Her fingers faltered as they touched the white and black keys of the piano. They wanted to play the tune they were so used to playing. The tune that he had taught her once, on one cold, rainy afternoon. The entire hall was silent, their eyes fixated on her. Not a whisper could be heard. She took a deep breath and pressed the first key. Its sound echoed through the hall, breaking the silence. Her finger slowly touched the second key and then the third. It came naturally, as her fingers knew their way around through the pattern of black and white. As she looked up, she could see a few people beginning to smile. But yet, something was missing. Her music was incomplete.
This was how every day felt to her, ever since she had left college.
There was music, melody, people, but there was also that emptiness. Her music had never felt complete since the day she had left him. Or rather, circumstances had forced her to leave the place she loved, her friends and...him. There was now a void in her life that not even music could fill.
She closed her eyes and let her fingers play on. She didn't want to open her eyes whilst she played. She knew, if she opened them, she might expect to see him. Maybe someday he would enter this room, like he always used to. He would sit down by her and play, his eyes closed in concentration, a faint smile playing on his lips. And then maybe, her music would feel complete. Her fingers wouldn't tremble anymore. They wouldn't feel constrained.
As she went on playing, the crowd slowly diverted their attention from her. The music became a mere background to their life. But she played. She played because she wanted to. Because music was her life. Because music brought her closer to him even when he wasn't around.
And maybe because she still lived in the hope that someday he would find her through the music.
***
Music was the only thing that connected him to her. He still remembered her after all these years. His class mate. The cheerful, bubbly girl who used to sit by the window. He barely spoke to her in class. They only shared one lecture, so they didn't meet much. They were merely acquaintances. And then one night, when he was returning to his dormitory after five hours of extra classes, he spotted her playing away at the piano. It had amazed him then how two completely different people unknowingly shared an interest. Music.
He still remembered her serene face as she sat behind that black piano, her eyes closed as the music echoed through the empty hall. He remembered coming back every day, just to listen to her play. She spotted her one day and asked him to come in. He had startled her when his fingers touched the keys of the piano. She hadn't expected the boy who snapped at her all the time to be a proficient piano player. That was how it had started. Their late night music sessions.
They had conversed through music. She had always made him laugh, teaching him tunes of her own. And then one Saturday afternoon, he had taught her the tune. He remembered how her soft and warm fingers had felt under his as they pressed one key after another. Lost, completely, in music. They had always played that tune, every day. It had become a habit.
And somewhere along the way, he had fallen in love with her.
Until one day, she disappeared without a goodbye or a last word. Just after graduation. He had tried to find her. He had asked every friend she had been seen around in college. But his searches had been futile. The girl behind the black piano had disappeared.
And he had never been able to confess to her that he loved her.
He didn't know how she had come wandering into his thoughts that evening. He jerked back into the present as a man pushed past him towards the door of a hall. He looked around and found himself in the middle of a car park. He had just been walking, aimlessly. He didn't know how he had ended up at this crowded place.
He then heard the sound which made his heart stop. The faint sound of a piano flowing through the open doors of the hall. And it wasn't just the sound of the piano that stalled him. It was the tune. It was the tune which he hadn't heard in over five years. It was tune that he used to play with her.
But it couldn't be. It couldn't be her.
The enchanting sound dragged him towards the door, through the hall brimming with people. Through the heads of the numerous people, his eyes frantically searched for the source of the music. He searched for the girl behind the black piano.
He smiled when his eyes landed upon the grand white piano set up at one corner of the hall. And there she was. Sakshi Anand. The girl he had fallen in love with, over five years ago.
She was clad in a white dress that sparkled in the spotlight that fell upon her. Her face was partly hidden by the lid of the piano. But he recognised her. He recognised those thin, pink lips which curved up into the familiar faint smile that used to creep into her face as she played. He recognised the long black hair that fell across her shoulders. Yes, it was her. A smile appeared around his face as his feet took him towards the piano.
***
She felt it then. The air around her had changed. Something familiar lingered in the air. She was too afraid to open her eyes. And then she heard the music. It was tune that only he knew. Her breath stopped as she heard the tune being completed after all these years.
Her eyes jerked open and she was looking into his face. He was beside her, like she had imagined all these years. He was dressed in a simple black shirt and jeans. His dark hair glistened under the spotlight, his eyes closed, focused whilst his strong, confident fingers played away the familiar tune on the piano. His face held the smile that she had missed all these years. It was him, Arjun Suryakant Rawte.
The hall went quiet as he finished the melody they had started together.
He looked up at her, smiling, like nothing had changed. As if they were still at college, in that empty hall, behind the black piano. Surrounded only by music.
Her hands instantly reached for his face, tracing his eyes and his cheeks, trying to convince herself that it wasn't a dream. That he was there, really there. He looked so different, he felt so different. And yet, it was all so familiar.
He smiled, and held her hand close to his face.
Her wait had come to an end.
***
He didn't know what to feel as he looked into those dark eyes after all these years. She looked same and yet, so different than the last time he had seen her. Her eyes no longer sparkled. Her face looked pale in the white spotlight that cast its light upon her.
She had been waiting for him, he knew. He didn't want to ask her anything. When she started to speak, he placed his fingers against her lips, and gestured towards the hall. Music had filled the hall once again, weaving its magic around them.
He slowly whispered to her, "I don't want to know why you left. I wish I could have stopped you before you left...but it doesn't matter anymore. I have found you now, and I am never letting you go."
He saw her face change. Colour crept into her pale cheeks and her eyes once again held that sparkle he always saw.
He felt like he had stepped back in time. He wasn't surprised when she abruptly took hold of his hand and started dragging him towards the centre of the hall. The lights had dimmed around them. Only a silvery white light shone in the middle of the room, illuminating the few couples that danced under it.
He gripped her fingers tight as they walked closer to the dance floor. He didn't want to let go of her hand anymore. She giggled as he took her hand and rested it against his shoulder.
"You should know I am hopeless at dancing." He said, as he slid his arm around her waist.
"It doesn't matter," she laughed, "When we are together, nothing else matters. Your presence completes me. I was always incomplete without you, Arjun. Even my music."
***
It felt like a dream. She was laughing freely in his arms, her hair flying wildly as they danced around the hall. There were no more rules, no more constraints. They stepped over each other's feet, they bumped into the couples around them and they were the clumsiest two people on the dance floor. But nothing mattered to them, because they had found each other.
***
It was nearly midnight and the hall was empty. Except for two people. They sat behind the piano again, their heads close together, noting down music like they once used to, on stray pieces of tissue paper. Their fingers brushed against each other's as they created a new tune together. They smiled, they laughed and they played. They played like there was no tomorrow.
And together they began to create the melody called love.
It wasn't just the music, you see. It was their togetherness that completed their music and brought it to life.
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How was it how was it? I do understand if you say it wasn't that good lol, coz I myself wasn't very satisfied with it 😕 but I don't think I could have done any better either
Do do leave your comments anywaay😛
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