Summer Girl-Part I

[Watching the short youtube series 'Kissing in the rain' that portrays the same set of actors enacting various scenes from iconic movies and books, all culminating with them kissing in the rain, got me thinking about a short series of prose depicting the thoughts of a young girl at various points of a vacation during the summers. It's purely fictional. More of an experiment, really. Readers (it's probably only just Sam. Hi Sam! :) ), let me know if it's working in the comments (please Sam? :P ).]

Paridhi stood on the shore staring at the wide expanse of the sea in front of her. Vacation, at last. Long awaited. Long due. Vacation. Life for the past year had been a confusing whirlwind. College. Of course, most of the blame lay with college. Yes, the college of her dreams was different from what she had imagined it to be. Not bad, just different. And exhausting. A vacation was just what she wanted though she would have preferred to spend time with her family alone. Instead she was sharing them with Kabir and his family. They were family friends. Kabir has been a constant and in recent times, a somewhat confusing, presence in her life. They have known each other since forever. Considering they were only one year apart, Kabir being older, and knowing their mothers, they had probably shared a crib together at moment. He had been a consisent playmate during childhood. For a long time, it had been Paridhi, Kabir and Anushka. Kabir and Anushka had always been closer, first as children and then as young adolescents. Nothing very apparent, really. The three of them were always together in whatever they did. But within their group of three was a clique of two. What was the reason for this closeness, you ask? Paridhi didn't have the slightest clue. She wasn't very envious either. Truth be told, she started noticing Kabir as more than a permanent fixture in her life, as different than her own parents and brother, only when Anushka left. For one day, four years back, Anushka and her family just upped and left for the USA. And that is when Paridhi saw Kabir, actually looked at him, for what he was and not as the second half of the Anushka-Kabir duo. Infact, she still remembered the day she along with Kabir stood and watched Anushka leave. They were 14. To say that she had been upset that day would be an understatement. Yeah, nothing out of the ordinary there. What had come as a surprise to even her, was the reason for the same. The image that had haunted her then was that of Kabir, as he stood there with a look of complete and utter bafflement and betrayal in her face. That she hadn't known about Anushka's abrupt departure was not out of ordinary. Though she and Anushka had been constant friends, they hadn't been particularly close. But the fact that Kabir hadn't known either had been surprising to say the least.

"Paridhi"! She turned at the sound of her name and saw Kabir walking towards her. The years had been kind to him. He had always been tall and thin. Even as a child, he had been distinctive to look at. But the years lent a certain maturity to his face, depth to his eyes. Those deep set dark eyes were now positively piercing. And uncomfortably discerning. "So this is where you have been for the past one hour. Everyone has been looking for you. It's time for dinner. Ready to come in?", he adds with an easy smile. "Yes, let's go. I'm starving!" And they walked back to their cottage.