" I fell in love with you because of the millions of things you never knew you were doing, falling for you slowly from a distance..."

-

I was currently dying of boredom, while my mother and aunt were busy in shopping.

How can people go on shopping for so many hours straight?! It's so exhausting! My legs were numb from walking around so much and I could feel my sore body ache from tiredness.

" Arya dear, I think this salwar kameez will look good on you." My mother offered, holding a pair of clothes in front of me.

"Aww it looks so beautiful ! And it's the latest design , we should totally get this one for her." My aunt added nodding enthusiastically.

"It's pretty but I -"

"Come on , no more excuses you didn't buy a single thing ! We're getting this , end of discussion." Ammu stated with a tone of finality.

"Hmm okay okay." I muttered letting out a sigh.

" We'll take this one mister. "

" It'll be Tk 2000."

"What ?! No , no , it's way overpriced ,give it at Tk 1500."

And they continued bargaining...

Just then two girls entered the shop , their arms laden with a number of shopping bags.

"Haye haye how many things did you buy?!" Aunt enquired ,shocked seeing the hundreds of bags her daughters were carrying.

" Not much mom and don't worry there was a sale anyways ." Assured one of my cousin sisters.

"And we found some really pretty accessories, I'll show you when we get back home." Piped up the other .

"Arya , you should have come with us ,there were so many amazing stuff . Also I got those latest brand of makeup." Reesha apu informed me .

" Ah nice , I'll just share with y'all." I replied, flashing them a grin.

To be honest I didn't care much about all these and why bother when I got cousins who were basically fashion gurus.

"Did you come right after waking up ?" Riya questioned looking at me.

I nodded after stifling a yawn.

I had been taking a peaceful nap right before it was ruined by my family dragging me to go shopping.

We were in a hurry to leave so that the road didn't get too jammed at peak hour . Due to the rush, I just threw on an oversized green hoodie sporting the words " I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good". I paired this with black leggings and my favorite black sneakers .

" Hm you look nice. As in the casual, do -not-give-a-damn- cool type." Riya complimented before continuing ," -but remember to always look presentable."

" Eh why ? Who's looking? If you say 'people' please, why don't they mind their own business?"

I retorted while rolling my eyes in annoyance thinking about this judgemental society .

" Yeah people, but you never know when you might run into a handsome stranger." She said ,sighing dreamily and shooting me a wink.

Before I could express my amusement someone interjected-

" Are we done ?" Came a cute little voice from nearby.

"Can we go home?" Added his twin .

I looked down to see my younger twin brothers gazing up at us with adorable pouts gracing their cute faces.

" Yes, yes, nearly done . Oh we have some guests coming over later tonight. Arya dear you go to ' Dominos' pizza restaurant and order two pizzas. Meanwhile we can quickly finish the rest of the shopping." Ammu told, handing me some money for the pizza.

" Yeah okay" I obeyed , parting ways from my family and heading outside. The pizza restaurant was just in the next building.

While walking over there , I spotted some poor little children sitting by the pavement. They looked very hungry and my heart ached upon seeing their situation.

I looked at them with sympathy before bending down. "Here you go." I said softly and handed them some money.

The bright smiles which lit up on their faces upon receiving some aid was worth more than a million dollars. My heart swelled with satisfaction upon seeing this and a smile crept up on my face.

See, why spend money unnecessarily when there were so many people in the world who actually needed it .

I got up and continued on my way. I was near the pizza restaurant building when my eyes fell upon a group of boys heading over here.

Nearly all of them were wearing punjabis.

Of course duh, it's Friday so they must have worn these for the jummah prayer.

They stopped outside the pizza restaurant and waited for all of their group members to arrive.

I was standing a few spaces away and casually looked around, watching the scene unfold in front of me.

The tallest amongst the guys, who had his back turned around, looked at the watch on his wrist and motioned his head towards the door of the restaurant.

I looked on as one by one, all of them walked by me and entered the restaurant.

When it was the tall guy's turn to pass beside me, I finally got to see his face and my breath was taken away-

Wow , Omg he's so cute!

He had a chiselled face , highlighting his sharp jawline and dark brown hair fell messily over his forehead. The boy wore a green shaded punjabi which clung to his thin physique . The Punjabi's sleeves were partly rolled up and the outfit was completed with white pants . The handsome guy ruffled his hand over his hair , making it more messier than it was and this gesture obviously had my heart beating miles per second.

He passed right by me as I stood there trying to look casual and not as if I was just gawking at him.

He looked kinda intimidatingly cool . The way he walked past , It was as if confidence was oozing out of him. And of course he didn't spare me a glance.

I followed his suit and entered the restaurant , my mind running with thoughts of the handsome boy.

There isn't a time or place for a crush to happen. It happens accidentally,in a heartbeat , in a single flashing , throbbing moment.

