“What?” She exclaimed with a sly smirk, “You think I loved you? Come on Om, let’s be real, there’s no way I can ever fall in love with someone as simple as you. But unfortunately I had to keep up with the drama. You have no idea how I wished to get out of this relation.”
As the rain poured down on him, he sank deeper into misery, her words echoing around.
Why?
Was he not enough for her?
What was wrong in him?
Sure, he wasn’t madly in love with her. But she had been his bestfriend since years, then how could she hate him so much?
“You and I, we’re not even compatible.” She had said.
“Riddima please-” Aman, Omkara’s best friend tried to stop her but Omkara held up his hand gesturing him to stop so she could complete.
“I’m happy with this marriage. He has everything I need. How long did you think we could work anyway? You weren’t even ready to take our relation to the next level! What did you expect me to do? Sit by and worship you?”
Her words had struck him more than he thought was possible. Maybe the fault was his, he was the one who was commitment phobic, he needed more time to analyse their relation while she always wished to take things to the next level.
“I can’t believe I wasted 2 years of my life on you!” She spat, “You never even kissed me!”
He didn’t, and he wasn’t intending to either. Each time she tried to make a move, it all had felt so wrong and he couldn’t think of anything else but to run away. Then how was he supposed to kiss her?
Feeling the rain drops not falling down on him anymore, he frowned in confusion. He could see it was still raining then why wasn’t it falling on him anymore? He wondered, starting to move his head up, to look at the barrier.
“You shouldn’t be sitting here like this.” He heard a female voice say. “You’ll catch a cold.”
Immediately he turned his head around to see a young lady standing behind his bench with an umbrella on her hand which was now hovering over his head as well as hers.
So that was what stopped the rain from falling on him. Omkara noted.
He looked at the girl once again, trying to get a better view of her face. Her big brown innocent eyes looked genuinely worried. She looked so beautiful that his heart skipped a beat.
And he couldn’t help but laugh at his own situation. Here a complete stranger was worried about his health, and there his best friend cum girlfriend, oops, ex girlfriend had dumped him.
“Its ok, cold is nothing compared to what I’m going through now.” Omkara replied with a sad smile.
“Then you should definitely not fall sick.” She said with a pout.
“How does it matter? No one cares.” He replied mentally laughing at himself.
“There must be someone who does.” She replied with a smile. “Like your family.”
“Doesn’t matter. I just-“
She walked around to stand infront of him and the park bench. “Do you mind if I sit?”
“You’ll get yourself wet.” He replied looking at the bench already wet.
“Doesn’t matter, Mister.” She replied with a smile and sat next to him, still holding the umbrella.
He just smiled softly at her attitude.
“Why don’t you share it with a friend?” She asked a little worried.
“None I can tell.” He replied.
“I’m here if you want to talk.” She said, “I’m a stranger to you, I won’t judge you if that’s what you’re afraid of.”
Omkara looked into her eyes seriously and said, “I killed someone.”
Her eyebrows rose up almost immediately and she gaped at him in shock. For a moment he almost thought her eyes would pop out.
“Thanks for coming, my next target is you.” He said with a smile. “You have made my work easier, now I wouldn’t have to hunt down people.”
When she continued to look at him like a ghost, he couldn’t help but laugh at her face. She looked so innocent! Her presence was making him feel better, he noticed.
“Just joking.” He finally confessed making her sigh in relief.
“You almost got me there.” She commented keeping her hand on her chest.
“You should be careful when befriending strangers. What if I was really a serial killer?” He asked with a shrug.
“Then I’d die, I suppose.” She said thoughtfully.
“And you’re not scared?” He asked a bit surprised.
“I’d rather be worried for my parents and their misery than be scared of something that I have to meet with one day anyway.” She simply said impressing him. He was starting to like her.
“That’s an interesting way to see death.” He commented.
“But this is definitely not an interesting way to get yourself sick, Mister.” She said looking at him a little annoyed.
“My girlfriend dumped me.” He said looking away.
“Doesn’t mean you’ll get yourself sick for her.” She replied. “If she doesn’t care, you shouldn’t either.”
“Its easy to say.”
“You didn’t love her.” She pointed out and he looked at her a little surprised.
“How did you know?”
“I just guessed it.” She replied.
“She was my best friend since childhood. She proposed me to be her boyfriend and I didn’t see any fault in it so I accepted. But now her marriage got fixed with a rich man and she dumped me for him. I can’t blame her though, I never put any efforts in our relationship.” He confessed.
She listened to him keenly, not interfering. He let out everything in his mind, feeling comfortable sharing his feelings for the first time in his life. He didn’t know if it was because he didn’t know her or if it was because there was something about her that made him want to tell her everything.
“I don’t think I can ever love someone.” He confessed softly.
“But you didn’t love her. Then why are you saying like this? It’s not like you truly loved her and she broke your heart, making it seem like you’ll never fall in love again.”
“If I had to love, don’t you think I would’ve fallen in love with her?” He voiced out the question that had been in his head for quite some time now, somehow feeling that the stranger infront of him could give him an answer.
“If that was the case, then don’t you think the number of divorce cases would’ve been way less?” She asked, a playful smile dancing on her lips.
He looked at her a little amazed while she continued, “If you could fall in love with just anyone, then the world would’ve been simple, no complications at all. But that’s not the case.” She pointed up at the sky, “Waha, upar koi hain, jinhone hum sab ke liye, kisi ko banaya hain. Aise hi kisi se pyaar nahi hota, uss khaas insaan se hota hain.” She finished with a smile, a smile that spread to Omkara’s lips as well.
“Feeling better?” She asked seeing the soft smile on his lips.
He looked at her for a second and then replied, “You were right, I feel lighter.”
“I told you!” She said getting up from the park bench. The rain had stopped by now and the sun had started to make its way from the clouds, a ray of sunshine after a dark cloudy day.
Omkara looked up at her, only to find the sun rays emitting from the back of her head. She looked no less than an angel, maybe she was one, sent to help him. She stretched out her hand infront of him gesturing him to take it.
He looked at her hand for a second and contemplated on what to do. Then, he kept his hand on hers and stood up.
“Thank you for listening to me.” He thanked her.
“I’m glad you decided to share.” She replied with a smile. “I’ll have to go now. Bye!! And don’t forget, you deserve better than her! You both weren’t meant to be! So get home quickly and dry yourself, we don’t want you getting sick!”
She said and walked away with a smile. He too had a smile on his face hearing her words.
“Listen!” He called out to her making her turn around in confusion. “You didn’t tell me your name.”
“Gauri.” She said with a smile that went right to his heart, and made its home there.
“Nice to meet you Gauri, I’m Omkara.”
Just like those Sun rays that brought a new hope to the dark world, Gauri too had become that ray of sunshine in his life. A small day of hope, in his otherwise dark life.
Omkara smiled as he watched her retreating figure, feeling unknown feelings for the first time in his life. He wanted to meet her again.
Although Omkara and Gauri have a long way to go to reach their destination of love, this story wraps up here. Hope you liked this story!
Hello to everyone who’s reading this. As I’m a little busy for the coming few months, I wouldn’t be able to update any story regularly. So all those stories that I have planned to write, have been kept aside. But until then I thought of posting some one shots. So here it is.
Thank you for reading!
Have a nice day!