Manjha A String of Complicated Relations

Can You Outrun Love?

The dinner was over, and it was time for the girls to return. If it were up to Sanyukta, Shambhavi and Anisha would not have left ever. She was taken with the girls so much in their first meeting itself that she had started to consider them as her own daughters.

"You two will have to come back on the weekend," Mrs.Rathore insisted, not wanting to let the girls go.

"They are not allowed Sanyukta," MG Rathore reminded his wife, who shot him a look and Major General continued instantly changing the track of what he was saying, "But I will get them the permission granted."

The boys snickered at Major General and he looked at them and said, "Laugh all you want gentlemen. I will see what you do when you get married, and then I'll be the one laughing," Major General said smugly.

They finally bid goodnight to Sanyukta and MG Rathore and left in the car. Aniket was driving one car with Shambhavi and Advith took the other car with Anisha, Anant was going to sit in Aniket's car when Anisha dragged him with her in Advith's car and Advith laughed at them.

Aniket and Shambhavi were mostly silent, both taking peeks at one another.

"You never told me you were a King, Sir," Shambhavi broke the silence when it got too much to handle.

"You never told me you belong to Kumbhalgarh either," said Aniket.

"Fair enough, but don't expect me to bow down every time I pass by you in the corridors," teased Shambhavi biting her lips.

"Oh, no, Miss Vyas, it would not be honorable of me to ask you to bow. The Vyas family has taught my family music for generations. In fact, my mother had been a student of your grandfather's," Aniket said honestly.

"Really Sir? Your mother sang?" she asked genuinely, wanting to know more about him.

"Oh, yes. She loved singing and used to wake up everyone in the house with her riyaaz every morning. She wanted me to get formally trained by your grandfather as well but by then he had stopped teaching, so she said if Vyas Sahab won't teach me, no one else will," Aniket said.

"Nanu doesn't even sing anymore. I think your mother would have been his last student. After that he only taught me and that too because I remind him of my mother," Shambhavi told him.

"Really? Well, you have to sing for me once then," Aniket requested Shambhavi and she shook her head at him. They had been so busy that they did not even notice when they reached back at the academy.

Shambhavi looked at the academy gate being opened and said, "Umm, we reached our destination."

"It's strange how sometimes your heart doesn't want the journey to end," said Aniket looking over at Shambhavi, who also looked back at him, his brown eyes locked on to her hazel ones.

The academy gate was opened and Aniket broke the contact. He parked the car and got out to open the door for Shambhavi. "I'll walk you to the dormitories," he said.

So, they walked, barely inches apart, thinking about what Aniket had said. Shambhavi could not make out if he meant what he had said or was he just joking. His eyes had told her that he was serious, though.

Aniket was thinking why he had said it out loud without meaning to. Although he had meant what he said, he did not want to scare Shambhavi off.

They reached the dormitories and they both said good night and see you tomorrow together. They looked at each other and laughed.

"Good night, Sir," Shambhavi said with a smile that Aniket loved to see on her face.

"Good night, Shambhavi," Aniket replied.

Shambhavi loved how her name sounded when he said it. She was going in when she heard him call her name, so she turned back a little to look at him, "If the company is good, then no matter how long the journey, you will always want it to be longer than it was." Aniket said in a soft tone that did something to Shambhavi.

She turned back to hide the blood rushing to her cheeks and said a meek good night once again and rushed inside.

Aniket bit his lips as a wide smile threatened to appear on them. He left to go to his room too. He had no idea why he had said that to her. He just did not want to let her leave without seeing that natural blush on her face that he had seen so many times tonight. It felt as if he could not get his fill of the blush on her face, neither could he get a fill of her.

He had seen her laugh genuinely and smile widely tonight and he wished he could see her that way always, the girl he saw at the Academy kept quiet and smiled occasionally, but the girl he saw tonight was a bit more carefree, and a bit more herself.

He wondered what she would be like if she was not always on her guard and just herself. He wanted her to be that girl and he wanted to be the reason that Shambhavi became that carefree girl that she always tried to hide behind her quiet exterior.

Shambhavi, on the other hand, was smiling while getting into her pj's and smiling when she brushed her teeth and combed her hair, she was smiling when Anisha come into the room a while little later and asked her if she was alright and she was smiling when they turned off the lights.

She wanted to stop smiling. She would herself to go back to her normal resting face, but after a few minutes she would remember what he had said at the dormitory gate and the stupid smile would return to her face.

She was against love and men in general, but Captain Aniket Rai Chauhan was making it so difficult for her to keep this grudge up against him as well. He was slowly thawing the ice walls around her heart, and she was letting him do it.

This new feeling was scaring Shambhavi to no ends because she had seen what happened to women in love. She knew what was happening, but she did not want to stop it and that was what scared her the most.

Shambhavi remembered reading a quote once 'What made you think you could outrun love'? and she had laughed at it saying it was her heart and she could choose not to fall in love, but it seemed that fate was hell-bent on proving her wrong.

With this quote in her mind, she fell asleep asking herself over and over again, 'What made her think that she could outrun love?'