Rikara Short Stories Collection

Kabhi Hum Na The : Part Four

Finally, she was dozing off when her mobile starts ringing. Seeing it is Om, Gauri picks up the call quickly.

"Hello?"

"Did you sleep?" Om asks her.

"I was about to sleep off. What happened? Why did you call?"

"I couldn't sleep." Om confesses.

"What happened?" Gauri asks as her heart started fluttering and a smile crept up her face.

"I miss you."

Gauri's heart skips a beat hearing that.

"If you aren't feeling too sleepy can we talk?"

"Okay."

"Hmmm... How did your day go?"

"Normal."

"Did they trouble you?"

"Did they?" Gauri asks him back teasingly.

Om chuckles hearing her.

"They missed you." Gauri tells him smiling.

"And you?" Om asks her hopefully.

Gauri's smile drops hearing his question and her heart started slamming against her chest. What should she say? She did miss him, but she didn't feel that confidence in him to tell him that.

Om sighs sadly at her silence, "I can understand, Gauri. My mistakes are too big for you to forget. It is not easy for you to forget what you went through because of me. Every time I think of what you three went through because of me, it kills me."

"I know you are trying, Om. And you are making a difference in our lives, but I just can't..."

"I will wait for you, Gauri. However long it takes, I will wait. I am just glad to be a part of your life now. Please don't give upon me."

"Hmmm."

Om smiles hearing that. "I love you, Gauri."

"Where did you go off to?" Gauri asks him, ignoring his declaration.

"Home." Om replies.

"Oh!" Gauri says in relief. She had unnecessarily been thinking a lot. "Why didn't you tell me then?"

"You never asked me." Om replies smiling.

"Hmmm"

"The truth is... I wanted to see if you would ask me... whether I mattered."

"I was curious." Gauri lies.

"Okay." Om says smiling. "Can you believe that it is kind of a role reversal now?"

"Role reversal?"

"Yeah... before you used to be so open about your feelings and everything and I used to show attitude... and now it is you who is showing attitude and me being all open about everything."

"We have changed." Gauri says like a broken record for lack of anything to say but she did agree that he was telling the truth.

"I know."

"What's special at home?"

"Nothing... I just thought I'll see them... they would be coming with me tomorrow."

"What?" Gauri sits up in shock panicking.

"Relax... One of the reason I didn't tell you about coming here is I didn't want you to get worked up about their visit."

"Then why did you tell me now?" Gauri asks pissed.

"Because I suddenly felt that you would kill me if my parents dropped in out of the blue."