Total Pageviews

Sunday, October 7, 2012

"But if you loved me, why'd you leave me?"

The three of them met after a haphazard array of events. Nobody quite knew how they got there. Except her. Samaira always knew. She'd been running, from whom it was immaterial in the face of the present now, but it'd been a long and tiresome run, not to mention tedious and very cumbersome. Dodging the people behind her was a task but one she was quite familiar with; she ran these roads alone every night, night after night.

He was driving them to safety, or so she liked to believe. Kent, he was good at that. Popping up when she most needed him. Kind of made her believe in all those tales Dumbledore had told about help always coming when those in need, asked for it. In that one desperate moment when she'd close her eyes, his was the last face that'd flash right before she was to give up hope, he was the first choice and the last resort; her broken knight in shining armour.

And then there was Nayna. The reason they'd first ever met. Nayna had hated herself for that for a long while. She'd known Clark all her life and Samaira had just waltzed in and made him Kent, a totally different person who tore her world apart. But well they'd all moved on, atleast she had. She wasn't one to hold grudges and forgave easy. And who was she to complain? She now had her perfection - the one that had stared her in the face all along but she'd been much too much of a coward to admit it earlier and then circumstances had played their toll. Now no more, nothing was keeping them apart any longer. She finally had him - Her Aditya.

Nayna's phone rang and she answered it. Looking out the front seat window, Samaira didn't need any clues to who it was on the other end. Aditya. He used to be Samaira's closest friend at a point.. Before things went so horribly wrong, before she picked the wrong guy, before..
"Yeah baby. That's what no. Marry me", spoke Nayna into her cell phone, giggling. Surely it was some private joke she wasn't in on. She'd been the outsider for so long now, with everyone. Maybe she liked it that way, maybe this was what was meant to be. So she stared on ahead into the oblivion as Kent blasted the music, as if sensing how the ongoing conversation was unnerving her.


As she spoke into the phone, Nayna couldn't help but notice the increasing frequency of Samaira's coughing. Did Samaira really expect her to hold off the conversation just on account of the former's feelings? Boy, she had some nerve. After everything she'd been through, she didn't owe Samaira anything.
*

Frankly, the girls were getting to him. Over what were the pining? That loser? Really now. The prize was still at large, didn't they see? He accelerated the car and drove them to a dilapidated warehouse. It was raining so they'd need to seek shelter and warmth. Perfect. He had just the spirits required for the particular occasion.

She sat down on a rug as Nayna started to light a fire. She'd never been good with all this. As she watched Kent pour them drinks, she didn't wait. Instead she downed all of the first three shots one after the other. He hinted a grin in her direction and she tried to ignore Nayna's presence and condescending statements. She was trying to be friendly but the alcohol was a much needed catalyst required for any headway in that direction.

"So, this is quite a threesome huh?", Kent ventured.
"And not one you hadn't imagined either" came Samaira's blunt retort. She seemed to be on the edge, Nayna noticed. The why to this had no clear answer but it was time Nayna tried to calm matters down. They were all clearly stuck together for the night and she hated unpleasantaries.


"How have you been?", she saw Nayna's lips move. Those must've been the words for she was good at lip reading, not so much at holding conversation. She let Kent and Nayna strike up one as she continued staring at the raindrops gracing the earth, across the window. So much had changed and after a full circle, she was still here, still standing - that was reason enough to celebrate some would say. She wasn't one of them. Samaira had never been one of them. As she heard them flirt casually, she wondered what Aditya would make of it. She had half a mind to call him instantly but she let that jealous whim go. He'd made his choice now and she'd made hers. It was time to live with it.

She looked across the room at the other set of childhood friends that had fallen apart due to the whirlwind romance that had ensued one summer. Look at us now, she thought. Two girls who loved him with everything we had. Two girls who lost everything for that love. Two girls who'd do it all over again? Nah, Nayna had opted otherwise. But she didn't know about herself. She'd never known that if given the choice would she in retrospect, run in the opposite direction on stumbling upon Kent or do it with him as her partner in crime, all over again. Would she just as willingly get played or had she learnt her lesson to never ever go down that road again ?

