He

(continued from She.....)

I slouched lower on my couch while the TV blasted a Maroon 5 song. I was oblivious to it. My fingers ran over my iPad as I tried to save myself. I cursed loudly as my Spiderman was killed. I hadn't even beaten my earlier score.

I pulled myself up from the couch and dropped my iPad onto it. I thought to myself that I was losing my touch. I was pretty much despondent.

We had been best friends since we were in school. I even remember how we used to share our lunch boxes, she would slowly munch on each bite while I would finish my lunch in a hurry and then continue staring at her. While others sometimes called me a loner, she had always been there for me.

I walked to the balcony and pulled out a cigarette. The lighter was always on the beach chair we had placed in the small balcony. I lit it and inhaled deeply. I immediately felt my shoulders relaxing. A rickshaw honked incessantly on the street below at a dog which was sprawled on the middle of the road, belly upwards. 

She loved dogs a lot. She always told me that she will keep a dog when she was a grown up. The day she told me that she was in love with that guy, my life had ended. I had never seen her like that. It was as if he had hypnotized her or given her a love potion.

I even saw him kick a dog once, but I never told her that. I knew she wouldn't believe me but I would end up jeopardizing our friendship. So the secret remained with me. She only spoke about him and I had no choice but to listen. One day I packed and moved to Bangalore. I had to get away. I even stopped picking up her calls till that fateful day. I had just returned home from work, it had been way past 12 AM. When I pulled out my phone, I saw that I had 18 miss calls. From her.

I immediately called her back. She didn't answer on my first try. Dejected, I was about to try again. Till then my phone starting ringing. I had the latest Yves Larock ringtone at that time. She did not stop speaking for 42 minutes. 

I dropped my phone after ending the call and ran to the bedroom to pack. I shifted back to Mumbai as quickly as I had shifted away. I had no idea that our lives were about to change forever. 

I don't know if what I did was the right thing to do but I knew it was necessary. I am not unhappy about what I did. I am only scared to think about what will happen next.