"I thought you hated hugs" , I voiced out as he wrapped his arms ever so gently around me.
"I still do, but hugs from you are an exception", he pulled me closer, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
Intrigued, I slightly tilted my head...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
In all sincerity, I must admit that I was wrong.
My biggest red flag? It wasn't overthinking or the tendency to create problems where there were none. It was running away from reality. The cowardice of hiding behind my own insecurities and expecting the other person to magically fix everything while I stayed safely in denial.
That's what I had been expecting Veer to do. Find out why I was behaving the way I did and magically fix everything.
He had confessed, spilled his heart out with a sincerity that had left me speechless.
And what had I done? Flinched away like his words were something I needed to shield myself from. I had let my own overthinking and unresolved fears mold his love into a weapon, something I assumed would inevitably cut me. I was so damn stupid and I hated myself for it. I hated myself for hurting Veer again, making him double think of trusting anyone again.
Like everyone, I have had my shares of past trauma and I had let it consume me. I had let those memories haunt me again. When I was determined to give me and Veer a chance, those memories had resurfaced forcing me to think that me and him don't stand a chance.
I had shut him out before he even had a chance to prove me wrong.
And now, he was doing the same to me. Returning the favor by closing himself off so entirely it was like I didn't even exist.
Appeasing someone when they are angry is far easier than persuading someone with a behavior so nonchalant that they forget about your existence.
After that day when Veer had stormed out of my house all hurt, I had tried everything—calling him everyday until my own ringtone became a cruel reminder of his silence, texting him paragraphs that were left cruelly seen-zoned, the tiny blue tick' beneath my words mocking my desperation. Even knocking on his door had turned into a humiliating ritual, each unanswered attempt echoing back at me like a taunt. Veer had perfected the art of ignoring me, shutting me out so completely that I wondered if I had ever meant anything to him at all.
And well, I deserved it. The realization was a bitter pill to swallow, but I couldn't deny it anymore. Maybe this was just karma making its rounds. And for the first time, I was the one being shut out with no key to force my way back in.
My friends had oh so supportively said that they would help me win Veer back. But when it came to suggesting ideas, they were anything but that. Yes, we zeroed in on a few options which majorly consisted of — first me talking directly to Veer, because not doing that was the sole reason for all this and I had failed at it terribly because I hadn't even seen him for the past two days.
