Best Friends and Cousins? (An Indian Love Story)

Chapter 2

I wake up to my phone buzzing in my ears, muscular arms around me, the small of my back against a nice set of 8-pack abs. I am confused for a second, but the arms pull me back into somebody and I hear Nikhil's voice whisper. "Good morning sunshine. You still gotta tell me what happened yesterday."

"I know. Now let's go get ready before Gramma comes up." He buries his face into the place where my neck meets my shoulders for a moment and lets me go.

.........time...skip.........

"Get up! I'm done with my entire morning routine and you haven't even woken up yet. Aren't guys always complaining about how long girls take to get ready? Now that time's up but you aren't, so get up!"

"No fair! You are not most girls. Your morning routine hardly takes twenty minutes and you look gorgeous without even trying. Lemme sleeeep!" Did he just compliment me? Nah he didn't. He going to have a girlfriend.

"Don't practice your boyfriend dialogues on me. Get your ass up and get ready." I shove him off the bed. "Sorry, not sorry." I grin, as he surfaces, his face distorted with sleep, confusion and surprise.

"Hey! That was mean. Learn to accept a compliment when offered! I was simply stating the facts!" It is my turn to be surprised. He doesn't complain that I pushed him off the bed, and instead, starts lecturing me on accepting complements.

"Earth to Neha. Hello, are you with me?" His hand is waving in my face. "What? Oh...um...yeah...hey...I mean...Go get ready you idiot! We are late!"

.........time...skip.........

Megha dashes down the stairs to ask gramma to pack our breakfasts. By the time we come down the stairs, a pack is ready with dosa and yummy coconut-mint chutney. I grab it off the table while Nikhil grabs the keys. We yell a good bye, hastily climbing into the blue pick-up that Grandpa drove once in a while to take extra produce into the city.

As soon as we buckle up, Nikhil starts whining for food, so I keep feeding him pieces of dosa dipped in the chutney while he drives. Stopping at the red light, he turns to me and demands that I 'fess'.

"You can't escape me now. You can't escape me ever. You have to..." He is cut off by my lips.

I time myself to the lights so that he wouldn't have time to focus on me. He doesn't kiss me back, but he doesn't push me away either. He just stays still. As I calculated, the lights turned green just as I pulled away. I see Nikhil's hand suspended mid-air. The cars behind us start honking, and Nikhil starts driving. After five minutes of me silently staring outside, he speaks up.

"For how long?"

"About ten years now. Since eighth."

"That long? You never said or did anything while I dated all those girls. When I asked you for advice. What happened yesterday, when I was talking to Vaishnavi? I didn't see a trace of anything. You didn't try to stop our conversation. Nothing. Never. Why?"

"You seemed very happy with all of them. You were happy just talking to Vaishnavi yesterday. I don't want to spoil that. You date who you want, but for the sake of old times, don't stop talking to me. My heart would stop if you did, just like in ninth, when you wouldn't talk to me just because I moved to that stupid "international" school. I cried myself to sleep every night because we didn't talk." I pause, making sure to let it sink in. "I eventually just moved on, knowing I don't stand a chance. I learnt to cover up my emotions and not let anyone notice. No one ever did. And I'm happy they didn't, or I would have become a pity-seeker." I spit out the last sentence.

"You know I don't stop talking if you like me. I am not that kind of a guy. But why did you keep this hidden from me?" His voice is unexpectedly soft. I expected it to be cracking with anger. I wanted it to be. This is too much to handle.