With my last beacon of hope, I texted him around 12 PM, 'Janaab?' 

'Still in meeting. Can't come. Sorry.' He replied after 5 mins, knowing what I was referring to.

I sucked in for air and snuggled in my pillow. My throat became tight as I hide my face in the pillow. 

"This girl just woke up an hour ago and is again snuggling in blanket." My mum mumbled to pops while shaking her head in disappointment, oblivious to my teary eyes. 

A few minutes later I got a hold of myself and got up to carry on with my daily duties, brushing aside the heaviness in my heart.

.
.
.

"Oh the books are available now?" I wondered as I checked the college groups, filled with tons of messages. The syllabus, PDFs, and updates, all were piled up.

After scrolling some more, I put aside my phone and grabbed the novel I was reading.

I re-read the paragraph thrice but not a single word went inside my brain, even though this book was interesting.

My focus was lost.

I closed the book and laid down to watch some series, but couldn't help but zone out again and again. Not a single thing was helping me in diverting my mind, so I opened the Telegram app and texted the person who was the reason behind all this. 

'Hey?'
After sending the text I waited for a few minutes while glancing at the time.
It was already past evening.
I wonder what he is doing.

'Ji,' his text pops up after 5 minutes.

'What's up?'

'In the wedding'

'Wait. Are you in delhi?', with furrowed eyebrows I typed in. 

'Yea I came with my family later.'

'Oh.'

So he is in Delhi.
Just a few kilometers away.
But unfortunately we can't meet.

I sighed and snuggle back in my blanket. A few mins later my phone buzzed again. It was zoe, asking me if we can go together to collect our books tomorrow. With a pout face I agreed and bury my face back into the pillow. 

And suddenly an idea hits me. 

I sit up straight quickly checking the time. 

8:45 PM

I quickly text him but he was offline. So I spammed him three to four SMS until he replied. 

'Hey.
HEY.
REPLY.
ITS EMERGENCY.'

'haaaa. bolo' (yeaaa. say)

'can you stay one night here?'

'I'm on my way to home.'

Shit!
'how far did you reached?'

'ghaziabad'  

He was already near the Delhi's border. I throw my phone on the blanket, closing my eyes.

Just by few minutes.
I got late just by a few minutes.

I tried to hold back my tears when my phone buzzed again.

'Why? What happened'

'I can come tomorrow morning. So I thought maybe you can stay a night in delhi? But I got too late to ask.'

'even if you had asked early it wouldn't had done much difference.' His text pops up as I wipe my eyes.

'why?'

'because I cant stay in delhi nonetheless.'

'oh.'

'dont think too much about it. we will meet some other day.' His reassuring texts pop up.

'hmmm. have a safe journey.'

'yeah. take care.'

I turn off the screen and after 2 months I picked up my pen and diary, to lighten up my heart. 

9th December
9:00 pm

Dear diary

I wanted to meet him so bad. We would have finally met for the first time.
In person.
In real.
I would have finally met the guy I was so in love with.
But still, everything happens for the best. We'll meet soon, yes.

And right now, I'm missing him so much. I just want to be in his arms, snuggling in his neck, inhaling his scent, and trapping those moments in my brain forever.

I would have gotten my forever in those moments spent with him.

I don't expect anything from him in the future, but in present he is mine.

Is he really mine?

Ugh.
I can't stop imagining his lips on mine. We both were so excited to finally meet. He was much more eager than me lol. I have never ever wanted to meet someone this crazily. Never wished so wholeheartedly to meet someone. It's so freaking hard to control.

Will you again get offended if I say I'm missing you right now? Because I'm missing you so much right now. Jeez I want to kiss you so bad. I wish I could say all this to you. But I don't wanna take the risk of losing you again.
Last time too you got pissed when I said I'm missing you and I wanna talk more and boom you were gone for 6 months. I can't repeat that mistake again.

Is it a mistake to miss you?
To want you in my life?
To want you close to me?

I may say that I don't care, that it wont affect me if you again just vanish away. But the deep down, deeeeep inside, I don't want to lose you again.

Why am I so pathetic!

I guess I'm thankful for this automatic call recording function that my phone has. Because I'm craving so much to hear your voice right now. The moment when you said you want to kiss me, when you were so sweet and softly talking to me, listening to my everything, and sharing your things with me.

I will meet you. I will definitely meet you, no matter how. It seems like I will lose control before you do. Maybe I will grab your neck and kiss you before you can even comprehend what's going on. Because right now all I want is you.

.
.
.

'Ready?' Zoe texted me as I was doing last minute check.

'Yes' I texted back.

'Then come downstairs. I'm waiting.'

'Sure'

I quickly tie my shoelaces and climb down the stairs meeting her at the main gate.

It was 10 o'clock in the morning as we made our way inside the Metro Station.

"It feels so nice to go out without your family or just any elder." Zoe exclaimed while we were walking at the platform.

