It Happened On One Monsoon

07: The Past

[ Darshan's POV ]

"It's done", Kavya gleefully smiles at me, looking down at her freshly pressed nails. "Thank you so much for coming with me", she says, gratefully. "It's nothing", I brush it off, even though sitting on a couch for almost three hours straight nearly made my lower back numb, but that's okay.

"What do you mean it's nothing? It's everything!", she argues. "I didn't feel time pass", I lie to talk her out of the guilt. "Don't lie, Darshan. You fell asleep thrice, I noticed", she points out. "I felt so bad. I'm really sorry", she scrunches her nose. "Are you happy?", I ask her and she nods, vigorously. "So straining my back for thee hours was worth it, then", I tell her and she chuckles softly.

"What do you need for a pay back?", she raises her brow. "Pay back?", I echo and chuckle. "This wasn't conditional, Kavya. Like how you needed my company today, some day I might need you with me the same way, so you can pay me back through that maybe", I say and she stares at me - absolutely lost - before she zones back in and hesitates for a moment.

"Look what I got!", she exclaims, holding out her nails. "It looks good!", I compliment. "But I was expecting you to get something black and white, or red. That combo, you know", I tell her, swirling the car keys around my finger, and she looks at me, puzzled. "Wasn't that One Direction's logo? Or am I wrong?", I clarify.

"You remember?", she spits, appalled. "Of course! If anyone ever told me to describe you, I would immediately think about One Direction. It's one of the first things that strikes me about you", I share and she smiles. "You never really looked at any other guy at that time, and Aunty used to be so sick worrying about you", I recall and she laughs, shaking her head to the sides.

"That's so surprising, coming from you. I was such an insignificant part of your life and you still noticed that", she's honestly amazed. "Insignificant and you? No way. You were always there. Mostly in the background, but not out of anyone's notice", I tell her and she remains silent.

"Let's go?", she whispers, pointing at the exit and I answer her with a nod.

"Oh my God, Darshan hi!", a voice screeches in excitement, the moment we step out. Kavya takes a few steps back in surprise, or fear, I don't know what. "I thought I would never get to meet you, again", it's Shivangi - a colleague from my previous workplace and even though I ought to be happy on seeing her, I don't feel any positive emotions.

"Where have you been?", she questions, holding onto my hand and swings it in the air. I do all I can to fight her grip, because it's weird, but she's the stronger one on this. "I've been around. Just looking for opportunities", I tell her, dodging the part where I'm struggling.

"Ooh! Who's this?", she looks at me, teasingly, and then focuses on poor Kavya, who looks nervous and traumatised all at once. "It's not what you're thinking. She's my best friend's younger sister. I brought her here for an appointment", I clear off all the suspicion before she could even think of anything.

"Oh, by the way, did you hear about Natsy? She's getting engaged next week", Shivangi is well-known for spilling the tea wherever she goes. "No, I haven't talked to her---ever since the--", I pause and take a deep breath in. "---our break up", I clear my throat. And from my peripheral vision, I noticed how Kavya's head literally snaps in my direction.

Natasha Shetty. Everyone called her Natsy, out of love. I met her in my previous workplace. We met, we found some spark between us and without a second thought - we fell in love. But only after we fell in love did we come to realisation that what the two of us wanted from life were completely different. She simply wanted to live in the moment - lavishly - and I had dreams to chase. After a while, it became obvious that she was too embarrassed to be with me; I couldn't live up to her fancy lifestyle and extravagant expenditures. Slowly, she began to drift away from me, until one day she left me for another man. And I was in distraught that I resigned from the company. I resigned out of impulsiveness, and that was one of thee stupidest things I did. After, of course, trusting her. If I chose to ignore her and continued to work - at least I would have had a stable job. One thing she taught me was to never act on your pain, or anger.