to hear that. I looked at Aahana and she was laughing at my situation and Yash, he was sitting like he was already being tortured.
   “At least you tell something. Yash is not telling us.” Reyansh asked.
   “What are you guys talking about?” I asked.
    “Wait let me show you.” Aahana spoke and showed me our date pic captioned ‘enjoyed my double date'
    “It’s all over Shruti’s id on social media. Every app that she uses.” She spoke. I was surprised that girl was not worth helping.
    “It was just acting.” I explained.
    “An acting that proved me wrong.” Vihaan entered and I waited for the worst anger to face.
    “I am so happy for whatever you did? I got to know her perfectly and now I don’t think she is that bad.” He spoke.
    “Huh?” I spoke unsure of what he was saying.
    “Shruti. I liked our date. So thanks.” Vihaan spoke. And trust me something broke inside of me. And I was unaware of it at that time that it was my heart. That’s what happen when you keep praying whole night for the date to go bad but it turns opposite.
    “So you are not angry?” I asked hiding my feelings.
    “Nope.” He spoke.
That wasn’t how I wanted it to end but it ended like that. Shruti and Vihaan were now friends. Thanks to me and I used to wonder why Vihaan was still her friend. He used to show me like he loved her company but a part of me knew something was going wrong.