Abhigya SS: The couple that reads together - EPILOGUE - Page15

As the train stopped at a station, a guy who was sitting near Abhi realized that he had to get down. In his hurry, he bumped into a girl who was standing making her phone fall down along with her headphones.

"Sorry", he said while crossing but she held his collar and showed him her broken phone. The guy apologized and told her that he should be getting down from the train.

"If you get down, who will get my phone repaired? You broke it and you should repair it.", she told him loudly.

"I don't have time. I am sorry.", he wasn't paying attention to her and just wanted to get out of the train.

But the girl wasn't giving in and the train was about to start moving. Everyone in the compartment were looking at both of them. People started commenting how rude the girl was behaving and how her ultimate vision was to extract money from the guy.

"I have only this", the guy took his purse and gave her two hundred rupees notes. She saw his purse and realized that he wasn't having much money. She shoved the money back into his purse and warned him to be careful next time. He managed to get down as the train had just started to move.

She gave a worried look at broken phone and stood by compartment entrance. It was only when she turned around, he got to see the girl's face.

"Pragya", he muttered.

Was that Pragya? But she wouldn't behave like that. She wouldn't even dare to talk loudly in public.

She was wearing a black top and a pleated knee length skirt which resembled their school uniform except that she would have been wearing a coat and tie too and most of all, she was still wear those large framed glasses.

He had been searching for her since past 5 years and something in his mind made him expect that she would be wearing a traditional dress when he would meet her. He don't know the reason but expected her to be wearing an Anarkali or a Sari. It may be because during one of their conversations in school days, she had expressed her wish to wear a Sari and her liking towards traditional dresses.

"Even you look different Abhi wearing a hooded jacket and sunshade at night", the voice at the back of my head mocked me.

By the time I stood up and went towards her, next station arrived and she got down. I also got down after her and thought of calling her but the way she was shouting at the guy in the train induced a little fear in me.

What if she is not Pragya? What if she misunderstands that he was stalking her? He needed to see her face once more to confirm that she was Pragya.

The dim streetlights weren't providing enough light to the dark isolated street they were walking through. She sensed that somebody was following her. She started walking faster as they crossed the lonely street and entered a crowded street. She went inside a bakery to buy something to eat while he lost her. Before coming out of the bakery, she checked through the glass door whether he was looking for her and her suspicion was correct as he was looking around like he was searching for someone.

"Why are you following me?"

He turned around hearing the voice. He was right. It was Pragya.

"Who are you?", she said hesitantly as she felt she knew him but couldn't recognize who he was.

He took off his sunglasses for a second and put it back.

"Pragya", he said still suspicious.

"Abhishek", she said smiling widely and hugged him.

"You look so different", he said as he couldn't believe that she was the same demure Pragya who studied with him in school.

"You also look different. I could see that you are not wearing coat and tie"

"Well I don't wear school uniform anymore", he chuckled.

A conversation about appearance was resurfacing between them after a gap of 10 years.

"Listen Chashmish, it has nothing to do with your appearance. You are the prettiest girl I ever know of. Why are you looking away? I am telling you it's not...", Abhi tried to explain his reason for not accepting her love proposal.

"That's why you are calling me Chashmish", she said with tears dripping down her cheeks and walked away.

How could he explain that just few minutes ago he was scolding his sister for teasing Pragya about her appearance and since she was referring to her as Chashmish, he also started referring her as Chashmish without his knowledge? He thought that it would have been better if he hadn't went to her to explain things as it got worse when he met her.

He thought that she would get better in few days but he didn't know that it would the last time he talked to her. After few days, her father came to school and Abhi heard that he was getting Pragya's Transfer Certificate from the office. He couldn't understand why Pragya was leaving the school. Later, he found that her father was admitting her in a boarding school in Delhi as he couldn't look after her at home. He was disappointed that she didn't even come to meet him or talk to him one last time before leaving the school.

"Oye Rockstar! What happened?", she snapped her fingers at him.

"Nothing"

"Care to come to my place?", she asked him and he immediately nodded. They walked to her home which was very close to the railway station. He questioned her why she walked so many streets if her home was very near by.

"Do you think I would show my house to a stalker?", she replied.

"I am not a STALKER", he told her loudly.

"Well, you were behaving like one", she said opening the small gate before climbing the stairs. He stammered to tell her that he was afraid to talk to her after seeing her behaviour inside the train which earned a loud laughter from her.

She opened the door leading to a very small room. It definitely seemed like she was staying alone. He wanted to ask about her father. Just then, she offered him a Pav Bhaji that she bought from the bakery. She started munching the other Pav Bhaji from the carry bag.

"It is spicy. I thought you didn't like spicy food", he said after taking a bite.

"People change Rockstar", she said offering him a water bottle.

"What are you doing?"

"Eating", she said with her mouth full.

"I mean for living?"

"I am part of a theatre group"

"You act in stage plays?"

"I think that's what I said. Am I not clear?"

He was getting surprised again and again as he came to know more about her.

She had stage fear. Didn't she?

He felt as if he was seeing someone else instead of Pragya. Her way of talking, appearance, house, job etc were surprising him. One thing caught his eyes and made him connect with the old Pragya he knew.

He went closer to her shelf and took out a book.

"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"

"You still have it?", he asked her.

She got down from the table she was sitting on and went silent for few seconds before taking the book back from him to put in the shelf. He was puzzled by her reaction.

"Did it still affect her? Is she still in love with me? No, it can't be. It happened 10 years ago and she is a changed person now", he thought. More than than the logic that she would probably have been over him in the last 10 years, he wanted to believe that she didn't have feelings for him as he didn't want to feel guilty for not reciprocating her love.

His phone in his pocket buzzed and it was from his Daadi.

"I got to go", he said and she smiled and accompanied him to the gate. Just when he was about to leave, he asked her whether she would give her phone number to him. She quickly took his mobile from his hand and saved her number.

When he reached home, he thought of texting her that he reached home and searched for her number but there was no contact with the name 'Pragya'.

Chapter 2

How was it? Please pour out your thoughts :)