A Familiar Love- A Radhakrishn Retelling

5. 𝖳𝗁𝖾 𝖨𝗇𝗏𝗂𝗍𝖺𝗍𝗂𝗈𝗇

"What're you all talking about without me?" Radha asked as soon as she left the school gate and saw her friends huddled together.

They all quietened down and gave each other hesitant glances. Radha stood there expectantly, waiting for one of them to say something, it wasn't until Raj and Aditya bowed Arjun, the designated mom of the group, for the third time in a row that he finally spoke up.

"So you know how we were planning to have a small get together this Sunday?"

"Oh yeah, it's totally happening at my house this time though"

"Uh, yeah that's fine. So we were thinking of inviting Krishn too, you know he is new here and has become friends with us quite fast." Arjun said fast as they all stood there waiting for Radha's outburst.

"WHAT? No, absolutely not! Why Arjun, I already see him enough in and outside of school, please do not do this to me." Radha whined, she did not want Krishn at the party with her close friends dammit, he always managed to rile her up and ruin her day by either making her angry or leaving her confused out of her mind with his stupid words that she did not understand.

"Come on radha! He's nice and fun, at least try to get to know him. We all really like him and want him there." Raj said, giving her his signature puppy eyes, now how could she ever refuse those eyes. These people were like family for her, Arjun was the older brother, Raj was the younger one, Aditya was her best friend and Priya and Aanya were her sisters. This was her family and she could do anything for them, even if that meant tolerating Krishn, in her house for a whole evening.

"Okay fine, you guys can invite him over"

"Yeah about that, he already left for the bus and today is Friday so can you invite him? He goes in your bus and lives near your house too. We could do it over the phone but that is not very polite" Raj said, scratching the back of his neck nervously.

Radha just let out a tired sigh, nodded and left to find her bus in the sea of ​​school buses. Not only did she have to tolerate him for a whole evening but she had to invite him too? Hey bhagwan, what had she done to deserve this?

Her head was filled with thoughts on how to get out of this situation as she walked to her bus, she could just not invite him, tell her friends she did and he just refused and then they'd probably not talk to him about it, Hurray! A perfect plan. She smiled at the thought, of course that is all it will be, a thought, she would never actually be able to pull that off successfully, she knew her luck too well.

For the first time since she had met Krishn, she willingly took a seat next to him in the bus.

He looked up at her, surprise evident on his face. She chose to maintain a nonchalant expression and continued to look straight ahead. He seemed to have gotten the hint as he turned towards the window, staring outside while Radha tried to frame the words to invite him.

Soon enough, they had gotten to their stop and were now walking towards their respective houses and Radha had somehow still not managed to muster up the courage to ask him and Krishn had remained silent throughout, which seemed completely off from his usual chirpy and flirty demeanour.

Just as Radha saw her house come into view, she knew she had to ask him now. She turned towards him and held his arm to stop him.

"WouldyoucometoagetogetherwithmyfriendsandI?" She said in a quick breath, Krishn looked almost horrified at her.

"Okay, I did not get a word of that, what did you just say?"

She sighed and took a deep breath,

"My friends and I have planned a get together at my house on sunday, they want you to come"

Krishn remained silent and looked at her with a calculating gaze which caused Radha to get nervous for reasons she couldn't comprehend.

"Do you? Do you want me to come?" His voice held emotions that Radha had only read about and suddenly she was speechless.

He smiled and shook his head and began to walk away.

"Wait! I do! I do want you to come." Her voice held a kind of desperation only he understood.

He turned back to see her jogging up to him, "I do want you to come" She said as if confirming what he had heard was real.

He smiled at her but it soon turned into a playful smirk.

"I guess we are good friends then, huh?"

Now her face mirrored his playful smirk,

"Friends? Us? You must be mistaken, we are merely acquaintances"

"Really? Last time I checked, acquaintances don't really invite each other to 'close friends only' parties"

"Where did you get the idea that I wanted to invite you? In fact you will be delighted to know that I was the one against it but I got out-voted, apparently all my friends consider you a good friend now, I don' t know when that happened but I certainly did not see it."

He let out a chuckle at her reply.

"Careful love, people might think we were enemies by the way you talk about me." Her eyes widened slightly at the nickname, her breath hitched, she felt her heart almost stop beating for a second before it started pounding at the speed of light and she continued to look at him stupefied.

It was only when she heard the loud sound of someone's phone ringing in the street that she recovered from the shock of Krishn's sudden flirting.

"Now, I wouldn't say enemies since you are coming to a close friends only party. Frenemies would be a better term." She winked and turned to walk towards her house.

She tried to calm her racing heartbeat, how she had managed to get that kind of confidence she did not know. Had she actually just flirted with someone? That too Krishn? Oh my god she was going crazy.

"When is the party?" Krishn shouted from behind her.

"4pm, don't be late!" She replied before walking in her house.

She closed the door behind her and let out some deep breaths. She was very thankful that she was gonna be alone for the rest of the afternoon to ponder over whatever the hell just happened outside.

She took out her phone from her bag and put it on 'do not disturb' so that only her family's calls could get through and kept it on her bed.

She walked into the washroom to see her face, it was red and her ears were burning. Oh my god what was happening to her. Why did everything this guy did affect her so much? She did not like him, that's how she wanted it to be. But why then does he seem so familiar? Why does she get these overwhelming feelings around him? Why does he seem so close yet so out of reach? Why do his eyes seem to want to tell her something? Why did they look so utterly sad sometimes?

She pondered over that last thought for a while as she laid on her bed and let his thoughts slowly lull her to sleep.

~

Hope to get some comments on this chapter!

Thank you for reading, I would highly appreciate some encouragement.

-Kanhapriya