(10) Bubbles of Joy
Minutes passed, or mere seconds I can't say. The silence around us extended, the strange fear that gripped my heart dissolved, the heartbeat of his echoed under my ear suddenly seemed more obvious, my hands that crumbled the collar of his white shirt loosened. The wet patch on his chest, which was the making of my tears stuck against my cheek as I slowly withdrew from his arms.
As the initial impulse dissolved, giving way to realism, I couldn't get myself to raise my eyes and meet his.
Pretend it never happened.
Of course, that's the sanest thing to do. And hence I tried to get up from his lap as normally as possible, only to have slip and fall over him, again.
Talk about being subtle.
Can earth just part and swallow me on whole, I thought for the millionth time in my life.
My fingers curled and uncurled as I thought about the easiest way to get up, without again falling in his lap ungracefully. All I need to do is take his support by placing an arm on his shoulder, and get up, and jump to maintain a five feet distance. Simple.
Only that I couldn't get my hand to extend and land on his shoulder. Touching him voluntarily seemed so odd, so intimate.
Hah, the snide side of my conscience mocked me says who is in the lap of the said person.
"Aargh" I groan covering my face with my palms, clawing out my skin by pressing my fingers tightly against my face, as if that would solve everything.
Something touched my closed palm, a delicate touch, and I heard a slow Pop, and felt moisture the next minute. I lower my palms from my face only to find the most amazing thing that I have ever seen.
Bubbles. Many of them surrounded me, drifting in the wind, twinkling in the moonlit night. My eyes fled towards him involuntarily and saw him blowing the bubbles from the pipe I had discarded it on the parapet wall earlier.
A large bubble touch my nose and explode, making me chuckle involuntarily.
I felt him blowing a series of bubbles with expert ease, all of them joined to each other, forming a foam. My eyes follow the path of the train of bubbles, and it comes as a surprise when his legs suddenly part, his legs now happily crouched and bent at his knee, his head against the wall, him totally focused on doing the most important thing in the world"blowing bubbles while he so swiftly made me" who was sitting on his lap suddenly fall on the concrete dusty floor with a thud.
"Oww" my growl dies down as soon as I feel another series of bubbles blown onto my face, touching my cheek, and popping involuntarily.
The nerve of the man! I thought as I stood up grumpily, dusting my trousers off dust, glaring living daylights of him, while he stood up himself, and walked with expert ease expecting me to follow him, while I look up towards heaven and slowly mouth to god to do me a favour.
Kill him.
*
I lie on my back in my room and look at the roof, watching the shadows pass slowly. I had this habit of keeping the window open. The cars that pass through the lane to the back of my house often made the shadows and head lights climb up to my window slowly moving up the wall, as they travelled farther.
That is my favourite past time whenever I couldn't sleep.
I feel my mobile vibrate, and turn my head towards it, pick it with a thudding heart. Only when I open the incoming message, I leave a breath I hadn't realized I was holding for so long.
It was my friend, sending me a forwarded message in Whatsapp. Only when I see it wasn't whom I expected, I realize that I was expecting someone else.
It didn't take me long to figure out that it was only my belongings that were left in the office, and everyone else left by the time we went down, which was the reason why he didn't ask me why I stayed so long. It is because he knew, all the way that I was the only one staying back in the office till that late hour. Him leading the way directly to where my bag was lying, confirmed my musings.
We didn't exchange a word, he lead and I followed. He dropped me home, I let him.
It slowly made sense, everything. Why was he not surprised on finding me at terrace, how he could change an awkward moment changing my awkwardness to irritation. How he would not ask questions, nor would make me answer anything I don't want to.
Only when I had got down his bike and was walking towards the gate of my apartment had I heard him call me.
"Miss Isha Mehra"
I turned then, not knowing what he would say, not knowing what I would say to whatever he would say, if he says anything at all. Of course, my thoughts were also not making any sense...
He called me closer, and I went, stood before him silently when he dug his pockets and produced something for me. It was my pipe to blow bubbles.
"Don't worry that you can't blow bubbles. Practice daily. Maybe someday you'll be able to--"
I didn't stop to hear his voice, but grabbed it and made a run and didn't stop until I dived inside the elevator of my apartment.
I smile to myself as I turn in my bed, and my eyes fall on the teddy at one corner of my bed, which had a red cap perched on it. As my fingers pass on the imitation of Nike emblem on it, the corner of my mouth twitch into a smile.
Strange it was, how his mere presence, and time spent with him took off my mind entirely from Kavitha. I grin to myself as I recount the entire eventful evening, including the Baazigar fiasco.
I embrace the lightness in the pit of my stomach as I close my eyes to welcome sleep that night. Of course, I still have some unresolved questions gnawing at my mind. The flip of my stomach when I felt his lips touch my hair, giving a delicate kiss was real. The strange nervousness of me not being able to meet his eyes while parting, still seemed to surprise me. Yet, I do not think of any of them tonight, pushing them off to a corner of my mind.
Turning towards my teddy with the cap perched on it, I whisper to him "You're a great guy, you know that right?"
After a beat I add as a good measure "Hey don't let the compliment get to your head by the way"
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