"Sorry about the selfie. I know I was acting weird. No explanations. #instincts"

Popped up a message on my Instagram direct.

I froze on spot in the middle of my awkward dance.

Did he just apologize to me?

He, the arrogant cow, who never understands my feelings, the guy who has more mood swings than girls during their periods...

The nerd that always has that teasing tone in his voice, the flirt who always has an entourage of females with him.

Is it the med student I love to tease when we chat, the clown who says he wants hot Russian girls to marry?

Yes, it's the same heartthrob, I’ve fallen in love with.

My thoughts immediately rewound to a few hours earlier while the band was on the main stage and he was enjoying the show.

I very casually walk up to him and request for a selfie.

(Come on, there was nothing romantic about it. We’ve been friends for like eight months and we never had a picture together. It would be a good memoir.)

His answer?

"No, not now. Some other time."

A blatant refusal to acknowledge me. A strict 'NO' . He could as well have slapped me. What did I exactly ask him to do? Kiss me?

I try to make an annoyed face and say, “You’re very bad.” in spite of my spirit almost breaking inside.

He just gives me a glum, ‘tired of drama’ kind of look.

And I walk back to the hostel, in slow defeated steps. I feel broken so badly that I’m amazed I could reach this far without crashing completely.

I rush into my room and lock the doors, planting myself face down on my pillow as my heaving sobs got muffled and my roommate never got to see my tears. Never had I felt so humiliated in my entire life.

But then I realise that this was waiting to happen. Maybe I couldn’t catch the signals that he doesn’t want me too close to him. Maybe I missed out his annoyance when I tried to speak to him…

Maybe he never wanted to be a friend, and all he did was flirt with me? Anyways I suck at non verbals.

--------------------

There was a strange ringing in my ears and it was as if my mind had tuned out the whole world — the blaring of the DJ jazz in the background, the silhouettes of my friends dancing, drunk in the music — nothing made sense to me as the world inside my head came to a standstill.

“Not in a mood for apologies.”

I quickly typed in and pressed send.

But at the next thought I unsent it again. (The best feature of Instagram which makes messages disappear without leaving a trace. It’s very useful for clumsy people like me. Once I had typed, ‘I’m totally frustrated with my friends’ and this awesome feature known as autocorrect had changed it to ‘fiends’. There couldn’t be a better autocorrect. I was rolling on the bed clutching my belly.)

No, I wouldn’t reply so fast. I’ve had enough of him leaving my messages seen and not replying. I know the jobless person does nothing but attend his internship duties and watch movies, and yet he has no time to give a civil reply back.

If I press him for it, he’ll be like, ‘Hey, that wasn’t a question. I didn’t feel like replying…’

Should I put a question mark at the end of everything to get a reply?

What the heck!

I rolled my eyes by myself and shoved the phone into my pocket. None of my friends noticed the mini war that just ensued in my head, and I was determined not to let anyone know. I won’t reply now, let him see how it feels like.

I grabbed my bestie's hand and we danced the night through to dawn.

A/N This piece is written for the Valentine's Day Contest 2019. Hope you guys like this short story... Rest of the chapters coming soon...

For those that are waiting for Crimson Trails... It will be updated soon. Thanks Pipigrin MaryFahey cleomez miwacu changingforever XerinaFang michh_44 carmen6106 Nyhterides edelmeehan,
teamhathaway for your constant support...