A Manjeri Love Story

Epi -9

Ayshu’s POV
I don’t know how to tell him but I can’t let him think whatever he wants about me, he needs to get the real picture of me, not something he could think on his own. I took him to a corner where I thought we have some privacy, like I assumed some girls were checking out him, I can’t blame them he seems to be like a model. We went aside and sat on the bench.
‘Look, I know that you may feel I’m the weird fellow in the world after hearing what I’m going to say, and I won’t blame you. I’m not all comfortable seeing you after …. You know…what happened between us yesterday, I know that you may think that I loved the idea of being hugged by a man, but trust me it was so uncomfortable for me, but I didn’t want you to feel terrible, I know that whatever you had to go through is not easy and I appreciate the fact you are a strong fellow and….. oh god, what am I even saying…just know that I’m not a slut who love to have the intimacy from a stranger’, I said the word and then I realized I blabbered the most stupid thing in my whole life. I was embarrassed again, how could I become such a dumb with no brain cells? I screwed the whole thing, I didn’t even dare to look at his eyes, so I looked at the ground.
‘Ok that was weird because I don’t know why you are making such a fuss for something which is casual and I don’t blame you for whatever happened yesterday, it was me who hugged you and you were just comforting me, you didn’t do anything abnormal and it is totally fine and alright. So please don’t feel stressed about whatever happened, I’m cool about that and you shouldn’t forget the fact that we are friends and I’m not a stranger anymore, you should remember that, he said and I was looking at the ground all the time. His words made me ease somehow and I looked at him for the first time, he was smiling at me and it was one of the most genuine smiles that I have seen for a long time. So this means that the hug meant nothing to him and here I’m assuming all the world’s worst scenarios that could happen to a situation, I made myself a fool again.
‘Ok we are cool now, right?’, I asked him to clarify the situation between us.
‘Obviously, we are more than cool’
That sentence made me relieved. I smiled at him and he looked at me with intense gaze.
‘Ok then I’m going
‘Ok, see you in the evening’, he waved at me and I waved back. When I reached the classroom Anugraha bombed me with lots of questions and I didn’t answer any of them, she need to learn where to interfere and where shouldn’t. Our exams were over around the same time and I went outside, always I wrote the exam fast and it would be over first and I wait for Anugraha outside the campus, like always I went out of the campus and there he was waiting for us with his car, I approached him, he smiled at me when he saw me.
‘Hi, how was the exam?’, he asked me enthusiastically.
‘Not bad, my normal reply to any person who would enquire about the exams.
‘Did you have your lunch?’
‘Actually, I always prefer to skip lunch when I have exams, because meals always make me sleepy and you would know what would happen if I become sleepy during an important exam, so I ate an ice cream and that’s it.’
‘Oh so you would be very hungry, should I go and fetch something to eat?’
‘No, don’t bother to do something like that. I’m always like that and it’s not at all a problem, I was hesitant enough to bother him again. We were standing there near his car, the silence was I could say pretty much awkward to even look at each other.
‘So tell me about your family, he asked suddenly
‘Oh, I have a joint family, me, my papa, mumma and I have a brother, and I have grandparents along with uncle, aunt, and cousins.’
‘Wow, do all of you are living in the same house?’
‘No, it’s just me, mom, dad and my brother who are staying under a roof but all these people are involved in my life, they have opinions on whatever I did, whatever I think, and in pretty much everything’, I sighed by remembering all the chaos that my life has been made ever since I was born.
‘It is pretty much the same in every Muslim family, trust me I have heard the same sort of story in million times’
‘ Yeah, but each time the girls are different, their dreams are unique, and still no one cares’, I don’t know why my eyes were welled up, and a tear rolled down from my eyes.
‘Hey, are you ok?’
‘Yeah I’m, sorry I didn’t mean to cry’
‘You can cry in front of me as much as you want, it’s was you who was there to comfort me and hear all about the grief that I wouldn’t share with any other person, so I’m more than ready to hear yours.
I stared into his eyes, it fell genuine and I don’t know why but I felt connected to a person for the first time in my entire life.
‘Thank you’, is all I could manage to say at that moment.
He smiled.
‘And I was wondering if you could give me your number so you know we could chat sometimes, it is important to have a person who is ready to hear all the things about you and yet ready to accept you as whatever you are, and more importantly there should be a person whom you could trust. And I trust you Ayshu and I want to be the person whom you could trust as well
For the first time in my entire life, I felt goosebumps as well as butterflies in my stomach. I stare deep into his eyes and every time I looked at him I could see hope, the hope and light that I lost a long time ago to a person whom I trusted blindly.
‘Please give me a chance, I could be that friend you are afraid to find.’
‘Ok’, those words come from my mouth unconsciously, he smiled.
He extended his phone and I typed my number along with my name.
He send a Hi right there through WhatsApp and when I select the add to contact button, I was wondering what should I save as his name. I can’t save a guy’s name on my phone so I saved Anshu instead,  if someone asked about it I would say it’s a girl. So there starts my little secret.