In a parallel world

childhood sweethearts

G and I were packed up with busy schedules so couldn't talk much but one day he called me and he seemed to be panicking.
"Hey what's up"
" Cupcake I'm confused."
"Hey G,calmed down. Take a deep breath"
After few seconds I asked
"Are you better now ?"
" Yes" he sighed but I could still feel the tension
" Yep so tell me what happened "
" Actually cupcake I want to take a drop year."
( Oh yes I forgot to mention that he is about to finish 12th grade. Despite of us being the same class ,he got a double promotion in 8th grade. In the sense he skipped 8th and was directly promoted to 9th grade after 7th grade cause his IQ was very high)
"This...engineering is not my cup of tea. I have made a grave mistake by choosing pcm. I ..I just can't..I "
He shuttered and I could hear him sob. This was the first time in 13+ years of our friendship that I have heard him cry . My heart broke seeing him in that state.
"Hey hey. Its ok. It's absolutely fine to make small mistakes like this in life. Infact I would say it is not even a mistake ..."
"But .." he cut me off
"Shhh calm down. Let me complete talking "
"Ya sorry."
"Yes so I was saying it isn't really your mistake!
Your teachers and parents manipulated you to choose this path since you are smart and you also didn't deny. But I have known from the start that this is not your passion. You are meant to do some work related to arts .you are good at painting,graphic design, you have good marketing skills ...Perhaps fashion communication? Wasn't that your childhood dream ?"
"Yes cupcake I have thought of that .But don't you think it's too late to change my career path? I mean my parents have developed a lot of hope that I would become an engineer and they also invested a lot in coaching . It's not that I'm struggling with the subjects but I'm not finding them interesting . And I have researched about btech branches and subjects. None of them interest me. How do I tell my parents? How would they react ?"
" Listen G doing something which you don't like will make you live a miserable life. You will be depressed doing things which are not your interest. So please listen to your heart and do what you like. I feel taking a drop year is a good choice so you can rediscover your childhood interest and find your passion . And about aunty and uncle ill talk to them. Im there na .so don't worry. "
"Thank you sooo much cupcake. Idk what I'll do without you. "
"Haha come on George you still thank me even after so many years. This is the bare minimum,my friend . The least I could do. "
Like that we had an hour long conversation about various things to distract his mind.
And the next time I visited home I convinced his parents and they happily agreed giving him the time and space which he needed.
~Like that 2 years passed by ~

He was now 19 and was learning to drive a car cause his father promised to buy him a car for going to college.
As for me , I was busy preparing for entrances.
Infact he was also preparing for entrances and as suggested by me he rediscovered his passion for fashion and decided to pursue fashion commination. Since his IQ is high he spent lesser time than me for preparing for the exams.
Few weeks passed by. Both of us got our results he got the rank somewhere in 100s while my rank was closer to 1000. I was disappointed but I didn't lose hope. He and Pranavi became my rock during that period.
When the counselling process started I got into NIFT Hyderabad during the second counseling.
When my mom got to know about it ,she  was slightly overprotective. She didn't wanna send me to Hyderabad as my father's acquaintance heard a bad rumour about the college as well as the hostel.
But Pranavi and George convinced her.
And then George dropped the bomb
He told me that HE ALSO GOT INTO NIFT HYDERABAD .
I was shocked. When I asked him why he settled  for less when he could've gotten into a better franchise of NIFT like NIFT Mumbai, he scratched the nape of his neck and told me that he wanted to get into the same college as me so he waited for my counseling results to start applying and luck favoured us putting us together in the same college,same branch and same section. Just like the good old school days.

I woke up with a jerk. And saw the diary beside me. Then I realised I re-lived my life. And the diary actually works. It did take me to the parallel world where I could live the moments which I could only imagine.