"Well, when it's you then any girl can feel insecure" came Nayna's cool yet seductive voice which caught Samaira's attention and she saw Nayna tracing Kent's jawline by her fingertips. She tried to look away but as their lips touched after hours of casual flirting, Samaira was in a trance.. And not one she could break.. Voluntarily or involuntarily. She could see his eyes look across Nayna at her, as if this were just some big foolhardy joke that she should ignore; as if this was a test and to pass it, all she had to do was play cool. Samaira tried to stare back but her gaze fell down instead to her feet. She turned her back to them and the fire that had been keeping her warm as a tiny tear slowly rolled down her cheek. She didn't let the tiniest whimper escape her lips, nor the slightest shiver tingle her spine and it was Kent that broke that endearing silence with his footsteps. Before Samaira knew it, he held her by the waist, turned her to face him, an inch away from his face as he scooped up hers and said, "There's no reason for HER to ever be insecure."

Those were the last words heard by both the girls as Kent swept Samaira into a kiss, one that he initiated. It wasn't the kind you read about in books; the kiss was neither wild nor mad; neither forced nor strong. It was the softest touch of lips as they engulfed one another and slowly their very bodies entwined alongwith their tongues which plundered on to seek more, to go further than either had ever been. Every kiss between them was like a story being told - the other always knew what was to follow, not because of the monotony or predictability but merely because their impulses read each other and aligned in careful symmetry always. It was like coming together after spending a century apart, they always picked up right where they left off.

She could hear Kent's thoughts as they kissed, telling her tales about how he had told his Mother about Samaira. She almost pulled away in surprise but he held on and continued discovering parts of her mouth, she had forgotten existed. He told her about that conversation and many more in which Samaira had featured, not because it was imperative but because he hadn't forgotten her, he never could forget her.

As Nayna looked at them kiss, there was not a twinge of envy, she was genuinely happy for she believed they belonged together. It had been she who had brought them together to this room to talk some sense into Clark's foolish mind. She'd known he couldn't intentionally hurt Samaira forever, and that he would be the man she had always imagined this boy to grow into, even if not for her. Nayna felt at peace as she saw the pieces of this puzzle fall into place. Maybe the four of them could finally all be happy at the same time and break the jinx they were tied into.

Samaira tried to hold back the tear that had been threatening to spill over but one look at Nayna smiling across the room, and she couldn't hold back any longer. Samaira had never believed Nayna when the latter promised she'd reunite them some day; Samaira was too much of a cynic that way. But Nayna had kept her word and Samaira had the man of her dreams kissing her, that once in a lifetime kiss that she had waited for with the tiniest ray of sunshine in her heart for expectations and hope were lost causes when it came to Kent.

As they started to break apart, his hands never left her face as Kent drank in that dewdrop like tear resting on Samaira's cheek and said in a soft, prolonged, sensual voice, "Hi."
"Hi." in her summery bright, chirpy, joy infused and content filled voice was what Samaira replied. 


This was how they said hello after all that time. This was how they'd always say hello. And then as Nayna stepped out to call her boyfriend, they dove right back into another liplocking kiss, never noticing the gas that was left burning. There was a lot to catch up on.

18 comments:

  1. Wait I am confused.. who kissed that guy? both the chicks?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, Nayna kisses the guy first and he's just a player so he kisses her back. But then he realizes how much it's hurting the other girl and turns out he does give a damn about her. So.
      Any other queries love?

      Delete
  2. The tongue is kinda my move. :P
    Don't you know that by now?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, at least there's no bloodshed. We're recovering, aren't we?:D

      Delete
    2. Dr. Malcolm Crowe. Ring a bell?

      Delete
    3. Now you're flattering yourself :P

      Delete
    4. Not really. He was dead :P Got killed by a naked dude :P And then he joined Haaley Joel Osment's merry ghostly party :P

      Delete
    5. He did get insanely famous though. These days fame masks everything, haven't you heard?

      Delete
    6. I would rather be Batman than Harvey Dent, missy. '_'

      Delete
    7. And I would rather be Cleopatra than the 'Dexter' type character you make me out to be but well. :P

      Delete
    8. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    9. You? Dexter?? A million times no :O Dexter has a well defined code. He doesn't dream of bashing himself up, for starters.
      You, little one, are free to be Cleopatra, you know, just so that you can make Antony your squeeze and lulz at ol' Caesar :D

      Delete
    10. God you really don't skip my self-destruction bits do you?
      Ah well as long as I'm the little one AND Cleopatra, I'm cool. :D

      Delete
    11. No, wo aapki pehchan hai :P

      Yes, little one and Cleopatra, you're on a roll indeed :D

      Delete