An Awkward Silence

Divya had never looked so beautiful. Infact, she had never known that she ever could. She had started to admire herself in the last 15 minutes. Afterall, some eyeliner and kajal brought out her tiny eyes into a new world out of the old groove. She had picked up a pair of 'musical s' shaped earings after much ado. She had always thought of them as her best buy for 10 bucks during her first year of Engineering. She had worn a black spaghetti which ran upto her knees and a blue scarf around her neck which was tied up in a knot on her left side. It was 7.00pm and the cab would arrive any minute.

Divya had snoozed the alarm for the 5th time that morning. She didn't want to turn it off in case she fell asleep again. She had to wake up in time for the 10am Top Gear repeat telecast. She pulled herself out of the bed when the phone rang. It was Deeph calling in after a week. They were good friends, until she had fought with him about not trying to keep in touch. He had dismissed it as a silly arguement and had hung up on her. Divya had been in love with Deeph for over 6 months now. She had dropped clues at times, but Deeph had never picked them up.

The cabby had arrived. Divya locked her apartment and ran down the stairs. While she got down, she peeped in to check up on the gift she had got Deeph. She got into the cab and for the first time in the whole day, she leaned back and gave a rest to her thoughts.

The phone continued to ring. "Deeph!", she said to herself. Random thoughts crossed her mind as to why he had called. The phone went dead.She had almost picked the phone up when it buzzed again. She whispered a"Hello!" into the phone. There was a long silence and then a voice spoke. A voice, unlike the one which she had known for 2 years now, unlike the one she had longed to hear. "Hello!", Deeph replied.

"Mam!, we are there", the cabbie mouthed. She had almost fell asleep. Her mind had been working, contemplating and analysing since that call in the morning. She had made a reservation. She had deliberately delayed the cab coz She didn't want to reach on time and wait, as she always had to. Not today. Today was supposed to be her day.

"Are you alright? You sound low!". Divya was now concerned. "You sound low too!". Yeah! Divya was not in her usual spirits. She would have usually answered the phone with a "hellooooo!". "No! nothing", she dismissed. "Can we meet? I feel like it's been weeks that we have met!". She wanted him to add on to it, make it sound more romantic. She only spoke after a pause. "I missed you!", she said. There was a longer pause on the other end and then Deeph spoke, "I missed you too!"

Divya tried to find a familiar boyish face in the Restaurant crowd. She noticed someone walking towards her. The two eyes glistened when they met hers. There were tears in his eyes. She was devastated. He pulled her to a hug. He was shaking and Divya could feel it. Deeph then held her hand and walked her out of the room to the parking. She followed without a word. Then, they drove back to his house.

It was a villa on the beach side. Few rooms were lit up but a majority of them were dark. They hadn't spoken a word from the time they had met. Divya wasn't sure of what was going to happen. She was sure, but didn't want to accept that it was not going her way. "I love her", he said. It looked as though she was ready for it. She knew that things had not worked for him with someone she would come to hate after a while. Right now, she had to calm down. But she thought there would a life time for all the hate and disappointment. She took a long breath, walked to him, held his hand and said, "Let's go for a walk".

While they walked on the beach, neither of them spoke a word. Divya felt excruciating pain. She had never seen Deeph so devasted. She had forgotten about her own disappointment. They both looked either ways, so as to not look into each other's eyes. As they walked for a while, Deeph relaxed. He was holding her hand in a firm grip now. He had stopped walking. He turned to her and looked straight into her eyes. Divya was puzzled. He looked entirely different now!

"It's you dumbo!", he said with a smile.