MaNan: It all started with a lie

Oh No Not Againnn!!

Manik

I and nandini were currently in my car, on our way to college. The journey was oddly silent. We were stuck in the all time famous Mumbai traffic so I took my chance to look at nandini and adore her beauty. As in checking her out right? Mr. Brain asked wiggling his brows in a teasing manner. No it's call adoring my heart argued. Oh puh-leeze! Mr. Brain snapped back and there it goes again....they begin arguing. Stop it! Just stop it you two! Cant you both for once not argue!? I hissed and they fell quiet. Finally. I sighed and then had a look at my star in peace. She looked gorgeous...no no ravishing in the dress I had gifted her. Her diamond earrings were twinkling like stars and her face was glowing. It looked so serene in the moonlight. The dress perfectly complimented her milky white skin and her those pink pouty lips.....I so wished to suck all the gloss off her petal like lips. Wait. What!? Manik what are you thinking??? She is your best friend dammit. You are taking this fake girlfriend thing seriously now. You'll have to stop or it'll definitely spoil your friendship in the near future. Think straight idiot. After my admiring nandini session again the silence in the car haunted me. I decided to initiate. "Nandini?" "Hmm?" "Vo kya tum mujhse gussa ho....you know jo bhi tumhare ghar hua vo..." I was cutoff by her "nahi manik I'm not mad at you" ahh....what a relief. But then why is she not talking to me? "To tum abhi baat kyu nahi kar rahi?" I voiced my thoughts. I tried not to sound desperate but failed. My voice clearly reflected my desperation. "Are its nothing like that....its just ki we have no topic to talk" she replied. "Oh" damn! Manik think of some topic now. We have never had the need of a topic to begin our conversation but all thanks to our encounter we had sometime ago. "Nandu....you remember the first time you kissed me on my cheek?" "Ya" she said awkwardly. Wow manik....bola bhi to kiske bare me....I mean kiss ke bare me....like seriously. Get some brains malhotra! You have an awesome brain my brain remarked annoyed. Ya ya whatever I replied nonchalantly. "So what about it manik?" Nandini asked and I was clueless. "Huh? What about what?" "That cheek ki......kiss" "oh that.." Congratulations! You had to act dumb once again due to your always debating heart and brain. "I was just thinking about how much you blushed that time where on the other hand I had kissed you so many times on the cheek." I replied reliving those moments. "Whatever" she said a bit annoyed. "I wish I could get those days back" I had just completed my sentence when a dog came in front of our car and I applied brakes with a jerk resulting in nandus lips brushing against my cheek as she moved towards my seat to receive my ringing phone. My eyes almost popped out of my sockets and even her eyes widened.

Wow! Like really wow! All the 'kiss accidents' had to happen in a day only na. What was happening with us!? I bet even she was thinking the same. We were staring at each other intently. First due to awkwardness and later holding some unsaid emotions. I tried reading her eyes and dare if I say......love? Did she have feelings for me? I could not understand as she had instantly covered up just like I did after recovering from this shock. We regained our composure and proceeded to head college.

Within the next ten minutes we were at our destination but I no longer wanted to go there. I really wanted to run away from there because of these stupid encounters that had made things so awkward between us (me and nandini) but anyway I had to go because I know how excited nandini was to attend her first party in space and I could not ruin it. I got a grip over myself and held out my hand for her to hold so that we could enter like a couple.

Nandini

After our second awkward encounter, (first in the shower after the flour war and now a while ago....the accidental kiss) we were riding in his car to college. The atmosphere was deadly silent and was haunting me like crazy. Frankly speaking,I am not a person that can stay quiet for a long time. I keep on blabbering always, be it to myself or to others. I was so busy in my so infamous blabbering session that I was clueless of till where had we reached exactly. I was brought back to reality by manik's voice. He was talking about the first time I had kissed his cheek. It felt weird but still I answered him trying to sound as calm as possible. I was thinking of those childhood days when the continuous ringing of manik's phone kept on the dashboard of his side broke my trance. He was driving so I thought of receiving the call on his behalf and bent forward and that very moment a dog appeared in front of the car out nowhere and he stopped the car abruptly resulting in my lips smashing upon his cheek, giving him a brief kiss. Not againnn!! So ladies and gentlemen, here we go with our third awkward encounter. Like how on earth do we manage to do such stuff!? My cheeks flushed with embarrassment. Our eyes got locked as soon as I turned to look at him. I was drowned in his eyes. It was as if his eyes were telling me something but his actions told an entire different story. I knew that we were growing even more closer than we were ever before but I doubt if I had fallen for him. I mean he's my best friend for crying out loud and I can't hurt him, I can't lose the special bond we share now. I just can't. What if its only infatuation. No I can't act foolish, I need to get a hold on myself. As much as I hate this awkwardness between us, I so wish that the ground beneath me opens and swallows me in, I had to act normal. I saw him scowl a bit. I could see the restlessness in him like he was trying to search answers in my eyes but could not find a thing. I quickly covered up and broke our eye lock and started looking out of the window. The rest of the journey was silent. We soon reached college and it dawned upon me that I had to pretend like his girlfriend and that is going to be a lot more difficult than I had thought it would have been. We always used to fool around but now it seemed different after whatever has happened between us in the past few days. I exhaled deeply and prepared myself for the night. So here begins your mission nandu. Mission be normal and don't show your discomfort. I know a weird name but that's what I could think of at the moment. With these petty thoughts of what more was going to happen inside after such eventful happenings I took a hold of manik's hand that he had held out for me and head inside like a perfect couple.