He told her those three magical words,
But
AS A FRIEND.
She was everything to him.
AS A FRIEND.
She was everything he wanted in a girl.
But he treated her.
Just AS A FRIEND.
She didn't mind till a point. After all, they were best of friends.
B...
Keya was sitting in her room watching random YouTube videos on her laptop. Her eyes were fixated on the screen but mentally she was in a different place. "Keya you need to trust me!" "You need to trust people!" "Keya, I am always here for you." "Keya, I need you." "Keya, you are very important to me."
These words, weren't of one person, the irony was the very same words were of the only two boys, she had ever loved. These similar words were told to her by Akash and Aarav on different times, but each of them had same meaning at the point of time they were said.
Vee came in with a straight face. She wanted Keya to go out and have fun. "Keya, Dinner?", she asked with a serious face.
"Will you help me get ready for prom?", she asked with a small smile. "I will get my makeup kit! Go take a shower fast!", Vee said suddenly excited, jogging to her room.
Keya finally opened the bag Aarav had gifted her. "Oh my god!", Vee gasped from behind her as she stepped in with the makeup kit. It was one of the most beautiful dresses Keya had ever seen. It was a full white gown, flowing down till her ankle. "This is so wonderful!", she exclaimed.
Half an hour later, our Keya looked drop dead gorgeous in her white dress, open pixie cut hair and minimal make up and jewellery.
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"Is it okay if I take the car?", She asked Vee. "Of course! Now go! And have fun.", Vee said kissing her forehead. _____________
"Lets go in. I don't want you guys to miss the party. I will sit by the bar, have a few drinks and call it a day.", Aarav said to the other two with a sad smile. "I am sorry Aarav, I really thought she would come.", Zahra said hugging him. "I don't want to force her in anything. She has already had too much.", he said shrugging his shoulders as they moved inside the party venue. He sat on the bar stool and ordered a drink. Zahra and Sam ordered a beer each and they just gave him a little silence to be comfortable with.
"Look who is here alone! Our most popular one!", Nick, one of Aarav's hangout gang member taunted. "What happened? Cat caught your tongue?", another one asked. "Hey!", Sam tried to intervene but Aarav caught his hand and signaled not to react.
"Yeah sure. He deserves to be alone.", Julia commented further. "He doesn't. His prom date is here.", a voice called out to which everyone turned around. There, standing was Keya, looking more gorgeous to him than any other girl on planet right now. "Wait? Keya gets to be your date?", Julia asked. He ignored the comment and went to her. For now, as if he could only see her, the world had become blur to him.
He went towards her and held her hands into his and said, "You look gorgeous,Keya. Thank you for coming." "I had to come.", she said smiling back. "Also, I am not interested in this shitty party, lets get out of here.", he said dragging her to the exit. "But..Sam and Zee?", she asked. "They know we are going away.", he said as he hit the engine of the car.
"Where are we going?", she asked. "Somewhere special.", he replied with a smirk. "Wow. Stop scaring me you shithead.", she retorted smacking his head. "Wow. Atleast you are back to you normal persona.", he said with a chuckle. She just shrugged off her shoulders. "We are leaving the city behind..", Keya said looking out of the car window. "Yeah, the plan is to take you to some isolated garage and kill you!", Aarav said miserably failing to sound evil. Keya laughed hard at that.
"We are here. Get down.", he said a little later. She got down and saw the board that said in bold, block letters:
BILLY's HOT AIR BALLOON WORLD 🎈
"Okay! Lets go!", he said extending a hand for her. "Why are we doing this? Now?", she asked all confused. "Shh..", he said keeping a finger on her lips, coming really close to her. "Okay..", she stretched and moved two steps away. She did get awkward with that behaviour of his. What was he upto? He showed their booking on the entry gate and were sent in one hot air balloon and a worker gave one bag to Aarav and winked, Aarav winked back. The balloon started going up in the air, "What are we upto? There should be more people in here no? Why is it just us?", Keya asked. "Keya. Shh.. Just look around you. For five minutes just do that.", he said whispering in her ears with his lips almost touching her earlobe. She shivered at the close contact and moved a step away to look around. It was one of the most beautiful things ever. Little yellow lights flickering from houses far away, darkness enveloping the hills they were around and full moon shining bright. "I love the view. Thank you Aarav.", she said with a small smile. "Always there for you Keya. I don't know what happened to me. I seriously don't. Or why did I behave the way I did. I have no explanations of that whatsoever except a sorry.", he said holding her hands. "Its not about sorry Aarav. Its about what we shared. I never did even in my worst dreams imagine the things that happened between us, the equation we shared was much better. At least that's what I thought.", she said shaking her head. "I accept. I.. I really have nothing to tell you except the one thing I really want to.", he said with a smile now completely facing her.
"Out of all the shit I made you go through, there is one positive outcome that happened. I have to tell something to you.", he said and gulped as he was nervous.
"Aarav please be clear I have no idea what you are trying to say and its getting a little concerning.", she tried to carefully put forward.
"I like you. I really do. I don't like the smile and your body figure and your vibe as usual. I like your fighting spirit, I like your pure soul. I like how you choose to be happy for others. I am selfish too, I like the way you can handle my tantrums, take care of me and hold me when I fall. Trust me nobody has ever done that for me, none of my so called girlfriends. I cannot say I love you this immediately but you are really important for me and I am not letting you go. Do.. do you feel the same?", he asked as he went down on one knee. He took out something rather peculiar to ask someone out. He took out a basketball shaped trophy that had letters embossed, "BE MINE?"
Keya had no expressions on the face which was scaring Aarav. "Tom? Answer no!", he asked standing up and holding her hand again. Her immediate reaction was to swank his hand off her. "Aarav, where is all this coming from?", she asked. "Keya? What's wrong with you?", he asked. "I... I don't know what has got into your head. You can't love me. You cannot fall for me Aarav Kohli.", she said as she realised they had reached back to the ground, she opened the latch of the hot air balloon and left. He just stood there, too dazed to say anything about the event that just happened.
Maybe I oversaw facts. She doesn't love me. Going to Shandy's Cocktail Bar. Meet you tomorrow. This was his message to Sam and Zahra.
