Sharon stood outside the door, petrified to say the least. Petrified of her own actions and his possible reaction. It had took her every ounce of courage to drive here from college leaving all the work of the upcoming event, classes and even her dance rehearsal to come here because she knew she would have turned crazy if she had stayed another day without seeing him and moreover having no information about him.
Unlike herself, she had even talked to Neha, a weakling, to get some information about where in hell Swayam was but no luck. No body seemed to know about him and that left her worried and concerned, as she had been telling herself, for no apparent reason.She had been trying to avoid this situation since three days but seeing him absent in class for the seventh day in a row made her restless and so she was finally outside his home standing there since fifteen minutes not able to decide if she should press the doorbell or not.
"Gosh! Why this has to be so hard?" She scoffed and gulped the lump down her throat and reluctantly pressed the button. Just as she did it, all the red flags popped up in her head making her realize that this was her final chance to run away and hide and a part of her wanted to run too but even before she could make her decision the door was opened and he stood there shocked.
"Sharon?" He uttered her name astonished at her presence in his home, while even though her expression was mirroring Swayam's as if she wasn't expecting him to be there at all but her heart fluttered hearing her own name in his soft manly voice.
Damn! She missed this feeling so much in last seven days. She had missed him so much in last seven days. She. . .Wait, WHAT? Before she could jump on to speculate her thought Swayam's voice brought her back on earth.
"Sharon? Are you all alright?" Swayam was asking her. It took her a moment to come back on earth, register his question in his mind, channel it through her brain and then answer.
"Yup." She answered and looked at him for confirmation. Swayam wanted to smile at her weird behaviour but he didn't want to embarrass her.
She was so cute when she wasn't pretending. Swayam thought and then welcomed her inisde.
*************
It was after few moments of silence, when Sharon did nothing except for looking everywhere but at him that Swayam broke the silence.
"So?"
"Ahh. . .Umm . . .So?"
"Something important bring you here?"Swayam asked.
"Important? Ahh. . . Yes! I. . . Actually. . .You werent coming to college since a week. So I ju. . ."
"So you noticed?" Swayam asked looking into her eyes as they surprised, panicked and thenn settled before she gave her answer.
"No! I mean yeah. . . I mean you are my assistant and you are not there so I ofcourse noticed." She said covering up as her heart raced.
Swayam wanted to laugh at her state,because she was just too bad when it came to lying in front of him. This meant something and this meant that she had missed him too much. And now he was enjoying this so he decided to play along.
"ohk! But that doesn't explain you being here!" He said raising his eyebrows at her.
"Well, I. . . I wanted to talk to you about the upcoming event and since you are so royally ignoring college I decided to come over." Sharon said with her pinch of attitude while deciding in her mind if she should ask the real thing or not. Shesettled on asking it anyway.
"So, if I may ask where have you really been all these days because your friends certainly didn't know anything about your well being."
"You asked my friends about me?" Swayam caught on her words, pleasently surprised on knowing that she went out of her way for him.
Good Grief! Hell wouldn't be any different from her situation, she was sure of that!
She racked her brain for an excuse and thanked her stars when it came up with one on time.
"Me and weaklings? You wish! I just heard Neha and Vishakha talking about you in the locker room." She said carelessly.
"Oh! Okay. . . Fine then lets just talk about the event now. I will just bring charts and laptop from my room."
"You are just going to waste time. Cant we just talk in your room?" Sharon asked making Swayam gulp this time.
A girl in his bedroom and that too Sharon? Sure. That is all he has ever wanted. He rolled his eyes at his fate and made way for her.
***************
Sharon scaned his bedroom as he collected charts and papers. It was neat and clean for a bachelor guy. Nothing like she has seen in movies. How does he manage to be so perect in every department is something she would never be able to understand.She noticed his bedside table had everyone's photo even Rey, Simmi and Rinni along with weaklings but there wasn't a single photograph of hers. She didn't like the fact a bit. It was then when her eyes fell on a photo frame. It had a picture of him and Kria. They were standing as her head was on Swayam's shoulders and his on her falling head and they were smiling towards the camera. It made her angry for some reason.
