Life Goes On... - Neha Dua (good beach reads .TXT) 📗

Shane offered to drop us both at home in my car as it was very late in the night. Shane stays alone in an apartment a few blocks away from my home. Looking at him while sitting in the car on our way back to home, a thought passed my mind, “He has been a gentleman since the day we all met him in college. We never saw him flirting or approaching any girl of the college, even being the most eligible bachelor of the college. He has always been there as a big support to all of us, whether being financial or emotional support, he never back-off. His family stays way too far from him and yet, he never seems to be weak”.

We reached home and we both got out of the car. I was about to open the back door of the car to pick Susan up when he came forward and asked me to just open the doors of the house and he will bring Susan in his arms from the back seat, making sure not to wake her up. He came inside the house to put Susan in her bed carefully.

He was leaving, putting both of mu hands in my jeans pockets I asked him, “Umm! Shane, could you spend the night at my place, since my parents are not at home and it’s just me and Susan alone in this big house? I… I actually don’t feel secured alone”. Shane with some hesitation shown on his face agreed to stay with us for the night. I gave him my dad’s night suit to wear for the comfortable sleep and he stayed in the living room.

After having dinner, ordered from a delivery service, I went into my room checking on Susan. I was in my room when I heard the television being turned on. I went outside of my room and reached the living room door. I was kind of spying on Shane, from the entrance of the living room.

He saw me sneaking upon him and without even turning his face towards me, he said from the couch with a naughty smile on his face, that I could surely guess, “Hi Elena! I know you aren’t asleep. You can join me if you want to. Make yourself comfortable, as you know, it’s your place only”. Like a stupid, I started to smile back and went near the couch. He made some space for me to sit on the couch beside him and watch television.

My heart was pounding, and it was from the experience of being so close to someone like him. He was going to watch the movie “P.S. I Love You!”. I tried to look him into his eyes and asked him “I am feeling hungry, would you like to have some popcorn?”. Without even thinking twice, he said “I will come with you and help you out since the movie will be starting in some time and till then, we can prepare some popcorns, and arrange chips and drinks”. We ran towards the kitchen to arrange all this stuff before the movie starts.

After ten minutes, when we heard that the movie was about to start, we came back running into the living room and took our places to continue watching the movie. We were watching the movie till twelve in the midnight, feeling relaxed by putting our heads on each other’s shoulder for some time to relax. There came a point while watching a movie when I got emotional and a tear started to dribble down my cheek and then onto his shoulder. He looked surprised by seeing me being emotional for the first time and having tears in my eyes just because of a movie scene and asked me “Hey! Are you okay Elena?”.

I just wiped that tear from my cheek and with a weak smile replied “Yeah! It’s just that, I got a little emotional with the scene. It felt a little stupid, I tried to find word to explain him, but couldn’t understand what had happened to me. I was the strong girl that my friends used to know, and, here I am crying just because of a movie”.

He pulled his shoulder away and welcomed me in his arm, “Come and relax here. It is just a movie. Everything is fine”. The moment I laid my eyes on him, I lost my breath, I couldn’t believe I was only a few inches away from him. I was utterly drawn to him because of the vibes he set off. I was feeling comfortable near him, so I accepted that gesture and stayed closed to his body where I could hear his heartbeat.

A thought dawned on me and I examined him closer-he was slightly looking at me. I drew back, shamefully embarrassed, and felt that my cheeks were flushed. I kept my eyes on the TV, trying my best to not look at him. We were completely involved in the scene when I could feel my eyes being too heavy to stay open for any longer and I fell asleep into his arms.

The next thing I remembered was that I was in my bedroom and Shane had picked me up into his arms in bridal style and I was almost half-awake till then when he finally put me on my bed gently, set the pillow under my head and put the bed cover on my body so that I could rest comfortably. He tried to straighten up his posture and tried to turn around to walk back into the living room. There was only a thin line that separated our bodies from each other and we both could feel each other’s breath against our faces.

I hadn’t even realized that my hands had grabbed a hold of his shirt in instinct. I called his name and with my one hand still having a grip on his shirt, I pulled him near me. His face was just a few inches away from mine. I was enchanted by his looks even during the night, with his fascinating emerald eyes that were shadowed by shaggy black hair and his little smile that took my breath away. He entirely took on the definition of beautiful.

I was half asleep again and murmured very slowly that he was able to hear my voice by staying close to my face only, “Shane please don’t leave me. I need you to be there for me always. I want you to accept me and never leave my side. Susan and me both liked you a lot”.

Shane gave me the response, “I am here only Elena, just try to sleep. I am near you… see! And I am not going anywhere ever. I am lying on your bed near you”. I was taken aback by his dreamy voice and his words caused me to blush a deep red, while still trying to scramble up something to say, I fell completely into the arms of good night sleep with Shane by my side and my head now on his chest and my arm resting on his waist.

By the next morning, I woke up at 8 o’clock in the morning with Shane still sleeping beside me. He was looking so innocent with the look that he had even while sleeping. I couldn’t control myself and I suddenly pecked my lips onto his for a second. He moved a little with this movement of mine but was still sleeping, but his sudden movement I pulled back myself a little, realizing that I had just kissed Shane in my senses and now I am smiling from the inside, just seeing him around me. I got up from the bed and walked into Susan’s room to check on her. She was awake and was playing with her toys.

I entered into her room with a smile, “Hey Suzi! Good Morning! How was the sleep of my baby doll?”. She gave a big naughty smile and hugged me tight and asked, “Elena, I know Shane was in your room last night, did you two get together?

 I just smiled back at her and replied, “Sshhh… Suzi baby! Shane will wake up and no we aren’t together, you naughty girl. I think you are mistaken. We are just friends”.

She promptly said, “If you are just friends, then why is Shane looking at you like he loves you”.

At first, I couldn’t judge what she was saying when I saw her looking at the door of her room. Shane was standing there, leaning on the door wall for support and smiling without even taking his eyes off me. I felt a rush of nerves in my body and turned around putting both my hands into my shorts pocket. 

“Hey, Shane! How are you? Did you get a good night's sleep? What would you like to have in breakfast?”, just to avoid his continuous gaze at me, I kept on talking and asking him random questions. He laughed and shook his head, the hair on his head half fallen on his forehead. “Yes, I would love to have breakfast with you”, his smirk grew and he raised his eyebrow more as he leaned slightly closer to me. With a little hesitation to face him, I started towards the exit door saying, “Both of you come downstairs in next 20 minutes, I will try to cook something special today”.

Inside, I knew, he has always liked me, but from the outside, I couldn’t accept those feelings because of my fear of a failed relationship of my parents. I always avoided eye contact with Shane anywhere possible, because I knew, he is a gentleman who won’t ever force anything on me and he knows how I might react to all these things. He always stayed silent in this matter, and from far away only, thought of taking care of me and loving me silently.

With these thoughts in my mind, I went to take bath first and then into the kitchen to make us all some breakfast. I had never been into the kitchen to learn proper cooking from mom. He is a brilliant cook but I had always been able to make only one breakfast whenever I had to prepare the dish for us in absence of our parents.

I made scrambled eggs with bacon and