(This song suits Rahul and Nisha at this very moment too much)
[ N I S H A ' S P O V ]
"Finally!" Radhika beamed from my side, dancing on her toes, or more like making a fool of us in front of the whole college. "We're graduated!"
I laughed at her childish behavior, ignoring the attention it was seeking from bystanders and looked for him in the crowd. No matter what I say, this girl wouldn't live down her excitement, but at the same time, it was a relief to see it on her face, see the goodness in them. Some days I wondered how would I handle my life without her. From past four months, she had stuck to my side, to the side when I healed myself, or when most of the times I yelled at her to leave me alone. She gave me space to get used to everything, but it wasn't easy.
It wasn't easy without anyone.
It wasn't easy without anything.
"Live it down, Radhika," Veer snorted from our side. "People are staring at us."
"Who wouldn't stare at me?" She struck a pose in her graduation gown. "I'm a doctor. Dr. Radhika Sharma."
"Oi Sharma ji ki beti," Veer joked.
Rolling my eyes at their banter, I stared at my watch. Where was he stuck now? Why couldn't he understand the meaning of punctuality?
"For whom are you looking?" He enquired. "A new boyfriend of yours I'm not aware of?"
I nudged his shoulder with mine and shook my head. He and joking didn't sit together even though he tried to be Rahul most of the times. I knew what he endeavors to do. Take Rahul's place. Be jokeful as him, but he couldn't be.
Nobody could be him for me.
Shut up!
I scolded my brain. No more thoughts of Rahul. He was a fading memory for me, and I hoped it prolonged that way as soon as I lived.
He passed me a small smile, understanding what I was trying to say. For months, I didn't talk about him, tried to forget him but Alina had pointed out my mistake. She told me to remember him, not stop his thoughts from my mind because the more I ignored him, the more he would tease me back and make me remember what I was trying to forget.
Months had passed, and after that one letter from him, none came again and I lost hope. He left me. I needed to move on with life. My life wasn't ended. I had my career and my family to look after.
Five months were enough to move on from him.
"Dr. Nisha Oberoi." A full grin appeared on my face. Swirling, I slapped my graduation cap against his chest.
"Where were you?"
"Dean." Kabir nodded his head towards him. "Relief fund talk. Anyway, congratulations. Finally, you're a doctor. I never thought you would be. I mean this medical stuff takes too long. Not to forget you've your internship now, and what's not? You want to be a surgeon. How many more years would it take?"
"Hush!" I giggled at his rambling. "I need my gift."
Huffing, he put his hands inside the pocket of his grey coat and placed the car keys in my hands. "Enjoy it."
Gaping, I stared at it. I didn't know he would take my joke as a reality.
"Wow!" Radhika and Veer mumbled from the side. "You weren't joking when you said your brother is giving you a car."
"And that too top model of BMW?" Veer stared at the keys in my hand. "All I'm getting is a new stethoscope."
I stuck my tongue at him. To get a car, you need to have a loving brother who got melted just seeing you in pain, and moreover, I didn't know he was serious a month ago. We were having a dinner when I had told him about the graduation. He was too delighted and asked me about my gift. Joking I had told him to give me the car he was driving. Kabir loved cars, and wouldn't even let me touch his without a warning. Once I had gotten his car scratched, and after that, his cars were a distant dream for me.
"Did you bring it here?" I step aside to let people pass, and meet their doctorates.
He gave me a dry look. "No, I didn't. It's at home, waiting for you. Give me credit. I bought the latest model for you, better than mine. Also—" He stopped on his words as the ringing of the phone echoed between us. Rolling his eyes, he took out the phone, accepted the video call and passed it to me.
"Alina." I beamed and she said something from the other side, but due to the chattering going around us, I weaved through the crowd. "Wait a second." Slipping through people, I walked out of the college, standing in the parking lot. "Now speak."
"Congratulations!" Grinning, I leaned against the white Honda.
"How's your book launch?" I pouted, feeling sad she had to leave for her book launch in Pune. I was angry at her, but couldn't do much. All the arrangements had been made, and she couldn't disappoint her readers.
"Let me show you." I didn't get to receive or understand what she said before she turned her phone camera towards her readers and left me in a position of no arguments. "Meet our Dr. Nisha Oberoi."
Awkwardly, I waved them and they yelled back congratulations.
"Thank you!" I gave them a flying kiss, and she turned her phone back to her and she knew I was giving her glare. "You didn't tell me you were in between the launch."
"Hey, don't be mean. They pushed me to video call you. They wanted to congratulate you. They're my readers. Be nice." She stuck her tongue out. Sometimes she was such a child. "I've to go. Catch up with you later, Dr. Nisha Oberoi."
Cutting the call, I laughed at her behavior. What a wish. Lifting my gaze, I saw Kabir was coming out of the building along with Veer and his parents. The void deepened in my chest. No matter how I tried to deny it, the pain wasn't gone, and each time, I saw his family, his face reflected through my vision.
