Teri Meri Kahani

25. Efforts

SHANTANU'S POV:

That conversation I had with her through texts that night must've been the shortest and driest of all times. And I am so sure of it because I remember every single fight of ours and she'd never been cold towards me without any reason. She never gave me on point or short replies.

Okay, even if the replies would be short, I could feel the warmth radiating through them. But today I felt off. As if there's a huge gap between is. Much larger than I thought it was. Because during 17 years of our friendship, Mansi had never asked me if I had texted her for some work. Because work has never been the primary reason behind our talks. We used to be as random as any person could imagine. from sending useless reels to each other to indulging in a deep conversation while judging someone else's newly built relationship. Well, few of you might think its not good to pass views on someone's life, but it doesn't matter as long as we don't hurt that person. But that's not the point.

The point is, when did we go from "let's fool around" to "did you want any help from me" kind of friends? help was necessary between friends. But not only help. We were on the verge of losing our friendship and it was held with a very thin thread. I could feel it.

Which means, I would have to put much more efforts than what I had calculated.

Doesn't matter, I would put a thousand times more effort if that means I could bring my friends back to me. Or more like, for my friends to take me back.

Because, I am sure as hell, looking at my behaviour from past few weeks, no one would entertain an arseh'le like me.

The next day, I was dull the entire time in school. Anyone could tell from my behaviour. My usually energetic self was sitting quite while my girlfriend and her friends laughed out loud while they made jokes about a random reel they had sent in the group last night. They tried to include me in the beginning but judging by clearly fake interest, they didn't bother much.

That is why, I wanted to get my friends back. Because they know, when I am sad or quite, I don't need space. I need them. I need chaos. I need people who can bring back my energy. I need people who care about me. I need people who need to see me smile. I need people who wouldn't mind my rude arse but still wouldn't give up until they made me smile with their silliness.

I needed Gaurav who would show he was immensely irritated by my existence but still wouldn't leave my side when I felt low.

I needed Shanvi, who was more of Mansi's friend but still wouldn't mind sharing her precious candy with me just to make me smile again.

I needed Karthik who would tell me I f*cked up with a calm face but still wouldn't make me feel bad about it.

I needed Mahi who would simply nod her head and agree when I let my shit out but eventually would tell me where I went wrong after I had calmed down.

Above all, I needed my solace. I needed Mansi. I needed her because she would all the above and so much more. Her embrace was my escape. It still is and will always be.

Fool of me to think I would be able to pay a bit less attention to this fact.

But now that I've realized, I know what I should do. And that's what I'll do exactly.

GET THEM ALL BACK.

No matter how hard I will have to try. I had realized this a few days back itself but the realization hit harder just now.

I turned my face towards where all my friends were seated. They were around mansi's bench, as usual. We still had some time left before the class to start and its their usual habit to go around the first bench and fool around together.