Red Rose !

The dreaded day is coming for all those who are single(by choice or by compulsion).The newspapers ,especially TOI & HT, pile on the agony of singles as they are filled with suggestions about how to make it a memorable day.For those who are not engaged ,for whatever reason,it is a day to reflect on the past and plan ahead(hopefully,for a better future).The grass always seems greener on the other side is a common refrain but it may not be so in reality.
My first and so far the only brush with V-day was in class 11.In fact,till class 10(summerof 1997) i dont think i had even heard of St.Valentine(and i m sure, he of me) and his exploits.Anyway,14th feb 1998 was business as usual for me.Woke up and got ready for catching the school bus,oblivious of what was about to happen.Myself and few of my friends used to occupy the long rear seat in the bus and the bus journey used to be lot of fun.So, on that day also i got on the bus and for some reason (unrelated to Vday,i presume)the attendance in the bus was quite thin.When the bus stopped for its penultimate stop before reaching the school,two sisters(also in class 11 but from different sections)entered the bus.I knew both of them reasonably well(one of them had somewhat fiery temper and the other one was more easygoing)but at that moment not well enough.The fiery one(sis1) came and out of the blue thrust a rose in front of not me but my very good friend(DM)and this caused everybody to raise their eyebrow (including yours truly)as the two concerned people were as different as chalk and cheese.In the meantime,while everybody`s attention was focused on DM and sister1,the other sister gave me a rose and wished me happy V-day.Fortunately for me,nobody seemed to notice and i quickly dropped the rose into my bag.To be honest ,all along i knew that this is some kind of joke being played on my dear friend DM and i was but a character artist in the scheme of things.
All the same,that day we had very few classes and DM and Sis1 were seen walking around the school discussing something or the other.Well,everybody was envious of DM,though everybody thought deep down that he was being taken for a ride..but what a ride !
Finally,classes got over and i reached back home.On coming back i took out the rose(colour is immaterial,but it was red)from my bag and threw it away(actually,under my bed)....Well that was supposed to be the end of it ,but later that evening some of my friends came over to my place.....and quite unknown to me some had actually witnessed the rose giving ceremony ....they wanted to see it for themselves,i told them that i had thrown it (technically a true statement) but one of them looked under the bed and i had to face some music ....but then everybody knew that it was nothing but a friendship rose(unfortunately!).....
P.S.-the person from whom i received the rose is now happily married(to somebody else,ofcourse!)and same is true for her sister also.DM is also engaged to someone.