Manav

Chapter 24 - You get to know everything

'Priyanka...'

'Past...'

'That fight...'

'C5'

And I opened my eyes wide! I jumped off the sofa. I felt like a Eureka moment. I had a feeling, an intuition that she would be at C5. And I know, this might sound very unlikely, but sometimes, life shows you those moments which are very unlikely. I rushed out of the house to go to C5. I got on my scooter and drove it as soon as possible. Only thing in my mind was about Priyanka. Why did Shlok say that she needed a friend, especially me? Was there anything which I was unaware of? And why did I feel such strong intuitions? What was all this about?

I reached C5 and parked my scooter where I could find some space. I looked out for Priyanka around. She wasn't there anywhere. She needed a friend, so she might be somewhere where she won't be interrupted and no one could find her. I went down towards the sea waves and looked back at a long stretch of tripod stones of C5 which were crowded fair enough with couples sitting very close to each other. I saw groups of young people sitting on the tripod stones. I even saw that hawker who sold hot and hard groundnuts.

I started yelling out her name.

"Priyanka! Priyanka!" I walked the whole stretch of C5, and at the end, on the lowest tripod, she sat there with earphones in her ears and she looked at the sunset with those heavy eyes which said that something was wrong.

I went up and stood on top of that stone on which she was sitting. I removed a piece of paper from my pocket and I slowly held it in front of her eyes. She saw it and took it. She recollected that it was that piece of paper which had feelings written by me for her. It was that chit from Shlok's game. The one that she had written for me.

"Manav" she said as she saw me. I climbed down, and sat beside her. She removed her earphones and avoided looking at me. I felt this strange because, even Shefali, Shlok, Naina and Dev tried to avoid eye contact with me. Was my behaviour really so horrible that day? Anyways, I thought of just making her feel calm about everything.

"Hey, I'm really sorry for that day..." I said and she didn't waste a second; the next feeling which I felt was of her hugging me. She hugged me so tight that, even I hugged her back. We talked over hugging each other. I continued saying,

"I'll not lie to you Piyu. That day I was not in my limits. I had a habit of overthinking, which is gone now. That day my overthinking mind exploded. And you happened to be the one to experience it. I've hurt you a lot. Please, please, please forgive me."

"I've already forgiven you Manav. There's only this trust and our friendship present, and nothing else." she said. Hearing this, a small, tiny, cute, and soft tear drop managed to come out of my eye and it gently touched her forehead. She felt it and released herself from the hug and looked at me. She rubbed off that tear and she smiled. This was the best...okay, I don't need to describe this moment to you. I think, you can feel it.

But, as so many 'buts', I didn't understand, why was she here? What happened that she had to come here?

"Why were you sitting here alone?" I dared to ask her. She swallowed her saliva and she said,

"Nothing. I felt very low today. So I came here. But how did you find me?"

"I was at the airport when Shlok was leaving. He told me you'd need me. You know, he has really helped me a lot."