Young Writers Society

“Hey stop”, I shouted out loud, but of no use. The bus had already left. I ran after it, screaming at the top of my voice, till my body permitted. I couldn’t catch it and walked back slowly to the bus stand, to wait for another one to take me home. No one else was there.

“Damn it, what was the need to work for so long on the very first day!” I cursed myself. I stood there, hoping for some vehicle to drop me home. No one was around in this corporate world. I glanced at my watch.

11:00 p.m.

For some reason, I did not take out my phone. It was better without it.

I looked around for some help. It was all silent except a few shops and a cafe on the other side of the road but I was not expecting any aid from them.

The cold breeze felt good. I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath. It felt good…

But how can you enjoy such real happiness when you’ve entered the fake corporate? Nature also does not consider you to be her part and the rain came in to interrupt.

I ran across the road and took shelter under the small shade of the cafe.

The road, until then in solitude, got drenched in heavy rain. I glanced at the sky and was convinced that I wouldn’t be reaching home anytime soon and entered the cafe.

It was not much crowded, a young couple and one or two youngsters. I didn’t take much notice of the surroundings and sat on the corner table.

I took out my phone to revisit the picture of my college days. You rarely get chance to dive back into the memories. A waiter came to take my order.

“Just a coffee”, and I continued to swim in the river of memories. I was lost deep in the memories when she came, to serve me coffee. My heart skipped a bit as I saw that beautiful face after such a long time. I just stared at her.

“Your coffee, sir”, she politely said.

It was then that I realized that my mouth had fallen open.

“Yeah, thank you.” I could not take my eyes off her face as she leaned, kept the cup on my table and left.

Aghh, she is pretending not to know me, why?

The question kept flashing itself over and over in my mind.

I finished my coffee as quickly as I could and ordered the second one, hoping that she would again come to serve me. The luck was on my side that day.

A smile spread across my face as she came towards me to serve the coffee. I had never felt happier before as I did not expect to meet her again.

She leaned, kept the cup on my table, turned, and was about to leave.

“Neelam!”

She stopped, her back towards me.

“Can we talk, please?”

“Why?”

“Umm because I feel its comforting when you meet a college friend after a long time”, I choked as I said that ‘friend’.

“Hmm, okay. A small conversation would do no harm. I’ll return in a minute” and she went, not even once did she look at me.

She didn’t return after a minute, not even after two minutes, five minutes, ten and even twenty minutes. By then, I was half convinced that she won’t return and so, I drank the whole coffee in one gulp and was about to order another when she returned. She had changed into a black top and jeans. She looked stunning than ever. I could hear my heart beating.

She waked slowly towards me and sat on the chair opposite mine. I was still under the influence of her beauty, until she interrupted, “So, wassup, how’s everything goin’ ?”

“Umm, fine, everfing… everything’s fine”, I fumbled, “and you?”

“Yeah, fine,” she pretended normal.

Silence!

I was continuously staring her and the fall of her hairs. She again interrupted.

“So, how come you’re here, covering some news or what?”

“No, I joined Jujj… Jupiters today and just missed the last bus home, and it’s raining outside. So…”, I said, trying to recompose myself.

Whoa, she still remembers my love for journalism.

I was delighted as this thought continued to tickle me.

“But I suppose you wanted to be a journalist and till where I was told, you were quite passionate about it.”

“Yeah”, for the first time I took my eyes of her, “not all of us are lucky enough to live our dreams.” I paused, expecting her to speak something. She didn’t.

“Parental pressure broke me down and now here I am living a so-called happy life.”

I again looked at her. She was looking at me. Our eyes met, and quickly she turned here gaze away.

Silence again began its monologue in our conversation.

“Anyway, how come you are here?” I asked, while debating if I had asked the right question.

“Life shows you unexpected things. You never know what’s comin’ up”, she looked straight in my eyes. I shivered.

Is she hinting at me?

“And, by the way” she continued, moving her eyes off me, “my story’s a bit long and there’s no meanin’ in you listening my story…”

“Please!”

“There’s no poin…”

“Please!”

I got up from my chair and sat next to her. I held her hand.

“Please!”

