Link to the 1st part -> The Invite - Part I - His Darkest Hour
Sweet Memories
You are cordially invited to attend the Gala Reunion of Class 2015
Suman gently caressed the words written on the glossy invitation card. Memories sweet & tender crashed in waves. The connecting thread for all these disparate memories was HIM. The moment she thought of him her smile widened. But then it faltered & completely vanished.
Disjointed memories assaulted her. Mostly of that dark day which heralded the beginning of the end. End to a wonderful friendship whose worth she realized only when it was too late. Now her heart was weighed down by guilt & trepidation. Will he even remember her after all these years? Instinctively she lunged at her laptop & logged into FB. When she clicked on Search his name popped up automatically testimony to the number of times she had desperately searched for his name. He had changed his profile picture & as usual he looked smoking hot. She could still not get over the fact that her geeky, nerdy, chashmish friend has metamorphosed into this greek god hunk. No wonder the girl next to him was literally clinging to him.
She frowned. Who the hell was this pretty girl in black with a blinding pearl necklace? She felt that momentary jab of envy. Well looks like the nerdy chap has definitely moved on to better things. There was no evidence of the shy, reticent school boy who was brilliant in Math & solving Rubik cube. She sighed & closed the laptop.
She wished she had a time turner like the one in Harry potter novels. If she had one she would definitely travel back in time & rewrite that entire nightmarish day. The day she lost her one true, dearest friend. Just as she couldn't believe that this handsome, popular guy was once reserved & introvert, she was equally appalled that she had once been a shallow, narcissist silly girl always being image conscious & in plain terms a bully at school. She still puzzled over that phase of her life. Why did she behave that way. What propelled her to long for the company of people who were actually annoying & self-centered. She still struggled to reconcile the past with her present. The arrogant, confident Sumo who was now a cautious mouse. Or may be that arrogance was never real. May be she had always been a coward & cloaked it with false bravado & swagger.
However no amount of psycho-babble was going to erase the painful past. She slowly turned, opened the laptop & stared at his photo. With shaking fingers she caressed his picture. The image turned blurry due to the tears in her eyes.
Sorry Shravan... She whispered.
Sorry that I hurt your feelings & then did not apologize properly. Believe me I tried. All these years I have been mustering the courage to call you, hear your voice, tell sorry. I have lost count of the number of times I almost asked Pushkar for your number. But something stopped me every time. Why this dread & apprehension to talk to my friend. I am still not sure. Maybe because I have this foreboding that things might become worse if that is even possible. Is it fear that you may not want to talk to me. Fear of rejection & heart break.
She closed her eyes.
"You know what? The name Suman doesn't suit you AT ALL. SUMO suits you better"
That friend had left long since leaving only faded footprints of memory captured in her heart for posterity. She once again glanced at the invitation. Will he come to the party. He did not have any friends other than her in school & anyway why would he bother to come all the way from London to meet people who had once jeered & sneered at him. She silently slipped the invitation into her cupboard.
She had made up her mind. She will call Pushkar the next day & tell him that she was not coming for the party. All her happy school memories was of Shravan & she did not feel like going to a party where his absence was glaring & the ghost of his memories continued to haunt & taunt her.
In keeping with her nightly ritual she glanced at her bedside photo of her with Shravan. A sad reminder of better & happier days. Those memories had given her the strength to tide over the tragedies & failures that fate threw at her. She closed her eyes & her last thoughts before exhaustion, sleep took over was Shravan laughing with her while they were racing on their cycles. She smiled & turned over into a restful slumber.
oOo
Ye Hai Mohabbatein
