Part-1 Alone
Forty-eight hours had passed since she had last met him. No message or call since
then. Her calls had been routed to the answering machine, all forty of them. Maya hated
that she was constantly checking Aditya’s ‘last seen’ status on WhatsApp, and yes, he
was online just five minutes ago. Yet he didn’t respond to the pleas or the threats she
had sent in desperation.
This sinking feeling was becoming unbearable, almost torturous. What if he…….
And then, her phone vibrated. With her heart thudding in her ear, she unlocked her
phone and stared at the screen. Finally! It was his message.
But reading it, she nearly stopped breathing. Was he joking?
“Think it was a mistake. Happens between two young people….It’s best to forget”, he
had written, “Let’s cut our losses and move on…”.
She had a wild urge to call him up and scream at him. How dare he do this? What right
had he to suddenly break up like this?
Though she knew Aditya was married, such technicalities didn’t matter to her. Rather
it made him more attractive. The problem started when she realized that he was not just
a conquest; she had genuinely developed feelings for him.
For the past couple of months, she had started to get a niggling feeling that his ardour
was weakening somehow. He was distracted and evasive. He explained it away as
work pressure, but her womanly instincts had rung warning bells.
Maya was used to having her way in all her romantic relationships. She was, after all
the diva, the unattainable goddess people sought and ran after. When Aditya started
showering her with his single-minded attention, wooing her with flowers and expensive
gifts, she had taken her own sweet time to prolong the chase.
Once into it, however, she got totally involved with Aditya. She had never
experienced such ecstasy and completeness with anyone else. Without intending to,
she had lost her heart to him.
She had started planning a future with him. And now, he had abandoned her. Just like
her father had……
Then she could stand it no more….she screamed out in pain and frustration. And then
the tears flowed, flowed as if they would never stop.
She called up her 3 am friend, Anu, and poured her heart to her.
“How could he do this to me? We were so close…”
“Hmm. Guess some things are not meant to be, darling. Try to forget him and move on.”
Anu pleaded.
“Anu! How could you! You know what he means to me!”
“I know, I know. Just trying to help you. Don’t shoot me!”
“I want him back Anu. I don’t have anyone besides him.” Maya’s voice was breaking.
“Listen, baby, just sleep over it okay? You will get over the shock in the morning. Catch
you tomorrow.” Anu tried to sign off.
She sighed. She was tired of being Maya’s rock, her friend in need… Maya depended
on her and was used to leaning on her like a crutch. Whenever things went wrong, Anu
was her agony aunt.
But Anu had decided to go ahead with her own life now. Her boyfriend had proposed,
and she planned to shift to Mumbai to start her life with him. Marriage, career, babies,
and her own life. She had planned to break the news to Maya this week, but now this
happened.
The next morning, Maya called Anu and started howling once again. Anu had an
important meeting to attend so she couldn’t come over to console her.
Maya didn’t feel like getting out of bed. Though she was used to staying alone,
sometimes the emptiness got to her. And the heartbreak?
Through dint of sheer hard work and the right networking, she had made her way
through the dog-eat-dog glamour industry. She was lucky to have Anu as her confidante
and soul sister. Anu was her opposite – calm, reserved and level-headed.
After Maya’s mother died of cancer when she was ten, her life had been empty and
devoid of any real happiness. Her father was never close to her even earlier and now
became a complete stranger. She had tried her best to bridge the gap created by him,
but somehow the walls around him were too high and impregnable.
She didn’t have any siblings, and her best friend Anu and her parents became her family.
For all her brazenness, Maya was actually a softie at heart. Sometimes she felt that she
demanded too much from Anu, who was living in Kolkata only to be with her. Anu’s
fiancé had been asking her to make a move to Mumbai where he lived.
But Anu wouldn’t leave her friend alone to battle her demons.
Something had left Maya scarred for life. Anu had seen a different Maya as a child.
Happy, chirpy, normal. But now……her eyes had hardened with suspicion. She spewed
venom at everyone. She had changed beyond recognition. Where had the original Maya
gone?
That evening it rained like the heavens had broken up. Sheets of rain poured down the
windows of Maya’s house, making her even more miserable if that was possible. She
had tried calling Aditya again, but he was unreachable. Probably had changed his SIM
card to avoid her, she thought bitterly.
Alone and hurting, she walked around like a ghost in her own home. Where were the
fairy tale endings she had read so much about? Life had been a bitch to her.
She took a bottle of vodka out, ready to start on a binge-drinking spree along with a
Netflix overdose.
Thunder struck with a vengeance and the glass windows rattled.
Suddenly she jumped out of her skin hearing a thud outside. She couldn’t make out
anything in the darkness outside. Dismissing it as something that had fallen over in the
storm, she sprawled on the sofa with a drink.
Another crash outside. Shivering, Maya went across to draw the curtains, and then her
eye caught a movement in the lightning.
An excerpt from the book ‘Pebbles in the Sand‘
(To be continued)
Click on this link to grab your copy https://www.amazon.in/dp/939283022X?ref=myi_title_dp
By Barnali Roy
Presently a Blogger and Content Writer, Barnali Roy has been a corporate employee and faculty for Business Communication, HR, and Soft Skills in the past. An avid reader, cine-lover, foodie, crossword and travel enthusiast, she writes on diverse niches ranging from food and health, to motivation, emotional growth and self-development. She can be contacted at barnaliroy18@gmail.com
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