Over Again.

She pressed the button of the lift as it approached from 11th floor. There were already 7 people in the lift, she just had to fit in. She made her way to the back, pressing against each one of them as she went. She sighed as she took out her phone from her dark blue jeans.

She looked at the time and realised she was running late, she stared at Siddharth Malhotra's shirtless wallpaper and kissed her phone in her mind. Then she kept it back and waited for the lift to reach the ground floor. She went out of the lift last, and left.

Rhea entered a coffee shop and her eyes looked for Imran. He was nowhere to be seen, so she decided to call him instead.

Two times. No response.

She was about to turn and leave just as he came in.

"You are late and I was just about to leave" She poker faced. He just held his ears gesturing he was sorry and they went and seated down.

There was silence at the table until the waiter came and took the order. They fell silent again. The waiter came with the orders, wondering what kept them so quite. Rhea opened her mouth to say something, but Imran spoke up. 
"When do I start?" He said. 

"Anytime, I'm listening" 

"So, it started around 2 years back when I was in class 10th. It was time for dispersal and I was walking out of the gate with 4 of my friends and I was leading them. I had faced them and my back was to the road. We were all laughing because Jerry cracked a joke and tears were rolling out of the eyes because of all the laughing. She came like a storm and was headed into our school gate, but I didn't see and she was in hurry. Like every bollywood movie where girl meets boy with a bang, thats what happened. We crashed into each other and she dropped her bag. I knew at once that she cursed me in her mind but I just stared at her with a geeky smile. She was beautiful, with hazel brown eyes curiously gathering everything, she looked even more pretty. I cannot deny that she didn't leave me speechless. We didn't make enough eye contact. She didn't notice I was staring into her eyes, she picked up everything and headed to where she was headed. My friends 'Aww'ed and hooted as my eyes followed her until they could. My heart had already skipped the beat it needed to. I didn't know her and vice versa. She wasn't of our school too so it was difficult for me to figure what her name was. 

So, I decided to follow her. Yeah, I was ready become a stalker for her because only I had known what she did to me, because only I knew how much she meant to me, at first sight. So as I had decided I followed her into the school, then out. I followed her to her house and realised she lived close by and I had never managed to see her. I found out that she was a girl of class 9th. I found out that she had come to pick her brother uo that day.

One day, again, outside our school, she was standing outside the gate. I was hoping she would go in but she just waited outside. This is unusual, I thought because she had always gone in and I always followed her.  I deicided to go up to her.  

'Hi', I cleared my throat and wished her a Hi again. 

She said, 'hello' and looked away.

Anger boiled because that was the first time someone had ever looked away when I was talking to them. 

'I'm Imran, by the way.' 

'Oh, good. Congratulations' She said as she made eye contact for a few seconds and looked away again. I could have smacked her right there. 

'What is your name?' I asked, curious enough. 

'I am....' she paused for a while and said 'Alia' 

For a second, I thought she was pulling my name with fake names, but then I had to give into my thoughts and agree to the fact that she wasn't lying.

She ran towards the school gate as her father, seemed to be so, came out of the gate. I was trying to eavesdrop and listen to them talking. 

Her father, seemed to be so, said 'I'm sorry...' There was a long pause and Alia faced the ground. Her father pulled her chin up with two fingers and continued, 'I'm sorry but you'll have to leave that school and find new friends here', she jumped with happiness. She got admission in our school, thats what it looked like. I was smiling to the eyes, too because now I didn't have to follow her. And she joined our school. 

I told my friends and they were happy for me and hooted like always.

So, after a week later, I stood by the wall of our entrance waiting for her to come and smile and go. 

And she came, with her bag hanging on one side of the shoulder and hair pulled up into a pony tail, with not a slight touch of makeup. She made her way towards me, actually towards the school. She turned her gaze to me for half of a second and looked away, but again looked back. I smiled and it followed on her face too. I waved her and she just continued to smile.

'Hi', I said, walking closer to her as she stopped at a distance. 

'Hello' she said with a smile. 

'How are you?' I was being formal. 

'I'm fine.' She paused for a while but continued 'how are you?' 

'Im better than ever'

We both smiled. 

'Im getting late' she said and walked away.

I followed her, walking by her side. 'Um' I scratched my head.  Would you like to come and have a cup of coffee with me?'. Damn, did I just say that?, I thought.

'Yeah, sure. Why not? Around 7:30pm Friday evening. Okay, bye.' With that she rushed into her classroom and I danced on my way to the classroom.

After the Around 7:30pm Friday evening, things between me and Alia had changed. We had started to meet regularly and she had let me hold her hand once, while we were watching a movie.

                                                     9 months later

'Baba, I swear I'll keep my promise and you need to keep yours. I'm really running late and papa can come anytime.' she said over the phone. She was going to her grandmother's house at some distant place and we would not be able to talk for 3 days. Yes, I was upset and yes, she was trying to convince me. 

'Just don't go' I kept repeating. 

'I'll be back soon. And then we'll do what I promised, okay? Now say bye.'

She was talking about the promise to tell our parents. We had finally one day decided that we should tell our parents. (Only after she came back) .

'Okay, bye' I kissed the phone. 'I love you'.

'I lo....' 

'Alia.... Come fast' he dad called out.

'I love you too. Bye Imran. See you in 3 days, I swear' She kissed her phone too and ended the call. 

My heart was beating fast and I didn't know why. I decided to sleep for awhile, that would pass time too. When I woke up, I had successfully passed 4 hours and I had 68 more hours to pass. I looked at my phone. 7 missed calls. 2 were from Alia's number and others were from one unknown number. I called Alia first, and there was no response. Then I called up the unknown number.

'Hello? Who's this?' I said.

'This is bink, I had called from City Hospital to inform you that there was an accident and the phone I found had your number on the top. I thought you were related so I called.' He continued, 'I want you to know that no one survived. Sorry' And then he cancelled the call. "

Imran sipped his coffee, fighthing back tears. Rhea put her hand on Imran's other hand which was lying on the table.

Imran just continued "After that call, I was shattered into pieces. It was like my heart had broken down into a million number of pieces which were drowning in the sea of sorrow and they didn't know how to swim.  I ran out of the house and away to the dark and cried loudly, I knew I was all by myself now.

I took out my phone and talked to her.

'Alia, you promised me you will never leave me. You promised me so much. You left me alone in this world. How will I survive without you'

I talked to my mother, She counselled me. I promised to her that tomorrow, I will be fine. I promised her that even if Alia wasn't with me, I will smile and continue my life like always, like nothing had evet happened. Yes, it was hard. It was really hard for me but I fought and succeeded.'"

Rhea smiled.

"Then, you came into my life at a phase where I was still moving on. You helped me, you loved me. You gave me love more than I gave you.  You understood that I had some reason for always keeping things to myself, you never left my side when I was cruel to you and even if I hurt you.  And this is the reason why I always stopped myself from certain things. I hope you understand this just like you understood me."

Rhea moved closer to Imran and wiped his tears as he completed to talk about his past. She knew it took a lot of guts to talk about it.  She appreciated Imran alot. She was glad she had him in his life. She knew she was not letting him go.

"I'll get over what happened, soon I swear. I had promised not to fall in love but I couldn't resist my heart. I'll give you the care and respect. Let's give this relation a new start. Let's do it all Over Again. Lets fall in love, all Over Again." Imran looked into Rhea's eyes with a flame in his eyes. Flame of love.