I had no idea what was going on. All I knew was that I was crying because my mother was leaving me in this unknown place. I could not understand why my mother would leave her 4-year daughter by herself in a day-care! Yes, she had explained to me that I would be able to play here with boys and girls my age. I knew she was going to come pick me up in the evening too. I just didn't understand why this was necessary. I didn't want her to leave.

I heard a boy's voice, "Doll, please stop crying..." and I looked up through teary eyes to see what was going on around me.

A boy who looked my height and age was on his knees as a girl sat on the bench next to mine. He was sweetly wiping her tears away. Instantly, I felt jealousy. She already had a friend on the first day! I wish I had one.

When the girl refused to stop crying, he seemed to get irritated. "God, what's with you girls and always crying? Can't you just... I don't know, not cry?"

I felt like snapping back at him when I saw the little girl flinch. She looked so scared! How dare he yell at her? Just when I thought I would, an elderly woman called him. Okay, so she isn't the age of a grandma. But she wasn't that young either. And definitely, much older than us.

"Armaan, don't yell at your sister! You're only scaring her further."

I felt like grinning when his face dropped. One was because it made me slightly feel better. Atleast I knew that they were friends because they were siblings. And secondly, he seemed to have realized he was scaring his sister too.

Without saying anything, he just put his arms around her and gave her a tight hug. That somehow warmed my heart. I couldn't decide if I liked him, or hated him.

"I'm sorry, doll. I just can't see you cry. You know that, right?"

One thing is for sure. This guy loves his sister indefinitely.

The girl nodded, sniffing as she continued to hug him, fisting his shirt in her tiny enclosed palm. "When will Mommy be back?" She asked.

"Sooner than you realize." He answered, pulling back. "Want to go play? We can make friends. It'll be fun."

She shook her head. "No, the kids in the playground were mean. Can't we just stay in here?"

He nodded. "Sure."

I don't know how long I watched them. I just did, and my tears dried. They had been playing blocks for a long time. This scene in front of me made me wish I had a brother of my own too. I blinked when I felt a tap on my shoulder.

It was the girl. I still didn't know her name because he never called her by her name. I had only heard him call her 'doll', and I'm sure that's not her name.

"Would you like to come play with us?" She asked.

Oh, I wanted to! How much I did. But I was scared. I asked back, "Your brother?"

She smiled and leaned in to whisper in my ear, "He asked me to come ask you. But shh, don't tell him I already told you that. He doesn't like people to know he cares. You know boys? Pretending to be tough and all." What she said made me laugh. This did make me want to be friends with them and get to know them. She asked again, "So?"

I nodded and she happily took my hand and pulled me towards where they were playing with blocks.

"And that was the day I fell into a friendship that over a decade later, I am still trying to let go, unsuccessfully. Remind me again, why did I ever want to be friends with him? How was I still his friend growing up? How do I still know everything about him, more than others do? I guess there are only two strong answers to that. I was still best friends with his sister, Khushi, and nothing he did would make me not want to be friends with her. I could never lose her. And secondly, it would be because, since the first time I saw him, I have had a teeny bitsy crush on him, which just refused to go away. It only kept on growing because he could be the biggest jerk, asshole, douchebag, prick, jock, prat and all the words in the dictionary along the lines, but every now and then, he did these tiny, silly but caring things that ended up touching my heart. Things like his never dying love and care for his sister, my best friend. The way he treated her. And the minute seconds when he would be himself around me, show his caring side instead of the other one.

Tell me, how is it possible to hate someone with all my heart and still continue to fall for them every time you see them walk in? No, this wasn't just some attraction thing. It had never been that between us. Atleast not in my mind. It has always been much more, and if only he knew how he shattered my heart into millions of sand pieces every time I saw him with someone else. It wasn't that I wanted him for myself and I felt jealous. No. It hurt because he couldn't see what he was doing to himself. He could do so much better than the girls he dates.

How am I to convince my heart to let go of my childhood crush and see the reality?"

