Childhood Sweethearts

03. Dinner

"Krishna, Parthi come downstairs" We heard our mother's voice calling us from downstairs.

"I think they arrived" My brother said.

"Yes. Let's go down now" I said.

"Don't get lost in his eyes as soon as he sees you" He said teasingly and winked at me.

"Hey you wait-" I said and started running behind him to smack him.

He ran down the stairs and I was running behind him.

"Careful both of you don't fall down on your face" My mother said.

"Krishna must have teased her about something again" My father said.

As we were running, he stopped in front of our guests, Ritesh uncle's family.

"Why are you both running around the house" My mother enquired.

"He teased me again mumma" I said while pouting.

"Krishna how many times have I told you not to tease her. Why don't you listen" My dad said.

"What did he tease you about dear" My dad said.

I and bhai both looked at each other. What will we say. We can't say the actual reason I was running behind him.

"He said that I have gotten fat dad" I lied to my dad in a complaining tone.

"You're not fat baby. You're perfect" Divya aunty said.

"Yes aunty I know" I said sassily while flipping my hair.

"Yes aunty I know" My brother said in a mocking tone to tease me more.

I just pouted more and made a sulking face.

All of them chuckled at our behaviour.

Well it's not new to them. Almost everyone in our family and friend circle are used to us behaving like this every once in a while.

"Hey Parthi" Rutvi di said and hugged me.

"Hii dii" I replied to her and hugged her back.

"Hey" Me and Rishi said to each other in unison while doing our signature handshake.

All the adults were settled and already busy in their talks. Looking at the clock in the living room, it read 06:47 which is still early to have dinner.

"Rishi" I called him.

"Yes" He replied.

"Can you help me with triangles chapter?" I asked him.

"Sure" He replied smiling.

That precious smile of his is enough to brighten my entire day. He really makes my heart skip a beat whenever he smiles.

"Go to your room if you want to study" My brother said looking at us.

"Yeah. You'll face disturbance here" Rutvi di said.

We both nodded. We reached my room. I got my books from my study book shelf. We both sat on my bed.

"Tell me what you don't understand" He said.

"Pretty much the whole chapter" I said being a little embarrassed.

Don't judge me, I am good in studies. I excel in all the subjects but maths does give me a hard time sometime with some topics and triangles was one such chapter.

"It's fine" He chuckled. "This chapter is like this. It did trouble me too" He said more like assuring me.

"If it troubled you then how will you teach me" I asked teasing him.

"Well it did trouble me but I am a genius you know" He said praising himself.

"So full of yourself" I whispered.

"Yeah I am. So what" He said.

We both giggled.

We are like this. Teasing each other and pulling each other's legs.

Well Rishi is one grade ahead of me as he is a year older than me. Well not a full year technically, he was born in May month and I was born in January month the next year. So we are only a couple of months apart.

Since he is a grade ahead of me, he always teaches me whenever I don't understand something.

"See, first you need to understand the concept of congruency and similarity of triangles for understanding this chapter" He began explaining me the chapter.

I was listening to each and every word spoken by him very carefully. He explains much better than our maths teacher at school.

"Okay so now you solve these sums to check if you understood the concept or not" He said giving me some questions to solve.

I began solving those sums. They turned out to be easy. I solved almost all of them but the last sum was giving me a hard time. I tried multiple times but I got the answer wrong.

Frustrated, I whined.

"Arghh"

"What happened" He asked me in a soft voice.

"I can't get the stupid answer" I whined.

He chuckled.

"Show me" He said. "Let me help you" He said leaning towards my direction.

He was sitting beside me. He leaned in towards the book and checked the sum.

"See you made this mistake" He said pointing to my mistake.

"You had to use AA Similarity to solve this and instead of that you used SAS Similarity" He said gently making me understand my mistake.

This is what I like about him the most. He is always gentle with me and makes me understand everything with patience.

"Ohhh" I exclaimed. "I'm so dumb" I said.

"I know that. Say something new that I don't know" He said teasingly.

"Kids come down stairs it's time for dinner" Someone called us from downstairs.

I looked at the watch in my room. It was already 08:15. Time flies whenever I'm with him.

"Yeah coming" We said in unison.

At dinner table, everyone was already settled so we sat too.

The parents were on the opposite side of the kids.

Rutvi di and bhai already occupied the corner seats so we had to sit in the middle ones.

I was sitting between my brother and Rishi.

"How is study going on Rishi" My dad asked him.

"It's fine uncle" He said confidently with a smile on his face.

"You have your boards this year right" My dad said again. "Are you preparing for it properly"

"Yes uncle, I am fully prepared for the exams" He said.

After eating dinner, we all were talking about random stuff. Our parents were busy in their own talks and we were busy in our own.

"Kids let's go home" Ritesh uncle said gaining our attention. I looked at the clock yet again, 10:45, it read. *sigh* why does time pass so quick whenever we are together.

"Yes dad" Di and Rishi said together.

We walked them till their car in our driveway. Our parents bid goodbye to each other. I said goodbye to uncle and aunty. I also said bye to Rishi and Rutvi di.

"Text me when you reach home" I said to Rishi while saying bye to him.

"Yes I will" He said assuring me.