An except

"Forgive me now, please Rahul. Come on, don’t be a kid now”

Hari was watching all this from the sidelines, feeling proud of the way Rahul was handling himself. He always wanted him to have such self respect, and he was glad that he was showing it then. Little did he know that Rahul’s heart was shouting inside him, pleading him to forgive her. Come on, forgive her. Look at her innocence. Dhe is speaking the truth. She cares for you; his heart pleaded with him.

‘Please, please, please…..”, Shreya continued, asking for forgiveness.

Not able to take it any longer, he pushed back his chair, got up and ran towards the washroom.
His abrupt and violent gesture worried Shreya. She glanced towards Hari for guidance. Hari closed both his eyes momentarily, tilting his head, as a signal that she shouldn’t worry about him.
Leaning over the wash basin, Rahul opened the tap in full flow and began washing his eyes.
He was not feeling sleepy, and neither were his eyes aching; his heart was. He tried to conceal from himself the water that poured down from his eyes with the water that went into his eyes. He wanted to tell her how much he had missed her the entire night and ho eagerly he wanted to forgive her from the frist moment that she said sorry.

After spending a good ten minutes in the washroom, he came out looking fresh. He gave Hari a quick wink and started laughing uncontrollably. Hari joined him in his laughing and they exchanged high fives.

“What happened?” You guys are crazy or what?” Shreya said, perplexed at the sudden change in Rahul’s behavior.

“You thought I was really serious about all that, right? Rahul said, in a mocking tone, laughing all the while.

“You mean you were playing a prank on me?”
“You bet”
“I would kill you both. You know how scared I was when you abruptly got up and went to the washroom?”

“Hahaha….heheheh”, they continued laughing in unison.

She failed to pick up the grief behind that laughter. And that’s what Rahul wanted. That was the only way he could have made things come back to normal after accidentally letting her know his feelings. His impromptu plan worked perfectly.