The Crush

This entry is written for a contest of Indiblogger http://www.indiblogger.in/getpublished/

I was just wandering on the corridors of the school after my geography class with my fellow IXth grade classmates. And there was he, crossing our aisle smiling at one of my friends. Awestruck, I took a moment to regain my consciousness. ;) Clever me, I did not waste a minute and asked my friend who was he. And within seconds I gathered as much information about him as possible.

"Teddy bear" was the first word that came to my mind (and also to my lips) after recalling him once more. A silly name it was to give to a handsome and yet cute guy christened Rahul. But for the next two years he spent at our school, this became his nickname. Ovations to me :).

But he was not someone who would sit quietly after learning that I gave him a nickname just after a few days of him joining class XIth. Just the day after we got introduced to each other by our mutual friend priyanka, he started calling me "Polar bear". :O. Now that was injustice. How can he call such a pretty girl a bear? I still do not have the slightest idea what made him call me so. :O. Never mind, some boys are dumbos by birth. :D.

So this is how it all began. It seems more like beginning of enmity than love. But then again, we were too young to understand what true love is.

Days passed by, and we became more and more fond of each other. He would give me a ring on my phone and we would talk for hours. I remember once he bought me a pair of earrings, Silly me, I asked him how much to pay him for it.

Then one day when I was talking to Priyanka I learned that he had a girlfriend. Wait, what’s that sound? Oh, it was my heart breaking into pieces. But yes, he actually was in a relationship with someone. At that time what bothered me was why did my heart break after getting to know that? I consoled myself by thinking that maybe this is what people call as crush, may be hearts are actually "crush"ed after having a crush.(LOL)

So I made up my mind and continued our friendship. My crush could never replace our friendship. But the story did not end there. It was in January 2006 when he told me that he broke up with his girlfriend for some serious reason that was unknown to me then. And I was stupid enough to feel bad for him than to cherish the fact that it would be just me and him from then on.

Time passed on and he never got a chance to tell me that he discontinued his relationship with that girl for me, nor did I ever ask. All that I learned from Priyanka is that the other girl was unfaithful.

 It was on an April morning when Priyanka told me that my Teddy bear's going to propose me that day. May be he had it prepared from a few days. But this came as a shock to me for the fact that I had “moved on” since I learned about his girlfriend, and also because those days I was topped with too many proposals to give him a thought. I broke a sweat. Yes, I was inexplicably nervous and I had no idea why. Getting proposals was nothing new to me nor was rejecting someone. But still I definitely was nervous. I wondered why I was behaving so weakly and consoled myself thinking that it was the peer pressure I was getting that day. Obviously, I was too young to think of the reason, love. And believe it or not, I actually thought of rejecting him.

Till the last teaching period, every student of my class was aware of the coming proposal and everyone was giving some reason or the other to accept it. But I had already made my mind. Then the musketeer, Priyanka came up with the reason that he wants to teach his ex a lesson and that’s why he's proposing to me and as a friend I need to help him and that after he finishes his XIIth our relationship will be over. Now for humanity's sake (read: stupidity) I agreed. So there was he claiming that he loves me, with a clean heart and I accepted his proposal thinking that there's mutual understanding that this is just an act.

 Days passed by and I continued to carry the misconception with me. I did not realize when this sacrifice turned into love nor did he realize when love became a suffix to the term 'true'.