Oof my heart! It falls in love about a hundred times a day!

Come on dude your job is to supply blood , just do that nah .

I shook my head again ,trying to clear my mind from these thoughts.

Oh come on ,please don't get a crush ! Ahhh! Focus!

I need to calm down.

But it was too late. What was meant to be had already happened and I accidentally got a crush on him.

I walked towards the counter and stood behind the queue of people. Beside us ,a see through glass window showed the kitchen. I watched as the chefs rolled and kneaded the dough for the pizza. There was the sound of a door opening and then banging close with a thud and a mouthwatering smell wafted through my nostrils as some waiters walked out carrying pizzas.

My eyes unconsciously drifted around the restaurant trying to spot a particular guy. I found him and every few seconds glanced over at the hottie.

"Excuse me, miss, your order?"

I was brought out of the trance by the cashier calling me and I placed our pizza orders. The staff asked for a name to place upon the order.

Hmm let's see I could probably say a name of one of my favorite musicians.

I opened my mouth to answer but was cut off-

" Ronaldo! Ronaldo! Ronaldo! "

What the -

I snapped my head down to see my twin brothers jumping up and down while chanting 'Ronaldo'.

All the people around us were staring at the commotion.

Oh dear , I definitely didn't like to be the centre of attention.

"Shhh guys ,okay okay , Ronaldo it is, now please stop shouting ." I said quickly, trying to calm down my brothers.

"Yayyy!" They exclaimed with wide grins and gave each other a high five .

Great now I had to go along with this or else these two would cause another drama and I had no energy left to deal with it .

"Um mister , put the name as Ronaldo please." I told the cashier with an embarrassed smile.

He nodded while chuckling at my brothers' antics.

"Oops - boys slow down ! " Reesha apu said, skidding to a halt beside me .

" Hey , ah these two adorable misfits ran off before me ." She said, playfully glaring at them.

"Okay Arya I guess they wanna stay here . Mom and aunty are at the sweet shop upstairs and Riya and I are gonna go take some pics outside. The decorations are stunning!"

"Oh yeah sure, go on I'll take care of these two ."

As Reesha apu walked away , my eyes skimmed over the restaurant trying to spot a particular group of people among the scattered , cluster of tables.

I saw them sitting at a table close by and headed towards there. Glancing around I saw all the tables around them were unfortunately taken.

Now how do I stare at them...ahem wait no ,what the hell mind!?

I felt someone tugging at my hoodie and looked down to see one of the misfits.

"Can we play on your phone ?!" He asked, staring at me innocently.

Looking at their adorable pouty faces of course I couldn't refuse. These sweet faces hide plenty of mischief.

While searching for a table , I deliberately walked past them whenever I got the chance . Finally, I spotted an empty table close by .

I made sure the twins were safely sitting at the table , busy playing games on my phone.

Then I walked a bit away and stood, just casually glancing around. You know discreetly looking at a certain group...

Their table was near enough so I could spy upon them.

There were five boys in total. One of them got up and headed towards the counter . Probably to order or to collect their food.

My eyes followed his figure walking away, before looking back at his friends. There ,sitting right by the aisle was the cute , handsome guy who made my heart race faster.

Oh come on , so what if he's good looking ? I don't know what kind of a person he is inside. But then again ,what's the harm in admiring him from afar for a bit.

I discreetly looked at him whenever I could and adored his little actions. Seeing which a goofy smile unconsciously etched upon my face.

Suddenly ,they all burst out laughing and a particular smile made my heart stop beating for a second.

Just look at that cute smile ! Awwww my heart!

He was laughing freely, shaking his head back and forth . All of them were shaking with laughter while someone pounded their fists on the table.

Looking at them, my heart longed to experience such moments. I sighed, admiringly gazing at their friendship. Mashallah.

I don't know why, but these type of friendships between boys seemed so great. They fight but patch up immediately soon after. I remember a time when my cousin brother and his friend were fighting. Even some punches were thrown but after a while they just laughed and did some bro hug thingy and made up. Friendship between guys seem to have so much less drama than girls who mostly gossip behind each other's back and hold grudges for the silliest reasons. I know there are exceptions ,but this is what I learned from my own experiences.

Boys have so much fun doing crazy antics with their buddies and I don't know ...they just seem to have some kind of special loyalty and fun vibe.

I wish I had a group of friends like that...

Thinking about all these, a sigh escaped from my mouth. When I came out of my deep thoughts I noticed that the boy who had gone earlier was now back .

Oh gosh! I suddenly realized that if I looked at the board displaying everyone's order names ,maybe I could get to know one of their names. Or had they used a made up name? How was I supposed to know who it was amongst the hundreds of names?

I was curious, because if I figured it out , I might had gotten a little clue to stalk and find out the handsome stranger's name.

I didn't even have my phone with me.

Not that I was thinking of clicking his picture.

