And that's what happened...

Long one....brace yourself.
Read part-2 here.
He groaned. Women and their own niceties. Women and their silly way of putting things across. All he could do was give a glare back.
She smiled within. All he can do is to glare. She picked up her stuff and got ready to leave.
“Wait,” he said, and ran behind her. “Yeah.. you know what? I hate ABBA. I wonder how any silly person on earth could listen to their songs at this point of time. And to think I had to hunt around for a t-shirt with their pic just to think of vaguely impressing you! And yeah, I know you saw me dumping that damned thing in the bin… which crazy loon would go around campus wearing a tee with a silly old band’s picture. For a girl like you who thinks she’s really clever, it’s definitely not worth this much trouble. Wonder why I took your number at all. I’ve hardly seen anyone as conceited as you! And to think I wanted to ask you out….shit!!”
“Oh, really? Bloody, then why the hell should you have my number….some guy faking interests to impress girls has my number! That is totally disgusting to even think of!” she said. She snatched his phone from his hand and deleted her number.
“Oh yeah? You thought you could just erase off your number? It’s in here, woman, in here,” he said, pointing to his head.
And just then, he realised an I-don’t-care would have been more appropriate.
She laughed. “What an absolute loony! I’m really glad you don’t want to ask me out anymore! ”
And she turned to walk off.
“Hey!” he yelled. “Know that I’m a million times gladder!!”


They didn’t really meet many times after that, even accidentally. Any occasion when they happened to be close around, at least one walked away in a huff.
Almost a year later, as she was in the queue in a food stall, she saw him in one of the tables with some girl. Some pretty girl, flirting with ease.
“What a natural flirt,” she thought and smiled. Strangely, looking at him didn’t make her all that irritated as it used to till about two months back, before the long, summer vacation. She was in fact, amused to see him behave in an absolutely charming way with the girl, who, she could see, was also responding appropriately.
She turned to face the food stall and ordered, “Fried rice, to go.”
As she made her way out of the queue, she saw him standing in the queue. The pretty girl was still at the table.
And he saw her too, and after a moment, flashed a smile.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi,” he replied, and scratched his stubble thoughtfully for a moment. “Uhh, long time!”
“Yeah!” she said. “And I see you haven’t changed your ways that much….”she continued, turning her gaze to the pretty girl.
He gave a nervous laugh. “Old habits die hard!”
She giggled. “God, you’re such a flirt!”
“Hey, if that’s a compliment, I’m happy…it’s coming from you, the most conceited girl I’ve ever seen!” he said.
She raised her right eyebrow and shot a glare.
“C’mon…just kidding!”
“Yeah, fine, you better be!” she said. “Got a class. Bye!”
“Hey, hold on…I was just wondering, yeah…you know… if we could catch up sometime and go for dinner… with Vandana, of course…oh that’s Vandana, by the way…” he said, pointing to the pretty girl he was flirting with.
“Yeah, maybe….”
“And…. your number?”
“Don’t you have it here?” she said, pointing to her head.
“Err…I still do. Just making sure it hasn’t changed.”
“No, it hasn’t. Bye, then!”


Almost two years after they met in the canteen, she still can’t believe how things had changed. He had somehow grown to be her closest friend, and she, his confidante. Vandana, he had told her, was the fourth attempt he had made after her, and unlike any of his previous tries, it was clicking quite well.
Leaning at the parapet wall of her new apartment, both were staring out at the beautiful setting sky.
“Hey, you know…” she said, still staring upwards at the sky. “ A guy can never be best friends with a girl he finds attractive….this comes in a movie...”and turned to face him.
He looked at her too.
“Yeah, ‘When Harry met Sally’….but yeah, who said I found you attractive?”
She glared at him, and returned to staring back at the sky, while he quietly laughed.


Yippppeeee! Concluded – before any of you give me more suggestions and ask questions!