A Coffee at Dawn

Chapter 19 : Pieces

I answered the call and stayed silent, I had a lot to hear, a lot to tell, I had to apologise for my outburst, for making her cry but all I could do is stand there silent with tears rolling down. Dhruv patted my back and moved aside. Guilt, fear and anger had turned me mute. The lump in my throat had blocked all the words that wanted to fall out.

"Hello" her voice felt heavy. The voice I was dying to hear, I tried catching my breath as Aarti paused.

"Hello" I answered trying hard not to let her know about my state.

"Stop crying first Mayank" she spoke bold. " You are awake still, don't you need sleep?" She questioned.

"Had I slept, I would have missed your call. I could not afford to do that." I heard her breath heavily through the phone. I understood she was controlling her tears as well.

"Where are you, don't tell me at the beach? This time is really bad to be there. You just can't understand what is right and what is wrong. Never will you grow up in life. Continue doing all this." After a long pause, she started shooting like a cannibal. I chuckled at it with tears still running down.

"I was not joking for you to laugh." She cleared her throat as she spoke.

"This is the best place I felt to be at this time. I had no other choice." I wiped my tears.

"Your landlord kicked you out of the house is it that you had no other choice. Stop reasoning." Her voice went slightly stern.

I was unable to understand the conversation. I could not relate to the concern. A random thought progressed in the back of my mind. I felt this could be the last time we were talking this way. That very thought put me thinking and I fell silent.

"Did I say something wrong? I am sorry. Why did you go silent?" She questioned. The sorry that she said felt like a huge stone fall on my head. That tone of hers felt formal and I felt distanced. She realised the reason behind my silence.

"Well-" I cut her in between.

"No problem its completely fine. What have you been doing till now? This is really late for you. You will start shouting at me when you call me again later in the day, blaming me the reason behind your dark circles." I tried to evade the thought.

"I-I Maya-" I did not let her speak. Somewhere I knew where she was heading and I tried to push that away. "And why was your phone switched off for all this while? You know how much that bothered me! You tell, I won't grow up. Well the fact is, I don't want to grow up, because you would not treat me like this if I do." I spoke without thinking just so that things don't get serious and gave a pretentious laugh over the call.

"Mayank" she paused. I had to stop listening to it. "This is not the way it should be happening" she said.

"Do you want it to happen?" I questioned intently.

"Its not about what I want, never will i get what I want, let that part be aside. I have not called at this time to patch the broken pieces." I was taken aback by that.

"Broken pieces? Aarti do you even what you just said?" I pursed my lips as I asked her.

"I don't know what to say." She went blank.

"Like always. Mistakes happen, I am accepting it. I should not have yelled at you. I should not have made you cry. I realised that and I kept calling you right after that moment to apologise. I reacted completely out of frustration. For a moment I had lost my control baba. I am sorry. I know sorry is too less a word, but your apology would mean the world to me." She did not speak till I was done.