Twelve Weeks of You

Week Three

Week Three

Karna sat on the court, staring at the thing he hated and at the same time loved the most as the fleeting summer sun cut through his skin, fresh rain droplets falling from the sky. It was raining too much nowadays. How could it be that humans often direct all our feelings to an entity and end up falling for it and because of it?

He felt tears brim in his eyes, but he knew it was what it was. His fingers fisted and unfisted, his memories slipping in between his fingers. He remembered how nervous Anirudh had sounded on the phone and how he had pleaded him to come to get him. If only Karna had listened then, it would have been different today.

Some days were simply harder than others and today it was. He eyed the umbrella next to him that Rooman had forced in his hands when he had seen him leaving and his look told Karna that he had sensed the storm coming inside before even he himself could feel it. This had always been the case, Karna could hardly read the clouds in his head to decipher what they wanted.

He was slipping into one of his darker faces and he had no place he could go to hide the monster that lived inside him. This is why he liked living in the hostel, he could disappear and it would be okay, but now that place was robbed from him. His maami took that from him but then to be fair, he took something from her too. What she took was nothing compared to that.

The court was the only place he could be with himself right now, no one would be here due to the rain, it was a sibling of where the tragedy took place. And when alone, it taunted him with the blood he had spilled because it knew even if Karna pretended to forget, it was here to remind him of what he had done. Or not done.

The rain-soaked the entire court and him along with it and Karna was grateful, as he felt the cold droplets mix with his hot tears. His stomach twisted, he could feel his entire being shake. He shook his head, letting it out.

Nature as much as it liked to pride itself from being nothing like the flawed humans, it was exactly like them. It cried in agony and pain, it thundered when it couldn't keep it in any longer, it got playful with its winds and showed it's wrath with the summer heat that burned. If it had been flawless wouldn't it be pleasant all the time?

Karna heard a noise and he looked up to see someone standing on the opposite end of the court. The rain fell with its winds his tears fogging his vision and it made it difficult to see, but he decided to keep looking nevertheless. He walked towards the figure as if someone had managed to breach his private space and he wanted to execute the person who had dared.

He frowned more when he saw who it was. He knew her and at the same time, he didn't.

"I won't let you die," Mridula whispered to her laptop and it almost curled into her arms like a baby in his mother's embrace. She couldn't believe she hadn't anticipated the weather, how could she be mistaken?

She could almost hear her mother taunting if only she had checked the weather report before going out and writing out in the raw because that was the kind of writer she is or maybe it was the clouds rumbling, she couldn't tell the difference anymore.

She reached in her pockets for a cigarette as she placed the soft roll in between her lips. "Fuck."She cursed, both at herself for putting her laptop in such blatant danger and for letting Samira take her lighter and for forgetting that when the world decided to screw, it gave it well.

Her loose pants moved with the winds, slapping her ankles and her hair was threatening to break free from the bun she had put it in. The sky seemed in a particularly weepy mood today and she knew it wasn't going to calm down soon. She felt foolish for not bringing her mobile and now her only option was to open her laptop and write an email to Samira hoping she would read it and come save her or sit here and wait for the sky to stop sobbing.

If only skies were easy to console.

She wanted to yell, 'we all have pain! You don't see us crying our eyes out' but she was more emphatic than that or so she hoped.

She heard a sound behind her and so she turned only to come face to face with a man who was so drenched it looked like he was out there to shower in the rain. But his face just like the sky was too sad for that. His dark eyes were more shocked than her entire being was as they traveled down her body. Wasn't she supposed to check him out because he was the one who was soaking wet?

"Do you have another cigarette?" He asked, his voice smooth and velvety and Mridula couldn't help but compare it with the sound of falling rain. She shook her head no softly and he nodded, stepping ahead into the shade of the tree she was seeking refuge in. His eyes fell into her brown ones and for five raindrops no one moved. The rain fell and they stood quietly before he reached out and took the cigarette from between her lips and placed it on his instead. Her eyes grew wide, was he robbing her when she was helpless?

But before she could get a word out, he put a red umbrella out for her. She arched her eyebrows at him before slowly reaching out and take it. He didn't smile nor did he even acknowledge it as he took out his lighter and lit the stolen cigarette, puffing out clouds that didn't rain.

"Who do I return this to?"She asked him and wanted to slam her head because in her head it looked like she was flirting with him. But she wasn't- not that it would be illogical to flirt with a man tall as a tree, one whose eyes made it look like he could stop rains. He turned to look at her. "I took something of yours you don't need and now you take something of mine that I don't need, we are even." He spoke, puffing more clouds out.

She couldn't argue with it, as she opened the umbrella. The wet umbrella spat out water, droplets landing on her face. She turned to look at him for one last time, she knew she had seen that face somewhere- she stepped out on the rain under his umbrella and without a second glance walked away.

Karna liked how she knew when it was time to walk away.

—-

Aarav Senior Basketball: Congratulations on your selection

Samira: I think I have you to thank for it

Aarav: True. I can think of many ways for you to thank me but starters, come to my party tomorrow.

Samira: Hm, I will try my best

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