It was a normal day for me. Got ready and prepared to leave for school. It was Valentine’s Day and for me the day was of no special. As I reached the school, I wished all my friends who passed by me “Happy Valentine’s Day”. As the clock started going round, there came my best friend. He’s a boy. Yes a boy! We are not couples but we are good friends. But people around us were always considering us as falling in love with each other.

He came towards me to talk but as he neared there were cheers and laughter from my classmates. After the bell rang, he went to his classroom and me to mine, I asked my friends for smiling and teasing me. The answer I got for it was unbelievable. They had suspected him to be my Valentine 2005. I couldn’t stop from laughing and explained them about our friendship and asked them to stop talking about those useless claptrap.

My friend and I had worked together in many school activities. We used to talk about our School Clubs and our friends thought that we were dating each other. I always laughed at those twaddle but as the rumors were spreading like a fire, I found it difficult to behold the situation and explain every people who ask me about them. Even when we walked down the streets together people shot suspicious glances at us. Sometimes, I even question myself, “Can’t a girl and a boy just be good friends? If the answer is yes then why does our society think the other way round ?” As I study in a co-ed school, its normal for me to see my friends calling themselves “in love”. I don’t say its wrong to be in love but for me that teenage love is a mere attraction. And in my case, we are just good friends. So whenever you see a girl and a guy walking down the streets together, please do not consider them as a couple immediately. They may be just good friends. — Kritika Amatya, SLC, Galaxy Public School