ShiVi: A Collection Of Short Stories.

tuesday night miracles (part 2)

"Dinner actually jhelne laayak tha aaj. Nahi?" Gurpreet said, stretching her arms as they walked back to their room.

"That's because maine tum logo ko early birthday treat diya. Kamino!" Raavi exclaimed, exasperatedly, checking her phone.

"I know, darling! And we will wish you.... In 4 minutes." She replied, looking at her watch.

Raavi checked her phone for the 10th time in 2 minutes. He hadn't seen her message. Had he forgotten what it was in a few minutes?

"Raavi, apna phone chod na!"

"Woh mera phone nahi utha raha hai, Preetu. Tu samajh nahi rahi hai. Jaan bujhke call cut kar raha hai woh mera." Raavi tried calling him, but he declined it again.

"Bhul gaya hoga."

"What?" Raavi whispered.

"Boyfriends aise hi karte hai. Long distance mein, especially. They stop talking, then forget important dates. And before you know it, they're declining your calls kyuki koi aur mil gayi hai. It's not new, personal experience se bol rahi hoon." Gurpreet shrugged, as if it was a normal thing.

"Woh aisa nahi hai." Raavi said, defensively. "Bachpan se jaanta hai woh mujhe, har baat jaanta hai mere baare mein. And cheating? He would never do that! Tu mili nahi hai usse, isliye you don't know him. Toh kuch bhi mat bol, birthday se pehle mood mat kharab kar mera, please!"

Raavi stomped away in anger, wanting to cool herself down before her birthday. No being sad on her birthday. No one could spoil her mood. Certainly not her bhootnath.

Screw her stupid mouth for exclaiming things loudly in front of Gurpreet. Of course, Shiva was busy. He was 2 years senior to her, he had much more to do in engineering college than she did in her 3 years of MBA.

That didn't mean he didn't have time for her. He'd always call her as soon as he was free from all his assignments and exams, and they'd talk for hours. Video calls made her way more emotional than audio calls, but he always insisted on video calls simply because he missed seeing her.

6 months. She hadn't seen him for 6 months. Part of her had expected it to take this long, but she didn't expect it to hurt this much. Last time, she didn't know how he felt about her. Now, she did. And it pricked more.

There were days when he'd call her, just to see her, no talking or smiles, and she'd know those were the days he missed her the most. He'd secretly wipe his tears, but she didn't point them out to him, or else he'd just cut the call abruptly and it would take days to manaaofy him.

Sure, he had cute juniors and batch mates, but he hated if any random girl tried to hit on him. Raavi would just laugh at his stories of juniors trying to ask him out, while he glared at her through his screen.

He would not cheat on her. And he certainly would never not talk to her. Not after how they reacted when they first met after so many months. She just knew it. She trusted him.

"Maine kya kiya?" Gurpreet mumbled, unlocking the door to their hostel room.

Before she could turn on the lights, she felt a weird presence in the room. The lights from the window showed a silhouette, someone with quite a height and body, blindly finding their way around the room.

"CHOR! CHOR!" She yelled, tossing her phone at whoever it was, and a sharp yell resonated in the room.

She turned on the lights, to find a man in a shirt and jeans, ruffled hair, standing in front of her. He looked quite familiar-

"ABE GADHEDI KYA-" He yelled until he registered that the girl, in fact, was not his gadhedi.

"Tum?!" Gurpreet yelled, finally registering his presence.