"So you have Kria's photo in your bedroom, huh?" Sharon asked, jealousy dripping from her voice. Her tone caught Swayam by surprise and he turned to see what she was talking about.
"Oh yeah! That's a parting gift from her side. Kria was in the town after a long time, so she asked me if I wanted to come with her for a trip to country side and I said yes. So, yeah there I was since the past week." Swayam said taking the picture from her hand and smiling at it.
Sharon hated the look on his face and his words. All of it just added to her growing jealousy. She moved away from him.
"Looks like she's closer to you than anyone else here.I mean without telling your friends you just went off with her all alone just on a call leaving everything and. . ." Even before she could complete she was dragged back and bumped in Swayam's chest as in pinned her between him and the wall.
"And?" He asked trying to supress a feeling that he had never experienced before. A feeling which only should be there between two people in a relationship. A feeling of accountability and responsibility.
Sharon gulped as she realized the promixity they were sharing.
"You know I would never go with you like this ever!" He said as his eyes bore into hers and his fingers gripped her waist tight and close, so much so that her heart was racing.
"You know why?" He held an authority in his eyes which made her toes curl and she repeated his question in a daze.
"Why?"
"Because I could never trust myself with you. Because it is hard for me to keep control on myself around you."
His words made Sharon's heart pound. Swayam smiled and she dropped her eyes knowing full well he could listen to his erratic loud hertbeats and that there was no escape. And surprisinly enough, she didn't want to escape.
This moment was an escape itself. From her everyday's performance. Only that this escape felt real and beautiful.Somehow she didn't want to ruin this moment. She knew she was letting her guards down but for now she cared less.
"You don't have a sinlgle picture of mine there." She said not meeting his eye leaving him surprised and happy.
"There is a common thing in between them."
"What? Except that they all are your friends and I am not there which only means that. . ." Sharon abruptly stopped as she realized what was his point.
". . .which only means that I don't consider you a friend." Swayam completed her sentence. She bit her lower lip in anxiety of this sudden realization in her head.He had said so many things without saying anything at all. Swayam smiled as he slowly brought his hand to her chin touching it softly as she let herself drown in his warm eyes. His gaze fell to her lips and in a trance he brushed them faintly making it free from her torture. She closed her eyes at his touch and clutuched his shirt tighter. His heart raced seeing the way she surrendersherself in front of him, watching her anticipation in her trembing lips, feeling her grip on him and all this when their relationship had no name. He leaned closer and stopped against her earlobe and said softly.
"You are special, remember?" Swayam stayed there as Sharon opened her eyes smiling as a tear dropped from her eye. She leaned back to face him as the night came back to her.
"Tum bohot special ho Sharon, aur hamara first kiss bhi bohot special hoga."
Swayam smiled as her eyes wet with love for him. She knew she wouldn't confess, she wasn't that brave yet, but if she would ever behave like this in front of anyone. . . It would always be him.
Swayam didn't want to make her uncomfortable, he wanted to give her the moment she needed so he tried to change the topic.
"You wanna talk about event right? So I will just make coffee ya?" He was beginning to move away but Sharon tucked at his wrist.
"You know I never came here for events."
Swayam didn't give her an answer. It wasn't needed. She knew it.
"Would you tell anyone if I stay with y. . . I mean if I stay here for a while?" Sharon said earnestly leaving him speechless for a few moments.
"Some things are too precious to be shared with anyone." He answered with love in his eyes.
"I hadn't danced with you in a long time." She smiled and Swayam watched her with all the content before asking for her hand and as soon as she gave it he pulled her in his arms.
They had no idea what did they share in the moment or what will their equation be after this moment but they knew they wanted to dance with each other all their life.
Everything else was a matter of time now, because they were meant to be.
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