Serious in Love ✔

2- "Suck it up like we suck it up to our lives."

~

Vansh and I had a habit of snapping selfies when we were away. It included something as random as Vansh posing himself besides a street dog or something funny as creating a meme out of ourselves. Well, sort of.
Lately Vansh's selfies had been with someone or the other. Mostly those 'others' included Pradeep, his groupies alongwith some other colleagues. That was how I came to know about his circle of friends now and the fact that he was finally settling down. I would also send him a few group snaps in order to tease him. Some with my colleagues while some with my brofriends and friends.

But then as months passed, too many photos had piled up in our phone's memory right from our college days. Plus they were becoming kind of repetitive— Same place, same people, same background. Vansh started to send less selfies while I almost didn't send him unless he asked for it. It went on until we stopped sending selfies altogether. We were fine with it though. Just like how we were fine with meeting only once a week. We had our individual lives besides each other, so it was completely understandable. I didn't mind that one bit.

Delhi had the kind of dry winter that suffocated people with it's smog rather than taking their breaths away with the cold. We skipped our date that week as it was too toxic to roam outside. While I was too tired to travel forty minutes to his apartment and back home after work. Thankfully, the stupid smog decided to leave us, poor Delhilites for good after a while. Vansh and I agreed to meet on Saturday so that we can have a full day to ourselves. This time, I decided to surprise him by gifting a jacket. It was grey in color, a few shades darker than the color of smog. Excited, I arrived at our destination on time and patiently waited for him inside a KFC restaurant. I held the jacket in my hands and imagined him in it. Fifteen minutes passed.

Hm, maybe the traffic had held him up. I resorted to playing mobile games for the time being.

Twenty minutes passed.

I called him a few times over but he wasn't picking his phone. Moreover, watching people around me eating to their hearts content wasn't helping my growling stomach either. I ordered a plate of chicken pops and fried rice to pass my time for the time being.

Forty minutes passed.

By this time, I was convinced something was wrong. Did he even remember our date? He still wasn't picking up his phone, making me think of all the crazy ideas by his lack of response. I was walking along the busy footpath, watching various groups of happy youngsters spending time with each other. The plastic bag that held his supposedly jacket seemed to be mocking back at me, threatening me to dump it straight into the dustbin nearby. Maybe I should gift it to one of my friends instead. But whose size could this jacket fit. Maybe Xander or Piyush. Yeah, that would suffice.

Fifty- five minutes passed.

I was heading home via Metro station when my phone ringed and I let out a sigh of relief. I rushed to stand at one corner so that I could let out my wrath on him for making me wait endlessly. I wasn't going to spare him that easily. However his words weren't something I expected.

“Morning An! Ha, I know it's not quite morning anymore. Actually I was sleeping,” he said, his voice hoarse followed by a yawn that sounded pathetic to my own ears. “I had a mind-blowing party last night. You remember Eshaan from our finance department? It was his. We stayed outside for a late night drive till four in the morning. I woke up just a minute ago after seeing your missed calls. What's wrong? Do you want to meet today?”

I couldn't believe what my ears were hearing. My mind had obviously come up with that possibility but I wasn't actually expecting it to happen. So naive of me. Anger boiled inside of me like a ball of fire just waiting to burst out. I clenched my teeth hard. Where the hell should I even start?