Forgiveness

(Fiction Story-IV)

Kabir couldn’t get Naina out of her mind. He was glad that finally the school day had come to an end. Once he was out of this place, once he doesn’t see her face, he hoped he would be able to think clearly. As he reached home and went towards the lift, someone new, whom he hadn’t seen before stood there. Maybe it was someone’s guest. She looked good from behind. He quickly reached to grab the water bottle that she just seemed to have dropped. She turned and he couldn’t believe his eyes. For a second happiness flooded his mind.

What was Naina doing here? Did she want to talk to him? Just then realization hit him that he was attracted to her, he liked her. This was not a part of his plan. What the hell was happening to him!

He was beginning to hate his loss of control over his mind. He was so angry with himself. Before he could filter his words, they spit out from his mouth asking her what was she doing there and if she was following him.

As the words got out of his mouth he knew that he had directed his hate for himself towards her and the words sounded extremely hateful. He was not this person. What was her presence doing to him?

He felt guilty, especially after seeing the hurt in her eyes as she told him she had moved to live in his building.

Was she going to cry? Oh god! What had he done! He had hurt a girl without meaning to do so for no fault of hers. The feeling of guilt was so much, he didn’t want to see her cry.

He quickly moved from there and took the stairs. He lived on the 10th floor. On his way, with each climbing step he realized how rude he had been to her. He was thinking of apologizing to her. He didn’t want her to think bad of him.

Somewhere inside his heart was doing a victory dance on hearing the news that Naina had come to live in his building. But his mind warned him that he better stay away from her. He couldn’t let his life-long dream be ruined. Maybe whatever happened, happened for good. His rudeness will not want her to talk to him, not that she showed interest in talking to him, but yet, it will help him keep his distance from her. Maybe he shouldn’t apologize after all as it might start a dialogue with her, which was the last thing he wanted right now or maybe the first. He didn’t know! He was so confused. He decided to shut his heart and mind and to distract himself. He didn’t want to think or feel a thing. He went home, changed and left for a game of tennis, hoping to not run into Naina again.

A month had passed since she first entered this school. She had settled in well. She had made new friends. She was scoring the highest marks in her class tests. She was in the teachers’ pet list. Everything was turning out to be much better than she had imagined it to be on her first day. The fit of anger she had thrown on the first day had not been repeated. Seeing her settling well, her mom seemed happy as well. Prachi had become a very close friend. Prachi, Rhea and Naina did homework together almost every other evening. It turned out Shaurya had liked Prachi and asked her out last week. Prachi liked him too and after encouragement from my end had decided to be his girlfriend. Prachi’s presence in the home- work sessions had reduced since she accepted Shaurya’s proposal last week. Rhea and Naina had grown close as well. Not being much of a talker, Rhea loved listening and that made her and Rhea a perfect duo. Some sort of chemistry had developed between Aanya and Aditya and with Aanya’s inquisitive and talkative nature and Aditya’s shy silence, it seemed like they would be becoming a couple soon. The only question that remained was when would Aanya ask him out, because Aditya surely wasn’t going to be the one proposing there. She enjoyed Veer’s happy and cheerful company. They often talked for hours in the school parking. She had become her old, talkative, extrovert self here as well. She was happy. Myra had softened upto her. She was vain but it was fine by her so far as she didn’t give her the stares. It seemed she liked that rude Kabir but he didn’t seem interested in her. She had went on ignoring that Kabir. Sometimes, she would feel his eyes were on her, but she never looked his way to confirm it. They often crossed each other at the building lift. But each time he would see her standing there he would simply take the stairs, which worked best for her. She didn’t want to ruin her day like the first one by getting into a spat with him. During one of her homework sessions she found that Kabir had been the undisputed topper of the class for 9 years before she arrived. Now, he had dropped down to Rank 4 in the class-tests. Maybe that was the reason he was upset with her entry to the school, maybe because he must have known her marks somehow and would have seen his fall. Well, he deserved it! So much for being rude for marks!

Today, Veer had asked her out on a date. She was a little shocked. She told him she would think about it and get back to him. Veer was only a friend to her whose company she really enjoyed. But clearly he had taken this as something more than friendship. She enjoyed talking to him, she enjoyed his infectious laughter, she enjoyed laughing with him. She had even become close enough to share some of her secrets with him. But she had not thought about him as a boyfriend. In her hometown, she hadn’t gone on a date with anyone with the fear of being spotted by a relative. But here no one knew her, so maybe she could go on a date with him. She did enjoy his company so she knew it was going to be fun. But the only thing tugging her mind was that did she want to give him a wrong idea? Well, she definitely didn’t want to lose her friend by rejecting his date idea. After all what bad could happen on a date with a friend and maybe if she did try to see him in a different light, she might feel attracted to him. He did have a good body and she definitely loved being around him. While in her thoughts, she suddenly realized why was she making a big deal out of this. Veer had just asked her out on a coffee date and hadn’t proposed to be her boyfriend. She was over thinking it. She made up her mind and called Veer to tell him that the coffee date was on. The glee in his voice was not lost on her. She was happy to have made him happy. Her mind immediately compared Veer to Kabir and scoffed at her initial attraction to rude Kabir on the first day. How stupid was she!

