Was that love?

Being there for her

"No, the thing is Adya, you shouldn't have a boyfriend at all" snapped her father.
"Dad, I know that guy, he is a good one," said Sudeep trying to ease his father.
"Does that really matter? The only thing that matters is that she gets distracted by all these and doesn't focus on her studies" said her mother furiously.
"And what do you mean by 'you know that guy?', you knew that Adya is into all these?" clapped their father.
"No dad, I just knew he is a friend of her, but dad is it that big-"
"IT ISN'T THAT BIG? HER STUDIES ISN'T THAT BIG? SHE GETTING A BOYFRIEND AND CHATTING ALL DAY LONG ISN'T THAT BIG?" yelled their mother.
"Enough!" said their dad quietly, "Adya go to your room and study for your midterms"
Adya quietly swept away to her room, threw open her biology notebook, and tried concentrating on it. But her mind was somewhere else. How can I contact him? Should I ask bhai for his phone? No, maybe dad's checking on him. I can't even see him till 5th. Oh God, even Divya and Darsh would have been worried about me. All of this is my fault. I should have been more prudent.
"Ahhh, I can't even focus on this" whimpered Adya, throwing her notebook aside.

Meanwhile, Reyansh was too nervous. Why isn't she replying to me? Did I make her uncomfortable? Oh God, you are a dumbhead Reyansh.
Just then he received a message from an unknown number saying "hey, this is Sudeep, Adya's brother. I am texting you to convey that Adya just got caught chatting with you. Dad's extremely furious about it and he took away her phone. So DON'T TEXT HER. I will try to make her call you sometime, but actually dad's suspicious that I knew about you guys dating so I really need to be careful, thus can't promise anything. Hope you understand. And don't worry you will get to see her today at tuition, I convinced dad for that. Take care and also, don't reply to this text. If anything urgent, call me. "
What the fuck just happened. He immediately forwarded the message to Aarohi and called her.
"Bro, what should I do now?" said a tensed Reyansh
"Nothing. Just wait for today's class. And please talk to her softly, she must be going through a lot." replied Aarohi over the call.
"I always talk to her softly!"
"Uff, what I mean is don't ask her too many questions. It would irritate her. Just try to comfort her and show her that you are there for her, no matter what happens"
"I am. And she knows that" grunted Reyansh, "I am just worried about her. She once told me that her father is really strict. Typical orthodox father."
"Yeah, I too hope she is okay." replied Aarohi.

"Adya?" peeked Sudeep through the half-opened door.
"Yeah?" replied Adya bleakly.
"Oh, you sound miserable" now in the room with his complete body, "common on, get dressed up"
"For?" asked Adya in an astonished tone.
"Oh, so now you don't even remember your English tuition?" replied her brother glaring at her.
"Bhai? Did you seriously talk to dad for me?"
"Yeah," replied Sudeep, falling on to their bed, "for a second I thought I would be dead" grinning at a gaping Adya, "so girl don't spoil my perfect plan, okay?"
"I love you bhai!" whispered Adya while tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Oh please, cut this crap, I hate being emotional, you know" commanded Sudeep, while standing up again.
Adya gave her brother a tight hug from behind.
"Planning on breaking my rib cage?" said a chuckling Sudeep.
Adya grinned for a moment. Sudeep glared at her eyes and said "go wash up your face, he won't feel good to see you like this."
Adya got to the washroom, locked herself in, looked into the mirror, and grunted at the sight. Her eyes were red and puffy because of crying extensively. Her nose was red and swollen. Her hair was all messed up. In short, she was hugely messed up.
She turned on the water tap, splashed some on her face, swept her hands over her face and wiped off.
"Today was probably the worst day of my life," said Adya to her reflection and stood still there as if the reflection would respond. A moment later, she sighed off and came out of the washroom. She got to her closet, put a simple t-shirt and the worst jeans she had on her body. She thought if she would wear good clothes, her mom would get suspicious.

