First Date to Forever...

A Valentine's to remember

    "Shonali where are you ?? Did you find the address ? Should I send Jeet? " Maitri asked as soon as Shonali picked up the phone .

    "No no , we have reached . In fact we are about to enter the elevator. See you there ! " Shonali said still reeling from the shock .

      They were now in the elevator , and were trying to avoid eye contact with each other.

      Shonali was wondering why did she not make any efforts to stop Sujay ,while he on the other hand was feeling guilty that he was not able to control his feelings and landed them in such an awkward situation.

     Soon they were all gathered in the living room of Sneh's apartment having a nice time . Shonali and Sujay were sitting far from each other trying to avoid each other.

  "Where are Jyotika and Arush ? " Ruhi asked suddenly .

"It's Valentines day !! Why would they spend the day with us ?!" Laughed Akshay

"Oh I thought Arush would be spending the day with you !! " Palak said looking at Akshay. Everyone started laughing at her comment.

Sarika took the moment and teased Shonali and Sujay "What are you both doing here with us then ? Haven't you planned something special for Valentine's ? " causing everyone to tease them.
     Sujay chuckled nervously trying not to look at Shonali , while Shonali quickly escaped to the kitchen on the pretext of having water.

    Palak could feel something was wrong but decided to talk to Shonali later.

     They all had a nice time together laughing , eating and singing ! Soon it was time for them to head back to their hostel . To avoid an awkward drive Shonali quickly made way towards Jeet's car making Sarika and Charu leave with Sujay.

   Everyone could feel something was wrong but they knew better than to ask.

As soon as they entered their room Palak , Maitri, Ruhi and Harsha quickly cornered Shonali . They were looking at her with questions , a lot of them . As soon as Shonali realized that they will not let her go without an explanation about trying to avoid Sujay , she started blushing thinking about their moment .

"Why are you blushing ? " asked Palak curiously.

"And why were you avoiding Sujay the entire time ? " Harsha was next with her question.

"OMG !! YOU KISSED !!!! " Ruhi exclaimed making Shonali blush even harder if it was possible !!

"Why are you so obsessed with kis...." Maitri was rolling her eyes at Ruhi when she stopped mid sentence after looking at Shonali's face ! "Oh my God !! That is true ? Is it Shonali ? " She asked , amused by all this .

"No! Yes ! I don't know ?! " Shonali replied in one breath .

Everyone started laughing at her response .

"Okay girls ! Quick get the popcorns , I'll make tea , gather in the living room in 10 minutes we have a story to hear .." Palak quickly announced happily , " And you have 10 mins to freshen up and come back here to tell us the entire story , understood? " she ordered Shonali.

"What great timing you have Maitri !! " Ruhi groaned in frustration after Shonali finished giving the details of the incident .

"What does this mean Shonali ? Are you falling for him ?  " Harsha asked with worry. She knew if this was true , the next few months will be difficult for her friend when Sujay leaves for the states .

"I don't know ... I was very determined to ignore him till yesterday but with all of you teasing me and yesterday's event on my mind maybe I was not thinking clearly..and we landed in such a situation .. " Shonali sighed.

As if sensing her inner turmoil , her phone beeped with an incoming message from Sujay-

'Hey ! I am really really sorry Shonali. Trust me I have no such intentions , neither was I planning on it . I just got caught up in the moment . I am really really embarrassed about whatever happened today. Can we please forget the incident and move ahead ?
Please don't ignore me , it won't happen again I promise ...'

Shonali read the message and sat there in silence trying to comprehend what to reply. 'What does he mean this will not happen again ? Does he not want to kiss me ?Will I stop him if he does try kiss me again ?  Wait what am I thinking ? ' She started overthinking again with a frown on her face when Harsha nugded her bringing her back to reality.

"Don't think too much Shonali. You have only one week left with him before he leaves. You would not want him to leave on such a note right.Talk to him. " Harsha advised knowing that Shonali must be in a dilemma right now.

They all were convinced Shonali was falling in love , except for two people - Shonali & Sujay !

       Sujay was sitting in his balcony with a cup of hot , strongly brewed tea . Just the way Shonali likes it. He now felt comfort whenever he had tea.
       As much as he was scared of ruining everything with her because of the almost kiss, he did not regret it a bit. He wished he could relive that moment again and again...

    It was in that moment he realised , he was in love !! Much more than he thought he was capable of .. he had to mend things with her even if it involved telling her that he never meant for that to happen !

'Its okay Sujay ... No need to be sorry . I guess both of us are at fault and with all our friends filling our minds with crap , maybe both of us got caught in the moment ..' Shonali typed her response and sent it.

Sujay saw her message and let out a sigh of relief..'Phew ! Atleast she is not mad at me ...Wait !! What ??? She also got caught up in the moment?' he thought.
'Oh yes she didn't try to stop me . So if Maitri hadn't called we would have ... ' it dawned on him suddenly ! He saw a ray of hope amidst the clouds of uncertainty.

    He heard some voices coming from the living room , and saw his parents. He sighed sadly looking at the couple and promised himself that he will give his all to have Shonali in his life .. not everyone is lucky to experience the kind of love he is feeling right now and to have that person in their life ....

'Before I forget, Happy Valentines Day Shonali ! :)
I will never forget this day... '  , he quickly sent her a message.

Knowing what he meant, Shonali blushed.

'Good Night Sujay... See you tomorrow:) ' she replied. Even she was sure that will never forget this valentine's day but she is still too stubborn to accept this ...