𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄

(I)

𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒇𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒓 , 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝑰 𝒏𝒐𝒕

The birds chirping reached his ears , causing him to scrouch his eyebrows as he pulled the blanket to his face . Feeling irritated , he got up while rubbing his eyes only to find out it was 4 a.m. . He pouted watching and rubbed his hairs as for now sleep has drifted away long ago from his eyes . It was not even mid April and summer has already stroked in . The little boy jumped out of his bed slowly and tip-toed to open the curtains . A gush of fresh air passed through him and his dimple appeared instantly . His house was surrounded by trees . There were only three to four houses present in that colony . He rested his face on palm and cutely watched the sunrise infront of him . The cold wind soothed his scars. He closed his eyes to intake the relief as for now . The eleven
year old touched his face slowly tapping on the wound and smiled pretending it was all fine . There was a rumour about him that nobody has ever seen him crying not even his parents .

"Aarav , wake up . You are already running late ."
The call of his mother instantly got him up at once and he woke up , half sleepy . He did not know that he slept while absorbing the nature . He hurriedly got up and without wasting a minute started to get ready . Soon he was all dressed up to go to school . His parents were teacher so many at a times he has to cook for himself and his sister , Subi .
He got scolded again and he sighed knowing it was a regular routine to get scolded before going to school .
Two things he did when he got scolded was to get silent and never speak a word . It is such a common taboo in India after all .

The bell for assembly rang assembling all students in the class for prayer . Aarav was a below average student in class , but quite popular too . He was a gentleman who used to help everyone and an obidient boy . Attendance was taken and his class teacher informed them to decorate the notice board for diwali . He was assigned to put upon the chart paper .
Aarav along with his four friends gathered around the notice board . He stood on the chair to put up the yellow colour chart paper . He first made an outline and placed in a correct manner and turned back to ask for the board pins when his eyes fell on a girl passing through him . He was so drowned in her that the chart paper fell from his hands and his friends helped him to pick it up and made it to the notice board .

The sweet eleven year Aarav started adoring her just like a child adore his favourite toy or cartoon . There was no craviness or obsession for her but he wanted to become her good not best friend . The girl was of his age but in another section . It was not love though , but he wanted to initiate friendship with her . Typical Indian boys , as we know started teasing him . In a matter of two weeks , he took out all information about her . Her name was Shanaya Singh .
He was so happy like never in his life , he was this much happy and delighted . He never fantisized any romantic but yeah he wanted her to be his best friend . She was the topper and he was like a loser in that crowd , in studies and that was not fitting for him . He started studying hard for become worthy of being called her friend .

Days passed and he slowly came to know about her family . He even came to know about his sister who was a year elder than her . One day , he and his friends were having lunch when his eyes fell on her , and this time as if the time stopped , all he could see was her . She was going downstairs to wash her hands after lunch . He thought for a moment , "her smile is so preety." He gleemed at her when again he feel disheartened thinking that she is elder than him and he should respect her but he could not stop the butterflies in his stomach . It would be his daily routine to stand at the same place and at the same time just to have a glimpse of her . Being a boy , he used his sources to find about her and she came out to be Aarohi Singh . Surprisingly , she was the sister of Shanaya . Keeping aside this newly developed feeling and trying his best to suppress it , Aarav started to invest his time more on his "friendship" , one-sided .

It was their unit test . Aarav , highly motivated did every subject well but it was Maths and he hated it to the core . In India , Maths is the nightmare of every student especially of this age group . The results came out and he got very less marks . There was a rule in the class to get signature of one of the parents on your answer sheet and this was going to be terrifying for him . He went home and entered the living room where his father was sitting . He slowly went to him while tightly holding the paper in his hands. And as soon as he showed the paper , a slap came flying on his cheeks . The mark could be seen clearly on his face . He did not cry , as said earlier. His father insulted him and scolded him , beat him ruthlessly . No matter how badly he was beaten , he did not cry or tried to stop his father and got beaten . He thought himself as the "stress ball" as whenever at home , if anyone was frustrated used to scold him or beat him . He never knew the language of love . Maybe this was the reason he was been drawn close to Shanaya , who maybe taught him the meaning of love and friendship .