Love Me Day Or Night - Book 2 -

Her Letter

------ Her Letter ------

Xavier,

I wish I could add a 'Dear' before your name. But people who reside in our hearts are not just dear; they are parts of our soul. No, I'm not writing this to make you understand how much you mean to me, but I'm writing this because a memory haunted me a while ago.

It was a weekday most probably. I don't remember, since in school no one does remember. We had school, that much I am sure and thus I would take it to be a school day. I had been scribbling over your notebook. I had not known it was yours, and thus the 'Hello' that I had done as calligraphy on the last page of that Maths copy was not something that you seemed to be proud about. You had been annoyed. I cannot term it being furious because in class 6, which boy is really furious unless and until they have anger issues?

All you did that day was, you broke the pen I was using, and you snatched away the copy, which was yours after all.

I'm chuckling like a maniac now, that I remember it. How many years has it been? We had been 11 year olds then. We had been classmates from the time I can't even remember. But we had never been much of friends. That day, it was one of those first times we interacted properly. You ask why I remember it? Well it's because the broken pen had leaked ink which had permanently, spotted my shirt. You had not been furious, but mom had been. She had beaten me up so bad, that I did not go to school for two whole days. I remember doctor uncle coming to my house and treating me with ice bags. Mom hadn't meant to beat me up so bad. I remember her crying the whole night beside me.

A week later, you said sorry. About the shirt. You had looked down, and grumbled a sorry, and even with the huge cut on my lips, I had smiled and said to you that it was okay.

It was again after two years, in 8th standard that we talked again. This time, you had spilled water on my bag because of a bloody dare! I was so angry at you, that I ended up throwing your bag away from your desk. Do you blame me though? What if your bag filled with books was soaked in water? That too, intentionally?

I am laughing now as I write this.

Then again, the next thing I remember is our class 12 farewell. In the four years in the middle, we had become from classmates to friends. The transition had been so slow, that I never realized it, until class 12 was almost over. We had chatted over hours; we had pulled each other's legs. We had cracked jokes on things which I remember even today.

My most memorable was that speech you gave on our farewell.

I hope you remember it.

I'm not asking for anything in return, and I have no idea why my eyes are wet right now as I write this line. Remembering school memories is always hard, especially when you have left all those memories behind in the corridors and desks in which we loitered around like we owned the place.

My best remembrance from ours stack of memories, is the reaction which we had when we met after three years, and ended up in the same place for the Master's course. Then our time together at the MBA.

That day, when we met after three years, I was not expecting it to happen. Life had happened, and school friends had become names in the contact list. It was once or twice after we finished school that I had actually approached you. After a few months, even that had been lost over time. Thus, the reaction which we shared after seeing each other is still embarked into my mind. I was almost reduced to tears, as I screamed out your name. It was the professor who finally brought us back to the world we reside in. Yet another embarrassing moment in our bank of memories.

I never understood why and how we landed up in such situations every time.

The day, while listening to 'Finally Found You', I never understood you were actually proposing to me until Nikita pointed it out to me, and I started crying. I remember you laughing though! I was there, sitting on the grass, and crying while you kept laughing and laughing and again laughing until you knelt down and engulfed me in a hug, and shushed me to calm down.

It was the most beautiful memory of my life, till that time.

The next memory was of the time, we shared our first kiss in the kitchen of your parent's house. I never got to tell you, but I love your parents a lot. They had been so nice to me throughout my life. They were the marvel creations; I had always hoped I got as my in-laws.

After our moments in the dorm, you fulfilled that wish of mine as well.

After that wedding night, you gave me the most precious thing of my life. The most beautiful. Our baby girl. Our Cassandra.

I always write you letters. They are in the drawers of Cassy's cupboard. I hide them, because they are feelings that I could've never spoken about. You know how bad I'm with words right? Yet, I wished you hadn't left that night. I wanted you to stay because I couldn't go with you. With Cassy being a baby, and my job and our parents, I couldn't have left the city while you had to. It was a job, and a great opportunity, and I wouldn't have been the one to stop you.

I remember how much you cried holding Cassy that night before you left. I remember that night as well, when you couldn't stop calling because our baby was suffering from a fever.

If you ever read this, please don't confront me about it. You know, I hope you never ever find this.

But, I'll say this...

I love you.
I love Cassandra.
Even if I'm not around, I wish you both love me the same.

Sincerely with love,
Ashlyn. :')

He closed the letter, as the tears fell down on his hands. They wouldn't stop. It was her last letter that she ever wrote, while Casdy was five. Today, she was seven and her mother was long gone. While she remembered all their memories, he remembered the blood that soaked his shirt when he carried her to the hospital. He remembered, when she pulled Cassy to herself and pressed her bleeding lips on her forehead and whispered an 'I Love You.' When she looked at him through the blood and smiled at him for one last time.

It was her letter which he had found, and now she was not even there to be confronted about it.