Lines that should never be crossed.

Part 1: How they met

10 July 2015

"Hey Naitik hop on....if not you are gonna miss the cruise". A man around his mid 20's shouted at another of same age while standing on a bus's footboard holding on the bus's handle with one hand, while stretching his other hand out for me to grab, so that the other man can hop into the bus which will takes them to the cruise. The man whose name is Naitik ran as fast as he could and reached out and grabbed his friend's hand, with all his strength his friend pulled him into the bus."uff...that's just on time man."

At that time if he had the slightest idea that this 7 day cruise trip from Barcelona to Italy is gonna permanently change his life, would he still ride on?

Naitik and Mohit have been friends forever. Mohit has been with Naitik through all his ups and downs. He is also his partner in crime, and always been the go to person for Naitik.

"You always work on your own time. I don't know when you are going to change this habit of yours". Mohit started nagging about Naitik's time management skills to him, which he is not paying attention to. And it is not new to either of them. It has alway been like this. Mohit would always nag about his actions which are more free spirited. And Naitik never really minds about his constant nags, he knows this is all coming out because of his friend's concern for him.

While standing on the footboard of the bus, ears hearing his friends complains, his eyes were caught upon a scene where a girl standing inside the bus holding the handle rod for support with one hand and carrying the luggage in the other hand, her eyes piercing the floor. She seems to be disappointed or bothered by something, while remaining indifferent to the questions asked by the man sitting on the seat next to where she was standing.

"What is wrong with you?" the man asked in an irritated tone looking at her as she stood there looking not interested. "What is wrong with me? I'm fine," the girl answered with a blank expression on her face. "Whatever" the man turned around and looked outside the window while plunging his headphones into his ears. And the girl stood there looking straight trying to hide her tears.

She might have hidden her tears from her boyfriend and everyone inside the bus at least she thought. But she had no idea that one pair of eyes were keenly noticing the events unfolding before them, she was caught red handed by Naitik even without her own knowledge.

From whatever was happening before him, he kind of figured out what might be the relationship between those two strangers and just needed a word to confirm his assumptions and then who is he to judge the situation. From there it has been quite a journey for the girl and her boyfriend and also for Naitik as he has not been able to take his eyes away from her. Unconsciously or consciously his eyes have been stuck to one particular direction or can we say one particular person? He's been staring at her with unexplainable feelings for the past 10 minutes. And the girl surely noticed his hard stare on her and started to feel uncomfortable and avoided making eye contact with Naitik.

The bus trip to the cruise came to an end after 15 minutes of travel. People in the bus started getting down with the excitement to board the cruise. The so-called boyfriend of her also got down without any concern for his girlfriend who had to carry all the luggage all by herself.

Naitik noticed that she started moving towards one of the bus exits, where he and his friend were standing, carrying her handbag and a big suitcase with her.

"Hey, who are you looking at Naitik? Get down soon!" Mohit who was already out of the bus exclaimed with a confused look. "Yeah I'll come down, just give me a sec" Naitik answered unbothered with his eyes still fixed on this girl, who just stood in front of him with a look of 'will you back off?' in her eyes.

Naitik, quietly took a step down while taking her suitcase from her hand, kept it in the ground and got down the bus. The girl still had a confused look on her face as Mohit had, both looking at Naitik with no clue what was going on his mind.

Naitik, without wasting any time, held out his hand as a gesture of help for the girl to hold and get down the bus. But the girl refused to take his help and simply climbed down the bus with the help of the bus handle rod.

"aww..that hurts." Naitik said with fake hurt in his tone, with an uncontrollable smile on his face.

The girl was so done with him and asked "do I know you? Why are you behaving like this to me?"

"No, but I would like to know you." There was a silence between them for that moment.

"Hi, I'm Naitik Sighania". Naitik introduced himself to her with a bright smile on his face, expecting a reply from her. But she gave a questioning look to him, shrugged and walked away from him while started looking for her boyfriend.

Naitik stood there still, watching her walk away and had noticed that she had dropped her scarf while they were having this little conversation. He bent down and took the scarf and smiled at it with amusement.

Mohit who was watching all that's happening, he moved closer to Naitik and bombarded him with questions like

"What has gotten into you?"

"Have you gone crazy? What's with the smile on your face?"

"Is she the next target for you to get her into your bed?"

"Let's not be late to the cruise." was all Naitik said and ran-walked towards the cruise without answering any of the questions thrown by his friend.

Mohit after being with Naitik for so many years, he was well aware of the fact that he was never a one man one woman type of a guy and shaked his head with disbelief.

Naitik has always been this kind of guy. He never really believed in falling in love with one person and the concept of forever love. He always felt love between a man and woman as a momentary feeling which will eventually fade away as time passes by. All his previous relationships have been the same. And moreover for him "love" is just an illusion word which is used to cover up the word "lust" which more directly conveys the ugly animal instinct which has been within humans forever.

But is it the same this time? Or is he feeling something special this time? If he is really feeling something new for this girl, which he has never felt for anyone else? Can all these feelings be put under a simple word called attraction or like or...maybe love? Does love at first sight really exist? If it is love, can it last forever?The answer for these questions can only be answered by time.

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Hi everyone this is the first time I'm writing. And this my first story. hope you all enjoy it and do comment your opinion it will help me to decide to continue write this story.