Stars Aligned | ✓

43

Chapter Forty-Three
Whatever I have with him, I don't want to lose it. Ever.

× ANANYA ×

"You should go, it's your best friend's wedding" I wiped my cheeks once again breaking the silence till now by the the end of my saree.

After my breakdown, I asked him to leave after telling him that I was okay now, but he chose to sit with me on the footpath of a road where once in a while the vehicles were moving.

Because of the silent but cold breeze of the night and our comfortable silence till now, the noise of the leaves moving softly and brushing against each other as if having their chemistry amongst them was clearly heard.

"Let's stay here in silence for a little longer" He replied and I could feel his gaze on me.

The way this man has been here for me, sitting beside me on the footpath without any shame or hesitation. He was missing out on his best friend's wedding for me, just to sit here with me in silence. We weren't speaking a word till now, but the silence spoke too much.

He is teaching me to sit, hear, and enjoy the silence with him. Which I could never do, because if not the world then the voices in my head can never go silent. But today, it felt like they vanished for a moment, I wasn't thinking anything for a while.

And now I felt like I was a step ahead in knowing him after I realized that to him, the outer world's noise doesn't matter, like the way he didn't wish to take a stand for himself, or me, it was because he was fighting his own battle inside his head while staying in the silence.

He won't fight with the world because he was fighting with himself the whole time.

The one observation made so much sense to me. He never took a stand for me when someone he knew told me something, yes, but when the other person is someone he doesn't know, he speaks for me. Like that time when Ria said things about me, he spoke. Even the first day we met again, a few months back, he spoke for me to that 'You don't know me' guy.

In Bua's case, right after she said something about me, he didn't speak but his actions did. He was there with me for the whole time after that, trying to lift my mood, cracking silly jokes, or letting it be lame flirting.

He has his way of showing and being there. Which is silent, just like the noise of the leaves right now. We can only hear them in the silence. Just like that, his efforts are also very silent, which can only be seen if you focus and try hard, especially if you want to.

"You don't have any questions?" I thought that he would ask me something regarding my parents, or why I ran away or anything. But he did not bring up the topic ever.

"Regarding what?" He questioned back.

"Regarding everything that happened back there. Or anything, in your mind" I looked at him who was looking at random things and not something fixed.

"Who am I to question you? Everyone has problems, I know you'll tell me when you are comfortable in doing so. I'd rather wait than ask you" I was astonished at this statement of his.

Only someone who wants people to understand them in the same way as them is this understanding.

"My father was always toxic and orthodox was his first meal of the day. For him, the one person important in the world was him. Second was Amar bhai. I don't have much to say about my father because we never spent time together, it was like someone had taught me that this was your father. Single one of his actions could never prove it, he felt like a mere stranger living in the same house as mine." I said recalling the days when I stayed at that place, I couldn't even call it a home because it wasn't one for me.