"Let's go bhai." said Adya
"Yes" mumbled Sudeep closing his notebook and capping his pen.
"Mom, we are leaving" informed Sudeep getting hold of the bike keys and wearing his slippers. Adya followed her brother quietly. While she was wearing her shoes, her mom commanded her not to talk to Reyansh. She nodded and closed the door behind her.
On the way to the class, she asked her brother to give his phone so that she would share the matter with her best friends.
She called Divya and asked her to call Darsh and make it a conference call. She then recited the whole occurrence bleakly.
"Oh God. What did uncle say to you?" asked Divyasha softly.
"That he didn't expect these things from me and wanted me to concentrate on my studies and stop doing all these 'shameful' things." replied Adya bluntly without any expression.
Sudeep, who was driving and also listening to all these, told her to talk to them tomorrow in the school and that she really shouldn't rant about all these now.
She nodded, told her friends she would talk to them later and hung up.
They reached the lane, Adya wasn't yet sure what to tell Reyansh. The bike came to a halt, she stepped down and headed upwards immediately.
Reyansh was outraged at this. He followed her upwards, went inside the room and sat beside her. But all his anger washed away when he was her gloomy face.
"Are you okay Adya?" said Reyansh. His voice had concern and affection in it.
Adya couldn't hold it anymore, tears rolled down her face and she burst out. Fortunately, nobody had yet arrived, everybody was downstairs. Reyansh held her hand and tried to calm her down.
"It's gonna be all okay, Adya, please don't cry!" solaced Reyansh.
"Dad said I let him down," sobbed Adya, "is it so wrong just to have a boyfriend and to chat with him?"
"Adya, first of all, you need to calm down. I am here. And I will always be there for you. Okay?"
Adya nodded.
"Now see, this is India, you know Indian parents. It all feels wrong to them at our age. That doesn't mean we are doing wrong. It's just the generation gap. And I am damn sure he will forgive you and will let go of this thing in just a few days." said Reyansh. He then placed both his hands on his girlfriend's cheeks and wiped away the tears.
"And you don't look nice when you are upset, it breaks my heart to see you like this, so don't ever, I repeat EVER cry, okay?"
Just then, the students started rolling in. Adya stopped sobbing and Reyansh glanced at her as she did her hair.
Everyone settled down and the class began. The teacher was lending revision notes on all the chapters.
"Reyansh?" Adya mumbled during the class.
"Yeah?" Reyansh replied while trying to catch up with the teacher's words also.
"I had a guy in my life before you," said Adya. This drew Reyansh's undivided attention.
"I won't say I loved him but yeah, I admired him a lot. Trusted him. But he turned out to be a real jerk. Seems so his friends urged him to be with me" Reyansh expressions changed to shocking ones, "ugh, I proposed him."
"Oh" replied Reyansh.
Adya continued, "and of course forced relationships don't really work out. I tried, my best. But," Adya chuckled sarcastically, "I could only drag it 3 months"
Reyansh stared at her, his eyes told that he can completely understand but those words got lost somewhere between his mind and throat. He just managed to nod.
"And today, when you consoled me, I got reminded of how I used to sob in front of him and he just used to ignore. I guess that's where I understood that you are the perfect guy for me. You gained my respect today." said Adya with a wide grin.
This made Reyansh both glad and sad at the same time. He couldn't just bear the thought of ignoring her while Adya would have been crying in front of him. But he was glad that she respects him.
"I love you Adya."
"I love you too, Reyansh"
"Ah, so you had any girl in your life before me?" asked Adya trying to not to cry anymore.
"No, you are my first" replied Reyansh, Adya peeked at him, "and last" added Reyansh glancing into her eyes.
"Class dismissed. Good luck with your exams. Next class is on the 5th of October" the teacher yelled.
Everyone went down.
Reyansh and Adya peeked at each other.
"Adya!" screeched her father.
Adya hurried off towards her father without looking back. She wanted to hug Reyansh but dreaded that her father would find out if she did.
Midterms started.
21 September 2017, 7:30 am.
"Are you done with the economics yet?" snapped Adya sliding into '9D'.
"Haven't started, still stuck with the French Revolution, please help me out." implored Divyasha.
"Divya!" groaned Adya, "okay, come on here."
Divyasha rushed to Adya. They were discussing the main events and their respective dates when Darshit came to them.
"Eco?" asked Adya.
"No. I guess that I can write with my common sense." replied Darshit.
"I hope I can too." groaned Adya.
The bell rang. They sat on their assigned seats according to roll numbers.
3 hours later, the exam ceased and they came out. Adya was satisfied. While going back home, she thought what must be Reyansh doing right now. Is he missing me as much as I do?

Meanwhile, Reyansh was worried about his Maths exam scheduled for the next day. I wish Adya would have been here to help me. The maths saint herself would definitely have made me top this term. He chuckled. Okay, no Reyansh, no getting distracted by her. Just 15 days. It's okay. I can control myself.

Days passed. They were too busy with the midterms, that they didn't talk for about two weeks.

"Tomorrow I will come back and the first thing I will do is call Sudeep bhai," thought Reyansh.

Tomorrow I will call Reyansh, thought Adya while scanning the "all chemical reactions" list.

The next day, she gave the exam, discussed the paper with her friends and then rushed into the bus. She was excited. Today I will meet him after so many days. But first, I will call him when I get home. She chuckled while thinking about this. Wow. He has really changed me. I smile more often now. Lol, gloomy arrogant bitch beaming because of a guy? Seems interesting. But is it really love or some infatuation. Well, it feels like love, I care for him, I think about him, I think FOR him, I miss him. I feel attached to him like we not only share a bond but also a part of our souls. I feel like he is within me, whenever I have gotta decide something, there's a voice in mind saying, Reyansh would do this. And I feel drawn to do that only. But isn't it too early to love someone so deeply?
Her thoughts were disturbed by the car horns. She realised the next stop is her's. She got down from the bus, walked through the lane and entered the apartment having a banner "Kaushika towers". She got home, went straight into her room, snatched away Sudeep's phone and dialled Reyansh's phone number. Yeah, she memorized it for emergency purposes. Emergency didn't really mean "emergency-emergency", it meant the "missing you- emergency".
"He called a while ago, I said you haven't returned from school yet," said Sudeep.
Reyansh picked up.
"Hello?" said Adya in a trembling voice.
"Missed you, love" replied Reyansh.
Adya sighed, "won't be long now. We would be meeting today. Remember?" with a wide beam.
"Yes, of course, I remember." Replied Reyansh.
"Okay, mom's at home, I will talk to you at evening?" said Adya.
"Yeah" replied Reyansh.
She hung up. Now all she was waiting for was the time to reach 7:30.