Maddy’s POV
“Woah!” Manik exclaimed, dashing with Nandini and finally landed on the sofa—nowhere but right on top of Nandini. For the next few moments, they stayed right there, frozen, unmoved. They were so close to each other—Manik’s face was inches away from Nandini’s, and they looked like they were about to kiss. Perfect moment to capture, I thought, and without wasting any time, quietly took out my phone and captured them.
Cool! It looked like a scene right out of a Bollywood movie. These guys were totally made for each other.
Just to ruin their perfect moment, Abhi interrupted by saying, “Ahem ahem.” I at once shot Abhi a furious look and looked back at Manan, only to find that they hadn’t noticed it. They totally seemed to be lost in each others’ eyes, with not a care for the world. Manik was in love, I could bet on that. Finally, he found the ‘right’ girl for him. I was so happy for him. In a few seconds, Manik’s expression changed and he had a sly look on his face. Within moments, every inch of Nandini’s face was covered up with the chocolate icing of the cake.
“Aaaaah!” Nandini screamed, clearly annoyed. Manik rolled over and sat down beside her on the sofa, laughing his head off.
“I hate you Monsterrrrr!” Nandini shouted, showering blows at him.
“I love you too!” Manik said, chuckling, while I just looked at him. How did he say such a thing in such a casual way? Of course he hadn’t meant it in that way and I could see Nandini didn’t take it in a serious manner too, but the rest of us… We were all amazed at how casually he had just said the big word.
“Oooh!” all of us exclaimed almost at the same time, who had been watching the show with undivided attention.
“Congrats Manik! You finally said it!” Ayesha di said.
Nandini gave her a puzzled look, shrugged, and said, “Whatever, I’m gonna go clear this mess from my face,” moving towards the washroom.
I looked at Manik, who was yet to understand what di had said moments ago. Once Nandini was out of sight, all of us boys pounced on Virat at once.
“So you two an item now?”
“When did it happen?”
“You said it dude!”
“Double celebration today!”
“You never told me about it!”
“Enjoyed on the sofa?”
“GUYSSSSS!” Manik shouted, and all of us became quiet at once. He was clearly enraged, I could see that. And when he’s angry, we all know the best thing is not to say anything.
“Will you stop it, please? I’m sick of telling you all there’s nothing in between me and her,” He went on to say the same old thing. Did he sound serious? Definitely. Are we gonna believe him? NOPE! That’s what all couples say in the beginning, right? ‘There’s nothing like that’, ‘We’re just friends’ and all that shit. Plus, we all enjoyed pulling his leg. I quickly took out my phone and opened up the pic I’d clicked minutes ago.
“You call this nothing?” I said, holding out the phone for him to see.
“What! Not again!” He exclaimed, exasperated.
“Wow, good job dude!” Cabir said, and gave me a thumbs up. I beamed at once and we all went on with the teasing.
In the middle of it, Dhruv said,
“Umm, excuse me for a moment, guys. I’ve gotta make an important call” and awkwardly started towards the door. By a look at him I could tell that something was not… right. His eyes had a distant look in them, with a mixture of sorrow, anger and anxiety in them. What was wrong? He seemed to be too eager not to tease Manik, I’ve noticed. Or did he really have to make an important call? I could see that Manik was giving him a pleading look, as if telling ‘Save me’, but Dhruv seemed not to notice and moved out without another word.
After some time, Nandini was back with a clear face and everyone immediately shushed up. Nandini got worked up when we tease her and Manik; we’d already experienced her rage earlier that day.
“Vas happenin’ guys?” She asked.
“Oh, nothing… We were just, uh, talking…” I managed to say.
“Hey, let’s hit the dance floor guys!” Aliya said, and we all agreed at once, glad to change the topic. Soon, we were all dancing to the tunes of some loud music blasting through our ears.
*After dancing*
Manik’s POV
After dancing for like two hours, we were damn exhausted and finally sat down to save our poor legs from breaking. I’d had an awesome time with all of my friends. I felt so fortunate to have them in my life.
“That was some crazy FUN!” Sid said.
“Yep!” Aliya said.
“Hey, open your gifts na,” Cabir suggested. Good idea, I wonder what all must have gotten for me…
“Yeah yeah open them!” Cabir exclaimed, giving a wicked smile to Mukti, who winked at him. Something was surely up with these guys for sure. But the question is, what?
Abhi, Sid and Mukti brought the gifts and placed them on the table in front of me. It was such a huge pile!
I picked up a gift which was wrapped in a pink coloured paper, with dark pink hearts on it, and read the label—
Happy B’day, Monster!!
Have a blast on ur b’day! 😉
Lots of love,
Nandini xx
I eagerly opened the wrapping to see what she’s given me. On opening the wrapper, it revealed a thin medium sized box. I opened the box and peeped into it through its narrow mouth. Oh. So it’s a photo frame, I realized and pulled it out to see it clearly. It had all stars drawn over it. I loved stars a lot. Seeing them made me so happy. Stars could possibly spread light in the darkest phase. . .and give you hope that your tomorrow will be good.
Back to the gift. . . !
The front side of the frame was towards AND when I had a look at the photo, my eyes grew as big as a cricket ball. The photo in it was of me and Nandini which Maddy had clicked on Mukti’s engagement.
I.Was.So.Shocked! I looked at Nandini who flashed back a smile, and asked, “How’s it?” Huh?
