My Beginning, End & Ever After

21. I can never love anyone else..

"Haan maa. Aa jaungi aap chinta na karo." 

She hung up the call. It was time to go back to Pune. She had come to Hyderabad for graduation after getting enrolled in one of the best institutes of India for her studies. She got all what she desired for, but lost a piece of her heart on the same day. The only guy she ever loved, went away. After that, Shehnaaz forgot to love someone wholeheartedly. Now, she was a Machine Learning Engineer in a reputed company.

Thinking about that day, always brought tears in her eyes. When everyone was busy in celebrating her success, her eyes wanted to see that one person who had supported her in all the ups and downs during her preparation for the exam. But she didn't see him. All she could get was just a letter from him which broke her heart into millions of pieces. The girl who could speak for hours on and on was speechless. She hid tears behind her smile in front of the world but deep inside her heart that pain was still left.

She sat on the bed and took out 2 letters from the drawer nearby. One was the proposal letter he had written 9 years back, only for her. It was one of the things that made her smile from heart. She still smiled the same way seeing it like she did back then.

'Even if you are miles apart, I will always keep you in my heart. My heart beats for you, and the day it will stop beating, will be the day I die.' These lines gave her the hope that wherever he was right now, he missed his 'moti'. She knew her Sidharth could never do this to her. 

"Tune bola tha that we will always be together. Par tu jhoota tha Sidharth, you didn't keep your promise. Chala gaya tu. Tune mujhe sach batana zaruri bhi nahi samjha but I know, tu abhi bhi mujhse pyaar karta hai aur hamesha karega. Tujhe mujhpe trust ho na ho, mujhe apne kullu par poora bharosa hai."

She took out her diary and noted something.

Apne kiye vaadon se itni jaldi mukar gaye,
Aisi bhi kya majboori thi jo tum itna badal gaye.

Nobody could believe that Shehnaaz, who didn't have any interest in writing, had written many shayaris for Sidharth. She wrote every night, hoping she will show it to him one day. He even loved the amateur letter that she had written for him back then, but now she had become a matured writer. How proud would he be on seeing this!

_____________________

She left for Pune next day. Shehbaaz came to pick her at the airport. He had grown up in these years, but he was still the same kid at heart who used to dance without music. Her whole family was always in her support whenever she needed it. 

She went to Pune many times for vacations while staying in Hyderabad but these roads always seemed empty without Sidharth's bike. She sat in the car while Shehbaaz drove. He was continuously speaking on random topics while she was just seeing outside the window, lost in her own thoughts.

She was welcomed warmly by her parents. They chit-chatted for some time. She got to know a lot of information about her extended family. Her eldest cousin was getting married soon, and she had already started choreographing steps of 'Chhote-chhote bhaiyon ke bade bhaiya'.

Later, she went to her room to freshen up and drove to meet Harpreet and Tanishq. Luckily enough, they were still together. Moreover, they were in a live in relationship and were going to tie knots in a year. Their love for each other just multiplied with time. Their love story was not at all easy. From being crazy teenagers to crossing every hurdle of life with each other, their kind of love was a dream for many.

Both of them knew the actual reason why Sidharth left for Paris abruptly. But he wanted them to never reveal it. They were very upset seeing their best friends broken without each other but they couldn't do anything.