PART 6 : THE "UN"FRIENDS
"Arre Geeta, your daughter is the height of sweetness...I envy the lady who will be her mother-in-law yaar... She will be a verrry lucky woman..!" As Samrat's mother laughingly said this to her mother, Gunjan's face flamed..She did not dare to look at Samrat, who was standing next to her, equally embarassed.. "Arre Gunjan, Samrat, comeon guys, its your turn to deal the cards!" Thanking Di for saving the moment, they both silently went to her room, not daring to meet each others' eyes for the first time in their lives..
His family had come over for dinner, and for the first time for them, they were unexplainably shy around each other, something Di noticed, and didnt spare them about... What was she to do? In Di's words, they were behaving like "Lovestruck teenagers", "Which, incidentally we are, Di!" Samrat had burst out..and then realising what he had said, tried to coorect it.."UM..not the love-struck part, just the teenagers part..." But it was too late.. Di had got her scoop of the day, and she tormented them about it teh whole time..
Gunjan was trying to get over him..He was never going to like her in THAT way, ever.. And, like always, when she was JUST there, he HAD to ruin it...By looking irresistibly hot in that black semi formal shirt and dark blue jeans, and then flirting with her.,., If it was only flirting, she would have been fine..After all, she had the reputation of being the only girl in school who could handle Samrat in one of his "flirty moods"..
But this akwardnes..shyness... That she had no idea of how to handle, and it was pretty obvious, that her attempts at trying to handle it were, infact, futile...
And it went on like that..The guy who bared his heart to her, suddenly shut up, never letting her in on any of his feelings.. Mayank and him were becoming better friends everyday, and everyday in the bus was a joint ragging session for them, the common target being- Gunjan.. While she secretly enjoyed the attention she got, it had recently start to hurt her, that Samrat never left a chance to put her down, even in public.
Irrtated and hurt with his behaviour, she had started spending more time with her friends in the neighbourhood.. Funny how she had never noticed that extremely cute guy who lived up on the third floor..He seemed interested in her, apart from IIT and national level football..
It was Thursday after school, and they all were at Benjy's father's club, hanging out.. It was her, Samrat, Diya, Benjy, Sid and Annie - Diya's "newly-founbd" friend, who kept telling Diya "Don't worry babes, I'm sure Samrat still likes you", much to Gunjan's annoyance... "Get over it!" she wanted to scream out.. Samrat had started giving her stares and smiles ever since she had changed out of her school uniform and into the outfit she was wearing now- A light green sort-of see through long spaghetti top, with a thin beige halter inside and a beige trouser, her hair left loose, and green rings in her ears.. Okay, she did admit it was her favourite outfit and she had deliberately worn it,not to mention the kohl in her eyes, but she was totally unprepared for the excess attention she was receiving from Samrat.. Flustured, she had dropped every single catch in the cricket match they were playing, much to the chagrin of sid.."Focus Gunjan! You are the only girl who catches well, and thats why I chose you...What;s wrong?" Poor guy, he was almost about to pull his hair out.. As she looked at Sid, her stomach suddenly did a feeble backflip, shocking her.. "Focus Gunjan,focus...Samrat's behaviour has ruined all your brain circuits...Things are goin haywire..its nothing really.." Guarding herself against Samrat, and Sid, too, after that little rascal of the backflip incident, she focussed on the game, trying hard to keep her sights on the ball..
"So, Gunjan and Samrat, since I am new to the group, I want to know, um..are you guys just friends?" Annie's shrill voice echoed in the jeep, and the top of Gunjan's ears tinged red.. "Ofcourse we are friends..Don't you know?" Samrat answered, a little too quickly.. Leaning her head back, she looked at him, sitting next to her in the middle row of the seats..He did the same, and they shared a small private smile..
Offering her his hand, Samrat firmly shook it, telling Annie, "See? We are friends.." With that, they looked out of their windows, both very aware of the others' hand in his own, but trying to show that they didn't notice.. Tingles were running down her spine as she grasped his hand for the first time ever,,It was warm and big, and her hand fit into it like it was made for that very prupose.. "Umm..guys...."Annie's shrill voiuce made them look at her, and she pointed to their hands, intertwined... Sid, Diya and Benjy looked on, the car suddenly silent.. "FRIENDS!" They both said loudly together, and let go of each other hands as if they were scalding hot... Not meeting each others' eye for a long time...
"Hey, coming down to play?" Oh! It was that cute guy's message...What was his name?Um... Rana..oh yeah... As she smiled involuntarily, and typed in a "yeah" and sent it, Samrat's quzzical look caught her eye...
okay folks! here you go... um... is it becoming a bit boring? tellme... but its just this patch..more SaJan moments coming up! :P
Anupamaa
Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon
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