Ayesha di interrupted my thoughts and said,
“Manik, show us also na, or you don’t even want us to see it?” Just then, Maddy snatched the frame out of my hands.
“Woah, that’s why you were hiding it. See guys it’s Manan,” He said, and turned the frame towards the others.
“No, Maddy, wait,” I tried to stop him but I was too late. No, I can’t bear anymore teasing now.
“Wow, Manan…Nice ship name huh!” Ayesha di said and winked at Nandini.
“Oooh…” Aliya and Sid exclaimed at the same time.
“Who is Manan?” Nandini asked with a puzzled look, who had not yet had a look at the photo.
“The one whose photo you have put in there,” Sid said and pointed towards the photo.
“What, show me,” Nandini’s voice seemed to be really confused. She took the photo from Sid and exclaimed,
“What is this? Where did this come from? This is not the photo I’d put in there!”
What? She had not put the photo? Then who had… Of course! Now I get it. Nandini stole my thoughts and said—
“CABIR….”
“MUKTI!” I called out to Cabir., who was innocently looking at his phone. She looked up and shifted his gaze from me to Nandini and finally said,
“What?”
“What is this?” I showed the photo to both Mukti and Cabir.
“You don’t knowwww? It’s a pic of Manan. Simple as that,” Cabir replied, suppressing a laugh. Nandini gave him an angry look and said—
“Where is the other pic?”
“Arre, what pic are you talking about?”
“Don’t pretend like you don’t know, Cabir…”
“Oh, let it be like that na, it’s a nice pic!”
“No. I want the real photo in the frame. And I want it now.”
“Chill dear. Your photo is behind that photo in the frame only,” Mukti gave in finally, “But you’ll change it later na, now let Manik open the rest of the gifts…”
“No. I will—“ Nandini was interrupted by the doorbell.
“It must be her. I was beginning to think she won’t show up after all!” Cabir exclaimed. I at once guessed who ‘her’ referred to.
“Are you serious? It can’t be HER!” I said and ran to open the door and confirm that it wasn’t her. But… To my utter surprise, IT WAS HER…
“What! Tu yahan bhi tapak padi?” (Translation-You landed up here also?)
“Fine, I’m leaving…” She said and turned to leave.
“NO! I didn’t mean that. Come on in!” I said, pulling her by her hand. She came in and said—
“I know you didn’t mean it… And of course I had to be here. It’s your birthday after all! Come ‘ere, give me a hug!”
“How do you manage to show up every year on my birthday?” I said, giving her a tight hug.
“Because I love you!” She replied, pulling back from the hug.
Nandini’s POV
What! Did she just say she loves Manik? Who is this girl? Never seen her before around Manik.
“Hello everyone,” the girl said, finally caring to turn towards us.
“Hi Soha! How are you?” Mukti said. Oh so her name is Soha, huh?
“I’m perfectly fine. How are you all? Seeing you all after a long—“ She looked at me and asked Cabir, “Who’s she?” Hello! I’m also here, you know. You could’ve asked me also, I thought. I don’t like this girl already.
“She is Manik’s girlfriend. You don’t know?” Cabir jumped to introduce. Wow! What an intro.
“Manikkkk, you found a new girlfriend for yourself? Ab mera kya hoga? (Now what will happen to me?)” Soha dramatically said, shaking Manik like a ditched girlfriend.
Oh God this is so ridiculous! First of all, I am not Manik’s girlfriend, and even if I am, what is it to her? I mean who is she?
“It’s nothing like that Soha; she is Nandini, my new best friend, not my girlfriend. And Nandini, meet Soha—my childhood buddy,” Manik introduced me, now correctly. I shook hands with her and then she went over to talk with the others, leaving me lost in my own thoughts. So, she is Manik’s childhood friend. But she is talking as if she is his girlfriend.
Is she Manik’s girlfriend?
Maddy was sitting beside me and to clear my thoughts I asked him—
“Hey! Are Soha and Manik together?” I saw a smile cross Maddy’s face and he replied,
“Chill, they aren’t together. But they are close friends and behave as if they are a couple. This was once made an issue by the press also. Well! Why are you asking this? I mean it hardly matters to you right?” What? Of course it matters to me but I anyways replied—
“No, of course not! I just wanted to know…”
“Soha, don’t tell me this time also you would be going in a few days. Last time you did this and this time I’m not letting you do it again.” I heard Manik say.
“ Chillax Manik. I’m here for a month or two. I have some project work here and my aunt who lives here was also inviting me so I came over,” Soha explained.
“Wow. That’s great. Kuch toh akalmandi ka kam kiya tune,” Manik exclaimed.
“You,” she said and punched Manik.
*After one and half hours*
I was back in my room, tired, and my head full with the day’s events. The tiring decoration and preparations; the priceless expression of Manik on seeing the surprise party; falling on the sofa and that damn cake on my face; dancing and at last ‘Soha’. I did not expect such a nice day to end with Soha. I don’t have any problem with her but she is too close to Manik. I know that it should hardly matter. I don’t know why but this thing is driving me crazy. So to shut my stupid mind, I tried sleeping and ended up having a dream of ‘Manik and Soha’…
***
Please don’t be mad at me for introducing Soha here!
Anyway, our Nandu is jealous. Will it help in realisation of love. . . ?
Keep reading and commenting to know more ♥?