Bus#126W - Chapter 26

I stood at the bus stop long after the bus had left. I was trying to figure out why it mattered so much. If Dhruv wanted to keep it a secret, I should respect that and leave it at that. With a deep sigh, I relented. I wouldn’t hold it against him. After all, he wasn’t under any obligation to tell me. We had known each other for less than a month.

I really couldn’t expect him to, could I?

Dhruv had spoken about some organizations where he was going to take me over the weekend. I decided to be a step ahead and started reading up on them as soon as I got home.

Animal shelter, an old age home, a children’s welfare society. I was busy googling when there was a knock on my door. My mum put her head in “Someone’s here to see you.” She pushed the door open after a quick inspection that my room was clean.

Dhruv.

“Thank you.” He said to my mum as he came in.

He waited for my mom to leave and then turned towards me. I was still numb with shock.

“Surprised?” He asked as he made himself comfortable on a chair.

“Understatement of the year.” I commented. “Why are you here?” I asked suspiciously.

“You wanted to know about the letter.” He said simply.

“Oh.” I was a little confused, why did he want to tell me now? “You don’t have to. I really don’t care. I was just curious when I found it. Sorry if I was prying.” I apologized.

I hoped he wouldn’t fall for my fake apology and tell me anyway.

He nodded a little and pulled out the letter. “You won’t mind if I threw it away then? It’s been lying around for so long.”

I watched him carefully. “Go ahead, it’s your letter after all.”

He shrugged and before I could stop him, he tore up the letter and tossed it in the dustbin under my table.

“What did you do that for!?” I was aghast.

“Can we stop pretending you don’t want to know then?” He asked calmly.

I nodded a little, “You didn’t have to be so dramatic.” I walked over slowly to the dustbin. “So now what? Do you want me to tape it together?”

He scoffed, “You didn’t really think I would tear up a letter I had saved for six years, did you?” he pulled out another sheet of paper from his pocket.

If I didn’t know better, I would have said he was trying to not to laugh at the various stages of realization I was going there. 

Finally, I burst out laughing, “Very slick Dhruv!” I complimented. “I can’t believe I fell for that!”

Dhruv stood up uncomfortably balancing himself on his cane and took a little bow. “Thank you, walked straight into that one you did.”

I snatched the sheet from him and sat down, cross legged with my face in my hand. “So!”

He sat down in front of me, “So, that’s something I wrote to a girl.”

“Oh.” 

“But I never sent it.”

“Why not?”

“It’s a long story.”

I shrugged my shoulders, “I’ve got nothing better to do.”

“So this girl..” he started.

“Hey! I need names. Without a name, she’s not real.” I interrupted.

“Fine, her name is Sara.” He said quickly.

“Okay, continue. I know that’s a made up name by the way.” I commented.

A slight smile on Dhruv’s face told me I was right.

“So Sara and I used to stay back for basketball practice.” He said.

“I’m sorry, what???” basketball practice?????

“You know, the sport? I was a very good player, so was she.” He stopped talking for a moment. I guess my confusion was apparent. “You do know that this,” he pointed at his leg, “wasn’t a birth defect right?”

“Oh!” I exclaimed, it seemed like I was running out of things to say. I was already imagining all kinds of horrible things that might have happened to him.

“I fell during a game.” He said simply.

I gulped, “I didn’t know..” I hesitated, “I didn’t know that you could, you know..” I stopped.

“Yeah well, even I didn’t know. But the fall damaged some nerve and left my leg..” his voice trailed off as he touched his leg.

Awkward silence surrounded us. I wish I could say something to make him feel better, but I couldn’t think of anything appropriate to say.

I stood up and walked towards him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Bus#126W - Chapter 25

Arpit made me spend the lunch hour with Sneha. He thought it would be nice if we all could get along. We stood around the corridor eating and smiling politely.

“Well, you basically need to get your profile to look good, you know, with stuff like co curriculum activities and stuff.” I parroted the gyaan Dhruv had given me.

