Vikas was going over his conversation with Aishwarya when he sat next to her. It had taken everything in him to just walk over to her, and in the relief that came flooding after he started talking to her, he had completely forgotten to actually ask her out.

But the whole thing wasn’t as much of a waste as Ajay made it out to be. He didn’t know how, but Vikas had seen an opportunity and managed to get her number. Although, now looking back, he realised that he had sweat and struggled a little too much, and Aishwarya seemed to have enjoyed it a little too much.

She kept asking him why would he really need her number for this and that, countering everything he said. And after it seemed that he had run out of reasons and excuses, she had laughed and finally given him her number.

But Ajay kept lecturing him. In his eyes, Vikas had goofed up.

‘That was the perfect chance,’ he said, ‘I mean think about it, how many times are you going to get to sit next to her? It’s not like she’s your gf that you can just do it everyday.’

‘It’s not that — I felt — ’ Vikas thought of an excuse, ‘I mean really I feel like I don’t have to rush like that. What if I screw up? Wouldn’t it be better to take it just a bit slow and — and — ’

‘Oh yeah sure,’ Ajay interrupted him, ‘Take it slow. Move slowly. You can also drive slowly when you’re invited to her and Rishi’s marriage.’

Vikas opened his mouth, but didn’t say anything.

‘Oh yeah,’ Ajay pressed on, ‘You didn’t forget about that, did you? I mean I’m very happy you’ve grown balls and all, but that doesn’t really change anything. You still haven’t asked her out, Rishi still likes her, he might still ask her out before you, and you might still lose your chance. And end up lonely and sad. And broke and pathetic. And — ’

‘Ok ok I get it calm down geez,’ Vikas cut him off.

‘No dude you calm down!’ Ajay said getting hyper, ‘You have to be more confident, get energised, and just ask her out!’

‘Well what do you want me to do?! Calm down or get hyper?!’ Vikas snapped.

‘I want you to get off your ass and ask her out already!’ Rishi snapped back.

As irritated as this lecture was making Vikas, he knew Ajay was right. He should’ve asked her number and then just asked her out. Somehow. Anyhow.

But really… how? How would he even go about to do it?

He knew the answer was to just… well, ask her out. It was literally what he said to Rohan all those days back.

And now he saw how incredibly complex those simple words turned out to be.

And he understood how crazy the fear was. What if she doesn’t really like him that much?

What if she ends up saying no?

Vikas seemed to be slowly but surely getting buried under this thought, but all was not as depressing as it seemed.

Ever since he had gotten Aishwarya’s number three days ago, it seemed like the two of them texted almost all the time. And they were talking whenever they got the chance, which was usually when there was no threat of either of their parents overhearing them and destroying their existences for not focusing on studies.

After the first time he talked to her, Vikas realised something. On the day he sat next to her, he thought her smile was the most beautiful thing in the world. And he still thought that.

But now he felt that her voice, as it came from the other side of the phone was a really, really strong contender for that title as well.

Song birds would go mad with jealousy if they realised no one felt about hearing their voice the way Vikas felt about hearing Aishwarya’s voice on the phone.

He noticed something else too. After each and every time he said goodbye, and disconnected the phone, he felt a kind of happiness and courage that he had never felt before. There was one time when he thought he could even ask her hand in marriage if he wanted to, without stuttering or sweating.

But the feeling would disappear the moment he woke up the next morning. And as soon as the thought of asking her out crossed his mind again, he would feel like his legs had forgotten how to be normal, and suddenly decided that they wanted to become wet noodles instead.

Tonight, Vikas lay awake in his bed. The happiness seemed to have an extra edge this time. It was kind of a special moment after all. He had just talked to Aishwarya. Not texted, but talked. At night. This had never happened before.

Her parents had gone out, and she had called him because she didn’t know when she would get a chance like this. She had said that it was fun to talk at night, wasn’t it? They never really got to do that.

Now, laying on his bed, Vikas completely agreed with her. It was fun. It so good. He wished he could do this every night. And in a way he couldn’t explain, it felt like they were closer or something. And —

Vikas jerked and sat up straight in his bed. Of course it was special. It made him feel like she was his gf.

And that wasn’t all. It was also the fact that she was the one who called him. At night. She was the one who said it was fun. How did he just go over this little detail as if it were nothing?

Immediately he thought of Ajay, and could just imagine how his friend would react if he found out that she called him, said those things, and he still hadn’t asked her out.

Even he couldn’t make any excuses for this level of stupidity, at this point.

