The Missed Boat Party

Dhruv sat there alone, by the seashore.

 All his friends had gone to a boat party. He was a little late in reaching by ship and it had left already. So, he thought of waiting there by the sea.

The sun was going down. The sky looked a mixture of different shades, and the shade was getting dark every minute. Birds were flying in groups, maybe returning to their homes. As Dhruv sat there looking around and admiring the place, he didn't seem to notice when a girl came there and sat nearby him. And she kept looking at Dhruv as he was lost in his own world.

After a little while, the girl asked, "Are you lost somewhere?" Her eyes were staring at Dhruv as he woke up from his world and turned to look at the girl.

The girl seemed a complete stranger to him. As she kept looking at him, he tried to say something, "Ohh… I… Ummm… Yaa…. Well… not really. I am just waiting for my friends. Sorry, I didn't see you."

The girl gave a smile to him and said, "Well, that's precisely why I asked if you were lost?"

Dhruv stared back at her and with a little smile he said, "Umm… Well… I… don't think I know you."

"That's quite simple," the girl said as she extended her right arm to him, "I am Ariana."

Dhruv looked at her as she held her arm extended for him and her smiling face looking at him. He then looked around, perhaps expecting some weird signs. But there wasn't any. He extended his hand towards her, and as they shook their hands he said, "Hi Ariana. I am Dhruv."

"Good!" she said excitingly, "Now we know each other, Right?"

"Err….Are you with someone?" asked Dhruv in a confusing manner.

"Oh no," said she, "I am alone. I am just a nomad. And I like to travel alone." Dhruv was staring at her as she kept speaking, "I love to travel and visit as many places as I can. I go anywhere I like. I stay wherever I like. I eat whatever I want. I talk to new people from different places. And I like it so much." As he began admiring her and couldn't keep his eyes away from her face, she continued, "And frankly speaking, I like to be alone. There's no compulsion of any kind in it. I am free to do whatever I wish for."

As she stopped speaking, a silence spread there for a moment. And in that moment neither the sea waves were rising, no birds chirping in the sky (Perhaps they had already reached their homes.) and no other sound came that far. And both Ariana and Dhruv were looking at each other.

A silent puff of wind passed through them, and as they came out of their reverie, both looked away from each other.

As she watched Dhruv, who was now playing with sand, she asked, "So… what's your story? Are you also a traveler?"

When he turned to look at her once again, he found that she was already looking at him. When he saw her smiling face, he noticed for the first time how beautiful her smile was. And for the first time, he noticed her dark brown eyes, her dark brown hairs falling a little below to her shoulders, her little nose, and a tiny mole at her upper lip.

A moment later, when he saw a palm waving in front of his eyes, and a distant laugh reached to his ears, he realized that he was staring at Ariana for far too long. He quickly turned away from her and as he began playing with the sand again he replied, "Well… I am not a nomad like you. I am here with my friends on a trip. But, unfortunately, I got a little late to join them for the boat party. So, they left me here. And I have been waiting for them since then."

"Do you really think," said she, with her sweet smile returning to her lips, "that it was unfortunate of you that you could not join your friends for the boat party?" As she finished the sentence, she sneaked a look at him and drifted away instantly.

Dhruv somehow felt happy as she asked this. He tried to copy her smile while he replied, "Well! I think I would have been most unfortunate, had I decided not to wait here, for my friends."

"Oh! Don't worry about that," said Ariana waving her hand carelessly, "I would have found you anyways!" And she began laughing again.

Dhruv was admiring the girl sitting with him, a complete stranger who didn't seem much strange to him anymore and who says that she would have found him anyway. That got him thinking for a bit and he was getting a distant feeling that somehow he had met her somewhere. But he had no such memory in his head. And he was glad to be in her company for the time.

A moment later Ariana said, "You know what! Let's go have coffee until your friends' return from their party. What do you think, Dhruv?"

"Coffee sounds cool. Let's go have a coffee then, Ariana."

And, having made up their minds, the two strangers stood and began walking towards the coffee shop.