High School Romance Revisited

Chapter 32 - The Other

A piece of conversation that I had with my father a few minutes ago still played inside my head. I kept staring at the slow changes the sunrise was doing to the sky. It was a beautiful mixture of hues playing with the white and blue skylines to paint a masterpiece, which is different every morning and dusk. It gave a very strange peace to my disturbed mind.

It was also accompanied with a soft faded sound of morning ragas, which Chitra and Debdyut sang together, and the jingles of Rai's ghungroos. Together it sent a vibration through my nerves soothing every part of the body as my restless heart slowly slipped into calmness.

I felt the hot tears burning my cheeks as it descended from my eyes as a sign of my pains alleviating. The knots in my mind were opening up. Things seemed more clear. But there were still doubts.

On Chitra and Rai's request, the gang had left me alone for last night. I had cried my heart out. With those tears, my inhibitions started to slowly fade away. Today, I was a new person. Stronger, determined and composed. I wanted to know all those little details that I left behind unexplored ten years ago. There was something hidden in the past, something veiled, and once I figure that out, these problems will finally leave me.

The hot black tea almost sparkled in the silver cups. There was still a mild cool breeze keeping the temperature a little shivery in the mornings. "They sure know how to hold on to the traditions," Sanjana commented as she sipped from her cup. I nodded. Debdyut's family was all about old traditions and hence silver tea set now sat on the walnut wood centre table of the guest room where we were staying.

"I can't believe they still serve morning tea sharp at 05:30 am," said Subir who was still yawning. He entered our room, drank his tea and went straight to bed for another round of sleep.

I heard the others coming towards our room. Among the slow chatters, the sound of Rai's ghungroos served as a nice background score. She smiled looking at me. Chitra kept Debdyut's mother's tanpura in its designated place while the others settled on the bed one by one.

Keeping my cup down I noticed they were all looking at me. "What?" I asked getting a little uncomfortable from their stares.

"Why did you do this Deepa? I understand that Chitra, Rai and Koushik are your best friends but we are part of the gang as well. Why didn't you tell us?" Debdyut asked.

"I didn't want to divide this group into two teams," I sighed.

"Didn't it ever occurred to you that we could have solved this together and you and Mahen wouldn't have to stay apart for ten-painful-years?" Sanjana was trying to control her tears.

None of them knew what happened between us and now when Chitra and Rai told them they were taking the blame on themselves. They thought they weren't good enough friends and let us suffered.

"Please, it wasn't your fault. Try to understand. The decision was ours. Mahen and I took the decision of breaking up," I said.

"A decision that was manipulated!" Debdyut shouted.

"Calm down Debdyut, don't freak her out," Sanjana held his arm. Debdyut looked angry.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Okay, let's get to work," Rai said keeping her ghungroos on a side table.

Debdyut took out his phone while Dhrubo opened his laptop. "First see this pictures," Dhrubo said turning his laptop screen towards us.

He showed us three photographs and my eyes widened. "So last night –"

"Yes Deepa, it was Jason who helped Shekhar to cause that ice-installation accident," Dhrubo confirmed.