Riddhima stopped writing in her diary once her cell rang. For the last hour, she felt the need to write down her thoughts after she had settled in. The flight from India to Australia had been a tiring one. She sat up on the bed in her new room at the apartment she will be sharing with Khushi and Kripa. Thinking it could be her parents, she forced herself to sit up and walk over to the desk where her phone was. The caller ID flashing caused her to pause.

Armaan.

Was she ready to talk to him? Did she want to talk to him?

Ever since the kiss, she had abruptly pulled away and left. Instead of riding to the airport with him and Khushi, she had gone with her parents. Even at the airport, she had made sure to not have a second alone with him as she made every possible attempt to avoid him. She could tell his gaze had been on her every few seconds as if to get her to look at him so he could talk... explain himself.

Only, Riddhima could not see what explanation he could have given that would have justified his actions. Neither was she ready to accept the fact that despite the shock, she had momentarily lost control and kissed him back. It had only been a day since then, and when she couldn't stop herself from thinking about it, she had to get her diary and write down her feelings... thinking that if she could get it out of her system, she'd be able to forget and continue moving on.

Before she could have made the decision to answer or reject the call, it went to voicemail. She had let it run for too long. She turned to return to the bed, but it rang again. Pressing the volume button on the side of the phone, she silenced it while it continued to ring. She took the phone with her to the bed.

Her mind flashed to the kiss. The seconds before the kiss. Her running away.

She was never one to run from a difficult situation. But this? This, she had no idea how to handle.

He called the third time. She sighed, knowing quite well just how stubborn he could be. He wasn't one to give in either. She was going to silence the ring again, but a part of her was conflicted. She slid the bar and answered the call. Closing her eyes, she placed the phone by her ear.

At first, she heard the static of the air, and then him exhaling before he spoke. "Hey Basket." She answered with silence. With her breathing, he could tell she was there and listening, just not talking to him. Understanding how it was going to be, he continued. "Khushi called earlier to say you guys reached. I was hoping you would have called too."

Riddhima knew how much he looked out for the two of them. He was always worried whenever they went anywhere in town without him. She couldn't imagine how worried he would have been now that they were in a completely different country.

"Okay, so I came to the Delhi University campus today. It's huge. It's daunting, but I don't think it'll be that bad." He went on to ramble about a few spots he checked out while roaming around the campus. After ten minutes of that, he sighed. Not once did Riddhima say anything to mark her input or ask a question. "Basket, say something na?" After a pause for a few seconds, he reminded, "You know I had said no matter where you go, I wasn't going to stop being in your life. I know a lot of things happened that I would like to talk about when you are ready, but meanwhile, I am not breaking my promise. If you don't want to say anything, that's okay. But know this, I'll keep calling."

Riddhima bit her bottom lip to stop herself from speaking. There were a lot of things she wanted to say to him, yell at him about, but the whole point of moving to a different university, a different country, was for her to move on and focus on her life where he wasn't involved. He wasn't making it easy.

He spoke final words before ending the call for the night, "You mean everything to me, Basket."

Riddhima clutched the phone to her chest after she heard the call drop. Shutting her eyes, she let the tears fall she had been holding back. She didn't want Armaan to know she was crying by hearing her sniffle and had commanded herself to hold it back. She only wished he would respect her wishes right now. When she wouldn't have minded hearing about his feelings, he had remained oblivious. Now that she was taking steps to move on, he suddenly was realizing everything.

Riddhima's fist clutched the charm on the necklace she always wore. Whenever she felt upset, she held on to it to remember the good times, but today, it brought back the only good memory she had of holding on to because things started going bad. She thought back to her birthday two years ago, the day when things started becoming tough. The day Khushi was kidnapped and raped because of something she and Armaan put in motion accidentally. Since then, it became difficult for her to suppress her feelings, and she got closer to Armaan than ever before.

I growled seeing him blocking my path. I tried to walk around from my right, but he stepped around as well. He repeated the same when I tried to leave from my left. Knowing he wouldn't leave this easily, I looked him in the eye and gritted, "What do you want, Armaan?"

