We had been friends for quite a few months but hadn't interacted much by then.. In those few months, somehow I once asked her out.. We got busy in our respective lives and never actually went out.. It was never supposed to be a date, just two friends hanging out.. It had already been decided that she would choose the place.. When we finally fixed a day, she bailed out and handed over the place selection to me.. I told her she would regret letting me choose, as I wouldn't make it easy and chose a bar.. To my surprise she was completely fine by it..
We both went for it, all dressed up nice and good.. She is not much of a talker, though.. It was pretty quite on our way to the bar.. And then the drinks started rolling in.. I had never seen her being that playful and spontaneous.. The once not-so-much-of-a-talker wouldn't shut up now.. This is what I wanted out of this outing, to get to know her true self, the self she keeps hidden behind all these layers of maturity..
We had a lot of fun.. On our way back, she leaned on my shoulder for support since she was pretty sleepy.. I don't know what came in my mind but I could only see that a lock of her hair coming on her cheek and bothering her peace.. I moved it away.. She looked at me.. It felt as if we were in a romantic movie.. I panicked and asked her to sit straight.. She too made sense of what just happened and sat right up the very next instance.. Turns out she wasn't sober enough to do that, and started dozing off to the other side, where there was no support, just the open road.. I couldn't let that happen either so I pulled her back towards me saying that it's ok and that she could rest on my shoulder.. I guess she must have gotten sober enough to have her walls up again by then, and thus spent rest of the rest of the journey sitting straight on her own.. I too wasn't much sober, but apart from this, I remember only one thing; me telling her that I can't be too open, as it wouldn't turn out good for me..