20/11/2019 - Wednesday- At Chennai.

Aparna's P. O. V :

He was giving me a wicked grin which was enough for me to know what was going inside his mind. I instantly moved my face away from him.

I slowly released my hold on him and sat straight. He sat near me and dusted off the sand over my jacket.

We both laughed at each other and got up slowly.

He started the bike and signalled me to sit back. I shook my head and sat behind him.

I took out the map he had given and started telling directions to our second spot. Through the route I started guessing where he was taking me and I was right.

Our next stop was the broken bridge. I had seen it from distance with Shwetha, but this was my first time this close.

The place was a long bridge with view to the sea on one side.

Shiva stopped the bike at some distance away and the place was empty with an eerie silence.

We both got down and started walking to the other end of the bridge.

" Tell me about your school life " I asked to break the silence. This is the only time we were ever going to get. I wanted to know all sides of him.

" I am going to speak only if you are ready for some questions too" He said with a chuckle.

" Okay fine! " I said.

" My school life was pretty much filled with my friends, Hari and Karthik, we were like the three idiots, always together. I forced my friends to attend the same tuition as me. We even planned and took the same college.

Now your turn" He said.

A bitter memory crossed my mind, I gulped it hard and looked back at Shiva, he was staring at me curiously for my answer. I decided to tell the truth as much as possible.

" I was a nerd and geek for nearly all of my school life. I didn't have long friendships in school, except for one. We became friends during my high school and then it continued till the office we were working together in. He was almost there at everywhere I was. " I said laughing.

Shiva raised his eye brows to ask something but shook his head in refusal.

" Who is that he? " Shiva asked with a fake cough. I bit down my smile and looked at him, did I smell some jealousy?

" Only one question! Your turn is done. My turn now. Who was your first crush? " I asked quickly to change the topic.

He was shocked and embarrassed on hearing my question. He was slightly blushing.

" Trust me, you don't want to know this " He said wickedly.

Is he being shy?, wait, was it me?

" I do. Tell. " I said staring at him.

" It was Anjali! " He said laughing.

My jaws dropped to the floor on hearing his answer. Is he being honest? , he her how?

" Are you serious? " I asked composing myself.

" Yes! Please don't judge me. I was only 10 years old at that time. She was really smart during my childhood. The only problem was her smartness didn't grow after that. " He said laughing and I joined him.

We had reached the end of the bridge. There was a clear view to the sea. The wind was getting warm.

"Who was yours? " Shiva asked.

I looked straight at the sea and answered him.

" That school friend. He was my first. " I said, I felt Shiva's eyes looking straight at me.

I looked back at him and he gave a fake smile. I wished that I was able to read his mind for just this minute.

" Shall we move to the next spot? " He asked to change the topic.

" Yeah! " I said. I could feel that his mood has suddenly dropped and I didn't know what to do.

We walked back to the bike silently. As he sat on his bike. I walked close to him and looked at him with folded arms.

" What? Get back on your seat! " He said confused.

" I don't really care about first crush and everything you know. I am really concerned only about my current one. " I said smiling.

He smiled looking down and the dimple on his right cheek showed up for a bit.

" Are you planning to flirt with me standing here all day or should we go with my plan? " He asked with a stupid grin.

" I wasn't the only one flirting though " I said sitting behind him.

He shook his head laughing and started the bike.

As we were moving to our next spot, I started remembering the route we were going on. It was the way to my hostel.

The time was nearly 9 and the entire road was filled with traffic. We slowly moved passing each signal.

We crossed past my hostel and Shiva stopped his bike in front of my favorite eating place - maggiwala.

" Wait, how did you know? " I asked him getting down.

" Aren't you hungry? I am, let's go in " He said and walked past me without answering me.

It must have been Shwetha, I shook my head and walked inside the shop.

We both sat on a two seater table. The interiors were still the same and it brought back a flood of memories.

As the waiter came, Shiva told the order.

" Two butter masala maggi and one peri peri fries " He said, and i knew that this was definitely Shwetha's idea, because Shiva told the exact order which I place everytime.

" Why are we here? " I asked him.

" Well, to eat maggi and to reminisce some of your old memories " He said smiling.