Vikas jumped out of his bed and started pacing around the room. This was the final straw. It had to be. He couldn’t live with himself if he waited any longer.

He would ask her out. First thing tomorrow. He would tell her how he felt and he would ask her out. And that was that. Whatever happened after that, happened.

The next day arrived, and Vikas was ready.

‘Aishwarya,’ Vikas said, looking deep into the eyes, ‘we’ve been talking for a long time now. And I really enjoy talking to you. It is just crazy to me that we’ve talked so much in these past few days. And that is exactly why, I cannot believe that I haven’t asked you out yet. I cannot believe that I have managed to ignore this. It is so clear to me, my love, that I truly want to date you. So now, I have only this to ask you. Will you do me the honour of going out with me?’

Vikas stood still, and kept staring at his reflection in the mirror.

It was Sunday morning, and so ever since he had woken up, he had focused on nothing but this speech. He felt it sounded a bit formal. But maybe it would impress her? But overall, he liked it. This would work. He would say it.

By the time afternoon arrived, he felt that perhaps he could change a little bit of the speech. It did sound too formal, after all.

By the time evening arrived, he had decided the speech really needed to be worked on. Maybe he would end up changing most of it.

Maybe he was right. Maybe he really shouldn’t hurry so much and work on what he needed to say. Maybe he should ask her out tomorrow, not today. Just take one more day. Just to finalise what he wanted to say. Get it clear in his head.

He really hoped he could recite it to someone for feedback, like Ajay, but he also knew he would gladly die before doing anything like that.

As if on cue, his phone rang. He checked the screen and it was Ajay.

Vikas opened his mouth to say “Yeah” or something like that, but Ajay was already speaking.

‘Where are you?’ he asked.

‘Uh… at home?’ Vikas answered.

‘Weren’t you going to ask her out?’

‘Yeah…’

‘What happened?’

‘I thought maybe — maybe I should do it tomorrow. I don’t really know what to say and I thought I should like get a final — ’

‘Maybe you should give up,’ Ajay said.

‘Ok I knew you’d be pissed but this is a bit too much. No one said anything about giving up and — ’

Ajay cut him off, ‘Rishi is going to ask her out today.’

There was silence.

‘Are you there?’ Ajay asked.

‘Uh yeah I — how do you know that?’

‘I talked to Raman right now. He was talking to — you know what that doesn’t matter. I told him to give me updates if something like this happened. So I’m sure this is legit.’ Ajay waited a few seconds. ‘Yo are you listening?’

Vikas was not listening. The ground had fallen from beneath his feet. The roof had disappeared from above him. The sky threatened to crash down all around him, burying him forever.

Ajay was saying something, but he couldn’t focus. He was only thinking about one thing.

‘Hey listen I’ll call you back,’ Vikas managed to say in a hoarse voice and disconnected.

He immediately dialled Aishwarya’s number.

She picked up on the second ring.

He forced himself to do some small talk and then asked her if she was free. She said she was with some friends, but she would be free later.

Vikas didn’t know whether he was being propelled by courage or fear at this point. All he knew was that his mouth was moving on its own.

He asked to meet her when she was free and she agreed. Vikas could barely wait. He could barely sit even. He wasted time by pacing around his room.

And then it was time. Vikas ran out the door and reached the cafe where they had decided to meet.

The moment he saw her, his feet froze.

He thought she looked beautiful.

Then she saw him and smiled and waved.

And he thought she looked resplendent.

Suddenly he hated himself. How had he taken all of this for granted?

As he walked towards her, a single thought bounced in his mind. Had Rishi already asked her out? Had she said yes? Were they… together already?

They started talking, and Vikas found himself calming down a bit. And with that calmness came some clarity. He decided to not dump the question on her immediately. Instead, he told her he just wanted to talk to her. After all, they had never met outside of class before.

Aishwarya smiled and nodded and Vikas was surprised at his own smoothness. Never in a million years would he have guessed he had it in him.

The two of them spent a long time talking all sorts of stupid and useless stuff like they usually did over text or on the phone.

And then they realised how much time had passed.

‘I think I should go now,’ Aishwarya said. She paused and looked at him for a while, then continued, ‘It’s kind of late and I’ve been out the whole day. My dad will kill me if I’m not back soon.’

‘Yeah same with my mom,’ Vikas said.

The two of them sat in silence for a moment. Vikas knew he should say something, but his mind was threatening to go completely blank.

