Andrew started putting away his feelings and started looking at her as a friend. Both of them had a good time in the evenings hanging out and talking about their positives and inabilities.

 

It was a bright sunny day and Andrew was lying on his bed desperately thinking about how his first day of high school would be. He was shy ,always preferred to stay away from a crowd and never had the courage to talk to girls comfortably.

Next day, He woke up late as usual without realising that he had to attend his first day of school. His mother helped him out to get ready on time. The school was not far enough for him to board a bus, he took his bike and rushed to the school. Most of the students already got to know each other before even the first class or they were childhood friends .

Andrew didn’t really look at the people around him while rushing to his class. He entered the class just before the class started. The first class was just an introductory class, the professor gave a small introduction about  the school and it’s achievements which Andrew didn’t even bother listening to. He was looking around the class to see if there were any of his old classmates or neighbours.

As the professor finished his short introduction, he asked everyone to tell their short history. Andrew gave brief information about his previous schools and ended his introduction. After his introduction, he saw a girl on the left of his seat who seemed familiar to him. She introduced herself as Lina, she was actually Andrew’s classmate in elementary school and also his first love.

Andrew made up his mind to talk to her, but the very next moment he restrained himself thinking that she might not remember him. There was a break after the first class and everyone moved out to the cafe except Andrew, he didn’t know what to do and kept thinking about how to talk to her. Lina made a few friends in the class and was always with them giving no chance for Andrew to speak to her.

Andrew was happy that he still has a chance to get closer to his first love but he didn’t have the confidence to talk to her. The first day of school ended and Andrew came home thinking about a way to impress her the next day. He started searching for the memorable objects or photos involving Lina. He found a few photographs and few gifts he received from her on his birthdays. Travelling down the timeline, he remembered how much fun he had with her during the school days.

On the next day of school, Andrew started talking to the other guys of the class to improve his courage to talk to Lina. He got a few good friends who had almost the same interests as he had. He started hanging out with his new friends but behind all this he was actually trying to get closer to Lina by gathering information about her interests and dislikes.

Days passed and he was still collecting information about her. While all this was happening, Lina realised that someone was stalking her. She tried finding out who it was. In the process, she realised that Andrew was her classmate in elementary school .

She started enquiring about Andrew like how Andrew was collecting information about her. But she couldn’t find out that he was the stalker. Once she knew that Andrew was shy and never had the courage to talk to girls comfortably, she realised that he would never talk to her unless there was a reason. So Lina decided to initiate the conversation.

Lina  approached Andrew and said “hi!”, Andrew was in a state of shock and didn’t know how to respond immediately. He blindly replied “hi!”. She thought that Andrew didn’t recognise her, but before she could confirm her thoughts he immediately asked her about her school days making himself clear that he recognised her. This made both of them comfortable for a conversation.  They had a good conversation for about ten minutes as they got to know more about themselves. Before ending the conversation, she asked him if he knew about anyone stalking her. Andrew told her the truth that it was his doing, and he did that to know more about her. Lina felt relieved and was glad that she met him. She gave him her number and her address.

From the next day on, both of them went to school together and  became closer every day. They had long conversations on the phone and hung out together on weekends.

From the data Andrew collected, Lina had a large family. She had 2 sisters who were very close to each other at all times. She was never interested in a relationship as it might destroy the bond between her and her family, was never even close to her friends too. She considered her family as everything. Andrew did not want to ruin her bond with her family so he decided not to confess his feelings until the time was right. But the truth is Lina doesn’t feel that way. She always wanted someone to love her more than family.

At the same time, what Lina gathered about Andrew  was  the complete truth. She knew about his shyness and discomfort when it comes to girls, that he was never interested in a relationship. But she never knew that she was the reason.

Andrew started putting away his feelings and started looking at her as a friend. Both of them had a good time in the evenings hanging out and talking about their positives and inabilities.They got to know more and more about each other. Lina started realising that Andrew was that person who is always by her side at all times. She considered him something more than a friend.

One day after school, Lina called out to Andrew and asked him if he was free for lunch that weekend. After a moment of silence, he said yes. She told him that it was a family lunch and that she wanted to introduce him to his family. She seemed pretty excited about it but Andrew was a little worried about how it might turn out to be.

