Finding Love

12

Ananya rushed down the steps towards the pool an indulgent smile adorning her face. She caught her hilariously goofy smile on the mirror down the hall and stopped in her tracks. Wait. Why was she glowing like she had just been made the Prime Minister of India? It was a simple text from Avinash asking her if she could come out to talk to him because he was bored AF. What was there to be so excited about it all? Come to think off it, it was she who put in the walk by the pool idea. Sure, Avinash agreed immediately but he didn't suggest it.

Why then was she sprinting across halls like an Ekta Kapoor serial heroine? What's all the excitement for?

Avinash Nanda, came the inevitable thought. Ananya didn't even bother pushing back the thought to the back of her brain, like she always did. She was tired of fighting off the very thought that plagued her mind every single moment these days. She let it hang in there, realising denial will do her no good. And yet.

And yet, this was all in her brain. She didn't even know what Avinash was thinking.

Was she hyper-thinking? Was all this her mom's doing?

Was she diving headlong into what was nothing but a dead-end a broken heart?

She slid onto the floor unable to take the pressure of all her neurons firing away, a million thoughts crossing her mind.

Breathe. She sat there for she knew not how long trying to separate and rationalise her million thoughts one after the other.

All she did, however, was smile. Smile like she had never in her life. Smile like her heart would burst just from the elation of it all. Smile like she had just realised the best thing in life.

She was in love.

There it was. One thing she knew for sure. The longer she sat there thinking, all her thoughts, all her inhibitions receding into the recess of her brain, she realised she was in love.

With Avinash Nanda.

The realisation and the admission made her reach a level of euphoria she didn't know she was capable of feeling. It also made her insanely scared. The many what-ifs threatening to squeeze all the excitement out of her She push the harried thought aside hurriedly lest it take hold of her.

Sure, there was the possibility that Avinash wouldn't, you know, love her back. The 'L' word sending a shiver down her spine. But did it matter to her? No, at least not this very moment.

Ananya was glad she took the bold step to admit this to herself. She would probably rate this feeling equal to the way she felt when she topped her school in Grade 12. No. To the way she felt when she saw the proud smiles on her parents' face when she bought them a car. Screw it. This was better. Better than anything she had ever felt.

A ping to her phone pulled her out of her reverie. It was then Ananya realised the position she as in. Slumped in the middle of nowhere, smiling like a psychopath. She looked at her phone to see a random telecom operator message. She looked at the time and gave a small yelp. She had been sitting there for a whole fifteen minutes. She got up, checked herself in the mirror, the stupid smile never leaving her face and rushed to the poolside.

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Was it just her or did it sound like Avinash was arguing with someone over the phone? She spotted him across the pool, his face writ with distraught, his hands running incessantly through his hair. He was speaking very angrily, albeit quietly, probably not to wake everybody up.

Ananya shifted from one foot to another. Something told her it wasn't something he'd like for anybody to come across.

Avinash, however, spotted her and threw her a courtesy smile. He spoke a few more words into the phone sombrely and cut the line. He made his way to her smiling at her warmly.