Confused 💞

18.

Teja reached Karan's house in a few minutes. She had been to his house many times but never this late, it was almost midnight.

Still the place felt homely, safe and comfortable. The way Karan's parents treated her was overwhelming. It never felt that she knew them for just a few months. The one thing Teja was most thankful to Karan was that because of him she got to meet them.

Karan's mom and Teja shared an amazing bond , but even his father always showered her with fatherly affection.

Teja entered the house, and as expected she was welcomed with all the love. Karan's mom cooked for her and Teja was feeling grateful for knowing such people. They talked for a bit after the dinner and then Teja got up to leave.

It was almost 1:30 at night, so Karan's mom didn't want Teja to drive alone so late.

"Teja let Karan drop you, I will ask the driver to give you your car tomorrow." Karan's mom suggested.

"No aunty I will go alone, it's fine."

"But..."

"Why don't you stay here, you can leave in the morning." Karan said

"Yes that's right, Teja please stay, even I will be worried if you go this late."

"Umm..."

"She is staying", Karan said looking at Teja.

Teja thought for a minute and then agreed. Driving to her home after working all day, that to this late was tiresome.

"Okay but I have to take a few things from my car, so I will just go and bring them."

"I will come with you, let's go", Karan said.

They went to the parking, Teja took her things, when Karan saw her stethoscope. His curious mind started analysing it. After looking at it for a few seconds he saw something written on it, ' DAD '  it read.

Teja saw him looking at it and said, "During college days everyone used to write something on their own stethoscope to identify it "

"And you wrote dad"

"Yeah, it was equally his dream to make me a doctor so.. "

Karan smiled, it was the first time Teja was talking about her dad.

"Let's go" Teja said.

In the guest room Teja sat alone and started thinking of all the memories she had with her dad. No doubt she missed him , but that day she missed him a bit more. Looking at her childhood pics with her dad , she got emotional.

* knock *

"Do you need something" Karan said and entered the room.

Hearing the knock Teja quickly wiped away her tears.

"No , I am fine", Teja said in a cracked voice.

"Teja, what happened", Karan asked with concern.

In normal days Teja would have never opened up, but that day due to some reason she couldn't hold on to the emotions infront of Karan.
Her eyes got moist , she sat on the bed with her face facing the floor. Karan came ,sat beside her, held her hand and asked again,
"Teja what happened."

" I don't know, maybe one of those days which makes me realise what am I missing in my life, my dad. I lost him when I least expected. He used to be ill but I never knew that it was that serious.
During his last stage my mom and brother were with him in the hospital and our close relatives started coming in our house and I was clueless.
My cousin told me that my father was critical, and the first thought that came in my mind was, it's fine , people recover . I was sure that he will be fine when he was there on the ventilator." 
Tears started running down Teja's face and Karan's hold on her hand tightened. 
"I still remember that I could not even cry looking at his body because I could not believe it. I cried but because I saw my mom crying, I saw my uncle's pale face , my siblings red eyes.
But you know what I recovered, i don't know how but I did . And then five years later it once again came infront of me when I got to know the real reason of his death, cancer.
My mom hid it from me. Somehow this information changed a lot in me , I used to always regret that I could not be with him the way I should have, but that information increased my regret ten folds.
I am blessed with an amazing family Karan, I could never ask for anything better, but I still miss him , I miss his protection, I miss those proud eyes whenever I used to achieve something. I just miss him around me everytime and I can't do anything about it.
I just hope that he is happy seeing me become a doctor" With this Teja burst into tears.

Karan took her in a side hug and started caressing her head.
"He is happy and really proud" Karan said.

After a few minutes Teja calmed down, wiped her tears off, looked at Karan and said,
"don't sympathize with me okay, I am fine."

"Sympathize with you ? You are way strong to sympathize over." Karan said with a smile.

"I think we should sleep now, it's already very late"

"Yeah" Karan said, he walked till the door then turned back and said,
"Teja thank you for sharing, you don't know how much it means to me."

Teja could not say anything, and just smiled.

Karan left, and Teja went to freshen up.

After freshening up Teja sat and thought of all the things that happened and regretted instantly.

For her, talking about her dad was a really sensitive thing and the fact that she opened up about it to a friend she met just a few months ago was not at all a thing Teja would have ever thought of doing.

Karan was breaking her walls very fast and it scared her.

The next day Teja woke up early morning and left after meeting Karan's parents. She was not in a zone to face Karan after the emotional breakdown she had infront of him. At the same time she wanted to talk to someone to clear her head.

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This should be considered as third update of the week though it is published after 12......

Also three updates in a week seem difficult at this point but I will definitely try...

I also want to end this story by Jan cause I won't be free after that, but let's see how it goes...

Anyways your comments is what I wait for , so if you feel like commenting something, good or bad( criticism written in a nice way😁) then don't even think twice before doing it....

Okay byeeeee.....🤍

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