Reshma

7

It had been two days since Ishaan hadn’t come. Reshma shifted on her cot, the cool breeze blowing through the room. It was chilly, and she cocooned herself even more in her blanket.
Frankly speaking, she was missing him. He was fun. In a drugged kind of way. If he took one pill extra than normal, he would start babbling unintelligible things, which would sound weird but funny. He’d speak nice things when he was sane. And honestly, he was her only friend who was from the outside world.
There was a slight knock on her room door. Startled, she got up, and pulled it open. It was the receptionist. “He’s come,” was all she said. Reshma smiled. She combed her hair, and left to meet Ishaan.
He was already waiting near the door, hands folded. He gave her a bright smile when he saw her.
“Hi,” he said.
“Where were you?” Reshma asked, unlocking the door. Ishaan didn’t speak up until they were seated on the bed.
“Long story cut short, I am over her.”
“Over whom?”
“Uh...the buffoon’s girlfriend.”
Reshma realized that he was speaking about his ex-girlfriend.
“Are you calling yourself a buffoon?”
“No!” he exclaimed. “I’m calling my ex’s present as a buffoon!”
Reshma laughed. “Yeah, something. How come?”
“No, I just realized that she was a waste of my time. Why sit depressed when a world full of people—and girls—are there?”
“Wow. That’s nice. Are you sure?”
“Yeah, absolutely. I’ll tell you how. I met her the day before yesterday. Somewhere out. She had come with that guy, you know, all cheerful and happy. We spoke. Like strangers. All that ‘hi’, ‘how are you’ types. She asked me all puppy-faced on how I was. I don’t know what happened to me, okay. Maybe I wanted to show her I was happy too. I just gave her a ‘I-don’t-care’ look, and said ‘I’m glad we’re not together. You’re not my type, you know? I was with you so that...you wouldn’t get hurt.’
“You should’ve seen the look on her face! She was too shocked to speak. She laughed it off, and left, giving me a weird stare.”
Reshma looked at Ishaan carefully. “Just because you said that made you believe you are over her?”
“No. Uske baad mujhe itni khushi hui, ki maine opium ka ek packet dustbin mein daal diya. Now that’s something, eh?”
Reshma laughed. “Finally!”
After a minute, she asked, “You didn’t come yesterday?”
“Oh, I’m sorry for that. I had to go out of town suddenly. I couldn’t tell you. You didn’t give me your phone number.”
“I don’t have a phone.”
“What?!” Ishaan snickered.
“We don’t need them here anyways,” Reshma said. She wasn’t offended. She smiled as he started laughing.
“Ha-ha, funny, Ishaan.”
And she didn’t come to know how time flew.

~~