Chapter 31: And so it happened

Opposite of love isn’t hatred, but indifference. For a simple reason too. You love someone, your days go in thinking about that one person. You hate someone, and time flies by, despising them. In either ways, doorway to our world is shut to everyone else.

A smile is powerful. Realizing that upon losing mine, it was a lesson well learnt.

Although too soon to say that I was happy, it was a start, for an effort to not put myself down anymore.

Several failed attempts and I had chosen wisely to not give up and keep trying.

Curtains were slowly drawing on this story of Lia. But yet, they weren’t just about closing!

Pivotal points of life are crucial in just our heads more often than not. And I was, for now past all those crucial make it or break it situations.

I needed a break. And life was just seeming to get back to normal.

No I would never forget Lia. She was that person who paused time for me by doing nothing more than simply walking by my side. She also was the one who made me wish I was dead. No I would never forget her, but that doesn’t mean I’d love her forever.

Although, no hope, a feeling lot like love still had its place in my heart which was slowly but surely diminishing by the day. Nevertheless, at this moment, it was still there, the light, flickering but not extinguished.

••

Starting to enjoy company of friends, the outings were more common than they ever had been since years now. What was not common was what was to happen.

An evening like any other, the tides were turning into my favor now, when I opened the door to the bell rung by someone talking to whom had been next to rare since the ‘final breakup’ with Lia.

George.

Why do we let the end of one relation end all the ones that had strings connected with the one gone sour? Because more often than naught they remind us of a world of pain which was hard enough to get out off to begin with. These ties could pull you right back in the time warp. Or so I feared.

“Hi George. Long time! How have you been?”

“I am doing just fine buddy. How are you? Jeanette and I were bothered about you.”

“Why?”

“Well you were the one deeper in love” Janette chipped in.

“Nah. Those are things of the past. So how are you both doing? And hey how’s Lia?”

Their eyes back to that blasé gaze.

“Don’t worry I’m not in love with her. It was she who turned her back to love. The one who broke all faiths this time” I said, hoping I don’t flow in the emotions.

“You got that right... All faiths.” Dejected, George replied.

“What do you mean?”

“No nothing. You really wanted this to work out. Didn’t you?”  Asked George.

“Nope. That’s what we wanted. That’s why I making out with Soundarya didn’t faze her confidence in me, and her kissing Rohit was barely a concern to me.”

“They did more than just kiss you know” he murmured.

“Doesn’t matter!” I snapped back. The way I had when Rohit spoke of her this way.

“It does Suraj! She didn’t just break your faith. She battered ours as well! You think she’s single now? You think so buddy? No. She’s with someone else now. And that someone is the one nemesis I’ve ever had. She knew of it since day one of our friendship. And she won’t tell us. I read her messages call it luck or the other way around. I wouldn’t tell you what those messages were or sleep would delude you. All I can however say is that those messages were not of friendships.”

My heart beat sinking, my fingers intertwined hard enough to break each other now, I gestured Jeanette to not stop George.

“Yes Suraj. She is sleeping with someone else. And she too is way past this "Relationships" stuff. What does it tell you?”

This wasn’t unreal. I was smiling, and there were no tears. This was happening. George in his boyish way had given me an elixir for life, another shot at it.