If I Had A Love Story - Chapter 23

 

Chapter 23

It was almost midnight. I was sound asleep, wrapped under a blanket and tightly hugging a pillow. I was busy saving an amusement park from supervillains. Just when I was about to deliver the final blow and save the damsel in distress, I was hit hard in my stomach, hard enough to make my world fall apart.

"Ouch!" I woke up to see my friends circle around me with pillows in their hands.

"What the…" Before I could complete, I received a plethora of blows, and I dug deeper into my blanket, hoping to fend off these attacks. The attacks subsided after a while. I slowly came out of the blanket, facing them. I saw Diya in front of me, armoured with two pillows. She came at me, delivering the finishing blow – Double pillow smash! I was KOed. I could feel stars circling above my head.

The whole room erupted – "Happy birthday, idiot!"

This should not be how you wish your loved ones a happy birthday. I sighed. People made way for Diya, she was carrying a blueberry cake with whipped cream in her hand with a candle lit in the middle. For a moment, time slowed down for me. The light from the candle illuminated her glowing face. Her black, silky hair was untied and was both messy and graceful at the same time. I could not take my eyes off her for the millionth time.

I shook my head as I came back to my senses. I was handed a knife to cut the cake. "What a drag!" I thought.

"If you people were craving a cake, you could have just told me. Oh boy, but this one looks really tasty." All I had to do was to cut it now. I was holding the knife and approaching the cake prudently. I was aware that the moment I lowered my guard down, my face would be eating the cake, not my mouth. I stopped and looked at Diya. She smiled and walked up to me. The warmth in her hands poured into me as she held my hand, We blew the candles out and cut the cake, together. The chorus of "Happy Birthday" died down as Diya and I exchanged slices of the cake that comforted our taste buds. I took Diya’s hand and slipped out of the room as the rest of them ravaged the cake.

The moon was shining brightly, reigning over a starless night sky. Her fingers were intertwined with mine.

"I can’t believe that you planned all this up."

"I saved the best for last." Diya took a plum cake from nowhere and lit a candle on top of it.

"It’s just us now." She smiled. We sat there gazing into the endless sky all night, talking. I had my head resting on her lap, my eyes following her gaze, taking in the beauty of the night sky.

"I have always wanted to sit through the night with the one I loved, doing nothing but getting lost within the vastness of the night sky. It seems as if I am dreaming." She pinched my arm.

"Ouch! You don’t have to do that every time I say that I am dreaming." We laughed. I wanted it to last, I wanted us to last. But deep down, I was scared, afraid of the fact that I might lose her someday. I knew how fast a night could change. A tear escaped my eye inadvertently. She looked at me and asked if I was alright. I nodded and smiled. I did not want her to see the cowardly side of me.

The day dawned, and we landed at our final destination – Wonderla. The place was crowded like crazy with people from different parts of the world. We got our tickets and marched in. The amusement park was humongous and easy to get lost in. We got a map of the park and started planning the rides that we would take.

Diya caught up with me, and I persuaded Ajith to join us and promised that we would not third wheel him. We agreed that we would take all high thrill rides and headed for the first one – the Bamba. We got up into the ride, and I made myself comfortable between the two. The operator hit the switch, and the machine whirred to life. The ride took us up and down while rotating abruptly in clockwise and anti-clockwise directions. Diya had closed her eyes and was holding my hand tight. Ajith and I were screaming at the top of our voices.

We then went on a variety of other rides, some weird, scary ones as well. The sun started sinking into the horizon, and the lights have come up. The entire day seemed to have passed by swiftly. The entire place was spectacularly lit and would have been a wonderful sight to witness from above. With heavy hearts, we started back to Bangalore. Diya was surprisingly quiet when we started back.

"I need to talk to you," she whispered feebly. I turned towards her, as she had my undivided attention.

"Do you love me?"

It came out of the blue, and I was not expecting it. I had a bad feeling that something was wrong or was going to be wrong.

"Yes, of.. course."

She leaned on my shoulder and hugged me tight. I could sense that she was scared but trying hard to be brave.

"Whatever’s bothering you, we’ll figure it out, together." I longed for reassurance myself. I looked out of the window, glancing at Bangalore’s cityscape, which sprawled before me like a luminous quilt, stitched together with twinkling stars of streetlights and the glowing threads of traffic.