Nothing But Love by Swapnil Patil (summer reading list .TXT) 📕

day, and Arjun called up Akanksha. “Hey Anna” he whispered, “I-uh-wanted to tell you something” and he let out everything, as she broke down.

“Arjun!” her eyes welled up with warm waters, “You cannot do this!”

“Anna” he sighs, “please try to understand. Look, Shriyu’s leaving tomorrow, and I don’t want her to know any of this. I want her to enjoy her holidays. Okay?”

“Ar-jun” she said as the warmth of her tears took over her cheeks, “you cannot do this. You cannot do this to me. You cannot do this to Shriyu!”

“Anna!” he softened, “there’s a first time for everything sweetie! And I’d told you once─ If I’ll ever leave you guys, that‘d be never to come back again. Remember?”

But she couldn’t recollect anything. She couldn’t think about anything else. “You cannot do this” was all she kept saying.

“I’m sorry Anna. I’m sorry” he exhaled, as the line grew silent, all at once.

 

***

 

Arjun and Akanksha were at the station to see Shriya off. They had been there for a good fifteen minutes now, but Jai and his friends were nowhere to be seen.

“Everybody else running late?” he asked Shriya, still looking around.

“Ah, no. They’re already inside” she assured. “They have already pulled the curtains it seems. Should I call them?” she queried.

“Nope. It’s okay!” Arjun convinced her.

Akanksha was about to say something, when Arjun placed his hand on her shoulder, holding it firmly, as she realized the implication and backed off. As the warning bell hooted, Shriya broke down into tears and hugged Arjun. He hugged her back, holding her firmly, as if never to let go of again. A moment later, he pulled back and wiped her tears. She hugged Akanksha too, holding on to her, stroking her hair. She kissed her forehead and whispered “Take care.”

“Hey” Arjun said as the girls hugged each other again, “this isn’t legal in India, as of now!” Shriya slapped his hand as he burst out laughing, and so did she and Akanksha. On the second whistle, Shriya walked towards the train, climbed up the stairs, waved them good-bye and disappeared inside. The train took her along, leaving the station gently in the beginning, speeding up at a constant rate─ just like his tears─ and was nowhere to be seen in a minute, as he stood there, staring at the void the train had left on the station, and the one that Shriya had left in his heart.

Akanksha placed her hand on his shoulder. He shut his eyes firmly, preventing any more tears to exit his eyes, looked at her and gave her a fake smile. “Let’s go!” he hushed.

The tyres screeched as he stopped the car in front of her house. He stepped out of the car and stood next to her. She touched his cheeks, and out of the blue, he hugged her─ his eyes shedding tears already. She held his head firmly over her shoulder, but was unable to control her own emotions, as she hugged him even tighter, tears rolling down everywhere. “I love you Arjun” she whispered. “I have always loved you more than anyone else. I will always love you.” But he couldn’t hear anything except for his own cries, and pain, and the sound of his heart shattering into pieces.

 

***

 

Akanksha waved, a smile ornamenting her cheerful face, as Shriya stepped out of the train. A month had passed by, and Shriya had returned. After hugging each other, and a lot of shrieks out of excitement, Shriya calmed down saying “Where’s Arjun? Mom must’ve informed just you about my arrival, coz she thinks Arjun was there with me, too”

“Yeah. How was your trip?” Akanksha asked back.

“Fan-tastic!” she screamed. “It’s the best holiday ever, Anna! Well, I wanted to tell you a secret about the trip before leaving, but I couldn’t coz you have a soft corner for Arjun. And I couldn’t trust you, you know. You could’ve surely let me down.”

“Soft corner?” she asked, confused.

“You love him, don’t you, Anna?” Shriya winked.

“How” Akanksha wondered, “do you know?”

“Come on!” she shouted. “Everyone knows. Well, except for Arjun. He’s a dumbass. He never understands anything. Don’t worry. I’ll tell him when we meet him.”

“Uh-Shriyu” she paused. “I’m afraid, that’s not possible. He’s gone.”

“Gone? Gone where?”

“Glasgow. His mom got a job proposal at the University there, and since his dad works there too, she accepted it. And you know how important Arjun is to her. So they shifted there.” Akanksha finished her answer to find Shriya weeping on the floor. Akanksha sat on her knees, as she placed her palms on Shriya’s cheeks, wiping her tears with her thumbs.

“I─ I loved him, Anna. I loved─” Shriya screamed, finally, making way for more tears, as Akanksha looked at her, shocked. “─him. I have always loved him. I─” she stuttered, taking in fresh air, “I knew he loved me too. I waited and waited, but he never said it. And so I thought I should make him jealous. I thought he’d at least get jealous and angry and in that anger, he’d accept his love for me. And─” she said sobbing, “And I went to meet my Dad and spend some days with him, and not with Jai. I never get to meet Dad and I wanted to. But I couldn’t tell that to Mom. You know how she is. She’d have thought that I’m moving away from her, and all. That’s why I had to lie to her. And then I thought of this Jai thing so as to make Arjun jealous too, at the same time. I thought he’s stop me. But he didn’t.

“You know Anna” she said, making a tear disappear from the corner of her eye with the back of her hand, “Every night, I used to ask him if he wanted to tell me something. He never said anything. I always waited for him to say, Anna. But he didn’t. He never did. How could I say I loved him? I knew he loved me. Everyone did. But I wanted him to accept it. Say it”

“I thought you were an unorthodox, practical, new-age kind of girl, you know” Akanksha told her, patting her back.

“Maybe, you forgot that regardless of the unorthodoxy, practicality and all, I’m still a girl” Shriya broke down again. Akanksha hugged her, patting her back and stroking her hair.

“It’s not that bad Shriyu” she said, appeasing her, “It’s not forever. He’ll come back, sweetie. He’ll be back.”

“You know what’s worst?” Shriya said, completely overlooking Akanksha’s conciliation, “At least you got to see him off, bid him farewell. I didn’t even get a chance” she sniffled.

“You know Shriyu” Akanksha said, pulling back from the hug, “On the day of departure, Arjun called me up to check if I’m ready. I was supposed to drop him at the airport. But I didn’t want to break down at the airport─ in front of all the people, in front of his Mom, in front of him─ and so I told him that I didn’t want to come along. He tried to convince me, but I didn’t listen to him at all. You know what he said, Shriyu? He was like ‘Life is a journey full of sadness and pain. Finding happiness is rare, so rare. And so, when you have a chance to be happy, take it. Don’t kick it away. You might not get another. Smiles are ephemeral. Tears are eternal. So when you’ve a chance to smile, take it. You might never get another.’”

And yet, Shriya wasn’t in a frame of mind to listen to her. “So I went to see him off. And when it was time to leave” Akanksha continued, looking straight into her eyes, “He hugged me goodbye and whispered, ‘I wish I had loved you, Anna.’ Do you know what that means, Shriyu? That even though he thought you never liked him, even though he thought you loved Jai, even though he thought he was nothing more than a friend to you, he never stopped loving you. Never. And probably, he never will. Nothing lives forever, Shriyu. Not even pain. Pain, too, disappears someday, making way for joy. Nothing lives forever. Nothing but love…”

Imprint

Publication Date: 02-20-2015

All Rights Reserved