Lines that should never be crossed.

Part 2: Friends?.. No strangers!

She was still looking for her boyfriend inside the grand lobby of the cruise. It was a three storey ship with a large beautiful open to sky atrium at the center adjacent to the grand lobby. The cruise had all the facilities from kids game room to extensive cinema hall which can easily seat 300-350 people. After looking throughout the lobby and atrium, she came out to the outdoor deck area which contained a large swimming pool with an open bar and other interesting activity areas for both families and friends to enjoy.

She always had a dream to travel and explore things around the world with her loved one. She also liked to capture all the little moments with photographs. Not because she was a photographer by her profession but at some point she knew all these moments are like clouds in the sky which keeps on moving in the vast sky called life. Once the cloud passes there will be no chances to meet the exact same cloud in that exact same place.

As being an optimistic person she really enjoyed watching these little clouds moving on along with her life and capturing them forever in a piece of paper.

That is how she used to be before meeting Rishab. It's been 2 years since they started dating. It was a serious one at least from her perspective. She has always been serious about starting a relationship with someone. After being single for a lifetime of 21 years, she finally decided to go out with Rishab, who followed her for almost 6 months which made her slowly open her heart for him.

It was all rosy lovey dovey during the first few months into the relationship. He was all caring and supportive and loved her very much in her eyes. Almost all their dates will always start with 'hey what's up' and end at a coffee shop in a nearby alley. She was a very conservative type and never allowed Rishab to stay back at her apartment no matter how late it was.

As days passed on their relationship took a turn into a name sake one with Her texting him 'hey what you doing?' 'Have you had lunch?' 'Is the job tough?' and Rishab answered it in one word or sometimes he would simply just ignore her texts. Despite all of this happening in their relationship, She would always try to find reasons for Rishab's behavior by herself and chose to turn an blind eye.

In Fact it was her 1st trip with him. She had planned this cruise trip along with their friends who were eager and excited for the trip. With the hopes to rejuvenate her relationship with Rishab, she also convinced him to get on board with her. She was happy and full of confidence in giving a second life to their relationship since she genuinely liked him.

But nothing has gone as she planned from the beginning. Rishab never really paid any attention to her. He was always on his phone all through the journey from the bus stand where she and others planned to meet, and also on the bus he simply chose to feign ignorance all through the trip. In Fact he didn't even offer his help to carry her bags which he had always done in the beginning of their relationship, nor he offered his seat for her in the bus like an average gentleman would do for their women. With which she was a bit disappointed, felt hurt. Of course she was normal like any other girls of her age with these kinds of expectations from their partners.

But still turning an blind eye to his actions yet again, she took her phone out of the shoulder bag she was carrying around and dialed Rishab's number. It took two calls with full rings for him to answer his phone.

"Where are you Rishab?" she asked with a weary and tired voice.

"Where else would I be? In the room".

"You could've waited for me, I was looking for you all through the ship."

"Well if you went straight to our room, you would've found me earlier rather than wasting your energy going around the cruise".

The unbothered tone of Rishab made her have second thoughts of the plan and she asked herself 'Is it really worth it?'. With all these dilemmas in her mind, she started to walk to her room, almost making her unhear the voice that was reaching out for her.

"Hey you!" Naitik almost shouted at the top of his voice.

She turned and looked at Naitik who was reaching for her and immediately recognized him as the annoying guy who made no sense in the bus.

She ignored him and started walking away. But Naitik didn't give up. He ran up to her and held her wrist from behind.

She was startled and immediately pulled her hand away from his grip and yelled at him with an irritated voice "what is wrong with you?",

"And what do you want from me?".

"Hey, wait, why are you getting all worked up?" Naitik asked panting since he ran behind her and genuinely surprised by her attitude towards him.

"Here, you drop it near the bus stop. I picked it up with an intention to return it to". Naitik held out the scarf that he picked at the bus stop.

She was a bit embarrassed how she took it all out on this guy, where he was only trying to help her out. She did nothing and stood still wondering how she could make up for her behavior with this person.

"If you don't want it, then it's ok I'll keep it as a souvenir." Naitik just pulled his hand back to his pocket with a small smirk on his face, and spontaneously she held onto the scarf.

"Why would you keep it, are you a pervert?" she exclaimed,he lost his grip on the scarf,saying a big 'No' to her question. She right away snatched the scarf from his hand and put it into her shoulder bag.

"Thank you," she said in a much more calm voice with an hesitant look on her face.

"That is not what I wanted to hear," Naitik replied with a hope to drag the conversation, even for a little more seconds he would be the happiest man in the world.

"Then, what do you expect?" she replied in a confused state.

"Well I introduced myself back there, so it's common for people to expect the same intro as an answer from the other person".

"Can I say, I don't think the same?" she replied by raising one eyebrow and turned around to walk.

"But why?" Naitik has no intention to give up and starts following around while talking to her.

"Why? I have no interest in knowing who you are and I'm not the type to give out my name and number to strangers."

"Hey come on... we can be more than strangers. Maybe friends....yes we can be friends"

"Just meeting someone twice, doesn't make anyone more than strangers and friendship is something that should come out from both the sides."

"But what's wrong in two strangers becoming good friends and come on that's how two individuals become friends. Don't they?"

She stopped walking abruptly which made Naitik take a few steps forward without her. Which he realized and came back to face her.

She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath in and exhales to calm herself down and starts talking,

"Look Mr., You might be a guy who goes around and makes friends as you wish, there is nothing wrong with that. I agree with you. But I'm simply not that kind of a person. So Please leave, I have my boyfriend waiting in my room." with that she walked across Naitik not giving a chance for him to talk back. He was taken aback by this girl's attitude and stood still.

It's been a long time since he saw a girl with such an attitude. For him getting to know girls and getting involved with them has always been a piece of cake. The girls would always love to have a close relationship with him given to his kind and gentle and cool personality and of course for his looks. He never received any rejections and if he faced rejection he never really took it to his heart, he would just take it as their preferences in men and he would never go to them again but that is really rare for him to get rejected. He has always been the one to reject.

But this time it was different, rather he felt different. He himself doesn't understand what he is going through for sure yet but he was clear enough to accept the fact that he was disturbed and didn't want to give any label to his feelings for her.

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Hi this is the second chapter. hope you all enjoyed. please let me know your opinions in comments and vote if you like the story.