“Huhh, okay”, she surrendered.

I looked intently in her eyes as she began, “After we separated, things have never been easy for me. Life came down harsh on me. It became more difficult each passing day. I told my uncle about my ambition. He straight away rejected. I kept on making attempts and it soon bore fruits. He packed my luggage and threw me out. I really missed mom a lot that day.”

Tears rolled down her eyes. She paused, and I knew, to suppress a sob.

I had never imagined that she would be in such a dire state and I would not be able to do anything. I wanted to wipe tears off her cheeks, but didn’t have so much guts.

“Then I came to this city”, she continued, “I checked every small and big music club here, for any possible work, but you know what, they didn’t want any passion, only money. Within a month, I was broken. There seemed no hope to live, no one to live for”, and she broke down. She was weeping right in front of me and I could not do anything.

Why am I even alive?

I felt frustrated. A part of me was crying as well.

“But the real life was still to come”, she continued, recomposing herself , “By then, I had known that before passion comes the will and way to be alive. So, I searched for every possible job, from a school teacher to a sales person, I tried hands everywhere but what I got was sheer rejection.”

She paused to take a sip of water from her bottle. All this while, I was looking intently at her.

“Then I reached this cafe. The owner of this shop was a… I don’t know what to call him. He offered me the job of a waitress on the condition that he would sleep with me during weekends and that I would never object to what he does, what he says?”

“And you agreed?” I almost shouted.

“There was no other option left”, she replied so coldly that I felt guilty for shouting at her. She always had this magic on me.

“And you allowed that beast to exploit you to such an extent?”

“Hey, wait. He helped me in my hardest times, when no one was around. How can you call him a beast?”

“Well, I’d still call him a beast. He didn’t help you, he used you.”

“Huhh, call him whatever you want, there’s no point abusing him, he’s dead. He died the very next week after my joining.”

“Listen, the point is not if he is dead or alive, the point is why did you allow anyone to harass you to such an extent,” I paused momentarily, “And tell me one thing, I never said anything to you. It was you who left me, then why didn’t you come to me.”

“Wow, you really are a great guy. I never imagined you could transfer the whole blame on me like that, great!”

“Wait, you mean to say I was at fault. While half of our friends were accusing you, I never said a word to you…”

“Yeah, that is what your fault was, you didn’t say a thing. When you ought to be supporting me, you kept quiet”, her voice raised, “That Rosie gave you that pic of mine with Rohan and you, you trusted that fake thing and not me and now you transfer the whole thing on me? Wow!” she looked straight into my eyes but I turned my gaze down. I could not look back into her eyes. After a long time, there were tears in my eyes.

I kept looking at the ground, thinking of what to do next, what to say next. I took in deep breaths.

“So, shall we go?”, she broke the silence.

I didn’t look up.

‘We’ go? Does she want me to accompany her? Is she taking me somewhere?

I was overthinking, but amidst such positive thoughts, one negative made me shiver.

Is she hinting at departure?

“Shall we leave, Mr. Rastogi?” she asked again.

This time I looked up. I had to look up. My moist eyes met hers. There was some friendly smile on her face. It felt comforting.

We both got up. I was following her, on our way outside the cafe.

The atmosphere was cool, due to the rains which had stopped by then. She walked across the road to the bus stand. I followed her. There, she closed her eyes, a smile on her face. I didn’t know if she had the idea of the effect that her smile was making on me.

I abruptly asked, “ Do you still love me?”

Her eyes remained closed. The smile on her face faded for a moment before she smiled again. The second one was fake, I knew that, at least there I could make the difference between fake and real.

I remain silent but she speaks, so what does this silence means?

I felt a yes but then her smile did fade.

She is just angry with you, she loves you. I tried to console myself.

I was again overthinking and silence was back between us.

“Can we be friends again?” I asked after a minute or two.

She nodded and I felt so much happy after a long time but I tried to remain calm.

“And listen, a friendship can’t work if the friends are not in contact, so may I have your phone number.”

She giggled, “Yeah, sure.” and we exchanged our phone numbers.

In the meantime, I saw a bus heading towards us and I knew a new journey was about to begin.