20. First Love

First Love.

"Ugh, God. Do we really have to go?"

"C'mon Deepika. How can we not? It's our reunion for chrissake! We HAVE to go!"

"Darn, okay, whatever."

Art school was ages ago. And she didn't particularly like the idea of revisiting those awful school mates. It's not that she hated school, but meeting all her classmates so many years later made her flinch a little. She didn't have too many friends back then either, and very few managed to transcend from schoolmates to her "friends". She took things like that very seriously. To her, friends were for life. And if she wanted someone in her life, it was for a lifetime. Casual friendships and relationships were practically a nonexistent theory for her.

She didn't even remember most people from art class so she was naturally hesitant.

But her friend Mona wanted her to come and she knew it meant a great deal to her. She was organising. And she just couldn't say no to her.

She was going to be in town around that time anyway. She was to go to Mumbai to visit a family friend on the 2nd of January. She planned to leave on the 6th. Now that the reunion was scheduled for the 3rd, she didn't have much choice.

She'd reached Mumbai early on the morning of 1st January. She went home. She hadn't been home in ages. Mumbai wasn't always home. But it had been for a very long time. It will always be home, no matter how far and wide she travelled and journeyed, how distant she lived, how ever long she stayed. Mumbai was what defined her and it shall always be home.

Her family was absolutely thrilled to see her in so long. She'd missed them, and strangely, it was their presence that made her realise how much she missed them. She spent the rest of the day chatting with her family, looking at old albums, laughing.

"Look here, you look so adorable!"

"Ugh nooo I don't."

It was a picture of her covered in paint. She was trying to paint something and in the process she ended up having more paint on her person than the canvas.

"Ahaha and look here, there's your art class. You're having a reunion I heard."

"So you know too?"

"Yeah, I met Mona the other day. She told me."

"And you told her I'd be in town didn't you?"

"Oops."

Then there was the whole talk about how she didn't want to go and her sister persuading her to. Although she was the elder of the two, she always relied on her younger sister for advice every once in a while.

They whiled away the time chatting and then it was dinner time soon. They went downstairs, and after dinner, she went upstairs to the terrace, watching the sky sparkle.

"Hey."

She turned around to see her mom there, and she walked up to her, hugging her briefly.

"We really missed you."

"I missed you all too."

They got talking about various things. One of which was her heartbreak.

"Ma, I'm over him. I've told you that so many times! And I'm NOT upset, trust me. I'm sorry I haven't visited often and I don't speak for long, but that's because I'm busy. I'm sorry."

"Beta I'm just trying to help. Look, it's natural to feel that way. If you feel low, it's okay. I just want you to be happy. We all do. And we think how your remain aloof these days, it's going to affect you. Meet some people. That's another reason why I want you to go to the reunion. It's good to meet old friends."