First Date to Forever

Sparks

    The day went by in a blur. Everyone had a lazy Sunday with nothing much to do. Usually they used to go out for shopping or random outings but today they just felt like staying indoors and resting it out . It was almost midnight when Shonali received a message from Sujay -

'Hey , thank you for being honest with me Shonali. I agree going out again unless we both are on the same page will be wrong. But I hope we can be friends and there will not be any awkwardness between us ? '

   After telling Sujay that she was really doubtful about going out with him again , Shonali was wondering if she did the right thing. Sujay had taken it very sportingly as if he was already expecting her to say this .

    But in reality Sujay was a bit taken aback. The date went well , they had a nice time , their conversations were flowing then why would she not go out with him again ? He really gave it a thought and tried to understand the situation from her viewpoint. He had been crushing on her since the first day of college, but for her he had never been on her mind. Infact she agreed for the date only because of Palak .

     Though he respected her decision, he couldn't let her go like that ! People like her are rare to find . With that determination he decided to give her some time and get to know her a bit more.

   'Absolutely Sujay, that goes without saying ,  No awkwardness I promise ! ' she responded.

    He smiled at her reply , atleast they can be around each other giving him the opportunity to let her get to know him too. With this thought he went to sleep , looking forward to seeing her again tomorrow.

     Monday was his least favorite day as he did not share any class with her on Mondays. He  rarely got to see her today.

    As for Shonali , she was entering the classroom for her first lecture of the day when she bumped into Akshay .

"Akshayy ! Where were you on Friday? Why did you run away so fast ? We had to go to the library remember? Palak told me you had left early. Everything all right ? " Shonali asked Akshay .

He just looked at her and all the hurt from Friday's incident came back .
"Nothing , I had some urgent work at home " he replied rudely and went on to take a seat next to Arush leaving Shonali confused . Talking to her was the last thing he wanted to do right now. 
        When Jeevika entered the class, she immediately started teasing Shonali about the date. Jeevika sat next to Arush , who was now sandwiched between Akshay and Jeevika.
   Shonali took a seat right behind Arush , with Sneh and Palak on her either sides . Sneh was nudging her for details about the date , while Jeevika happily answered for her and started giving all the details to Sneh .

      Hearing about the date made Akshay very uncomfortable, which Arush understood . He immediately asked Jeevika to keep quiet which started an argument between them . Palak quickly calmed them down and gave a warning look to Akshay . Shonali and Sneh were totally confused as to what just happened.

      The entire day went by in total silence. Because of Akshay's behavior and Arush-Jeevika's tiff , they really had no idea what to talk about. As soon as the last lecture got over , Akshay quickly left for his home. Arush and Jeevika too left together for sorting out their issues.
   Shonali really wanted to have a cup of tea after such a stressful day . She along with Sneh and Palak went to the tea shop outside their college gate. To her surprise , Charu and Sarika were already there along with Sameer, Jeet and Sujay !

      They all exchanged greetings and ordered tea . Shonali looked at Sujay only to find him already looking at her . She smiled at him which encouraged him to move next to her . They both started talking and after few minutes they totally forgot other people were around too. Looking at them talking to each other oblivious to their surroundings , Palak and Sarika got excited and started planning to bring them close. Sneh and Charu too joined their mission . Jeet and Sameer were by default included in their plan.

   Soon days passed by , Shonali and Sujay started spending more time together all thanks to the masterminds. They would somehow get everyone together , make Shonali and Sujay sit next to each other and then their conversations just flowed.
    Totally unaware of their schemes , Shonali had started liking Sujay . The more time she spent with him , the more she liked him . But she was still in denial. As for Sujay , he could feel Shonali warming up to him but he didn't want to ruin what they had . He liked their carefree conversations without any expectations.
       Soon Harsha , Ruhi and Maitri too joined the others in their efforts to bring these two people close. They started hanging out whenever they had free lectures. They would plan group outings with Sujay and Jeet included on their off days.

     They had once planned a movie and made Sujay and Shonali sit next to each other. That day was the first time Shonali realised she has started developing feelings for Sujay. During a very romantic scene in the movie, Shonali could feel Sujay's presence next to her. She could feel her heart beat run at a pace she never thought it could. While adjusting in his seat , Sujay kept his hand on the handrest for support only to realise Shonali had already kept her hand there. They both felt butterflies and electricity run through them but no one initiated to move their hands. Shonali was feeling really shy and was blushing profusely . Sujay was feeling at peace holding her hand . He was drawing circles with his thumb on the back of her palm.  They stayed like that through the entire movie.
     Later that night , Shonali could not stop smiling and thinking about him. They had started texting each other a lot . Almost every night they spent hours talking to each other about random stuff. She was worried what will she say if he mentioned about their moment in the movie hall ?!
    It was past midnight with no message from him . It was weird she thought. Usually he would start messaging her as soon as he reached home. She decided to text him first -

'Hey there ? '

After getting no response she texted again

'Did you reach home safely ? Everything good ? '

While waiting for his response , exhaustion took over and she fell asleep.