"Yeah. That sense of freedom and carefree-ness." I replied enthusiastically.

"Which we don't get to feel often." She muttered.

"Unless it's about University." I continued.

"Or if it's a solid reason." She added.

"Perks of strict parents," we mumbled together as the train finally came and we stepped inside.

.
.
.

"What!?" She furrowed her eyebrows as the teacher explained to her about the change of things. "Okay thank you." She politely nodded and walks back to me.

"What happened?" I asked Zoe.

"One set of our books are finished and for that we need to go to South Campus."

"Jeez!" I grumbled. "Now what?"

"I guess we should head to South Campus. We have already come all the way here."

"But we are in North Campus. Wouldn't it be in the opposite direction?"

"Let's google it and check."

"Is it a good idea to tell our parents?" I mumbled

"I don't think so. They will definitely freak out." She mumbled back while checking the google map.

"Yeah because it's way too far."

"One hour distance." She showed me the Map.

I looked at her, and then the map, and then at her again.

She wiggled her eyebrows. "So? Shall we do this stunt?"

I chuckled. "Well. I think yes."

"I mean c'mon, aren't we old enough to at least handle this stuff?" She whined as we walked on the footpath.

"Yep we are, but not in the eyes of our parents. We are still babies according to them, who haven't seen the world yet."

"Rickshaw!" She stopped a cycle-rickshaw and we headed towards the Metro Station.

After sitting in the air-conditioned train she faced me and whispered, "You know what our parents will say? 'Go with dad or mom'. And God knows when they will get free time for that."

"That's true tho." I whispered back because of the quiet environment around us.

"And we aren't even alone. I mean, we have each other. And it's broad daylight."

"And we ain't going in silent alleys."

"Yes. Rest we have Almighty to protect us."

"Absolutely." I agreed. "I guess they will allow us as long as we are together."

"Yeah. I think they will loosen up now, as our college has started you know?"

"Yeah. How long will they keep on doing the pick and drop duty dude." I chipped in.

"Yes. They will eventually leave it to us." 

Esa lag raha tha ma-baap se zyada hum apne aap ko convince kar rahe hain. (It seemed like we were trying to convince ourselves more, rather than our parents.)

.
.
.

"Umm cousin," I mumbled while grabbing her arm as we were walking.

"Hmm." She was checking the sign boards above us and route on her phone.

"I'm not an avid traveler of metro, so I don't know shit about it." I admitted.

"Don't worry cousin. You have me." She patted my hand on her arm.

"Yeah so I'm just blindly following you right now. Even though I'm one year older than you, and according to that I must take care of our safety, but here I give this responsibility to you." I joked nervously.

She chuckled. "Chill cousin. No one is getting lost. Especially in the metro."

"Yes." I looked around at the confusing boards with weird names of the stations and platforms around me.

As we take the exit and sat in rickshaw, my nervousness starts to crawl up.
We were literally in North-West Delhi without our parents knowing, and we don't know shit about anything of these empty roads.

"It's been 10 minutes Zoe! Where the hell is he taking us? Open the google map." I whispered in her ear.

"Well." She quickly adjusted the map. "Looks like he took the long route maybe. But we are going correct."

"Phew! Where has the population gone from here? I can't see a single person walking here on footpaths."

"If anything suspicious happens...." She looks at me cautiously.

"Does this rickshaw driver looks suspicious?" I chuckled.

"He is kinda old. But still. I will grab his head. You go for nuts. Don't hesitate."

"Yes full defense mode on."

After a good 15 mins, we finally reached our destination. We asked him to wait for us till we come back as there are no visible vehicles around us, and surprisingly he said yes.

"He isn't that creep afterall." I murmured as we entered the college. It didn't even take us 10 minutes and we were done with our work. After checking the books and zipping our bags, we left for home.

"See! It wasn't even that difficult" Zoe said as we sat in the train with heavy breathes.

"And not scary at all."

"Yea it was just the adrenaline rush on being in an unknown place that's all."

"But we managed well."

"Yep. What fun was it? We just went, got study material, and now heading home."

"Yea"

"Nothing adventurous at all." She sighed.

"Lets go to Connaught Place on our way back?" I suggested.

"Yea we will-" Zoe stopped in between and looked up at the speakers. "Wait. Did you hear that?"

"What?" I furrowed my eyebrows, totally puzzled by her question. 

"The lady just said, 'next station is Seelampur.' " She muttered pointing at the speakers above us. 

"What the-" I got up grabbing the pole and checked the route map given above our heads, trying the contemplate our situation. "No. This cant be," I whispered with my brows furrowed.

The lady repeated her announcement again as the train slows down,'This station is Seelampur. Please stand away from the doors.'

"Oh shit," I mumbled while sitting down beside Zoe, nervousness crawling every inch of me.

"I think this is the wrong train Hayat," Zoe whispered with the 'we are screwed' expressions, making my mind go blank.