Sameer
Sitting on the bed, I slowly reveal the first page of the book. Sadly, it has only the title of the book and the author's name. I wish her name was down here.
"Hey man, did you ask her name?" I ask Aryan, looking up to him from the book.
"Whose name?" He questions.
"That girl's. The one from the deck."
"No," he looks thoughtful, "I should ask, though."
I start rummaging through the book again. Turning pages to find something.
"Man, you're reading a book? On a travel?" His voice interrupts me.
"Yeah." I say without pulling off my eyes from the pages.
"Well, show me," he says and slides out the book from my hands.
"Hey!" I snatch it back in an instant, "Don't touch it!"
"Whoa whoa whoa, boy! What's wrong?" He asks, clearly surprised by my sudden reaction.
"Um, I- you go do your work. This is just- new- and I almost lost it, and I like it a lot, so-" I stammer, but am cut off by him.
"Okay okay, keep your treasure with yourself, dude. I'm not even remotely interested in it."
I look at the back cover of the book. This novel is about philosophy. Hmm, and it's fiction. I read the jist and decide that the story sounds interesting.
Should I return it to her?
Or, should I read it to know her interest?
Should I tell Aryan about it? Hell no.
I'll settle on the options one and two. I'll return her the book, but I could read it till I see her again. I'm not going to run around in this 'big town' of a ship to particularly search for that one person.
***
We spend the afternoon sitting on the lower deck with our legs hanging out of Hermosa. The typical friends time together as we joke and tease each other, and stare in the sea.
"Sam, Sid, do you know where I see Jake's girlfriend? There," Aryan points ahead, "on the horizon." He bursts out laughing at his own joke but we just look at him in annoyance. "Go get her, Jake!" He laughs harder.
"Guys, she's so impossible to exist! Wait, you didn't get what I meant?" His laughter stops.
"We get it bro." Sid says.
"Yeah, it's not that funny but actually, Aryan has a point, he's right. Isn't he Jake?" I snicker.
Jacob grabs my and Aryan's neck and pushes us on the metal railing, "say one more word, and you are thrown out of the cruise."
"Okay okay your future girlfriend is not on the horizon." We mutter out.
Satisfied, just as he lets us go, Aryan yells, "In fact she's not even on the planet!"
All of us burst into crazy laughter while Jake's is narrowing his eyes at us, faking anger.
"She is like the coffee in this coke bottle!" I raise the coke bottle and speak through my laughter as Jake also joins it.
We pat Jake's back. "Our forever bachelor boy."
"Guys hold it, we're just sixteen. And neither of you are in relationships, so bloody shut up."
We watch the sun set and the cruise light up in her beautiful way. It's the last night on the ship. I'm enjoying this so much. And I know I'm going to miss this time later.
We have our gala dinner and then seat ourselves up in front of the small stage. There's going to be an entertainment performance here tonight. A musical night.
The musicians and a singer take the stage and begin to perform after introducing themselves. As he sings travel and love-on-a-tour kind of songs, I instinctively look around for someone. But no one, you know, of my interest can be spotted.
After about an hour, the performing group bows, thanks and leaves the stage. We applaud along with the crowd. Yeah, it was really good, and entertaining. But I think the audience is in for more. A smirk creeps up on my face.
"Aryan, time for our show." I tell him. He smirks back.
"What?" Asks Jake.
"Let's take it over," Sid nods with a grin.
We get behind the stage and turn the microphones on again, and as said, take the stage over.
Aryan gives a whack of electric guitar and I do a vocable.
The stage catches all the attention.
The lads give intro music and then stop for me. "Hi, we are The Highs. A band, a group of boys traveling with you." I say on the microphone.
The boys bring the beat and I begin to sing. Clearly, and as usual, the crowd looks very interested and enjoying, as we sing the top songs of the period.
After we are satisfied with our talent-showing time, we thank the audience and get down from the stage. The crowd is cheering and clapping and hooting, "Once more!"
Some youngsters reach for us and greet us, "Hey! You are The Highs! From YouTube! You perform so good!"
"I'm so lucky I got to see you guys perform live! And Sameer, I'm a big fan of yours. I love your voice," one with a huge smile says to me. We flash them our biggest grins.
"Could I have your autographs?" Another girl asks.
"Yeah sure," I say, and hear Jake whisper from behind, "whoa, dude, we are famous."
As we head back to leave, Sid says, "All because of the internet. A few people already knew us. We are actually really great. Well done, brothers." We Pat each other. "Well, yeah, having girls swarming around me is actually success. I'm finally achieving what I was built for," I hear Aryan say as we leave the place.
I look back. One last time tonight. Was she here?
YOU ARE READING
Meant To Be
Teen Fiction"There was something so different about him that I couldn't help but stare. It's been two years and I am still thinking about that stranger. And he never even noticed me." ~Sophia. "She was funny and stupid, and adventurous. She got something that a...
