First Crush

The soft ambience of the night was splendid, and the stars twinkled perfectly, the clouds felt lighter after the continuous rain for two hours, the soft breeze felt so pure. Rhea was standing in the balcony receiving whatever nature had to give away as a gift. She had been standing there for a long time, thinking about the various feelings that a single person can give you. It is surely amazing how just a four letter word changes your life completely giving it a new meaning; she recalled the memoirs of love.
Rhea was in high school when she fell in love with a boy. Before this, she had only heard about such things in movies or read about them in novels, but that day all her fantasies turned into reality. She had been a quiet and shy girl since childhood. She believed books to be her best friend and always carried a novel in her hands wherever she went. It was in the library that she first saw her crush, her first crush – Rudraksh. He was a very popular boy of the school as he was rich, handsome, talented, intelligent as well as friendly. He was senior to Rhea. That day he was sitting alone in the library and reading a book. He looked much more innocent while he was reading. She looked at him and her gaze was stuck there until he lifted his head up and looked at her, their eyes met and in a moment Rhea shifted her gaze away. Rhea kept thinking about him all the time, the moment in which he had looked into her eyes, she kept recalling. The feeling at that time, it had never happened before.

She used to look at him secretly, whenever he was with his friends during recess or in the class. She noticed that he came to the library every Friday. So, she used to sit at a place from where she would be able to see him but he wouldn’t be able to take note of that. The librarian was very much confused about Rhea’s sudden fondness in changing places. And then, when he would come, Rhea’s heartbeat would increase. His arrival made her fall in love all over again.

Days passed like this and Rhea was living in heaven. One fine day, Rhea was sitting alone in the playground, reading a book and smiling to the thoughts of him when a ball hit her hard on her elbow. She gave out a squeal. The boys who were playing football came to her, running. And it so happened that Rudraksh was the one who had hit the ball. When Rhea saw him approaching her, she ran away, wiping her tears with joy filled in her heart. The scar was painful yet beautiful.
Some more days passed and it was now the end to the semester. Soon Rudraksh would leave this school and go away and Rhea would never be able to convey her feelings to him. She would never be able to see him again. These thoughts made her uncomfortable and sad. She was sitting alone in the library thinking over things when Rudraksh approached her. Her jaw fell open when she saw him standing in front of her and smiling. She turned back to check if he was smiling to someone else but there was no one, she returned a hesitant but beautiful smile. His voice broke the silence between the two.

“Umm, hi, uhh, actually I kind of need this book and it is very urgent, the library doesn’t have it and I can’t find it anywhere else, can I borrow it from you?” Rudraksh said pointing to the book which Rhea held in her hand.

“Uhh? What? I mean, surely you can take it.” She was very nervous and felt stupid in front of him. She handed him the book.
“Thanks, umm, by the way I am sorry for that day, the ball…”

“Oh no, that is fine, trust me, it really is. Umm, sorry I’ve got a class, I got to go. See you. Bye.” Rhea had to make an excuse or else her heart would have exploded out of happiness.

“Oh, okay. Bye.” 
Rhea could not contain her happiness. She was on cloud nine. It all felt like such a beautiful dream to her, she wished the dream not to end ever.

From the next day, there was no sign of Rudraksh, he totally disappeared, the days felt very bad. Rhea had lost her smiles.
Many days went by and Rhea stopped going to school either. One fine day, her cell phone buzzed with a message that read- “Hi Rhea, this is Rudraksh. I have your book and want to return it but you are not coming since so many days.” She re-read the message a thousand times and composed a calm reply. “Okay, will come tomorrow.” In her heart, the butterflies never stopped fluttering. The next day she took the book from him and they talked a little. Their interactions increased as small meetings converted to long gossips and messages got converted to conversations.

Both came very close and were very comfortable in each other company yet Rhea never concealed her secret. And then, one fine day, Rudraksh was there, sitting down on his knees and proposing Rhea. Confessing that he loved her since the first day when their eyes met in the library.

******

“Mumma, see what papa brought for me,” a child’s voice broke the reverie of her thoughts.

“Good but you have to share it with your little sister,” she said patting his head.

“Hey, what have you been thinking about?” A man stood in front of her with his office bag hung on his shoulder. He had a red rose in his hands for his wife.

“Nothing dear. Oh, and thank you for this beautiful rose, Mr. Rudraksh Kashyap,” she took the rose from him.

“You are most welcome, Mrs. Rhea Rudraksh Kashyap.”