Chapter 5

"Hello" a voice came, I knew it was Naina.
"Hi Naina, Himanshu here." I said cautiously.
"Hiee Himanshu, How are you? Where you have been?" she said. My experience says whenever a girl asks two or more questions at once, it means she didn't need answers to any of them. Besides, I sensed a bit of uninterestingness in her voice.

"Hey first you tell me, is your mom nearby the phone?" I said. This was the most important question of the conversation.

"No dear, she's in office. You called up at the right time."

"Thank god." I sighed, "So tell me, are you fine? ... I mean, after that day." I asked.

"Ohh!! yeh.. Although mom has become too strict these days." she replied. Her mom was a real villain for sure.

"God, then how'll I meet you?" I exclaimed sounding disappointed.

"Why you have to meet me Mr.?" she replied in a strict tone. I realised she was serious. Obviously, I wasn't expecting such an answer of my question.

"Umm...well..aah...we are friends naa.... and I really enjoy your company." I answered. This was all I managed to say because my mind stops working when I talk to my crushes.

"Listen Himanshu, yes we r friends, but the things have changed now, see.... yes I do like being with you, but...won't it'll be OK if we just .... you know...what I mean..??" she said.

I realised things have messon up by now. I got shocked and stucked to say anything. The game was over for me. Now the only fight was to save a little self-prestige in front of her.
Somehow I managed to end the conversation. Blaahh Blaah.....everything went wrong. She doesn't even want to meet me. Oh God......why it happens to me everytime. Now see, since I've stepped in my teen-age, it never happened to me that a girl liked me ... you know...in that sense.

Yes, I was an above-average and so called 'bright' student, but who cares!! At least girls don't..!

As an average guy in terms of looks, I am used to these sorts of things. I mean what's wrong in it???? Why a so-called 'hot' girl would waste a time with a boy like me? If I were a girl, I would have never dated me.

"FUCK.........!!!" I shouted and banged table. I became numb soo I stood still for a few minutes near the phone and then decided to go for a sleep. I usually do two things when I am very upset or happy:
Firstly, I go for sleep or secondly, I watch some emotional scenes of my favourite movie "Kal Ho Naa Ho." There's one more thing special about "Kal Ho Naa Ho" and that is the name of Preity Zinta in the movie is also 'Naina'.
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AT TUITION:
I went tuition before time and was upset sitting alone in the room when I realised Rupal has arrived. Although Rupal was a nice and caring friend but she was a PTBS girl and I hated her for this reason. Now you must be wondering what does this 'PTBS' means! Soo PTBS stands for "Pretending To Be Sexy". It was a codeword developed by Karun and me. PTBS is a special 'species' of girls who are not sexy but they 'pretend' to appear like 'sexy' by their dresscode, style, attitude etc.

And sorry to say Rupal was one of them. She was a little more than 5'2" tall and had an average looks. But she used to wear skirts, low-waists, sleeveless etc. in tuition as if she was trying to make us fan of her. Rupal had an attitude of a 'queen' and I think the main reason for this was the long queue of boys lagging behind her. She was damn popular among her school and colony boys.

Girls like Rupal classify boys into two categories: 'Handsome' and 'Non-Handsome'. And their behaviour and attitude towards a boy depends on the category to which the boy belongs.
Hey...now don't make an idea of how she used to treat me?? Even I am alsoconfused about it.
Anyways, lets return to the point. When she entered she was already talking to someone in her cell-phone. She was wearing a skirt (made up of some velvet kind of material), which was well above her knees. She had nice legs but I didn't care. I flinched and went outside the room. But still I could hear her cellphone conversations:

"Soo what can I do???" Rupal said in her as usual PTBS tone, "See Ruchi, I don't care what he has done and tell this to him also."

I guessed this was again a "Boy Case". It happens every week to Rupal. Every now and then, some boy would propose Rupal and after being ignored would create some nuisance to drag the attention of Rupal again. I realised I've started to feel jealous with her. How lucky she was?? At least a million times than me..!

"Hey Himanshu.... what happened?? Why are you standing outside??" Again two questions simultaneously and this time by Rupal whose phone talk was over by now.

"Umm...just thought you are talking something personal..." I replied in a nervous tone.

"Soo what? You are my friend."

"Ohh really..! Thanks." I howled. A PTBS girl as a friend is better than no friend at all.

"Hey you seem a bit upset. What happened??" She asked again. See this is the thing for which I loved Rupal. She was a caring and concerned friend.

"Nothing yaar....just a bit stressed up. Thats it.!" I replied. I didn't want to tell her about the incident and to sound like a loser.

"Really? Are you sure it has nothing to do with Naina???" She spoke again. Now see this thing about girls, they always press your wrong nerve and I still don't know how they locate it so precisely. Soo finally I decided to tell her everything.

In the meantime Rini also entered the room and therefore I had to start the story again from the beginning. And after a few minutes Karun.

"Ohh she's a bitch." Rini uttered as I finished.

"Hey shut up yaar." Rupal howled and placed her hand on her thigh. I looked at her skirt again and became more depressed.

"We must now think what should we do next..?" she said again acting as if she's a space scientist working on some 'alien project' in NASA.

"Nothing." This was Karun's turn, "Absolutely nothing at all."

"What??"

"Yeah, see Himanshu....", he held my hand as if was going to propose me for some gay relationship, "Why you are wasting your time and energy on a girl who consider you unworthy of her?? I guess you should forget her yaar."

"May be you are right." I said. For the first time in my life, Karun's rubbish-sayings seemed important to me.

"And one more thing", he said again, "There exists a life beyond girl-friends which is also enjoyable."
"Yeh, a life of boy-friends." Rini exclaimed. Everyone laughed this time including me.

"Soo before Nitu Di comes lets quickly decide how we are going to celebrate Himanshu's birthday...! It has to be a real special." Karun said.

And after that everyone started to discuss it as if they were going to arrange my marriage not my birthday. Who says, I am not lucky??? I've got such a nice group of friends. I decided that I won't think about Naina again in my life. Although, I was not sure I would be able to do that.
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THE 'TOP' TROUBLE
Unlike today, I used to sleep before 10 pm those days. But I was awake till 12 midnight on my birthday eve for a slightest possibility of someone calling and wishing me. And finally....the phone rang..
RING RING RING RING
I checked the watch and it was 5 minutes past 12. I hurried up to pick up the phone. Somewhere inside my mind I prayed to God that its Naina's call.
"Hello" I said.

"Hello..." a voice of a male answered. All of a sudden I got disappointed and a nano-second later, I got excited that at least someone called me.

"Happy Birthday hero...." he said again.

"Ohh.....Apurv.....Thankyou yaar.".

(..........rest continued.....in Chapter 6)