He was wrong. Veer cared about him. For weeks, I saw Veer distressed and angry, same as me but one day I had talked to him and he confessed how lonely it was to not see Rahul anymore.
Brothers.
No matter what they were brothers and nothing in this world could break a sibling bond. I tried to put myself in his shoes, and that situation I didn't want to think again. The thought of loosing Kabir scares me.
The week we had felt like yesterday. That night in my house felt like last night. Days I wouldn't get up from the bed, hoping I would see him in my dreams, but rarely it happened. I was forgetting how he looked, how his eyes shone with happiness when he talked about his dead mother, how he had the habit of making every conversation sexual, his smile, his laugh and everything.
Was this a sign of moving on?
"Let's go?" Kabir uttered from beside me. Nodding, I gave his phone back and went to the direction of the car.
Rahul was a shadow of my past, who couldn't stop himself from heckling my present.
Squealing, I ran my hands on my new black shiny car. I jumped up and down, finding it hard to kill the excitement building within me. Days I had bugged him for a new car, but he ignored me as I was a child. When he had gone to Bangalore, I was happy I get his cars, but what a surprise it was when dad gifted him another one, failing all the other cars parked in our house. He had shown me a smirk and danced in front of me. He loved teasing the hell out of me.
Kabir laughed from behind, but ignoring, I gave him my phone and told him to click my picture with it. When all our photo shoot was done, we walked inside the house to find a girl sitting on the couch, waiting for us.
"Rupika?" I called out.
She smiled seeing me, stood up and hugged me.
"I didn't know today was your graduation. Congratulations."
"Thank you. What are you doing here?" I sat next to her on the couch with Kabir sitting opposite to us. "Do you need water, juice? Or are you hungry? Kabir, order her favorite Mexican food."
"Relax." She placed her hand on top of mine. "Maids have already done that. I'm not hungry."
I raised my eyebrows in surprise. This was the first time when I heard her refusing food.
"I'm sorry I've to rain check." Kabir stood up from his seat. "Work. I'll be back soon. You're here till?"
Rolling her eyes, she waved him off. "I'm here for a week. And I'm staying here. Thank you so much for asking."
Giving her a dry look, he called a servant and guided him to take her luggage to the guest room and left for his work.
As soon he was gone, she took a sigh of relief, gripped my hand in hers and the worry settled on her face. "I needed to talk to you alone."
"About what? Huh, I need to drink water." Getting up, I walked to the kitchen, took the glass, poured myself a glass of water and came back to the living room to see her fretting. "Talk."
Before she could continue, my phone rang in my jeans pocket. Giving her an apologetic smile, I answered the call.
"Congrats, Nisha!" Sanchi squealed. "Party?"
"Nisha!" Rupika exclaimed in a desperate manner.
"Sanchi, thanks, I talk to you later. Rupika is here."
"She is? Why? Wait, I should tell Dhruv. He would be happy to hear."
"Later, okay?" I cut the call, placed the phone back in the jeans and sat down next to her. "What are you dying to talk about?"
"It's about Rahul. I know where he is."
The glass slipped from my hands, breaking into thousand pieces on the floor but all I heard was her sentence. For longest of seconds, I couldn't respond, couldn't think, but then I wore a mask I had been practicing for a while now.
"Is he happy? How's life for him?" After he left me alone like a coward. I fucking hate him for it.
"Nisha," She said in alarm. "I'm aware of what happened between you two. He told me."
I nodded my head, smiling through the pain.
"It was good, but it didn't work out." I broke my grip from her hands. "Can you believe I'm a doctor? I'll start my internship soon, hopefully soon, because I can't stay too much at home. It's boring. Also, Kabir is going to propose Alina on her birthday. Isn't it amazing? Finally, they're going to tie a knot. I met this cute guy yesterday at Kabir's office—"
"Nisha." Her voice stopped my rambling, but I didn't care. She couldn't come and say she knew about him when from five months I hadn't even seen him, heard him or felt him beside me. He was gone from my life and that's what I wanted.
A fading memory of past, a sand that slipped through my fingers too soon, a night that went away and never came back, and a person who was my own personal destroyer. He destroyed me completely for anybody else. It might be a week for him, but for me, it was something more than that. I had given him myself, poured my soul to him but he left me because he was too scared and coward.
Deep down, I knew he would do this and I waited for him to destroy me. I waited for that clinging nagging to become true
Getting up from the couch, I removed my graduation gown and threw it on the table.
"You should rest. Jet lag, remember? I'll send a maid with a cup of coffee." I started retreating back to my room.
"Nisha, his life is in danger."
And, everything stopped at that moment.
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Last Remainder.
COMPETITION AHEAD
Do comment on how the story was so far for you, why you love it and what it taught you. The best two comments will get a CALL from me. A real call, not virtual. Plus, the winners will get an early access to last five chapters (Including Epilogue) of this story.
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