...and Just Like That

Three months have passed and I did not hear anything from him. I knew he wants to be alone and so I did not try to contact him. I had already started my survey and successfully interviewed more than 10 people. Few of them were my friends and few my friend’s friend. Some of my friend thought I am crazy and I was wondering why they noticed it so late. Responses from the people I was interviewing were really good. One fact which I realized during these discussions was that people feel better to talk to a person who hears their problem or pain without providing his/her expert comments and without digging more. I made some good friends during all these stuff. One of them was a nice girl who was my friend’s friend. I found this girl really sensible & mature and she found me very funny (it’s my guess ;). She supported my survey and I was glad that I finally found someone who has respect for my stupid thoughts. We became very good friend in next few days.

When I reached his place I found that nothing has changed inside his room. All the DVDs, cards, pics which she gifted him were at the same places I saw last time. I told him to destroy all those things but he refused. We talked for 3-4 hours and 90% time his talks were related to her. Till the moment I left his place I had become so irritated that I could bang my head on the wall but fortunately I am not stupid enough to do that. But yeah, I am smart enough to do one thing. When I left his place I stole three romantic songs DVDs which she gifted him. One more thing which I had learned from my survey that destroying the old gifts and souvenirs helps in recovery a lot. I gifted those DVDs to my new pretty friend. The DVDs were of highly romantic songs and the girl misunderstood me initially. She said;
“Hey, you are really a nice guy and very good friend of mine. But I cannot think in that direction. I don’t have any feelings for you except friendship. “
Damm..life is funny. Isn’t it?
I explained her everything and told her my friend’s story. We laughed loudly at this incident. Next time when I visited his place he slapped me really hard. He said “I cannot believe you are trying to steal my memories. I hate you. Get lost.”
I got lost (just for that day)

Some more months passed and I introduced my new friend to my old friend. Somewhere in my heart I wanted something between these two. When I said this to him he gave me an “I will kill you right away” look. In next few meets, they mixed up very nicely. She also convinced him to get rid of all the gifts he got from her ex. I had tried it so many times and he never listened to me. I wondered why guys can be convinced so easily by girls. We started hanging out together and many times we where together I had a Déjà vu feeling…….only the girl was different. His recovery was really good after he met her. Through all this I understood one more fact that only a girl can fulfill the emptiness given by another girl. “God..I am becoming expert in human relations” I thought. Meanwhile my friend has started laughing again but still he was relating most of the discussions to his past which was quite irritating for me but our new friend was supporting him every time.

One day she called me and said what I was expecting to hear “I think I have started feeling for him. I think about him all the time.”
“So what do I do? Go and tell him” I said
I am afraid. Why don’t you ask him what he feels for me?
“I don’t have time for all this crap. My friends are waiting for me in a pub. Nothing is important than beer”. I hung up and smiled. Things were going in the same direction I expected. She was the perfect match for him.

One day I called him at 11.30 in night and his phone was busy. Out of curiosity I called her and her phone was also busy. After that I tried it many times and results were same. Neither of the two ever complained why I do so.

He met me in the same old park. He was looking worried.
‘She proposed me”
I looked at his face and said “so?” I pretended to be careless about it.
“You know everything. I am not ready for all this again” He replied.
Then say no.
I can’t. I mean I can’t say no directly. She is a nice girl. She has become my best friend. She listens to all my crap without saying anything. (Dammmmm. I did the same thing for even longer period but I am sure he never noticed that) She is helping me in getting back to life. I can’t hurt her.

He kept speaking good thing about her. I could have taken a nap. I knew he has started feeling for her but he is not going to admit it so easily or probably he don’t even know that. When he finished his essay he looked at me expecting to hear something and I said:

“I always thought I am your best friend”

He was irritated coz I was not trying to understand him and he was very right. As soon as he left the place I received call from her. She was sounding happy. She told me that he is not ready yet and he will take some time. I knew she is right.

And just like that another story was going to reach at happy ending.

I was about to move from the place and my phone rang. It was a call from an unknown number. I picked up the call. Though I was hearing her voice after a long time but I recognized it

“Its been long. Just wanted to know how you guys doing? I cannot call him so called you. How is he? Does he talk about me? Does he count me among the worst person he met in his life? Is he seeing someone? Does he miss me?

She wanted to ask so many questions and I knew the answer of all of them but I was not interested in telling. Some questions need to be unanswered. I cut the phone. As I turned, I saw the same old board. Some interesting person has removed the word “NO”. It was now saying “Thank you for smoking”.

I had left smoking. I smiled.