From the first time since Veer laid eyes on Naina he had fallen for her. She was so pretty, her big black eyes were so expressive and to top it all she hadn’t got an attitude at all. She was one of the friendliest girls he had met. It was as if she were unaware of how pretty and attractive she was. He was lucky that she made friends with Prachi on her first day. Veer and Prachi had been close friends. He had told her how he was starting to like her. Prachi approved of his choice and confirmed what he had felt, that she was indeed a gem of a person. They hung out everyday in the recess, after school in the parking and in the evenings with their friends at their regular café. Each passing day made him like her even more. They both talked for hours and he always enjoyed it. She laughed at all his jokes, she made him laugh and her laugh had been infectious. He always felt the happiest when around her. During one of their after school parking talks, he had casually asked her if she had a boyfriend and she said she had never had one, though she did have a few crushes. He was so happy to know her single status. From their many conversations, he also figured out that she was afraid of going out on a date with any of the guys from her home town out of the fear of being spotted by relatives. He had inquired and as far as he knew she had no relatives in this town. He had been thinking about asking her on a date for almost a week. The way they talked she definitely enjoyed being with him. At first he was afraid that like all the other girls in the school, she might too develop attraction towards the “Class-stud” Kabir and being as pretty and nice as she was, Kabir might end up breaking his “no-dating” rule. But both of them completely ignored each other. Naina and Kabir were not interested in each other and infact any mention of Kabir to Naina made her eyes glint with anger. He often wondered what would he have done to earn her anger. He hadn’t noticed them exchanging so much as a word in school. He figured that since they lived in the same building, something must have happened there. He tried to inquire about it a couple of times but Naina’s angry eyes stopped him from probing further. He now got himself thinking about Naina’s beautiful expressive eyes. When he had gathered the courage and asked her out on a coffee date, she seemed taken aback and had told him she would think about it. He had been anxious. He didn’t want her to turn him down on his offer. He would have tried again after sometime if she did, but he really wanted to take their friendship forward from there. But when she called and told him with her bubbly voice that she was up for the date, he was the happiest person. Maybe she did like him after all. He started getting ready with happy thoughts for his first date with the school’s prettiest girl.

A month had passed since she first entered this school. She had disrupted his life. No matter how hard he tried to ignore her, he couldn’t help himself. She seemed like such a lively person. He loved watching her laugh. It made him happy. The way she talked with everyone in the school it seemed like she didn’t even have a bad attitude and she was far from dumb. She was the most intelligent girl he had met in his life. Not just had she beaten him in grades, but her answers were so logical. Her fluency in written and spoken English had literally floored him. He had come across her paper of English class test and her essay told him that she read literature. She was a beauty with brains. She was all he could think about. Each time he opened his books to study, invariably his thoughts got diverted to her. He would wonder what would her life have been like in her hometown. Did she have a boyfriend there? Did she have a long distance relationship? Did she believe in a long distance relationship? Would she ever be attracted to him? He would imagine himself touching her soft supple skin holding her in his arms, showering kisses on her and finally kissing her lips and turning it into a heated moment. No matter how hard he tried to not think about her, she would be there in his thoughts. He ignored her at school, he ignored her in the building. He always took stairs each time they would be waiting together for a lift. He didn’t want her to read his feelings. His grades were dropping. He was moving away from his game plan, because he couldn’t control his mind around this beautiful girl. Whenever he would see her standing with Veer or Aryan alone and talking to them, he would feel jealous. He was never best friends with Veer but they had always been good friends, having spent 9 years together in school. But ever since she came, he had hardly seen Veer. Whenever he saw her laughing at Veer’s jokes, he would want to hit Veer. Was he upset about Naina stealing Veer as his friend or was he jealous about Naina being so friendly with him? He had never been violent in his life and yet blood rushed in his fists when he saw them together. What was happening to him? He was falling for this girl. He couldn’t agree more when his friends talked about how beautiful Naina was. After a month of ignoring Naina, unsuccessfully, trying not to think about her and his rapidly deteriorating grades, he decided that if his game plan was changing despite his umpteen efforts, he might as well follow his heart. Atleast he will not regret not acting on his feelings. He was going to open his heart to Naina, if she was going to accept it. He was going to give Veer some serious competition. He knew he didn’t deserve this beautiful girl, especially after how he had behaved with her, but that wasn’t going to stop him from trying. He was going to bump into her in the lift at 6pm when she goes out for coffee with her friends.

