Best Friends Forever(#YourStoryIndia)

26

ANA

I cannot believe I'm saying this. But me, Ana Vaidya has been in a relationship for four weeks now and  not regretting it, yet. It's exhilarating and trying at times but,  till now, it feels nice. Is it too soon to say I'm in love with him? I am not sure. I am known to have overactive imagination.  I have this broad creepy smile on my face all day for no reason. Is this love? 

"I'm bored." I said, sighing. 

"Who isn't?" Diya said.

"Shhhh." Afreen said, trying to concentrate on what the old hag was droning on about. 

We both glared at her and she just shrugged. 

I chewed on my bottom lip, contemplating and finally decided to swallow my ego and wrote a note and passed it Diya. 

She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and wrote something and passed it back to me.  This was usual for us, passing notes in class. 

I eagerly read her note :

Yeah. Dev told me they were going home to Delhi,  for some occasion. What's wrong? Didn't Abhi tell you anything? They left last night. 

I went cold inside. why didn't he tell me?  

Diya was looking at me with concern and I immediately wrote back: 

I don't know. I did speak to him last night. He told me,  he was going out of station. He didn't mention anything about going home. Why didn't he say anything.....??

Diya frowned but didn't reply. 

Why would he hide this from me? Something dark and ugly cooked up in my heart. 

As soon as the bell rang and the old hag left,  Diya came to my side and hugged me and held my shoulders. 

"It might have slipped his mind. Maybe he thought he told you. He obviously knows that you would get to know it from me. So, don't jump to conclusions." She said, gently. 

I nodded my head, not convinced. 

I sighed and called him. He didn't pick. I called him again, he didn't pick.  I sent him a text:

You in Delhi?

When I didn't get a response after 10 mins, I pushed my phone away to see Afreen and Diya looking at me worried. 

"Are you okay?" Afreen asked.

"Yes. No. I don't know." I sighed and continued, " I knew all this was too good to be true. If he actually cared, he wouldn't lie to me like this." 

Diya sighed and looped her hands with mine said,  "Forget about him right now. Whatever happens, it's for the best. Let's get out of here." 

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I tossed around in my bed, trying to sleep. As usual sleep evaded me. I looked at my phone screen and saw that it was two in the morning and sighed. My phone pinged, indicating I had gotten a text. I saw that it was a text from Abhi:

Yes.

Yes!!!! That's it?? No sorry for lying through my teeth. No explanation. Nothing. Just the word Yes!!!

I could see that he was still online. it looked like he was waiting.was he waiting for a reply from me?  

I didn't reply. I was beyond angry, not to mention hurt.  He waited for 30 mins more. Not that I was counting and went offline. A sharp pain shot through my heart. 

My phone rang in the silence and startled me. I quickly shot a panicked look towards my door and saw that he was calling me. I didn't have the strength in me to answer his call and quickly silenced it. He called three more times and then sent a message:

I can see that your awake. You are online on Whatsapp.  Why won't you talk to me? :( 

I felt tears prick my eyes. I took a deep breath and switched off my cell phone and went back to sleep or trying to sleep. 

****************************************************************************************************

I had bags under my eyes,  due to lack of sleep the previous night. Damn. This relationship thing was tough. I used to see my friends struggle and thought them to be silly, overreacting and making a huge issue out of nothing. Was I overreacting?  My instincts were bang on. Right now,  my instincts were telling me that My world was going to tilt. 

"Could you call your boyfriend, please." Diya said, exasperated as she sat down next to me and continued, "He's been hounding me since morning." 

"I'm sorry he is  bugging you." I said, trying to keep my voice steady. 

"Just talk to him. He seems really worried." Diya said, placing her hand on mine.

"I can't."I said.

Just then Afreen came barreling into the classroom. She scanned frantically for us and rushed towards us. She was panting and looked at me with sympathy and pity in her eyes. Dread filled me. Whatever news she had was not going to be good, at all. 

She calmed down and with shaking hands pulled out the newspaper. She got to a page, with unshed tears placed it in front of me.

I looked at the paper,  feeling numb. I heard Diya gasp and put her arms around my shoulder. I couldn't take my eyes off the paper. I couldn't hear the noisy chatter of the classroom. I couldn't hear my friends calling out my name. I couldn't hear anything over the chaos in my heart.

I should have expected it. My instincts were never wrong. It was glaring right back at me from the picture in the news paper. It was of my so called boyfriend in a tuxedo, with his arm around a beautiful girl in a pink cocktail dress and smiling down at her, like  he used to smile at me. They looked cozy. The couple was oblivious to the picture being taken, as they looked lost in each other. My eyes finally moved to the caption below the picture:

"The heir to the Rana Industries finally hitched. The mystery girl is none other than Top Model Michelle Lane."

"It's not what it looks like. Talk to him first. It might be nothing. " Diya tired to comfort me but one look from me silenced her. 

"Did you know he was so wealthy?" I asked, Diya. 

She shook her head no. I looked down at the picture of him,  again. 

 All the time I had spent with him, he never spoke about his family. I knew he helped out with his family business, He was getting a degree to join it. Never did I imagine he would turn out be the owner of one of the top industries in the world. 

I ran my fingers over his face. Was everything a lie? I felt like I didn't know him at all. Then,  the tears started rolling and I was engulfed in two pairs of arms that were familiar. And then, I broke down in the middle of my packed classroom, my world tilting around me.