I’ll finish what I started. Part 2.

The three years of the college were a bliss for them. They hung out, studied together and even went to each other’s places. His mom loved her and hers loved him. They knew that they were best friends. But the time of separation was approaching.

They had their best dance at the farewell party. She wanted to cry over his shoulder while dancing, which she did, but later that night. Tamanna got admission in Bangalore and Samarth, in Delhi for their post graduation. They called each other for hours at a stretch every evening. She told him everything. After all he was her best friend, more than a boyfriend. They flied over to meet each other seldom. 

Around 6 months later, he came to meet her one day. She had cooked his favorite chhole-chawal and he loved them. They danced on their favorite song when she rested her forehead on his shoulder. After a while she looked up to see him. They kissed. As they separated, she looked into his eyes but found something weird. His forehead was creased and face was blank. He wanted to say something, but couldn’t.

She asked him what it was. It took a lot of courage for him to finally say “I was thinking we should take a break for sometime. Look, we aren’t kids anymore. We need to focus on our careers. But we’ll get back together again when it’s time, I promise. But right now it’s best.”

She could see it hurt him while saying all that but she was furious. She wanted to tell him not to do that but couldn’t ask for it. She felt betrayed. How could he even think like that! she thought. Tears rolled down her eyes while she was expecting him to say “Sorry baby, my fault. It was a stupid decision. We’ll stay like we have always been, okay?” But he didn’t. He didn’t say any of that. Even after seeing her stupefied face, he sat numb. Finally she got up and went inside.

“You know what’s best? That we don’t talk or see each other anymore, ever. Tomorrow morning is your flight. Just leave without waking me up.” she said before leaving.
He went after her and tried to hug her. “Please understand.” he said. But she shook him and went away.

…

The days became miserable. Tamanna had not only lost her love, but also her best friend.  “How could he even do that to me. Didn’t his mouth tremble before uttering all that? Didn’t his heart ache before thinking all that?” she asked herself again and again. She missed how they talked to each other. She missed their conversations, their teasing. He took away the confidant of her life.

Samarth had tried to talk to her several times, but she just wasn’t ready to. He tried talking to her only to make her understand and not to get back together. She was surprised to see how he even thought about staying away. Taking a break? Seriously? Didn’t I mean that much to him as he did to me? Too many questions. Her head was a storm. She sometimes wished something must happen to him to make him realize what he did. Every time she thought about him, anger burst out of her and pain took over. And that was basically all the time.

…

Eight months had passed and her anger was now suppressing. The pain wasn’t still gone. She still cried on some nights but may be she had forgiven him. She got a call from one of their common friends from college and what she heard from the other end felt like a thousand stabs in her heart. Those words killed her, shattered her. The pain she had felt for the last 8 months seemed nothing now. She couldn’t say anything.

“Samarth has met with an accident. He lost his right leg.” was what she had heard.
She felt guilty. Ashamed. She felt like killing herself. She thought that she was responsible for this. She felt like her revenge was taken, as if the universe had heard her and did this to Samarth. She was miserable.

She flew over to Delhi to meet him in the hospital. His mother cried in front of her and she cried along. She wasn’t strong enough to give a shoulder to anyone. She wanted one for herself. As she saw him from outside,she felt like she was breathing after a long time. It was all she was thinking from the past few months. To see him once, to love him. And now she did, if only it wasn’t like this. It took her several minutes to get the courage to go inside. With a heavy heart she moved in his room. He was alone and asleep. She took his hand in hers and waited. Finally he woke up and saw her. They looked at each other but there weren’t any words. Tears fell down from his eyes and so from hers.

“I’m sorry” he finally said.
“No! I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry I did all that to you”
“No. You tried talking to me but I didn’t. What I did was worse.”
“I’m happy you came. I so wanted to see you.” he said.

The emotions of pain and regret clouded over her. But amidst all this, there was a certain happiness of meeting him. Her heart felt a lot lighter. She realized he was all she wanted. But she had been so stubborn, so stupid to have let him go. She could at least have tried stopping him. But her ego had stopped her.

“Staying away from you had been so miserable. It was all my mistake. May be God has punished me for that.” he said.

Those words brought back all the pain. They hurt her.
“Stop it! I shouldn’t have let you go. I shouldn’t. Anyway, I did that mistake once and I’m not going to repeat it.” she said.
His looked at her in doubt.

“Yes” she said and kissed his hand. She rolled her eyes to see no one was looking and quickly kissed him on the lips.

…

She had to fight a lot of people for being with him. Even him! He fought with her for staying away from him. She knew he was upset because he wanted her to have a perfect man for herself especially after what had happened. But she was determined.

“I will finish what I started. I started loving you five years ago. And I’ll do that for the rest of my life.” she had said one day.

Present day

He is walking by her side right now in the park. It’s a Sunday evening and their daughter is playing. He still stumbles some times with his prosthetic leg. But he is getting better at it.
She held his hand tight.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing” she said and smiled.

He understood and smiled along as always.

Here’s a link to the first part of this post if you haven’t read that already! – I’ll finish what I started. Part 1.