‘Well,’ Aishwarya said, ‘uh, goodbye then, I guess.’ She got up.

‘Wait,’ Vikas said.

Aishwarya looked at him.

‘Uh,’ he continued, ‘Can we like, walk? Just for five minutes?’

Aishwarya looked at her phone, then back at him. ‘Ok. But just five minutes.’

‘Promise,’ Vikas said as he got up.

The two of them went to a park nearby. They walked in silence for a minute.

‘So… this is nice,’ Aishwarya said.

Vikas only nodded. His mind was working furiously. He had no idea what to say. And even if he did, he had no idea how to say it.

But he really had had enough.

So Vikas took a deep breath, tried to remember as much of his speech as he could, realised he couldn’t remember a single word, and then turned to her.

‘Aishwarya,’ Vikas said, ‘I need to say something.’

‘Okaaay,’ Aishwarya said uncertainly, looking up from a leaf that had caught her attention.

‘Okay,’ Vikas repeated, ‘Okay. Alright. Here goes.’

And Aishwarya’s heart skipped a beat.

He was really going to say what she thought he was going to say. She felt the back of her neck grow slightly warmer.

At the same time, she couldn’t help looking at him with pity and concern. It looked to her that he might explode at any moment.

‘Alright,’ Vikas said again, swallowed hard, and continued, ‘See here’s the thing. We’ve been talking for a long time. And frankly I didn’t really think this would happen. I thought — I mean to be honest I expected you to reject my follow request y’know? All that time ago? But you didn’t. And we’ve been talking. And it has been — I didn’t think it would be, like — that it would go on. I thought maybe you’d stop or something. But I’m happy. Because like, obviously I wanted that.’

Aishwarya could barely follow what he was saying. Vikas looked at her face and understood this. He took another deep breath.

‘I like you, ok?’ he blurted out, ‘I really like you. I mean I liked you the first moment I saw you. When you walked into class for the first time. But somehow, ever since then, I’ve come to like you even more. And I’ve wanted to ask you out — oh God I’ve wanted to ask you out for so long. But I just couldn’t. My hands would freeze up — my voice would freeze up — But I’ve really wanted to ask you out for like, forever. I don’t know what it is — I really — but i just can’t get you out of my head. It feels like I think about you all the time. And it’s making me go crazy. Because I don’t know what you think about me. And — And — ’

Aishwarya really thought he would explode now. She tried not to have a pitiful expression on her face, but she couldn’t help it. At the same time, she couldn’t help smiling either. He really looked cute when he was losing his shit like this.

No one had ever said anything like this to her. She always suspected she wanted to hear something like this, and now she was certain. But that wasn’t all. For some reason, she really wanted him to be the one saying something like this to her.

Her heart was thumping so loud she could feel its beat in her ears.

‘And I know I’ve been a dumbass and if you ask Ajay he’ll tell you — forget him — but I swear I wanted to ask you out — like so long ago.’

Aishwarya saw that he was stuck in a loop now. He definitely was a bit of a dumbass.

She quickly looked around. They had reached a bit of a secluded place in the park and she couldn’t see anyone. And no one could see them.

‘And now I know that Rishi has asked you out — don’t ask me how I know — but if there’s the slightest chance that — ’

Vikas stopped talking. It wasn’t because he wanted to shut up. It was because Aishwarya had made him shut up.

Before he knew what was happening, she had stepped closer to him, and lightly pressed her lips onto his.

They stood there for a moment.

Then Aishwarya stepped back. She was smiling, and her face was burning red. She turned away from him then, her eyes shying to the ground, and started to leave.

Vikas moved before he thought. He reached his hand out and gently grabbed hers.

Aishwarya’s wide eyes had a chance to stare at him for only a second before he pulled her close and pressed his lips onto hers.

She smiled into the kiss.

He held her close.

They stayed like that for a moment.

Then they separated and Aishwarya laughed. ‘Well well,’ she said, ‘I didn’t think you had it in you.’

‘To be honest,’ Vikas said, panting slightly as if he had just run a marathon, ‘neither did I. I honestly have no idea how I managed to do that.’

‘Good thing you managed somehow,’ she said.

Vikas laughed. He then thought of something. Something he still hadn’t managed to do.

‘There’s one final thing I have to say,’ he said, and put his hand out.

‘Oh God, what now?’ Aishwarya asked.

‘Will you go on an ice-cream date with me? Like… officially?’

Aishwarya smiled.

‘Dumbass,’ she answered as she slipped her hand into his.

***