Naina waited for the lift as she got ready to go on a coffee date with Veer. She had told her friends that she wouldn’t be joining them for the coffee as she wasn’t feeling well and hence wouldn’t be able to make it. Veer was going to tell them that he has some relatives over and hence won’t be able to make it. Veer had wanted to tell their friends the truth but Naina didn’t want to set everyone’s tongues rolling. Veer understood her point and agreed. It was her first date ever and yet she was not a tad bit nervous as it was Veer she was going out with. She wondered whether a coffee with a platonic friend did actually qualify as a date. As the lift came, she saw Kabir was there. Though living in the same building she was surprised to have run into him as she had never, in the past one month run into him in the lift at this time of the day. She ignored him as usual and got into the lift. He smiled at her and greeted her hi! She was surprised again. So now he had decided to stop being rude? She gave a small courtesy smile and just nodded her head. He then looked deep into her eyes and apologized for his behavior. He said, “Sorry I have been rude. But I was not myself. I hope you forgive me. Do you forgive me?”. She had thought about this moment thousands of time since coming here. But the whole scene played out very differently than what she had imagined. She had hundreds of replies ready in her mind. It went from “Ohh so now you are apologizing?!” to “I want to know the reason why you behaved this rudely with me? What had I done to offend you?” to “You want me to forgive you after you made me feel so unwelcome on my first day of my school” to “I upset my mom because of you, how can I forgive you?”. But instead all she could mumble was “Its ok”. She saw the genuineness of his apology. His eyes reflected regret. His small smile showed he was nervous, as if her forgiveness really mattered to him. She washed away all thoughts from her mind and stood facing at the elevator buttons, hoping for the lift to reach the ground floor soon. He then asked her, “Going to the Coffee House?” Why was he suddenly interested in where she was going? She had to lie. Since Kabir’s mom and her mom were friends, if she told him the truth of the date, it might eventually reach her mom. She had not told her friends about this date and no way was she going trust Kabir with her secret. She definitely wouldn’t want her mom, out of all people, to find out about her date with Veer. She had told her mom she was going to the Coffee House with friends so she decided to keep that cover and answered in affirmative. Kabir seemed pleased by her answer and gave her his electrifying smile and her heart started beating fast again. She felt electricity passing between her and Kabir. What was happening to her? How could one apology from Kabir make her go from hate to her heart throbbing so shamelessly? He told her, “Me too. Can I give you a lift?” She stared at him and he backed it up saying, “Ohh you know it’s ok if you don’t want the lift. I just thought we can save some petrol to put in whatever little contribution we can to saving mother earth’s resources.” What was she to say? She was going on a date with Veer to Mocha and not to the Coffee House! How can she allow him to give her a lift? He would know her secret. He was anyway going to find out she was lying when she wouldn’t turn up at the Coffee House. She had to think of something soon. She couldn’t risk her mom knowing about the date. Why was Kabir always creating problems for her? Making her nervous? Catching her lies? Making her heart beat so loudly? Why did she feel the urge to touch his face? She decided to change the subject to avoid going with Kabir and distracting herself. She asked him, “Going to meet friends there?” He said, “Yup, Prachi, Myra, Aanya and your entire group.” She asked puzzled, “Since when do you hang out with them?” He said, “Since always, though not as religiously as you guys meet. I was just speaking to Prachi about needing a break from the studies and she asked me to join you all at the Coffee House. By the way how are you feeling? I heard you weren’t going.” She said, “Na, I am feeling better and hence decided to go after all.” He said, “So you didn’t answer my question, can I give you a lift?” She said, “Nope, thanks, I’d rather go on my scooty. I don’t sit on stranger’s two wheelers.” He said with a smirk in his eyes and humour in his tone, “Well, then you can definitely come with me. I might seem like a stranger to you but it’s a four wheeler.” She couldn’t help but smile. How could someone look so good?! And what was with Kabir? First he was rude to her, then ignored her for a month and now he was almost forcing her to go to the Coffee House with her? He said, “By the way its 6pm already. We have been standing near this lift and talking for almost 5 minutes. How about if you come with me? We can carry on this conversation and not even be too late. It’s going to take another 15 minutes before we reach the Coffee House.” She thought she couldn’t continue with the date, with Kabir coming to the Coffee House, especially now that she had told him she was going there. She didn’t want to raise questions. And anyway he wasn’t going to take no as an answer so she better go. She agreed to go with him in his car. He asked her to wait, while he got the car from the parking. She thought about leaving on her scooty without telling him, to teach him a lesson on how much rudeness can hurt, but decided against it. He had genuinely seemed sorry and she had forgiven him and hence there was no point in taking revenge. She strongly believed in the saying ‘An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.’ She quickly texted Veer telling him the date has been cancelled due to a problem where her mother would find out about it. She told him she would explain in detail the next day in and that she was going to the Coffee House and hoped to see him there. She added a “Sorry” with a smiley in the end. She didn’t really mean the sorry. In a way, she thought, whatever happens, happens for the best. She cancelled the date, which she was unsure about and that too for a perfectly good reason. Hence the date was avoided and friendship stayed intact. She got a quick reply from Veer saying it was fine and he’ll catch up with her at the Coffee House. He had responded to the smiley with another smiley. Veer was such an understanding and sweet guy. She did feel a tiny bit of guilt for cancelling the date and she was genuinely starting to get a good feeling about Veer. Just then, Kabir’s car arrived and they sped off towards the Coffee House.