Sneha nodded, hanging on to my every word.

“I have read online forums and stuff,” she said, “but it’s so much better getting an individual perspective.”

I nodded, “My thoughts exactly.”

“So can I meet him?” she asked eagerly.

I turned away slightly from her and looked at Arpit, “I’m sure he’ll meet you. Just have to figure out when. He’s a busy guy.” I said half-heartedly.  

Arpit was positively beaming that the two girls in life were getting along famously.

“I won’t take much of his time, I promise.” She said as the bell rang. And shocker of shockers! She leaned in a little and gave me a slight hug. “Thanks!” she whispered before she walked away.

If I thought I was caught off guard, you should have seen the look on Arpit’s face! His jaw was practically mopping the floor!

“What was that?!?” he asked, once we were out of earshot. 

“How should I know? She’s your girlfriend.” I commented.

I shook my head. I had to admit, Sneha did have a certain something about her. She left me so shaken up, I can only imagine what effect she had on Arpit. I placed a sympathetic hand on Arpit’s shoulder. “I think I just got a slight heart attack. From passive hatred to a hug. In a blink of an eye! Some talent she has.”

He smiled a little, his eyes following Sneha as she walked away. “She’s genuine. Does what she feels is right. But you’ll never see that.”

“Oh don’t go all soppy on me now! Come on, class time.” I walked inside.  

Arpit walked in after me, stopping to chat with a couple of other people. Popularity wise, Arpit was skyrocketing upwards. He stumbled a little as he came towards his desk, dropping all his books on the floor. But deep down, he was the same. Maybe Sneha hadn’t changed who he was. Maybe she had just polished off some of the dust which had gathered.

He caught me staring at me, “What? Is there something on my face?” he asked wiping his mouth vigourously.

“Yes, confidence.” I smiled warmly at him and turned towards the teacher who had just walked in.

I took a peek at Arpit during class, he had this goofy smile on his face that he just couldn’t get rid of. I knew he was pleased with what I had said. His happiness made me smile too and that’s how we sat throughout the second half, grinning like idiots.

Of course, the teachers spotted it too. Some of them smiled back at us and some of them threw us out of class because they thought we were laughing at them.

All in all, a good day I’d say. Felt like old times.

I met Dhruv in the bus as usual.

“Hey,” he said as he got on, “How was practice?”

“Oh, the usual. Coach is losing his initial excitement.” I looked around in my bag for the letter. I could feel my heart starting to race and breath shortening. I just hoped it wasn’t too obvious.

“You okay?” Dhruv placed his hand on my shoulder.

“Yeah,” I turned around and smiled at him. He was concerned about me. Yay! “I found this in one of your books.” I handed him the envelope bristling with excitement.

“What is…?” Dhruv’s eyes showed confusion as he took the envelope from me.  He opened it slowly and pulled out the letter. His eyes widened. In surprise or shock I couldn’t tell.

A smile touched his face as he touched the letter almost reverently. He had recognized it without opening it. Without any explanation he put it inside, “Thanks, so what do you want to study today?”

I didn’t want to pry, but I was dying to know what the letter was about. I sighed, I wasn’t the kind of person who invaded someone’s privacy.

“Sneha wants to meet you. She’s wants to know about St. Peters too.” I said, looking outside, trying to hide the disappointment on my face.

Dhruv misunderstood my reaction and laughed, “Look at you all sad! If you don’t want me to meet her, I won’t.” he said.

I half smiled at him, “I guess one meeting won’t kill you.”

He started talking about the volunteering act he thought I should do. I couldn’t pay attention. I was distracted by the letter which now resided safely in his jacket pocket.

Eventually, my stop came. I got off, incredibly pissed off that Dhruv didn’t think it was important enough.

“Hey what’s wrong with you?” Dhruv asked as I brushed past him.

I got off the bus and looked up at him, “Just tell me the story behind damned letter!” 

