Tu Hi Yaar Mera

6. He is fire!

“The emotion that can break your heart is sometimes the very one that heals.”

~ Unknown

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“Ragini freaking Krishnan, open this damn door,” Swara shouted pounding on the door incessantly like an infuriated lioness all set to pounce upon her prey any next moment. No one… no one hid anything from Swara Bose and here her best friend had kept her in dark. How could she do that? She had trusted her with everything, no matter how big or small, and here she could not even tell her who she was dating! Indeed, life was being too unfair with her.

Laksh, on the other side, stood discreetly two feet away from her knowing that would be the best for his well-being at this very moment. He would never dare to mess with Swara, especially when she was angry, and right now anyone could tell that she was absolutely livid. And when angry, Swara definitely was not the best person one could have known. For sure, he did not want a broken nose by the time he reached back home. He would not want to ruin his beautiful face that his mother adored so much.

He had known Swara ever since he was twelve years old. The moment he saw her for the first time at Home Sunshine, she was eight years old back then. It was a cool winter day, he had accompanied his mother to Home Sunshine and that was when he saw her for the first time. Sitting under a mango tree, she was scribbling something on the paper and no one even tried to interfere. She had been there hardly for a week and they all knew that she needed her own space.

When Swara came to Siliguri for the first time, she had a blackened eye and was a lot more silent than the children of her age. All that she did the whole day was sit in a corner all to herself, the only thing that she ate was given to her by Ganga Maa. She refused to eat from anyone else. Even the slightest bit of touch from anyone else made her entire being shiver terribly. The dark terrified her, made the deepest core of her heart shudder, and that was why she refused to sleep alone. But Laksh could never muster up the courage to ask the reason behind, nor did Swara tell anyone.

They say, time is the biggest healer. And this Swara, standing in front of him was the best example. Today, she was totally a different version of what she used to be. She was a lot stronger and stood not only for herself but for everyone else. The compassion her heart held for everyone out there made Laksh admire her more than anyone else. She was a fighter!

But was he going to tell her that?

Nah! Maybe some other time.

With a click, the door opened, eventually breaking Laksh’s train of thoughts. From the edge of the door, he could see those alarmed eyes of his girlfriend, peeping to have a look at her horn-mad best friend. “Hi, Swara,” Ragini somehow managed to muster up the courage to speak.

“To hell with your greeting! You guys have ruined my life. I demand you to open this door,” said Swara placing both her hands on the either side of her waist. Ragini instantly quivered back, “Um, Swara… why don’t we talk about this tomorrow?”

“Why? Do you have a date today?” enquired Swara raising her eyebrow and Ragini shook her head in denial. Saving her life was a lot more important than date!

“Then open the door!” Swara demanded again and Ragini scooted away a little more, attempting to close even the slightly open door. Knowing what was going in her head, Swara stepped nearer, “Open this door, Ragini, or I… I will… I will….”

“You will?” Laksh spoke out of the blue and the moment Swara turned towards him with a winning smirk on her face, he knew that he had committed the gravest of all the grave mistakes. Should he run?