Unrequited

Chapter 14

I entered college, a few days after the bar incident with Ayaan, covering my head with a stole.

Although I had put up a confident front earlier, I was pretty sure my heart and brain would not cooperate again with my tongue. Knowing Ayaan was in the same college as me, is one thing but seeing him materialise in front of my eyes, wearing clothes which makes him look gorgeo— Cut. It. Kia! — is a different story altogether.

So, I was relieved when we didn't cross paths that day, or the day after or even after two months. My heart, always the incorrigible one, wanted to leap out of my chest and go on a man hunt in search of Ayaan, but Kira kept it in check.

One Friday night as I sat in my bed writing an essay for college, I got a call from an unknown caller. I picked it

up—

"Hello?"

"Hi, um...Kiara?", asked back a chirpy, female voice.

"Yes, who's this?"

"Arre...didn't you recognise me?". One annoying thing that people do is that they call up someone unexpectedly and expect that person to know who it is. Who was she? Taylor Swift? Why would I recognise her voice?

"Umm, no...not really? Who is this?"

"Arre, it's me. Garry. I mean Garima."

Garry. Reallly!? After what...three years? Garima had been my best friend at school. Back then we were inseparable.

We were the sole support for each other. She would always say "if you fall, I'll always be the one to pick you up.... but after I'm done laughing".

That woman stood by me no matter whether it rained on me, snowed or there was a complete draught. It was mutual.

I never remember a day without her, so close were we. But as tenth ended, and because I didn't have a phone yet, we couldn't keep in touch. I tried but could not keep it. She tried too but I was too...I don't know...caught up?

A warm smile spread onto my face as I hear her ask me once more. I nodded into space, expecting her to see it.

My eyes had filled with tears and my throat had wound itself around a horrible painful lump and I could not trust my voice with it. I had missed her so much, god!

I had wanted to talk to her, text her but her happy pictures from her college with new friends had kept me.

Maybe she was out with her friends. Maybe she was busy. What if she wouldn't want to talk? All kinds of thought troubled me and stopped me from contacting her.

"Y-Yeah. It's me. What's up? It's been a long time isn't it?", I replied with tears ready to spring.

"Yeah, I know. I'm so sorry I had no time to catch up. I was so busy with doing entrance exams and shit and other shit. But I...I really missed you, man. I missed you so much."

And with that we were gushing and sobbing salty tears, reminiscing about the past. Garima was training to become a doctor and spent all her time with books the weight if rocks.

Her brains had always been the brightest, however she had always been the fun loving one.

But since she took up the challenge of becoming a doctor, she turned to a study-crazed nerd, with horrible geeky glasses.

All of our friends only knew her from the outside and appreciated her hard-work. But I was always proud of her brains and her defiance.

"Oh, by the way, the reason I called up was that we were planning a small reunion of our class, next week. It's been 2-3 years since we all last met, so I thought maybe we could catch up. It would just be us, close friends, not the whole class, that'll be too much. So, are you up for it?"