Loving You

Chapter 4

I let out a shuddering breath as I leaned against the door. Seeing her had brought back all the bad memories.

Kaira. Kaira Sethi. Though if the sindoor (vermillion) on her forehead was anything to go by, she was now Kaira Tandon.

Kaira, my cousin - the eldest daughter of my youngest Chacha (uncle). Her arrival to Manali and in our lives had changed everything.

Though if I was honest, I was the one who had brought Kaira between Sahil and I. I in my naiveté; I in my enthusiasm to help had broken the one relationship that ruled my heart.

There are some moments that imprint themselves so well on the heart that it is difficult to forget them, despite all the effort in the world.

The first time I let her come between Sahil and I was one of those moments.

I could still remember that morning. Sahil and I had just left the house, on his bike, to head to college. Kaira was waiting a few minutes away from our house.

"Sahil, stop!" I yelled at him, squeezing his shoulder

"What?" he asked annoyed. He hated being late for his football practice

"Kaira" I told him, my way of explaining that we needed to talk to her

"Be quick" he warned me as he pulled the bike towards her

"What are you doing here?" I remembered asking Kaira "Wasn't Bally Bhai dropping you to college?" Balvinder, Bally, was the youngest son of our eldest uncle.

"His car broke down" Kaira had said, making a face "I have to take a rickshaw now"

"His car belongs in a dumping ground, not on the road" I commented, knowing the car in question

"Rooh" Sahil cut in.

He hated calling me Molu. He thought it didn't suit me. He always said Rooh sounded better because it meant soul and I was the center of our families. Too pampered by everyone, he would complain.

I sat there on a bike for a second before inspiration struck me. In hindsight, I wish I was dumb. Hindsight is always more painful. It makes it very difficult to forget the seeds that you have sown for your heartbreak.

I got of the bike, pushing at Sahil's shoulders as I got off "You go on the bike with Sahil. I will take the rickshaw"

"What?" Sahil asked, looking at me confused

"She doesn't know her way around" I explained

"I am getting late" he said annoyed, when I didn't offer any other words

Kaira didn't delay, she got on the bike quickly. Sahil shot me a look and then drove away. I stood there waving them off. Silly I know!

I never realized that what I had done would be the start of a daily practice for the next week. The difference would be that Sahil would himself stop the bike and wait without saying a word. I like the idiot that I was, would obligingly get off – feeling hurt but still stuck in my mode of being helpful – and then wave them off.

At the end of that week, Shalini Maa had caught me waiting for the rickshaw and bought me a scooty of my own. I was not going to depend on anyone else, she had said.

While it was a blessing in a way – it meant I didn't need to go through the hurt of getting off the bike and seeing them leave – it also meant that now Sahil and I rode to college separately. He with Kaira and me on my own.

What had started out as separate trips to college soon washed over rest of our life too. Where it was Sahil and Ruhi always together everywhere, it was now Kaira and Sahil.