CHAPTER 5

 

It had been a few days of our official dating. I was into her. Totally. Not emotionally but yes something was there that held me with her. I met her in school, we spent our time together during free lectures, lunch breaks and even during my tuition classes too. I texted her after a very few minutes. Our romance was on its peak and it made Sam totally annoyed and of course why won’t it even affect him, I was getting distant from him. I kept busy chatting with Harshita even when we went on our evening walks, or at times on calls maybe. I had no time to spend properly with Sam. But he acted always neutral and cool and never complaint about anything.

 

31^st January, 2015

I had not been to walk for a week with Sam. I smelled it that he was keeping himself away from me. Whenever I asked him, he said he was busy with his project. I wondered what project was he working on that was consuming him this much and he has no time for me since last one week. Even during school time, he did was all to keep silent and it was literally hitting me inside my head. This was so unusual and I was still unaware of the reason.

I waited for him in the morning but he did not show up to pick me. His cell phone was going out of reach too. When I reached Rawat’s classes, I saw him sitting there. I wondered what was going on in him. I waved my hand towards him to shake but he did not respond. That day was a chemistry practical exam in the school so we were in a hurry to reach as soon as possible. He ran off early and did not wait for me so I went with Harshit. I thought he would be getting late for his classes so I did not bother him. After the school, he again went back home without letting me know.

I called him up to meet for a walk but he did not attend my calls. I texted him but got no text in reply. Then I saw him online on FB and then I again texted him there ‘Are you insane? Where have you been all this while? You know I called you so many times and all you did was not to answer any of them. I know you are there. Now will you please text me back?’

I saw something typing on my phone’s screen, ‘I am working on my project and I could not reply your calls.’

‘Seriously! And what about this morning, why did not you come to pick me up and went without telling me?’

No reply. I waited for whole five minutes. ‘Is something wrong Sam? We can work on this. Why are you ignoring me all of this sudden?’

‘No there is nothing wrong.’

It was the very first time he was being unreasonable. He was behaving like a nomad and I have never dealt with his anger before. I was feeling hellishly very bad.

‘Can we go on walk today in the evening?’

‘No, I am busy.’

‘Hey man! What’s wrong? If it’s really ‘bout your project, lemme help you. Come to my place and we will finish it in a short while.’

‘No I will take care of this. It’s my project not yours. You don’t need to have any headache. And if you really wanna go along someone to walk, take your GF with you. It will be much better.’

Okay! I got it. So this was it. It was something related to Harshita. Though I still had no known idea what it could be but then I had a clue.

‘Are you coming to my place or not?’

‘NO.’ and he logged out the FB.

 

The Evening

‘I am outside your house. Can you come out? I am waiting for you.’ I texted him with a heart emoji after calling him so many times already. The best you can do when someone is mad at you is to stand at his door and tell him you are waiting for them outside.

About a dozen of texts, I literally was full of tears. I could not hold it anymore though I tried to hide them behind my eyes so I again made him a call.

This time finally the phone call was attended so I burst out ‘Hey man! I literally called you too many times, don’t you have a single minute to attend my calls?’

‘Hello!’ the sound was girlish. ‘I am Sam’s sister, he is actually busy with something, may be project. Can you call him later once he is done? I will ask him to call you back shortly.’

‘Okay miss.’ I could not say anything else and hung up the call.

I came back home, went inside my bedroom, zoned out, laid back in bed. And yes! I cried.

Badly.

 

10^th February, 2015

Getting separated with your best friend literally feels real bad, you become silent, hollowed and your mind doesn’t allow you to work normally. It’s been ten days since I hadn’t seen Sam, not even talked to him on text or calls. And for this reason, I was not even talking to Harshita properly. He did not come to any of the tuition classes, I wondered even if he did appear in his practical exams or not. I was worried for him and did not study well, as a consequence my practical exams went worse. I was less worried about my marks but was more keen in him. I could not call him or text him in past ten days because of what happened between me and him, his rudeness, my being broken, and everything that blocked my mind from efficiently working on that topic to sort it out. I was disturbed. Badly.

‘Isn’t he your best friend?’ my brain sent me a stimulus.

‘So what?’

‘So what! Are you asking so what? So you gonna leave him like this only? Aren’t you going to sort this out? You are so mean. He did what he felt like. He did it because he was hurt by your negligence. You hurt him. It. Is. Your. Fault. And you’re acting so innocent like you haven’t done anything. You left him alone for a girl. A girl who has just entered in your life a very while ago and you are being so romantic and acting like a Romio that you can’t even see he is left alone and hurt. Fuck you! You’re a bitch.’ My mind cursed me.