Bus#126W - Chapter 24

Arpit nodded benevolently at both of us. I rolled my eyes and glanced at Sneha. She had the same irritated look on her face which was mirrored on mine.

I caught her eyes and shrugged my shoulders.

She murmured under her breath, “Seriously, can you believe this?”

I shook my head. The bell rang and Sneha glared at Arpit and walked off.

“What happened!” Arpit called out after her, utterly surprised how two people who were clamoring for his approval had suddenly turned against him.

I threw my head back and laughed loudly. “Come on, she’ll be okay.” I said, pushing Arpit into the classroom.

“What just happened? Everything was just peachy one moment ago and then both of you are glaring at me. What did I do?” Arpit said, talking more to himself than to me.

I laid a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, “Won’t you tell me?” he asked woefully.

“Nope!” I replied almost immediately.

“At least show me that letter!” He said putting out his hand.

I stared at him, my face creasing into a smile. “I knew you won’t forget!” in a jiffy, I whipped out the envelope and handed it to him, “Careful!” I reminded him as he took it from my hand.

He read through it, a wry expression on his face. “This is why you called me in the middle of the night?”

I nodded excitedly. “Uh huh. What do you think?”

“It’s pretty lame.” He said folding it and put it back.

Furious, I snatched it back from him. “Just because you’re not that thoughtful!”

“Hey Naina!” He grabbed my wrist as I was putting it away, “I hope you remember it’s not meant for you.”

“What has that got to with anything?” I said carefully tucking the envelope inside a book.

“You’re being unreasonably sentimental about it.” He commented and turned away.

I looked at the letter and then back at him. Okay, I was sentimental about it. The poetry wasn’t great, but something had touched me. Maybe it was the honesty and bravery with which a wavering hand written it that had struck a chord in me. Or maybe it was just the mystery surrounding it that had made it so special.

All I knew for sure was it had been important to Dhruv. Maybe it was still important. Maybe the other person in the letter was still important.

Bus#126W - Chapter 23

There was more, but I couldn’t get myself to read. It seemed far too intimate and personal for me to pry. I folded it back and put it in an envelope. I wondered who it was for and who had written it or even how old it was.

I tapped my fingers on the envelope, ask or ignore? I knew I had to ask. It was driving me crazy. I called Arpit and told him about the letter.

“Naina, do you know what time it is?” I could hear him stifling a yawn.

“Its 1, so what do you think?” I didn’t care if it was way past our bed times, this wasn’t the first time we had spoken so late.

“Some girl gave it to him, since he kept it, they got back, end of story. Good night.” I heard a click on the other side. Arpit had hung up. I put the receiver down slowly and crawled into bed, pulling the covers up to my chin. The letter was resting in its envelope on my side table. I touched it reverently and turned it around a couple of times as though that would get me some answers.

I don’t know when I fell asleep, but when I got up, I was still clutching the envelope tightly in my hand.

I told Pooja about the letter and about what Arpit had asked me to do.

“Noooooooooooooo!” Pooja exclaimed in a low voice. “Just tell him Dhruv refused. As if he’ll ever know the truth.”

“That’s what I thought I’ll do. But I’ll feel awful lying to him. It’s difficult. I’m hoping Dhruv actually says no.” I said, winking at her.

“Yeah, and it’ll mean that he wants to spend more time with you.. Just you.” She remarked.

I had to admit, Pooja sometimes stole the words straight from my mind.

Arpit and Sneha were waiting outside class for me.

“I’ll talk to him.” I reassured Arpit as I walked past them.

“Hey Naina!” Sneha greeted me. I stopped, took steps back and then looked at Sneha who guiltily looked at Arpit. A sort of crooked smile appeared on my face.

It looked as though Sneha was getting doses regarding me, just as I was getting regarding her. Maybe they were arguing? Was I one of the topics? I couldn’t tell.

“Hey Sneha!” I forced chirpiness into my voice and greeted her and realized that I had automatically turned towards Arpit, probably with the same look, on my face.