My Childhood Crush [AR - Prequel] ✓

1. Birthday Charm

I had no idea what was going on. All I knew was that I was crying because my mother was leaving me in this unknown place. I could not understand why my mother would leave her 4-year daughter by herself in a day-care! Yes, she had explained to me that I would be able to play here with boys and girls my age. I knew she was going to come pick me up in the evening too. I just didn't understand why this was necessary. I didn't want her to leave.

I heard a boy's voice, "Doll, please stop crying..." and I looked up through teary eyes to see what was going on around me.

A boy who looked my height and age was on his knees as a girl sat on the bench next to mine. He was sweetly wiping her tears away. Instantly, I felt jealousy. She already had a friend on the first day! I wish I had one.

When the girl refused to stop crying, he seemed to get irritated. "God, what's with you girls and always crying? Can't you just... I don't know, not cry?"

I felt like snapping back at him when I saw the little girl flinch. She looked so scared! How dare he yell at her? Just when I thought I would, an elderly woman called him. Okay, so she isn't the age of a grandma. But she wasn't that young either. And definitely, much older than us.

"Armaan, don't yell at your sister! You're only scaring her further."

I felt like grinning when his face dropped. One was because it made me slightly feel better. Atleast I knew that they were friends because they were siblings. And secondly, he seemed to have realized he was scaring his sister too.

Without saying anything, he just put his arms around her and gave her a tight hug. That somehow warmed my heart. I couldn't decide if I liked him, or hated him.

"I'm sorry, doll. I just can't see you cry. You know that, right?"

One thing is for sure. This guy loves his sister indefinitely.

The girl nodded, sniffing as she continued to hug him, fisting his shirt in her tiny enclosed palm. "When will Mommy be back?" She asked.

"Sooner than you realize." He answered, pulling back. "Want to go play? We can make friends. It'll be fun."

She shook her head. "No, the kids in the playground were mean. Can't we just stay in here?"

He nodded. "Sure."

I don't know how long I watched them. I just did, and my tears dried. They had been playing blocks for a long time. This scene in front of me made me wish I had a brother of my own too. I blinked when I felt a tap on my shoulder.

It was the girl. I still didn't know her name because he never called her by her name. I had only heard him call her 'doll', and I'm sure that's not her name.

"Would you like to come play with us?" She asked.

Oh, I wanted to! How much I did. But I was scared. I asked back, "Your brother?"

She smiled and leaned in to whisper in my ear, "He asked me to come ask you. But shh, don't tell him I already told you that. He doesn't like people to know he cares. You know boys? Pretending to be tough and all." What she said made me laugh. This did make me want to be friends with them and get to know them. She asked again, "So?"

I nodded and she happily took my hand and pulled me towards where they were playing with blocks.

"And that was the day I fell into a friendship that over a decade later, I am still trying to let go, unsuccessfully. Remind me again, why did I ever want to be friends with him? How was I still his friend growing up? How do I still know everything about him, more than others do? I guess there are only two strong answers to that. I was still best friends with his sister, Khushi, and nothing he did would make me not want to be friends with her. I could never lose her. And secondly, it would be because, since the first time I saw him, I have had a teeny bitsy crush on him, which just refused to go away. It only kept on growing because he could be the biggest jerk, asshole, douchebag, prick, jock, prat and all the words in the dictionary along the lines, but every now and then, he did these tiny, silly but caring things that ended up touching my heart. Things like his never dying love and care for his sister, my best friend. The way he treated her. And the minute seconds when he would be himself around me, show his caring side instead of the other one.