‘Just shut up you Asshole, he is my Best Friend. I will leave the world and go to hell if he dies. But he is still alive and I am gonna get him back again. You don’t need to tell me what is right and what is wrong. I know him better than you, he is just mad on me and nothing else. He act like he doesn’t want to talk to me but I know he is dying for last ten days to talk to me, to see me, to hug me and even he will hit me in the head and say I can’t see my wify getting close to some other person. Yeah, his lame dialogues.’ But I love them. Don’t I? ‘But he will definitely gonna come back to me, he misses me, but doesn’t text or call me because of what he did to me was wrong too by not attending my calls or ignoring me.’ I abused my mind and felt pity on it. It was acting super nova and I gave it an earful. Haha.

I waited for the sun to go down the skyline and ran off to Sam’s house. I was being confident to slap him in the face and then hug him, clutch him in my arms and say sorry. I rang the bell and it took approx five minutes before the door was finally opened till then I kept on looking at my watch and cursing him in my head for letting me wait for this long outside as the few minutes seemed liked decades to me. His mother opened the door and I brought my right palm near my face to greet her As-salamu-alaykum. She greeted back wa-alayakum-salam, and shouted out ‘Sam, your friend is here to see you.’

He consumed more five minutes to come out to me and my excitement turned into irritation.

‘What the fuck! What’s with your face now?’ My anger cooled down within microseconds after seeing his pale and pimpled face.

He kept silent. Smiled in a half-witty way and replied ‘So, you finally got time to visit me. I thought you will come to my cemetery only.’

I hit him in the head and said, ‘Stop it you nuisance. But you’re still alive. I was not planning to come to see you, just passing by here so came to see if you are doing good or what.’ I pretended like I wasn’t worried at all.

He asked me to go on the terrace with him and I nodded my head in a yes. As soon as we reach the terrace, he pulled me back towards him, wrapping his arms around me and whisper in my ear, ‘I missed you.’

Why is he acting so romantically? Is he into me?

My lips couldn’t resist smiling and I told him back that I missed him too.

And now why am I smiling too and behaving like his lover? I must be insane.

‘What’s with your face? Why do you look so terrible?’

He spared me and said ‘I took wrong medications for fever and it gave me rashes all over my body as it reacted very badly. I couldn’t face anyone having this terrible look so I bounded myself inside my house.’

I was dead laughing and could not utter any word for next few minutes. I held my tummy and sat on the floor to take a deep breath. He was annoyed, his words became brutal ‘And now you’re laughing on me, firstly you did not bother to come visit me and now you want me to kick your ass out my house by irritating me.’ His smile transformed into fierce.

‘Sorry I didn’t mean that. Actually you don’t look that bad as you have presumed. And now that you are okay, I am going to get change my shirt and you come to my house to pick me up for a walk. I haven’t been to Cantt for past few weeks.’ I gave him a deadly look as he was the reason we could not go there lately.

He smiled and I could see his bright eyes which were finally lit up.

 

After an hour he came to my house and when I came out to check on him, he was sitting on a red KTM.

‘Fuck! Where did you get it from?’ I was super excited.

Come on sit at my back first, I will tell you in our way.’ He drove us like a missile. I was scared sitting behind him. ‘Just slow down a bit you asshole, I am almost in the air to fly away.’ He increased the speed and I held his neck, ‘Are you gonna kill me?’

He did not bother to answer me and we reached our destination in a short while. Mini Mussoorie was my favorite spot till then. I stood near the rails of the footpath and became lousy watching the scenario.

‘How’s your girlfriend?’ he smirked.

‘She’s dead, I’m dead and you too are dead. Go die somewhere. You ruined everything. I could not write my exams well, could not celebrate this valentine’s week either, just because you were not around me and it affected my mental level.’

‘Awww, so my absence troubles my wify this much!’

I jumped to kick his ass, ‘You jerk. You made me feel worse, what will I say to Harshita?’

‘C’mon man, enjoy the evening and think upon that later.’

When we can’t say yes or either No, we say “Later”. Nice.

‘Our farewell function is almost near, so my cousin gave me his bike for it and I want you to come with me to the party as you don’t have any bike.’ He flipped the key of the bike and rolled it in his index finger.

‘Awww! So you want to act like a Pro now.’ I smiled and looked away. ‘I will ask my brother to drop me to the function. You go with your batch mates.’

When the evening turned into night, he drove me back to my home and rode away like a pro again. Though I could not celebrate the valentine’s week with Harshita, still that evening I felt very light and joyful. Yes! Because Sam and I were again back together. He was back. My best friend was back.

Well that KTM suits him very much.

‘See, I told you already, he will be back in a short while. He is just shy and that’s why I had to make a move first.’ I murmured to myself while I unlocked my house door.