It was my birthday and I really had no intentions of letting him spoil my day. I came over to his house because Khushi, my best friend, insisted since her father wouldn't let her leave her house. Now, she was inside, getting ready, and I was thirsty. I was on my way walking towards the kitchen, when he stepped out of his room, effectively blocking my path.

Why did their rooms have to be right next to each others? Also, why did the hallway have to be so small?

"Well?" I asked, getting impatient.

He sighed, "It's your special day, basket. Don't spoil it because of me."

I scoffed, crossing my arms across my chest. "Wasn't planning on it. Tell me what you want so I can go my way and you can go yours and we can go back to pretending like we don't know each other."

He smirked, "So feisty. I thought you said you weren't going to let me affect your day?" I just glared at him. See why I hate him? So very cocky and annoying and just plain ugh! "Anyway..." He trailed off and took my hand. I tried to fight it, but his pull was just strong. He placed a wrapped box in my hand and whispered, leaning in. "Happy birthday, Riddhima." And before I could even breath after he wished me, he kissed my cheek.

I pushed my back. "Ugh, my cheeks! Your filthy lips."

He just laughed at my reaction as I rubbed my sleeves against my cheek, rubbing it away. He held my wrist. "You know you liked it. Now stop rubbing it before you irritate your skin." I rolled my eyes as I tugged my hand out of his hold. Knowing I wasn't going to be able to walk around him, I waited. "Well, aren't you going to open it?"

I shrugged, pretending to be nonchalant. "Thanks for the gift, but no thanks. I have already told you, I don't intend on spoiling my day."

"Tsk tsk tsk. So little faith, basket." He teased. "Come on, open it. I promise you, it really is a gift this time. No pranks. Scouts honor."

Somehow, I didn't believe that. I scoffed, "Scouts honor, yeah right. If nothing more, atleast don't insult them."

"Will you just open it?" He snapped. I saw his jaw tightening, and I decided I might as well before he loses his temper. Let me tell you, over the years, his temper has just gotten from mild to bad and from bad to worse. I am sure, in couple years, it just might get from worse to unimaginable.

"Fine," I mumbled and went on to tear open the gift wrap. Khushi is the one who always takes her sweet time opening it, savoring the gift wrap. I, on the other hand, could care less. I just wanted to open it, let him know I've seen it, and move on with my day.

Only, I stood frozen seeing what was in the box. He really was telling the truth. No pranks. A gift. From him. My eyes snapped up to meet his, who looked nervous. Since when was he ever nervous? That too in front of me?

"Do you like it?" He asked.

"A charm?"

He nodded. "To add to that chain you wear all the time. You never add any pendant to it. And I know you like things simple, so I thought I'd get you a small charm instead."

I gave him a genuine smile. Remember what I said about rare moments? Yeah, this was one of those. "Thank you."

"Anything for you, basket." He smiled back, then motioned towards it. "May I?"

It took me a few seconds to realize what he was asking. Heisting, I nodded. He took the charm from my hands and then walked around me. He started to move my hair over one shoulder when I realized. "Oh." I quickly moved it before he had the chance to. He never really touched me, and now this one brush of his fingers against the back of my neck was starting to send shivers down my spine. Yes, he grabbed me by my hand, my wrist, sometimes even by the shoulder, but that was all. This? This was intimate and on a whole new level. What was up with him today? Did the sun rise from the west?

He unclasped my chain, and I just stood there. I didn't dare turn around. A few seconds later, he swings the chain in front of me, resting it on my collar bones. I moved my hair out and he clasped it again. I felt like I could finally breathe again after I took a step away from him before turning to face him again. "Thanks..." I barely mumbled and walked away.

I didn't just want water to drink some, I was tragically thirsty. My throat was completely dry as my heart just wouldn't stop and calm down! It was like all hell broke loose in there. I couldn't let him know about this. Else, he would never leave a chance to tease me of this. He'd make the rest of my life horrible. I just might end up in jail then for murdering him, if not worse.

At that time, if Riddhima had known how precious this memory would have been, she would have tried harder to cherish her birthday charm.