Never Let Go!

Chapter One

Sooraj

It had been more than three years now since I had last been to this city. This city had been home to me before. It had been my life. But now it'd be three whole years since I'd last met my friends. Truthfully I was in no mood to party around. I was happy leading a laid back life with my family. The incident had made me realise the importance of the people who'd stood by me through thick and thins and frankly there was no one besides my family. That incident had shattered me completely. I wasn't even sure about what my friends would think of me. But then I realised it was time I found out. It was time I finally stepped out of my shell, because believe it or not I had done nothing wrong.

'Sooraj?' Seeing my best friend Rohit after three years got a smile on my face instantly. He hugged me slapping my back playfully as if the last years had vanished into thin air somehow. 'Man! I missed you.' 'I missed you guys as well.' I hi-fived the rest of the gang, Dipika, Tushar and Jay. 'Seriously, you want us to believe you missed us?' I set out a sigh, how was I to explain what I had been through I thought to myself inwardly. 'Let go dude, we understand, Shruti was a very...' My eyes went wide at the mere mention of that name. The name that at a point meant the world to me, today was just a word that'll remain attached to mine. 'What Dipika means to say is..' I put up my hand to stop Jay from elaborating himself further. 'It's okay, it's something I will have to live with. I don't know what you guys believe to be the truth but I really had nothing to do with it.'
'Relax bro! I never thought you'd ask us if we believed in you. You've hurt me. I've known you since our school days man, a shy kid like you can never pull that out.' I managed to give him a smile, rather a thin line that had formed on my lips, glad that my best friend Rohit still somehow believed in me. 'So when did you guys discover this new party place?' Dipika let out a giggle, 'Thank god you asked, you're yet to meet the sixth wheel of our group, Siya.' I furrowed my brows together, who was this new girl in town now? Before I had time to indulge into more thoughts about her, the latter appeared amidst the crowd. It was as if the light was solely shone down upon her for me to see. Gosh, she really was beautiful. Long, wavy black hair, wearing a skinny tight blue jeans and a white top that slightly slid off her slim shoulders. I shook my head out of those thoughts. What was I getting myself into? Again?

'Sooraj meet Siya, Siya this is our friend Sooraj.' I shook hands with her and before I could even let go of her hand she started exclaiming, 'Oh so finally I did get to meet you. I've heard so much about you.' About me? I looked around at the blanks faces of the people surrounding me. 'They won't say a thing now, but of course they kept on mumbling good stuff about you and now I realise why they were only good things.' And now I realised that she indeed was one chatter box that never managed to shut up. Not that I hated her voice in fact it was just the opposite but I wanted a reason to hate her. And right now I was practically trying hard to find one. But here it was, one, too talkative. I knew I didn't need this, I decided to move out of the room, 'Ro buddy I'm going out, I need a drink.'
'We're in a pub, we get drinks here.' He looked at me bewildered. I looked around, did he really think I was this dumb? Why was he even my best friend? Idiot. 'Ro you know I don't drink what's available here. I want a coffee or tea. And I really need to get out of here.' I shook my head laughing at Rohit's idiocy. I realised what he was doing when I heard him say his goodbye's, I turned around and shook my head, 'No, it is okay I don't want you to wrap up, you can enjoy. I'll see you guys tomorrow.' I needed air. I needed to breathe again normally. That talkative creature had consumed most of my thoughts and clouded my mind completely. What was I doing out there? Had I forgotten what had happened with Shruti. It had been worse than a disaster.

My mind zoned back to the days when Shruti would make me laugh and smile over silly things. I was happy. We were happy. And then one day she'd suddenly started to lose out on something or the other. First it was panic over failing in her career, the next she'd started acting overly possessive about me and she'd hate it even if I spoke to any girl and her possessiveness over this fact led to her weird thoughts that I had been cheating on her.
I rubbed my hands up and down vigorously all over my face. That was all a traumatic experience of the past. The worst was the experience that came after she refused to take any psychiatric treatment and her mind worsened. Mom had by then already told me to stay away from her, but I being my sensitive self couldn't leave her alone in such a condition and I kept on trying harder to be someone who would make her happy but it all went in vain. One fine day she committed suicide.
My jaw tightened as my thoughts zoned back to that day when Shruti's mother had called me up early in the morning and had asked me to come down to her place. I was beyond broken to see her body so still with rope marks all around her neck. I held on to the door frame for support. The next voice that I heard broke me down altogether. It was Shruti's mother. 'She is the way she is right now because of you.' That line I haven't forgotten till date. I had done everything I could to be the person she wanted me to be. I had never faltered, never given up on her. All I wanted was for her to get better, and somehow she'd just lost hope on it herself. I don't know how her mother had forgotten that even I had lost someone very dear to me, the one that I had loved my entire life. But suddenly she'd managed to snatch that very thought away from my soul. All I was left with was emptiness and I was glad that my family stood by me throughout. And I had to leave this place to be able to stand up on my feet again. To be able to live my life again.

After three years, being back here, I don't think anything had changed at all. The trauma was still etched in my mind very vividly. I closed my eyes and furrowed my brows together as I thought about what to do next, but somehow I knew for sure I had to stay away from Siya come what may.

Note: Well its a dark start but Sooraj is in a pretty dark place right now. Let's hope Siya pulls him out of here soon. The story is something different and I do hope you'll like it.