Will You Write With Me

23

It was 5 in the evening, I got dressed up in red T-shirt and a blue jean. It was probably much too late, but Navya still kept me waiting. She was inside her room. I called her few times and I got a reply that she would be out in seconds. But that didn’t happen. After 15 minutes, she came out. The wait was worth it, she was in a blue maxi. Whatever she wore, everything suited her, and maxi was not an exception.
“How is it?”, she asked me once she came out from her room. Her lips were widened, and her eyes wanted me to tell her the honest answer. If a girl asks you, “How do I look today? How is this? How do I look in this?”, they only expect an honest answer from you. But that honest answer should be, “It looks great. You look beautiful”, even if its not true, honestly you should lie. But I didn’t lie, I told her the truth.
“It looks perfect on you”, I said smiling, probably blushing. She then replied with her own alluring shy smile and said, “Thank you”. When I looked at my wristwatch, it showed me 5.30 Pm. I knew, I was late. And also, I knew that I was about to get a heavy knock on my head. Both Navya and I rushed out and took a cab to South city mall. On our way, Meera called me more than five times. Every time when I pick her call, I said, “We are almost there. Just five more minutes”. After half an hour we reached the south city mall. Meera was waiting for us right at the entrance of the mall. I knew she was angry, and her facial expression proved it. Her eyelids were tight and straight, her face was puckered and was ready to yell at me. I safely hid behind Navya.
“Why are you so early?”, Meera teased me with her eyebrows raised annoyingly. I was safe from getting a knock on my head as I was behind Navya. I grinned shamelessly to avoid the consequences. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Meera gave a heavy knock on my head. I didn’t know, how did she managed to find space to attack me. Navya chortled little louder when I screamed in pain. Then, Meera with her gentle smile hugged Navya. We then sat in a restaurant to have some juice for that evening.
“You know, I am your biggest fan”, Meera said to Navya. I was stunned. I knew that Meera didn’t even read one book of Navya. Then how could she introduce herself as her fan?
“Wow, thank you”, Navya said with a flush.
“I am not a fan for your books. In fact, I never read your books”, she said with a pause and looked at me, then she continued, “Advik used to tell me a lot about you. I am a fan of you because of his comments. You are truly beautiful just like how he told me”, she said and grinned.
‘What the fuck? What have you done Meera? How can you tell all these stupid things to her? Shit, I am screwed’ – I blabbered madly inside me. I deliberately turned my gaze on Navya. She was blushing and then she glared at me and said, “Is that what he told you?”.
“Yes”, Meera said. Navya smiled at me and I blushed. Everyone around me could see me blushing, so was Navya and Meera.
“See, he is blushing”, Meera pointed out it to Navya. Both the girls burst into laughter, and I hung my head down in embarrassment. After some time of chit chatting, Meera took two small envelopes from her handbag. It was in purple and embroidery work had been done at the borders. It was surely some invitation. She gave one to me and the other to Navya. It was her wedding invitation. Navya looked at it and congratulated her cheerfully. I looked at that tiny envelope in shock. The very next month was her wedding, and I could not accept the fact that my best friend was going to go somewhere away from me to live her own life. “What?”, Meera asked as she noticed me, looking at the envelope strangely.
“Nothing”, I said.
“Don’t tell me that you are sad about my marriage”, Meera said.
“I am not sad, I am just upset that time is running so fast”, I said with my imploring face. Meera then hugged me to convince my blurred mood.
“Aww”, Navya said as we both hugged. It is said that the sweetest medicine in the world is the hug of someone special. And it was indeed true. What else can be more special than a true friendship? Who else can be more special than a true friend?
“You must come”, Meera invited Navya.
“I can leave your friend free from work for a week. But I don’t think that I can come there to celebrate with you”, she said and tried to escape from Meera’s plan. 
“He can stay here and work. But you should come for sure. I don’t mind his absence, even if he comes, he is going to cry like a little baby”, Meera said and chortled. I gave her a sneering look. Then both Meera and my eyes fell on Navya.
She had a thought for some minutes and then agreed. We talked through the dinner. After finishing dinner, we bid goodbye to Meera. Then we took a cab back to Navya’s home. From the next day we started to write the story. Navya was the one who started to write the prologue. She typed the words in a manual typewriter, the one Arun gifted her before he died. She told me that she would always start her prologue by typing it in that typewriter. After the prologue she wanted me to write the very first chapter of the book. I spend almost two hours to complete that one chapter.
“15 pages, 3389 words”, I sighed. Navya went through my words slowly. Then, she started editing. After half an hour, she returned my laptop back to me. The screen showed me, 10 pages, 2097 words.
“What have you done?”, I cried.
“What?”, she said.
“Where are the rest 1200 words?”, I asked her.
“I removed the unwanted narrations”, she said and chuckled.
From then the real challenge started. “Don’t use unwanted metaphors. Why are you using these kinds of words? Don’t you know how to describe a girl? You don’t even know the spelling for this word? How did you passed English in your school?”, she started to roast me. The best and the worst thing about working with a co-author is that you will fight, and you have to write. We both became each other’s greatest critics and that was the biggest plus in working with a co-author. Though I had worked with some co-authors before for the screenplay, working with Navya was one of the memorable moments in my life.
                                           ~
It was 20th of November, and personally it was a special day for me. Navya’s birthday. I was not a big fan of celebrating birthdays. But that day, made me excited and nervous. I didn’t wish her that morning, and she didn’t expect me to wish her either. She received three to four calls, probably from her parents and her friends. I often heard her saying, “Thank you”, over the phone. I had planned everything in previous to make her day special. People say, when someone else’s birthday makes you more excited than yours, then it’s love. Yes, I was in love, deeply and madly with Navya. We as usual entered the Indian café. I followed Navya behind to the cabin where we always write. Once she opened the door, the party popper was burst open inside. The cabin was excellently decorated with colourful balloons. I had arranged a private team for all the decorations. Everyone inside the cabin started to sing, ‘Happy birthday to you…’. Navya was dumbfounded. She looked at me in shock, I threw a coy smile and said, “Happy birthday”. She then hugged me tight. A birthday cake was also arranged, and she cut it gleefully. Then everyone wished her. She thanked everyone and then glared at me.
“How do you know?”, she asked me.
“A fan knows everything about his admirer”, I said and winked. She smiled back and pinched me back teasingly.
We then declared holiday to our work. We planned to hangout that day. We went to Vivekananda park and ate Phuchkas. It tasted fantastic and Navya could not stop tasting it. Then we ate some Momos. We tasted more than 25 street foods that day, including my favourite, Kolkata Rasgulla. Then we had a light dinner and returned back home. That was a special day, not just for me but for Navya too. She smiled, laughed, and played like a little child. She was more than happy; she was alive that day. And that was all I wanted.
“I had a great day. Thank you”, she said standing right before me. She was happy but at the same time she was emotional.
“You don’t need to thank me for this”, I said smiling. She then took few steps forward and hugged me. It was a long tight hug. It was the longest that I had ever received from her then. Then she released her hands off me. But our eyes were still burning with desires. I looked deep inside her fiery eyes and burned merrily in love. She slowly brought her lips close to my motionless mouth. Suddenly the temperature started to rise around us. It was going to be my first kiss, that too with Navya. Her phone rang unexpectedly and spoiled our moment. She backed off quickly. “Good night”, she said and went inside her room. Eyes will never fib, and Navya’s eyes told me that she loved me. And I knew it was true.