Andrew couldn’t sleep that night thinking about the lunch all the time. No one has ever invited him to lunch and he’s scared that he cannot face her parents comfortably. He kept thinking about a way to overcome his shyness for a day.

Lina called Andrew at around 10AM in the morning and told him that she’d come to his house to pick him up for the lunch in another fifteen minutes as they had to travel quite a long distance. Andrew was almost shivering and wasn’t really feeling comfortable. He quickly dressed up, put on his blazer, came down to the road and waited for Lina to pick him up.

As he was waiting, a sedan-class car approached him. He didn’t realize that it was Lina’s car. She lowered the window and asked him to hop in. Lina, her parents and her sisters were in the car already. Andrew had to adjust in the last seat with one of Lina’s sister. Andrew felt a bit uncomfortable sharing a seat with Lina’s sister whom he has never met before.

The car drove into a huge farm house, Andrew was dumbstruck. As they hopped out of the car, one of the two sisters approached him and gave him a small piece of paper which said, “LOOK AT LINA”. When he saw Lina, he was shocked to see her in a wedding dress. He was even more confused about the situation. Without thinking about anything he complimented her dress and moved away.

Lina and her mother went into the kitchen to prepare the lunch while her father rested in the living room listening to old classic rock songs and her sisters rushed to the television room and started watching their favourite show. Andrew had nothing to do so he started exploring the place. After about ten minutes, Lina and her mother seemed to have finished their job. Lina’s mother joined the sisters to watch the T.V. show. Andrew and Lina were sitting alone in the hall staring at the walls.

Knowing Andrew’s shyness, Lina concluded that he wouldn’t initiate a conversation in such a situation. Lina asked him if he wanted to look around the house. He agreed and they started going into each room as Lina described her childhood memories to him. This kept them busy for about fifteen more minutes.

At around noon, Lina’s mother called everyone for lunch. Everyone gathered at the dining hall in 5 minutes and the food was neatly arranged on the table ready to be eaten. Andrew sat beside Lina and her sister. Before everyone began having their lunch, Lina stood up and requested Andrew to stand up.

After a minute of silence, Lina hugged him. Andrew didn’t know how to react to this and became nervous. She then said,” Happy Birthday Andrew!”. Until this moment, he didn’t realise that it was his birthday as he had been worrying about overcoming his shyness for the day. Everyone stood up and gave their gifts, except Lina. She said she had something special for later.

This made Andrew fall in love with Lina again, He couldn’t fall back this time. He was having the best time of his life. He made up his mind to confess his feelings to Lina, but still lacked courage to do that. They had their lunch and everyone were back to their previous jobs.

Lina and Andrew were walking along the garden having a casual conversation about school days. Andrew felt that this was his opportunity to confess his feelings. While he was walking along thinking about how to confess, Lina stopped walking and she asked him, “Will you ever say it?”. Andrew’s face turned red, he wasn’t ready with a reply and remained silent.

After a moment he said,” You’re the best person i’ve ever met in my life. Ever since school days, I cherished every single moment I spent with you. I still remember all the weird conversations we had. You have a great family and it was important for you to spend time and share your love with them, I didn’t want to disrupt the bond you had with your family so I tried controlling my feelings.You were always something more than a friend to me, but I was scared that I might lose your friendship too if I confessed my feelings. I’m not that good with confessing, but still I love you”. He finished his confession in a stammering voice.

He closed his eyes and put his face down as he was scared to see her face while she responded. She came closer to him and held her palms on his cheeks and gave him an approval kiss. Lina’s sisters and her parents were delighted at the sight and started cheering for their young love.

Andrew was almost fainting and was sweating hard in nervousness. Lina hugged him and said,” I will always love you!”. This was the best birthday Andrew has ever had. He started overcoming his shyness and started becoming bolder with Lina’s guidance. She considered him to be perfect the way he was. Rather than a disruption in the bond between Lina and her family, it grew stronger with Andrew. They enjoyed the rest of their school life and had a happy life thereafter.