We all have had those times when even the slightest of a brush against their shoulders got our hearts racing. We started to see depth in the colours of nature, started to smile a little bit more. But, then the prince died.
“Tina was standing in the corridor, waiting for her best friend to come.
Her best friend did not show up soon enough, but…he did.
Carrying his school bag like Troy Bolton, he passed by her. Now as if just a slight brush against the shoulder (because of the heavy rush in the corridor, damn!) was not crazy enough, he in all his playfulness, did the error of pulling Tina’s cheek.
And, a mad woman was born.
So much started to happen within her body!
She could hardly feel her limbs. Her thoughts were jumbled up, all she could feel was the minty trace of the touch on her cheek. And why would not she? He, after all, was a perfect fusion of those dreamy fictional characters we secretly desire to be alive, and by our side. He had the eyes of Troy Bolton, dimples of Patrick Verona, but what used to make her heart throb like crazy was his fragrance, which she used to find similar to that of Michael Moscovitz.
An ardent lover of Michael Moscovitz, she once hugged him in her dream, and that fragrance, oh my God! But when she finally rose her head from his shoulder and saw the face of the person in the dream, it was actually him, not Michael! And that made her fall deeper for him.
He, now, was her Michael Moscovitz jumped right out from the pages of Princess Diaries. So breathtakingly charming.
But who was he, really? How much did she even know about him?
Never mind that, he was dreamy, that should be enough to get those butterflies fluttering and those cheeks to sustain the pink.
And, when the news reached the charmer’s ears. He, totally aware of his charm and good looks, made her, his special friend.
Tina felt lucky. She had the perfect boyfriend in the entire school.
Nights were spent whispering sweet nothings to each other through the phone. She used to stretch her smile deliberately a bit too hard to make dimples a real feature for herself. She was wearing his skin, all the time.
But since all new things become old at some time…
Her heart did not race anymore every time she saw him pass by. His dimples seemed wrongly placed and a bit too large suddenly. She was not happy, she dearly missed that adrenaline rush she experienced when he pulled her cheek for the first time. From feeling lucky for having the perfect boyfriend to feeling unlucky seeing her friends enjoy their singledom, she experienced the drastic change of emotions in a span of 3 months.
She could not understand what the deal was all about. And while she was on her quest for an explanation, his friends came into the picture.
They both were standing outside the school near the ice cream cart. And suddenly, out of nowhere, his friends showed up. His friends, just like him, were attractive, handsomely lean boys. They parked their SUV beside the ice cream cart. He felt thrilled and embarrassed at the same time. Embarrassed because Tina used to wear specs, and he was never really in awe of her geeky look.
She had the prettiest eyes, and he knew it. So when the badass boys stepped out from the car to give him a boyish punch, he elbowed Tina and in hush (but firm) tones, ordered her to remove her glasses. He did not want his friends to meet his girlfriend who does not exactly have the best of body-shape and, on top of it, wears specs.
Tina had got her answer!
At the beginning of their relationship, lust had made her blind, and she misconstrued it to be love.
And while she was already bored of his too cool for school charm, it was the coldness of his heart that made her finally realize that it was all a game of deceiving good looks.
She liked him because he had a little bit of all her dream boys in him, he liked her because she had a pair of beautiful eyes! ‘All eyes are beautiful dammit, only a good heart can capture the beauty in them…’ – She would wonder.
And now when she looked back, all she could remember was too much of finger lingering, excessive of staring and looking away in shyness, but would she want to grow old with him? Or even think about it? NO.
Because it was lust.”
So what is love, really?
Love makes you want to introduce your partner to your circle (both inner and outer), it makes you continue even when lust dies. Yes, lust dies in every romantic relationship, it can be re-ignited but that can’t change the fact that it does die. Those who continue even when there is no more of goosebumps-generating embracing and gazing, enter the love phase.
For Tina, it ended because the sheer romanticism and other exciting feelings on the onset of her relationship died. And with that, she found nothing worthy to last around. So was the case with him. He wanted to flaunt her face minus the specs.
Love motivates you,
It makes you want to disclose yourself to your partner,
It makes you want to continue even when the newness passes and the monotony of life swoops in,
It makes you want to discuss the most important of your life decisions and important happenings (sad or gay) with your partner,
It stays even when miles keep you apart,
It stays even when one of you is not pro-sex,
It falls apart, it fights, it stinks at times, but it always makes up.
Because…
It is love.
And all those times that made you gave up on it because that feeling was not there anymore, then it wasn’t ‘love’ at the first place.
It was lust.
