Fitting Out

Chapter 3 - History Remembers

I've never been one for grand romantic gestures. Or grand anything gestures.

But when Aarav, my longtime best friend since sixth grade where we bonded (surprisingly) during the after-school debate club, announced in the very same room (after he'd become President in three years) that the topic for the day was 'Should Navya go out with Aarav?' and promptly sat himself on the 'For' table, I figured it was safe to sit beside him. By ninth grade, the only other students in the club were at least two years below us, mostly rejects from drama, so they soaked it up all they could, when they could. The public embarrassment that Grand Romantic Gestures usually cause (or at least, are supposed to cause, according to movies and shows), I was saved from.

I didn't even like debates; I only joined it because I figured I would only have to talk to the other kids during the actual debates, which happened maybe once in two months after longer debates of what topic we should pick. But once I joined, the lack of general student population within the team gave me a chance to unwind for an hour every week, except from him. Which was fine, really.

He told me later that he'd found my 'sense of dichotomy' calming, but that was mostly because he'd recently finished The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost in their English class and he wanted me to know he knew the meaning of dichotomy. Anyway, he knew me through mutual friends before, but found himself pleasantly surprised at my 'quietness' in the debate club, as if I was a boisterous party girl otherwise. To be honest, I was mostly plotting the best way to get away from school in general, as fast and as far as possible. Boy, did that take me a while to execute.

Either way, I figured if he found my silence so charming, he'd have no problem with my bouts of temporary ghosting, and maybe even find it endearing. Distance makes the heart.. and all that crap.

So we dated all through the remaining years at school and undergrad.

And it worked out pretty well, until after college I decided to take up an internship at a 'fast-paced high-growth startup' (which is basically an excuse for making you work longer hours - don't be fooled, kids!) at a different city, and pretty much cut off all contact with him. Not intentionally, but it just kind of.. happened. I wasn't the type who'd call or text first, I was more of a scrolls-mindlessly-through-instagram-and-sends-you-a-meme-while-being-perfectly-aware-of-your-fifteen-texts-I-haven't-responded-to person. So things naturally went to shit after he deactivated his instagram.

And now, about two weeks into the internship, I felt the light tug of wanting to call him.