Desperado

Those rainy days🌧️

The loud sound of thunder awoke Tarsha early in the morning. As she opened her eyes, the room was quite dark as if it was night and it was pouring outside. She was cosily curled up with Ashish, and though she wanted to take a close look at and experience rain, she didn't want to get out of the guard around her which was his strong arms.
She placed her hands upon his and kept staring at the rain. Those Crystal tears reminded her of her college days - a time when rain was a frequent visitor. She further hugged him tight as if she was showing her old friend that now she's with the same guy for whom once she longed for.

Rainy season in Kolkata is a mess, just like any other not-so-well planned urban Indian city. Tarsha missed her regular bus due to rain delay and was waiting for another bus to come. A bike stopped near the bus stop from which a young mother along with her child got down and quickly ran into the sheltered bus stop. The man, who most probably was the child's father parked the bike and ran into the bus stop as well. They seemed to complain about the pouring rain while the mother was simultaneously drying the child's hair with her shawl. Tarsha was delighted by the company of the family in the deserted bus stop. Mere observation of them filled her heart with happiness because a family was one thing she always yearned for. She was raised in an orphanage without ever knowing anything about her parents. The idea of a family was something that always occupied her mind. When someone asks what she wants to become during childhood, she had a tailor-made answer - Engineer but what she really wanted was get married, start a family and have lots of children. The bus arrived while she was lost in her "family" dreams. She got into the bus after taking one last look at that cute, little family.

'Oh God! Will it stop raining already,' cried Anusha, Tarsha's only best friend in college, as Tarsha arrived.
'I know right, the commute is getting really difficult,' said Tarsha, taking a seat beside Anusha.
'Commute? Who cares about that? I was thinking about the football match.'
'What football match?'
'Intercollegiate football match that's gonna happen tomorrow.' Tarsha sighed. But Anusha continued anyway, 'My crush is gonna play after a long time. I'm so excited,' she looked outside as a thunder struck and again continued, ' It should raining at least by today evening.' Another thunder struck as they both looked outside the window.

God answered Anusha's prayer and somehow the match was happening the next day. Anusha grabbed Tarsha, who was least interested in it, and brought her to the stands along with her.
'Just because I'm your friend, you can't torture me like this. I don't even understand football, girl,' said Tarsha looking around the ground like an insanely crowded market.
'look at the players, girl. You know what, boys love football and girls love football players,' said Anusha whose eyes were eagerly looking for her crush.
'Did you come up with that? I'm sorry, it sucks.'
Just as Anusha opened her mouth wide for further argument, players started arriving at the ground. She got excited and started the visual search for her crush.
'He's there,' Tarsha said pointing to their right.
'Oh yeah!' Anusha's pupil dilated as big as it can.
Tarsha couldn't quite comprehend what was going on in the game, so she decided to focus on the players instead. She scanned the players and they were those same old guys, nothing new.
'Oh no!' Anusha jumped in her seat. Tarsha looked at the ground and saw that Anusha's crush got hurt. He was arguing with another guy who was probably the one that hurt him. She couldn't take her eyes off the other guy who was bubbling with anger. The referee pulled up a red card and showed it on the other guy's face. He couldn't say anything after that. He stepped back and game resumed.
'Good for him. How dare he hurt my baby?' said Anusha.
'Who's that guy?' asked Tarsha smoothly.
'I don't know. Must be some mechanical guy. Who cares,' said Anusha who started focussing on the game again as her crush got back to the field.

On her way back home, which is her orphanage, she kept wondering about that guy. She couldn't get over those furious eyes and sweaty, good-looking face. She sat on the seat in bus stop waiting for her bus. Someone cleaned the seat wet seat seat and sat beside her but she didn't mind to turn around and look, which she would always do. But while looking for the bus, she did take a look at him. And you guessed it right - it was that same guy who was all over her mind. For a second, it seemed like a dream or maybe she was hallucinating but no, it was him. Her heart raced even when she wasn't moving a bit, she wanted to talk to him but her bus arrived. She thought - missing this is not gonna change anything in my life but talking to him might. She let that bus go. She gathered courage and said, 'You played well.'
'Huh?' he turned towards her.
'You--you played well today,' she said hesitatingly.
'Thanks but I got a red card. That definitely wasn't good,' he looked down.
She wanted to console him but she knew that would be too much so she just nodded. 'What is..' before she could finish, a bus arrived and he got up and went. She heard a loud thunder, maybe it was gonna rain again she thought. Thankfully, her bus arrived within a few minutes and she got into the bus just as it started drizzling.