Mohabbatein

Practice match?

Sameeksha's POV
Bandana's alarm rang the next morning and as always that alarm woke up me, not her. She fell asleep last night while she was talking to me, and she was sleeping hugging me from the back.

"Bandana uth" I said. Her grip was so tight that I couldn't even turn. "Bandana" I said a bit loudly. She hummed. "Uth ja, 6 baj rahe hai" I said. She hummed again. I rolled my eyes. "Bandana!!" I said. "Bhai sone de na, hamara off hai aaj" She said in a sleepy voice.

"Off? Kyu?" I asked. "Bhaang chadha rakhi hai kya? Saturday hai!" She said irritated. "Arey haan! Aaj to aish fir. Soenge" I said and decided to sleep again.

I literally closed my eyes for five minutes, and then my phone rang. I picked it up without looking at the screen.

"Kon gadha insaan hai jo subhah subhah phone kar raha hai?" I asked. Well, that's what you get for disturbing my sleep.

"Umm...it's Abhishek Sharma" Abhishek said. I opened my eyes widely. "Abhishek...sorry...neend me thi me" I said.

"It's okay. Aaj hospital nhi jaa rhi na?" He asked. "Nope" I replied closing my eyes again. "To stadium aa jao na, match hai" He said. "Umm, match tumhara, why would I come? Mujhe to kucch samajh bhi nhi aata cricket ka" I said.

"To bas mujhe dekhne aa jaana" He said in a romantic way. I smiled and hid my face in my pillow.

Dayummmm.

Wait. What am I even doing!?

"Bandana ko le aana saathme, usko sab pata rehta hai, woh samjhaa degi" He said, chuckling.

*******

Later in the afternoon...
There were very few people in the stadium and that was surprising.

We went towards the stands and sat there.

Players started coming and did a some warm up. "National Anthem nhi gaenge? Dusri team nhi aai??" I asked looking here and there.

"Umm...actually...yeh international match nhi hai" Bandana said, "it's just a practice match you see" She said shocking me.

"Wait" I said, "do you mean ke ek practice match ke lie mene apna afternoon kharab kia?" I asked. She nodded. "Me jaa rhi hu" I said and stood up.

"Hi!!!" Abhishek said coming out from nowhere. "Tumne mujhse kaha kyu nhi ke yeh ek freaking practice match hai?" I asked gritting my teeth.

"Umm, woh bhool gaya" He said with an innocent smile. "Bhool gey? Me itni excited thi iss match ke lie. Pehli baar life me cricket ke lie excited thi me! Mujhe laga stadium bhara hoga! Har jagah 'India! India!!' chal raha hoga! Tum log line me khade hoke National Anthem gaoge! International match hoga!!! Aur yaha? Sannata!!" I scolded him.

He stood there, quiet. "Ab aa hi geyi ho to dekhke jaana" He said. "Me. Abhi. Jaa. Rhi. Hu." I said each word clearly.

"Arey nhi yaar, dekhlo na ab" He said. "Nope" I said. He got down on his knees and was literally begging "Sameeksha please ruk jao" He said. Everyone was looking at us, "Abhishek utho, kya kar rahe ho, yehi hu me...jao ab" I said and stood up.

"Thank you!!!!!!!" He said and left.

"Kucch samajh nhi aaega" I said to Bandana. She chuckled.

After some more minutes of warm up, they finally started.

Bandana was shouting, cheering and clapping after every ball, and I was hell bored. I was waiting for Abhishek to bowl.

"Eh woh dekh, aa gaya" Bandana nudged me as soon as he came. I smiled and fixed my gaze on the pitch.

I didn't know how many times he was going to bowl, whether he was doing well or not or whether the ball was in his favour or not. The only thing that mattered was him looking at me after each ball.

Maybe he was looking for my reaction, or maybe he wanted me to cheer him up or I don't know. But it was cute, how he turned and looked at me and then bowled again.

He left after some balls...oh yeah, I forgot to mention, he got really happy after a couple of balls, he was literally jumping on the pitch and Bandana was also clapping crazily.

I guess he took a wicket, I was too busy adoring him, that I didn't even realise the fall of wicket.

The next batsman in was Manjot.

"Oh my God. Aa gaya. Bhagwaan, iski century banwado aaj, deal yaad hai na?" Bandana said looking up. Did she actually bribe God just for Manjot's century in a practice match?

I wasn't expecting much from him to be honest, don't know why.