" I really missed this place " I said to him.

Our food arrived and I started gulping the noodles. I breathed out in peace tasting the maggi.

" Imagine , If we were here in 2017 and you were staying in that hostel. If I had enough courage, some day we both might have accidentally met in this same place and what not " He said with a sigh.

" Well, we are here now. That's the same anyway " I said blowing on my hot noodles.

" It's not. Nothing is the same " He said.

" It's fine by me " I said smiling, but I felt the pain in his words.

He smiled back and started eating.

We fought on who should pay the bill, I won and I paid. He said it was not manly of him to let me pay. I scolded him and I paid.

" Where next? " I asked sitting on his bike.

" I hope you like tamil movies " He said laughing and we were back on the road.

The next route lead us to Sathyam cinemas, my weekend destination when I was staying in Chennai.

We parked the bike and started walking.He looked at his watch and started running inside the theatre dragging me with him.

" The show was supposed to start by 10:30, we might miss the intro " He said.

" We have all the National anthem and the ads of this wonderful government. Chill, we won't miss anything " I said but Shiva wasn't listening.

We walked to screen 4 and Shiva took out his phone to show the tickets. He dragged me through the entry.

As we walked inside the cinema Hall, just as I had said, ads were going on. Nearly the entire Hall was empty. It was a week day so obviously only people like us will be here.

Shiva dragged me to our seat, and doubtfully the seat was on the farthest corner on the right side.

That's when I noticed all the corners occupied by couples.

Shiva was as confused as me.

I shook my head looking at him. He was still holding my hand tightly.

I waved at Shiva and he finally released my hand and signed sorry to me.

" Trust me, it was Hari who booked the tickets! " He said innocently.

I sat on my seat and pointed Shiva to sit on his seat near me. I wanted to go with the play and see what will happen.

" I really don't have a hand in this! " Shiva said again.

I was trying to keep a straight face and controlled my smile.

We all stood up for the national anthem, I could visibly see Shiva looking at me scared and shaking.

We sat down and the movie started. Shiva was constantly looking at me to gauge my reaction. But I was stern enough to play the ' I am angry ' face.

The film started, the name was some "

" I can see why Anjali complained to your mom about you taking her to cinema " I said with a fake stare.

" No, no. You are completely mistaken " He murdered near my ear.

" What am I mistaken? " I murdered back.

" I didn't plan this. I am not the type that would do this " He murmured again. This time I felt his hot breath over my ear and i slightly shook my head to stay in control.

" What type are you then? " I murmured again, I could feel that he was blushing under the dark.

" Definitely not the one who would bring his girlfriend to an empty cinema and sit in the corner seat to make out! " He murmured back ,his breath too close to my neck. This time I was the one blushing, I felt all of my face becoming hot. Even inside the ac, I was feeling warm suddenly.

" Then are you the type that makes out with your fiancee in the car having two strangers in front? " I said laughing.

" Well, to make things clear, I wasn't enjoying it at all " He said.

" Why? " I asked.

" Well, I can't elaborate. I didn't like it. " He said quickly.

" Are you gay? " I asked laughing. I couldn't stop myself from asking.

" No! God! No! Why does everyone come to this conclusion that I must be gay because I didn't like it! " He said nearly shouting, he was shaking uncomfortably.

" Then why weren't you enjoying it? " I asked laughing again.

For some time Shiva was quiet. He was grinning wickedly shaking his head.

The only thing I remembered after those seconds was that, one of his hands held my face and pulled me closer and his other hand tightly caught my hand.

In those nano seconds, I didn't get to see him moving his face closer to mine, I didn't get to see if his face was as red as mine. That moment , the only thing I felt was his lips on mine.

I couldn't move, I was frozen under his hold. His lips were unimaginably soft and warm. I came to my senses and my hands were suddenly pulling his shirt closer and my instant reaction was to kiss him back.

I felt Shiva shaking slightly, taken aback by my reaction. The feelings we held back , came out flooding and I didn't care if we were sitting on a corner seat in an empty theatre and making out like a cliche couple, All i could remember was my first kiss.

Screw the movie on screen, we had something much more interesting going on.