Stolen Promises|| Completed

5. Dreams and Desires!(past)

~ It's not the abs and messy hair that makes a boy desirable, it's the sheer twinkle in his eyes when he talks passionately about his dreams~

March, 2009.

"One. Two. Three. Seven. Eleven. Fifteen. Nineteen. Twenty!"

The counts went higher with more people joining in, cheering loudly, encircling the group in the college canteen, as Dhruv and Kabir wacked Manik, throwing him up in the air, and welcoming him down with another whack. And why not? It was his birthday, and the birthday boy always deserves the birthday bombs!

Nandini giggled as she made the video, and laughed louder when Manik made horrified sounds. He was certain he won't be able to sit for two days, straight. As the Count to twenty got over, he sighed in relief and stood taking deep breaths, only to get a cake smashed on his face.

" Yuck yaar!", Nandini made a face watching cream all over his face, in his ears, and even his precious hairs. 

Manik on the other hand laughed madly,licking the cream over his lips animatedly, like a child. And also, it was Manik Malhotra's unwritten rule book, you don't waste food, especially cake.

Washing his face, and cleansing his hairs, he came out after changing his T-shirt only to bump into Nandini who was waiting for him, impatient.

" Manik come with me, I have a surprise", Nandini beamed with happiness, the joy that she might have on his face as he discovered his surprise, excited the hell out of her. She tried to drag Manik, who, resisted, biting his lip.

"Nandini, umm-", he fumbled, not wanting to hurt her sentiments.

Nandini stopped, and raised her eyebrows, unable to understand his plight.

"Can the surprise wait for an hour? I have my drama class", he rubbed the back of his neck, nervous, and scared to dim the light of his star, but a wide smile broke on her face, as she nodded.

" I will wait near the stairs after the class", she held his hands and lightly squeezed them only to be rewarded with the brightest smile on his face as he bent to kiss their adjoined hands and ran towards the classroom.

Now Manik Malhotra running for a class was a rare sight, agreed, but life works with exceptions, always. And in his case, it was drama. Even though he was finishing his bachelor degree in business, he had taken Drama as his major side subject, and all you needed to talk to him about it to know why.

He was immensely passionate about theatre, acting and directing were both his guilty pleasures. The cherry on the cake was his impressive writing skills. He would always get so drowned in plays, that he would forget the world around him. He never enacted a character, he lived them, within himself. Though he came from a buisness family, and also accepted the fact that he was expected to carry the leagacy of Malhotra Industries forward, he still had the audacity to follow his dreams.  His craziness about it could be seen from the fact that he left his own birthday celebration for a drama class at college.

She saw the same excitement in him, when it came to drama, that she herself had for astrophysics. She wanted to be a world renowned astrophysicist, the irony being she still couldn't pronounce the word right, but who cared? Both of them had already set, future goals, they were both passionate and confident enough to achieve.

Nandini smiled to herself, as she watched his running figure towards the class room. She was so proud of him, to have the ability to fetch his dreams, alongside doing what his parents expected of him. He was the perfect example of the saying- when life gives you lemons, make a lemonade.

Three hours later, Nandini and Manik were sitting on the top of his car, on a hilly area, watching stars.

"Why do you love stars so much Manik?", She asked out of the blue and he smiled, his gaze still fixed at the sky.