invisible string ✓

thirty two

• ADVIKA •

FOUR HOURS LATER…

“Ishaan,” Maahi mouthed his name with her sound mind realising that it would be her last time for her mouth to relish his name. “Thank you for all the time. I hope we meet again.”

“And, I hope we don't,” replied Ishaan almost instantly in his raspy tone as he walked away from her and her life, therefore kicking her out of his life mutually.

I would've hoped for a happy ending for these two, had this chapter not been the epilogue. Yet not recovered from the shock that filled me over, I scrolled the pages further with my mind scorning me for my “stupidity” and my laptop flashed the final chapter of the book: Author's Note.

Bracing myself up and telling me not to get too delusional— just like the way I did while reading the dedication (I was initially convinced that I was the AB she had mentioned), I started reading the chapter, hoping that Aadya Chatterjee truly has something for her readers.

Dear Reader,

Call It What You Want became possible only because of you all. Thank you is an understatement for what you did and are doing for me!

By this time, I could sense you all asking where was the happily-ever-after I had assured. I asked the very same question after completing the book. But then, I realised one thing that took nearly one decade to do so: it's not the author who writes the book all the time; it's the characters in that book.

I haven't realised the meaning behind those words until experiencing what it meant. While I was writing the last few chapters, my head heard voices of Ishaan sharing with me about his plight and telling me the way he wanted to live. That was why I gave my boy his happiness the way he wanted.

I believe in a parallel universe— where people live as the characters of my book— which keeps going on. Just because I had placed a full stop at the last line of the epilogue, it wasn't that their world paused. It was that I no longer had the control of deciding things of my own. The characters have. And, that belief made me name Ishaan's happily-ever-after as AB.

Yes. Though I am not going to write any book on Ishaan and AB, I will know their love story like nobody else. I believe that their love transcends all barriers of all the realms.

I sat still as though I wasn't me but a wax statue of myself, my mind entering into an imaginary whiteness where no thoughts are allowed. My mouth was open wide as I blinked incessantly, trying to tell myself that it was a mere dream and that I was being very delusional, like always.

But, as the words on the laptop screen refused to vanish or undergo some transition, I realised that it wasn't my fault.

Running to my room with my laptop, I sat next to Aarvi and shook her as violent as I could, giving zero fucks about ruining her sleep cycle.

“What the fuck had happened, bitch?” was the first thing Aarvi had asked as she looked at my side and tried to open her sleepy eyes.

“Aarvi, wake up, please,” I pouted like a baby and continued, “Wake up, bro! I just completed reading Call It What You Want.”

Then, out of the blue, she got up from her position, looked at me as though I had just asked her hand for the wedding. “So, do you want to talk about it?” As I nodded a slow yes, she rubbed her eyes, let out a groggy groan, and turned to my side, saying, “Speak.”

***

“Now, what have you decided to do now?” Aarvi asked in a much clearer tone as she lost her sleepiness by the time I had completed ranting about what I had seen and experienced for four hours.