More Than Friends

FIVE MONTHS FIVE STORIES

Ever since Ragini had stepped into my life, things were getting so easy. I didn't always have to deal with things alone. She was always there. For information, she never solved my problems but she gave me much worse solutions so I found my problem easier than dealing with her. She was erratic mess. One moment she sounded like the most mature person on the planet and very next moment she fought over a chocolate. I always wanted to be understood and she was the most understanding person alive. I was raw before her. Just the way I am. The lonely, vulnerable and emotional me. Absolutely bleak. She knew every side of me. The sides even Vaani didn't know. In this way we became the best friends forever. I loved listening to her tantrums and she used to be calm while I told my stories. She laughed at my jokes and I pretended to laugh at hers.

Vaani and I were now damn serious for each other. I was so in love with her and I was indeed lost in her all day. Ragini used to give me these real cool relationship advices despite being single herself. Vaani was a bit jealous of Ragini as I got to spend more time with her and not with Vaani but she managed to handle herself well. We talked more than before and we fixed our times to come online so that we could chat instead of leaving messages for each other. She was fun. The only problem was we didn't have a single topic in common to talk about.

Meanwhile Ragini was proposed by my very own beloved best friend Aarav.  Aarav was crazy for Ragini and she on the other hand ignored him with whole her heart. Ragini had all rights to make her own decisions but I wasn't in favour of this attitude of hers. She was being cruel to someone whose only intention was to love her. Aarav used to talk about her always. His stalking girls and checking outs were now no where and all I could see was staring Ragini and being lost in her thoughts. Aarav and Ragini thing was not working. Aarav was too shy to approach her multiple times and Ragini was too stubborn accept him at once. They weren't even friends. As far as i knew, Ragini never believed in love at first sight.

So to help Aarav with his love story I thought of convincing Ragini. It wasn't a great idea but it somewhat worked. I knew she wouldn't ever agree to date him even if I ask her to do so. Ragini was a classy girl. She had her priorities sorted. She was working hard for her ambitions and she didn't want any distraction. She enjoyed her time with friends and always mocked at relationships. Imagining her dating someone was impossible. Thus, I asked her to respect his feelings and just be a friend to him. She was still not convinced with it. And then I explained her how Aarav cared for her and how she has been hurting him over and over again. At this, she said in a low tone, low enough to be unheard-"I don't trust boys." On feeling the pain behind her words I first helped her divert herself from the topic and then I thought of wiping her tears rolling down her cheeks which she tried enough to hide. I could have wiped her tears but touching her was never what I wanted so I stood quiet for a while till she wiped her tears herself and relaxed herself. As I noticed the peaceful look of her which she always had,  the baby face that she had,  I realized that it was the time.

I asked her if she would mind telling me the reason behind these trust issues. She was numb. Now the peace on her face was making me restless. She didn't move. Tears rolling down again. And she choking herself with the truth she was hiding. I asked her to look at me. At that moment I wanted to lift up her chin, wipe her tears, hold her face and ask her what's wrong but instead didn't touch her at all and asked her repeatedly to look at me till she agreed to me. Once she looked up, we had an eye contact. She didn't say anything even after the long pause that I gave for her to answer but I knew she was hurting and I was concerned about her. The only option to drag this pain out of her was to know what is it but that wasn't possible because asking her anything twice was subject to own risk. I couldn't assume the reason neither could I make her tell me so I decided whatever be the reason I'll be making her present beautiful which will make her forget the memories that hurt and haunt her.

That evening I logged into my Facebook account and had three messages in my inbox. Number one was from Vaani Mehta, number two from Lara Ahuja and third one from Ragini Sharma. In no time I clicked on the third conversation to read Ragini's text and it was a huge one. She wrote such a long message to me for the very first time and I was excited to read it. As I began to scroll up to reach the point where message started it was like I have been scrolling since years. After multiple scrolls I found the beginning of the message. As I started to read it, I wished it had been shorter one. I almost felt her right before me narrating the incidents she wrote about and I could feel her pain rushing into my blood streams. I was in tears after reading it and I could imagine how much she would have cried writing it all.

Ragini's story had a prince who was inturn involved with a princess. It's wasn't just a love triangle but a spiral of betrayal. He didn't just ditch Ragini but also tried to take her advantage. She was smart enough to handle it all and brave enough to survive with this dark story of hers. She was a sweetheart but could be real bitch at times and now I knew the reason why she was this complicated. It's because life has always offered her complicated things. I couldn't reply with anything more than 'you deserve better dumbo.' But somewhere I knew my message would be like a drop of water in ocean. Insignificant. Her past haunted her and no message could make it all better for her.

I had to make her present perfect in order to make her forget her past and I was trying my level best with this friendship of mine. I used to feel better when I saw her smiling but at times the cause is the cure. Ragini was broken by love and only love could get her pieces back in place. For that matter, I loved her enough to help her but not enough to betray Vaani. I wanted to see her happy but not by making my girl cry. So the best idea I was left with was to make all necessary arrangements for Ragini and Aarav to get closer.

Our friendship, my relationship, Aarav's confession, Ragini's past and my shitty idea. It had been five months since I had known Ragini and these were the most happening months of my life. I finally had stories in my life to talk about and plans to make.