Almost Love

Full Story

The weather seemed gloomy like it was about to rain as I stepped out of my train looking around the station for a familiar face. It took me sometime to recognise that old sneaky grin, standing before me was my elder brother. I was visiting Bangalore for my summer holidays.

We headed out towards the car, I was admiring the scenery outside the whole ride. Bangalore was something very new to my experience.

I greeted the family before having lunch with all the members and sharing some good laughs. The hour- long train ride made me tired so I went to take a nap.

As I was about to fall off this huge cliff, I heard a faint voice of my brother calling out to me.

The clock was ticking 6pm and it took me some time to get back into reality.

The rain had stopped by this time so we decided to take a stroll outside. There were a lot of people outside, the badminton court seemed busier than most. I could see two girls playing badminton as if they were some professional. We went to practice alongside their court.

They were both good but the one in white shined brightly, with each stroke, her aura was blindingly bright. While I was busy admiring her skills, they stopped for a break and she looked right towards me. It seemed as if our eyes were communicating in a language unknown to the others around.

Resistingly, she pulled her eyes off of me and whispered something to the other girl. While trying to look away from her, I pretended to focus on my game. Just then the other girl in the blue came up to us and offered us to play with them.

I was beaming with the sudden dose of excitement, nervousness, and a great deal of happiness but I gave my best to look nonchalant. I left the decision to my brother hoping he'd say yes, he gave me a side glance with a smirk and accepted the offer.

I teamed up with my brother and it was us against them, honestly I did not have much hope for me. Just two minutes into the game and we had that same communication through our gaze. She was flawless in her moves. I wanted to create a good image of myself. So I did the stupidest thing a person can do in this situation. While maintaining our eye contact, I jumped in the air to make the shot and fell with my hopes.

But it was not over yet. I sprained my ankle and everyone came running to me, including the girl in the white. The three of them helped out to the nearest bench. She asked for my wellbeing but I couldn't hear anything other than her eyes which seemed genuinely worried for me. My brother asked me to go home but I insisted on watching them play instead.

The girls were still good but the girl in white was missing her shots. Her eyes were secretly wandering across the ground and each time they landed on me. Her eyes were holding many unspoken questions for which she couldn't find the words.

After this game, my brother decided to call it a day stating my injury for the reason. I was cursing myself. Unwillingly we both parted ways...for now.

I reached home somehow on the support of my brother's shoulders. We all had dinner together with my family cracking jokes on my broken ankle the whole time.

This whole incident seemed unreal to me, I felt like I needed to share with someone. So I called my best friend, Kiyara. I narrated the whole thing to her in minute detail. For a few minutes she just laughed out and made fun of me. After a while on a serious note she warned me to be cautious reminding me how easily i get attached to people and how chaotic it was the last time. I cut the call then and went to bed.

I woke up naturally the next day and the whole day only one thing i had in my mind, for the evening to come soon. Just as the clock struck 6 I went up to my brother and he straight out refused. Since he had a viable reason that is my ankle, I could not refute. So I just sat on the balcony and I spotted her, it turns out there was hope after all. But there was a catch, only i could watch her since i was on the 11th floor.