One night in my 2 years of bliss..

LOVE.
What is love? Well, if you ask me, I have no clue as to what it is. Or maybe, I guess I do.
The last 2 years before teenage. That’s when I came across a feeling, a feeling new to me. It was something I had never gone through before. It was bliss.
It was bliss of LOVE.
And the girl? Well, she was the person I guess I knew the best. My first friend, my best friend.
I never told her, and I guess she never knew about it.
But then came the night. The night when only the 2 of us were together. It was the night I will remember all my life. It was the best night in my 2 years of bliss.
We were childhood friends. Always together.
But that night changed it all.
I was an 11-year-old, a spoilt brat, a kid who wanted everything as he wanted it to be. She was 11 too.
The day was horrible. As usual, wanting everything as I like, I had a tiff with Ma about dinner. We were expecting some 10-12 so-called sophisticated guests and Ma wanted to make them something sophisticated. I wanted her to make pani puri.
Sophistication. I so hate it. Being the kind of a person who wants to get married wearing shorts and a t-shirt, I never understood ‘sophistication’.
I cried and cried and cried and convinced Ma to make pani puri. Pa. How on earth to convince him now? But having Ma on my side, it wasn’t difficult.
Finally, the evening arrived. Pani puri was ready. Ma, rather embarrassed to serve pani puri to her home-coming ‘sophisticated’ guests, was feeling anxious. She sometimes over-exaggerates, so it was understood.
7.30 pm. The phone rang. It was S******, and I guess you might have understood that she was the girl. She was alone at her place. She went on, “Hey ******, come over, and we will have soup together!” She was important to me, but the tempt of pani puri was simply scintillating. I answered, “Am a bit occupied right now, guests at my place plus pani puri. Maybe soup some other time.”
There was a break in her voice. She was a bit sad. Don’t know why, but I didn’t want to see her sad.
I sighed. I said, “Am hungry. Can we cook something too?” She was like, “Sure! We will cook rice. I have a ready-to-eat pack.” I could sense the ecstasy in her voice.
Without telling anything to Ma, I charged out of the door. We lived in the same building, a few floors separated us. I reached her place in a jiffy. She was alone, and I guess a bit scared. She gave me a small hug on seeing me. I was surprised, well, kind of. It was unexpected.
She was gleaming. Don’t know why, but I was feeling something. It was not fear, certainly not. I cannot define it, but it felt good.
We went for her kitchen, and cooked. She made soup, I made ready-to-eat rice (though there was nothing much to make in it. Hello, we are talking about ready-to-eat!). We made, we ate.
It was 8.30 pm, I guess. I realised that Ma had no clue as to where I was. Pa would be home any moment. I went for the phone, called Ma, and said, “Ma, am out, will be back soon, don’t worry.” Bang. I kept the phone. Luckily, my phone did not have caller ID. Whew!
We sat on the sofa till 9.30ish, talking about our daily routine. The feeling I was having was getting stronger by each passing nano second. Jees! Don’t know what got into her, she held my hand, took me to her room.
****Now now people, I was only 11, and so was she. And when we were in school, there was no sex education for students of 6th grade. So please, don’t jump to conclusions****
It was dark. She didn’t bother switching the light on, but switched on the AC. In about a few seconds, the room was visible. She lay down on the bed. I was standing there like an a**hole. She told me to do the same. And I did. There we were, two 11 year-olds, laying down on the same bed, in the dark.
We just lay still for a few minutes. Then my hand went into hers. She didn’t mind. We just lay there, talking. The feeling was intense now. I wasn’t in a state-of-mind to realise what was going on. So, I just lay there, holding her hand. We were facing the ceiling. All of a sudden, she turned, facing me, rather staring. I did the same. We smiled. It was different. I saw the smile I loved.

We lay there, smiling at each other, NOT realising the time.
It was 12.30 am. TWELVE-THRTY!! I let go of her hand. She asked me what was wrong. I just showed her the clock. She asked nothing else. I ran for the door, she was coming too. I was putting on my chappals, she was standing. I saw her, she was seeing me. I turned and opened the door, but she held my hand and stopped me. I turned around. She gave me a kiss.
****Woah!!****
I smiled back, and rushed.
My floor, lights on, doors shut. I rang the bell, Pa opened. He stood there, stern. Ma was behind him. They were kind of like a wall, a human wall asking for an explanation. I didn’t bother giving them one. I went inside. They followed. Ma was screaming at the top of her voice. Sounded something like, “****** *****, where have you been? Do you.....” She went on and on. I have no clue till today as to what she was saying. Pa was a mere spectator at that moment.
All I did was – I went to the bathroom, washed my face, brushed my teeth, came out, entered my room, went off to sleep.
Ma and Pa, just gazing.
On the table, there were pani puris, waiting to be eaten.

SITUATION AFTER THAT DAY, FOR TWO LONG YEARS.
I was in love, but no guts to say it. She didn’t tell me anything either. I always wanted to be with her. In football, she always ended up in my team. In cut-the-cake, I always wanted to hold her hand. In hide-and-seek, I always hid with her. In short, all I wanted was HER.

SITUATION AFTER THE 2 YEARS OF BLISS.
She changed, a lot. I was where I was. We didn’t get to meet. My feelings reduced.

SITUATION TODAY.
We are just friends, we end up meeting once a month, I guess. And yeah, she still doesn’t know how I felt for her. She's happy. So am I.

THE PROMISE I MAKE TO MYSELF TODAY, THE 22ND OF OCTOBER, 3.49 AM.
Whenever I meet her next, I am going to tell her about my 2 years of bliss.