Where parallels meet

Special Chapter: Ever After

Niharika

2 year later.

June 7, 2024,10:35 am.

The sky is sad today since morning. Sipping on my favourite brand of coffee in my favourite mug I am staring out of the open window in my own clinic at 5th floor of a 10 storey building in New Delhi. The rain dropes along with gusts of wind whipping on my face occasionally.

I like this kind of weather. Rain and storms are my kind of thing. People who are calm outside always harbour a tornedo amount of words and emotions that they never get to express. When the nature goes wild it resonates with their inner voice, like a release of restrained thoughts.

I'm not expecting any patients today, which is good. Life's been busy as hell ever since I opened this clinic after I completed post graduation. I work in a government hospital as fellow surgeon 5 days a week and for the rest I run my own clinic. If things go right I'll be opening my own nursing home in 5 years. All in all life's been good if not best.

My brother is getting married next month. I'll be flying home in 2 weeks. A part of me is happy for him but the other is anxious. Mom will be pestering me again. Now that my brother is getting married, I'm next. I'm tired of telling and convincing everyone that I don't want to get married , I never wanted to but in vain. Now that PG is complete, using study as excuse won't work anymore. So I kind of ran away far from home in Delhi to start my own clinic.

I close my eyes to let the rain wash my face and my worries away.

'Memories' by Conan Grey playing in Alexa.

🎵..and there's no good reason in make believing
That we could ever exist again.
I can't be your friend
Can't be your lover
Can't be the reason
We hold back each other
From falling in loveeeeeee
With somebody other....than me🎵

Today is the day.
It's been two years, I sometimes still think of him, of everything that happened in New York. It feels like a dream now. A beautifully tragic dream.

Orion is still here, so is Rex. Though I hardly follow them anymore. Partly because I've no time and partly because ...I just don't feel connected anymore. I don't know what exactly happened after that trip I lost interest in Orion. I still listen sometimes to their music , hear about them releasing solos and albums every now and then, but I don't feel the craze and madness that drove me to euphoria in my early twenties.

I tell myself it's because I'm past the phase where I needed them for my mental health but deep inside a voice tells me, 'it's because you don't wanna move on from that time. You feel like facing them, engaging with them will lessen the realness of the closeness you enjoyed with him. It's because you wanna preserve each and every fraction of those moments. Seeing him again and again will gradually erase those feelings, you'll be immune to him, you'll be JUST another fan, once again.'

...I wish that you'd stay in my memories...

Conan Grey playing in the background. I try to ignore the voice in my head.

Lara and I are still in touch but barely talk as such. It's mostly limited to liking eachother's posts on insta. She got married last year.

Edward took over as the CEO of Markus a few months ago. No we're not in touch. I just happened to watch the news.

Ring ring!

I lazily take out my phone , it's Arohi. If anything me and Arohi are still the same. She completed PG in internal medicine ,the same year with me and currently works in a famous private hospital in Gurgaon. She has a clinic too, she's doing better than me actually.

"What makes you remember me darling!" I say dramatically.

"Stfu! You're always in my thoughts bish!"

"Hahahah...so you gonna come over this weekend?"

"Not sure, I've appointments booked."

"Yeah yeah busy people! I'm not your priority anymore." I say pouting.

"Oh really? Who ditched me on last date because an emergency surgery came in?"

"Yeah whatever."

If other people hear us they might think we are some lovey dovey romantic cringy couple.

"The weather...I feel like falling in love!" I sigh.

" You hopeless romantic! How come you don't have crush on anyone."

"I do tho..."

"See, I'm not talking about Mr. Darcy who existed in nineteenth century and that too in a novel....there are REAL PEOPLE you know?"

"Look who's talking! Where's your 'real people' then?"

"That's because of you bish! You'll be lonely if I get a bf, humph!"

"As if! But seriously that Guitar guy was pretty cool, I shipped you guys!"

"Huh! He's 23, a kid...I like mature guys!"

"Then what about that CA guy, he was quite decent, calm, gentle ...good looking too."

" Too boring, not my type."

I roll my eyes. Arohi is always like that. She can't stick to a guy. It's like she wants everyone but also no one. I don't understand her but also understand her. We have a understanding which is not very understandable. Whatever.

"Anyways we were talking about you, not me... should I set you up for a blind date? Actually there's a guy in my department..."

"Stop it before I cut the call...one mother is enough please." I tell her, I'm pissed.

"Okay, okay," Arohi says giggling.

"Oh I almost forgot why I called you, you don't have any updates about Orion do you?"

"No, I don't really follow."

"It's Rex, he posted a pic on Nebula...wait I'll send you."

My phone vibrates as a get a message from Arohi. I open it.

It is a picture taken from inside a car or van probably. It shows an apparently normal random traffic. But I notice it. A girl in a red dress peeking out of a cab window, her face not clearly visible, one hand rested on the window frame, there's a gold coloured bangle in that arm. It's me.

The caption says,
IT'S BEEN TWO YEARS. I MISS RANDOM TRAFFIC JAM IN NYC.

I stare at it for what feels like infinity, my brain is frozen, my logics are broken, my emotions are jeopardized.

"Nihar? Nihar? You still there?"

Arohi's voice brings me back to senses and that's when I realise I'm crying, no, wet drops of saline water coming out of my lacrimal gland, continuously. It must be a medical anomaly.

"Let's talk later, Aru, I've a patient to attend." I cut the call.