Always Is Not Forever (Breaking Myself - Part II)

16. The One Where We Turn Possessive

[ A L I N A ' S P O V ]

Checking the calendar on the mobile, I chewed my lower lip. Our one month was ending, and I had to move out, but I didn't want to. I craved spending time with him, felt the relief pouring to me when we would talk late at nights, laughing or somedays, we didn't talk but sat beside each other, watching TV and that used to be enough.

I loved getting up in the morning and finding him coming from the GYM. I loved sleeping next to him when I would have a nightmare and waking up to find him sleeping soundly. I loved leaving the apartment together for college and coming back together. However, some days I took my car because he would have basketball practice. I loved waiting for him to come back from work and just see him even if we didn't say anything more than few words.

But it was ending.

And he didn't even ask if I could stay further. It wasn't his mistake. What we did was so wrong in so many parts. Dad would kill me if he got to know I lived with Kabir under one roof. He would lock me in a room, and mom would taunt him for giving me too much freedom, but I was an adult. I could make my decision.

We didn't do anything wrong.

He helped me.

We got to know each other much better.

After that night, we never fought again. We talked whenever something troubled us. He hated my habit of reading late night in dark. I hated his habit of throwing his clothes anywhere in the hall. He hated my habit of never taking care of my spectacles which would be lying anywhere. I hated his habit of drinking juice directly from the carton. He hated that I would always get us late to college, because I used to wake up late, and then I did yoga late, and then it prolonged everything.

He loved being on time. He was time freak as well.

Kriti kicked my shin with her foot. I scowled at her, closing my phone.

"You called me here, and now you're dozed off."

Making a face, I grabbed the popcorns from the bowl. "I've to move out."

"And you don't want to?"

"No." Snuggling deeper into the recliner, I stopped the movie. "I love living with him."

"Then get married." The popcorn got stuck in my throat, and quickly, she passed me the can of Pepsi. Taking a sip, I glared at her. "What? You said you love living with him, then marry him. You're of legal age, and huh, he's not. What's with this? Girls eighteen, boys twenty-one. What rubbish?"

"Shut up." I threw the popcorn at her. "No marriage. Huh. We can live without getting married."

"And hear your parents anger." She snatched the remote from my hand. "They're going to get very angry."

"I know, but they don't come here. And I don't care. It's me and Kabir, not my family and his family. We can see what is good for us." Rubbing my hand on my neck, my knuckles the chain of the pendant. He had asked why I was wearing it every time. I loved it around my neck. It felt he was there. "Huh, I'm so in love."

"Badly." She giggled. "You realize that now? I saw the first time you introduced me to him. You couldn't stop smiling."

Too much warmth in the room. "What is my mistake? He makes me like this."

He changes me.

He makes me want to love myself.

He makes me laugh.

"I want to live with him but I don't want to be a burden."

"But you've to leave." She gave me a pitying look. "One day or another everyone will know and they will question. Your families agreed for you, and in no minute, they would disagree."