YuvAni SS- part 11/page 15 - Page 7

Six months, It was exactly six months' Yuvraj told himself as he looked at the calendar on his table, his scheduled meetings, presentations and marketing campaigns were marked on it but his mind was somewhere else, pondering over things which had taken place in the past six months. His ma says that he had changed a lot, Sharad... his friend was no longer living with them, he had found a job and was working hard to make a living, his mother told him. Saurav bhaiya was always out of the city and Ragini bhabi was making a big fuss out of it, his family was now a total mess, everyone in it lived there just because they had to not because they wanted to. Dadi had tried to get him engaged to Soumya, inviting people home and trying to make things public but he was so angry with Soumya for spoiling everything for him that he just told off everyone that he wasn't in love with her anymore, actually he never was. He hoped that his outburst would stop her from pestering him but she was too adamant and stupid to get the message. Well he didn't care anymore, he wants to keep away and work was keeping him away.

It was just a normal evening when Yuvraj was on the way to visit their new branch, the roads were rush-y as always and he was starving,

"Kahi ek achchi restaurant dekh kha toh rokhna, I need to eat something," he told the driver as he went through the schedule for the day, there was only one thing he had to do, make sure that everything was ready for the opening ceremony next day.

After he got into the restaurant he didn't feel that happy, it was a very small and crowded place and Yuvraj didn't like eating in such places, but he didn't have any options as the driver was gone to the mechanic shop which was few blocks away and he was hungry, this was going to be his first meal for the day, even maybe the last as he didn't think he would have time to grab another snack.

He tried to relax as he leaned back on the chair, his phone buzzed when he was about to take his first bite, he sighed before answering it,

"Haan dadi, I'm on the way," he said. His dadi loved him, he knew it but sometimes she didn't bother about anything other than work, "Main bas 5 minutes khe liye rukha tha," he paused and listened to her as he looked at the plate of food, his appetite starting to fade, "I'll call you dadi," he hung up.

Yuvraj thought about those days in which he had all the world's time to do whatever he needed, plenty of food which his mother or Suhani would make just for him. Ma didn't have the will in her anymore, she looked dull and unhealthy, rarely out of her room.

And Suhani? She didn't care anymore, she just wanted to get out of the house, sometimes he felt that she would have left anyway this was just a golden opportunity. That's how much she cared. Yuvraj told himself. He munched the food, whatever he was eating, the taste, the aroma... nothing made any difference, It was all just bland. If was only when he was about to sip the coffee, he heard that laugh, that very familiar laugh which at a time used to irritate him, which used to make him smile, which used to make him laugh. The laugh today stirred an intense pain in him, the pain he tried so hard to congest, the pain he tried to ignore and forget. He wasn't hurt, he wasn't in pain. He told himself.

He kept his head down, waiting for the laugh to stop, for it to fade away... it normally did, he would dream of her, he would imagine her standing in front him, he tries to touch her, to embrace her and then she would disappear, her voice would fade away but today it didn't and he couldn't help but turn around and look, there she stood dressed in a white dress laughing as she tried to cover her mouth. Yuvraj stood there while he stared at her, her childish laugh reaching into the depths of his heart. His mind numb and his limbs refusing to work... he drunk in her appearance as a traveler in desert drinks water. Everything around him just drifted out of his concern, if he could see it was only her, if he could hear it was only her and if he'd felt something at that moment it was anger towards her and the man who stood next to her making her laugh out loud.