Yeah NOT AT ALL ! it was totally nothing like that !

One of the other boys , who was sitting beside the handsome stranger looked at me . Judging by his look ,I thought I detected a hint of suspicion in his face.

Oh no! Did he see me staring at his friend?

Please no!

I panicked and quickly turned around to look at the order name board. ' Ronaldo ' was coming up just after two more names.

My head turned around to look beside me and I saw my brothers thankfully still in the same position, busy with their game.

Our order was nearly ready, I better head towards the counter.

In order to walk to the counter I had to walk past 'their' table.

I took a deep breath and straightened my hair and clothes before trudging on forward.

I was near their table when one of them said " Hey look Ronaldo!"

Omg what ?!Do they know it's my order. What's happening?

" Huh where ?" Another guy inquired.

" Someone gave their order name as Ronaldo. "

I let out the breath I had been holding in and finally breathed in relief.

" Oh , say that idiot , I thought Ronaldo was actually here ."

" Well you are so stupid that's why you thought that."

" Oh shut up gadha ."

" Well I wasn't a gadha and thought that Ronaldo was actually here. Need I remind you who it was genius?" He said mocking his friend.

" Yeah whatever stop it guys. " Another person interrupted.

" But I gotta admit ,this is really some amazing order name ,hahhaha !"

"I know right , bro!"

They all continued chuckling loudly.

I was embarrassed even though I knew they didn't know it was my order.

Due to this, I tried to walk away as soon as I could but unfortunately one of their chairs was on my way. There was no way I could go forward if the chair wasn't moved. And me being the shy introvert I was ,dared not say a word. So I continued trying to scoot past awkwardly.

The hottie was sitting right in front of the person who's chair was acting as the barrier.

When I looked up, my brown eyes met his greyish ones. Or was it completely grey? I didn't have enough time to decide because I immediately looked down and got all flustered. Though my expression might not had completely given it away, inside my heart seemed to be performing gymnastics.

He probably noticed me not being able to get through. Mr. Hottie moved forward and grabbed his friend by the shoulder in order to yank the guy forward.

" Oi move your chair ,you're blocking the way ."

He informed his friend and the guy looked back at me before moving his chair forward and muttering sorry.

I didn't trust myself to speak and so barely gave a weak nod before promptly walking away.

My breath was coming out in deep , fast paces and I felt my heart beating so fast it felt like it would burst out of my ribcage.

He. Had.Glanced. At.Me.

Ahh what if I looked silly? Who am I kidding, I always look silly...

A beeping sound brought me out of my bubble of thoughts and I looked at the board to see 'Ronaldo' being highlighted.

" Um yeah my order ." I stated at the counter and the guy handed me two pizza boxes, " Here you go miss."

I noticed the slight grin on the employees face.

Ah the things I go through because of those misfits!

After paying the bill ,I collected my order and walked away. I walked very fast and no matter the temptation ,didn't glance at their table while passing them.

Stopping to a halt beside my brothers my brain registered that Reesha and Riya apu had also came inside.

" Oi Arya the pictures came out great , come on I'll click some of your pics-"

" Ah no, no it's okay ... maybe another time..."

" You okay ? your face looks all red and stuff , are you feeling sick?"

" What? No I'm okay Reesha apu , trust me ."

" Ayy guys did you see that place , come on everyone is taking pics there ! " Riya announced in between.

" Come on , I'm going ,you guys also come ." She said before running away with the sound of her heels clacking on the floor.

Reesha apu looked at me once more and gave a small nod. She picked up the pizza boxes before following behind her sister.

" Excuse me , can you take our picture?"

A girl asked me from behind.

" Sure ." I replied with a smile.

She and her friends posed ,showing off their designer clothes while I clicked away.

Not to brag or anything but I was indeed a very good photographer.

After taking their pictures , they thanked me and went back to taking more selfies with dhongi poses.

I turned around to see my brothers- no wait, brother. Only one of the twins was there...

Oh no, these two won't rest until they give me a heart attack!

" Arzan , where's Arsh?!"

Arzan pointed towards somewhere but I couldn't understand so I asked ," Huh ?"

He shook his head and facepalmed before taking hold of my hands and dragging me who knows where.

I helplessly tagged along.

I realized we were going in the direction of a certain table. Looking closely ,I took in a sharp breath and nearly had a heart attack upon seeing the scene in front of me.

★★★

For those who don't know-
Jummah- is the Friday afternoon prayer in Islam.

Punjabi- is a desi traditional men's wear.

Gadha- means donkey in Bangla XD

If you have confusion understanding any particular word whoose meaning I didn't mention, feel free to ask me in the comments (:

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So this had been waiting in my drafts for a long time. I finally got the courage to publish it...

Let me know your thoughts.
Did you like it? Wanna know what happens next?

Do remember to vote and comment .It would mean a lot (:

A.M.K 💙