Remains of a Lost Heart - Part 3

Hey all... Hope you guys enjoyed Part 1 and Part 2.... Here goes the third installment of this journey..... Theres more to come... Keep reading and leave me you valuable feedback.....

Chapter 3 - The Beginning of New Lives

A few months had passed; Arya was having an exciting time at work. His work was well appreciated by all the seniors in the management and his team. He was well recognized and his appraisal was expected to be amazing. He was looking forward to it. All this while, it became more of a routine in his life to call Nisha every night after he got home from work. His GRE and TOEFL were done and he had scores sent to all the universities he had planned to apply to in the US of A. Arya was busy with the process of applying and getting ready with all the documents, and all the usual stuff that a student would need for a post-graduate degree in the USA. “Oh man I am so tired from all the running around!”, said Arya heaving a huge breath of relief. “What is it about dude? What are you upto? Too much work eh? Kabhi tho kaam kiya kar re….” , she said sarcastically and chuckled. “Oh look who is talking about work. I know how much you pity your manager for doing all your work. It is all about my applications and all that for the USA. If I had known this was as tough I wouldn’t have bothered doing or planning for my masters. Phew…”, said Arya and was interrupted by a “WHAT? You are going to do your masters in the USA and you could not even tell me. Arya I am gonna hunt you down and kill you. You are going away to such a faraway place and you did not even bother telling me. Why do you want to go now anyways?”, she sounded panicked and tensed. Arya was silent. He had no answer to her question. After seconds of awkward silence, Arya asked in a rather skeptical tone, “What do you mean by why sweets?” Nisha sounded very upset as she ended the call with a very terse and abrupt goodbye instead of the normal fifteen minute routine of take cares and miss yous.

Arya sent her a good morning mail with a little poem and a huge sorry written at the bottom.
“Oh so sweet the dawn of another day,
 I slept guilty yesterday,
Will you forgive me? Forgive me please….
For, I did not want to see the pretty smile fade, when I told you I had to go across seas….
 Please forgive me for we have time, time to keep this separation at bay…”

Nisha read the mail and called him immediately. “So when are you going away? Tomorrow…Day after?? Is there anything else you haven’t bothered telling me, you jackass….” , she just kept yelling at him. Arya listened patiently until she calmed down a little bit and then replied, “Look it is just September now, and I am going away only in January. So tell me what we are going to do with these four months we have with us?” Nisha thought a little and they were in silence for quite a bit before Arya’s meeting reminder popped up on his monitor. He told her he had to run and told her he would call her later. Arya was nodding like he had a broken neck that he couldn’t control, all through the meeting. Half-way through the meeting, he received a message that said, “Its been eons since I have seen you and you have seen me. Why don’t you come down here to meet up for a coffee or something? I can’t wait to see you. And so you still write poems eh? Luv Nish.” He looked at his mobile phone under the table and had a little pleasant shock. He put his mobile back into his pocket to reply later. He thought to himself how he had to get there and then his thoughts were disturbed by a question from his manager and he went on to participate in the meeting.

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Nisha and Arya met in school the next day. Their class teacher announced the schedule for the model exams. Arya and Nisha hardly spoke that day in school. Things did not seem normal. Ajay went and asked Nisha, “Hey Nish, so when are you and Arya gonna start prepping yaar?” She just stared at him coldly and replied, “Go and ask him. Why ask me. He is this the one who keeps a lot of secrets.” Ajay was thoroughly addled. Arya overheard the whole conversation and told Ajay, “Tell her it wasn’t any secret I kept from her, just that I needed to muster up the courage all this while.” Ajay stood in the middle of this frenzy not understanding a single word of what was going on as they fought on like this for a while.

Arya went home upset. His folks had gone out. Ajay came over and they sat and spoke about what had happened. Ajay was freaking out. But, he was very upset that they fought. “Dude, whatever happens, you guys were great friends. Why don’t you call her?” Arya refused, “Why can’t she call? What’s her problem man?” Ajay convinced him to call. He picked up the cordless phone and threw it to Arya.

“Hello Aunty, this is Arya here, may I speak with Nisha please?”, Arya asked politely as her mom picked up the phone. He heard her mom call out to her. He could hear Nisha coming closer to the phone and when he heard the rattling noise that the phone made when she picked it up, ran a shiver down his spine. “Hey. Who is this?”, she questioned. Arya said, “Hey Nisha” and then a long pause followed the hellos. Arya began to speak, “I am really sorry…..”, when he was cut-off by Nisha. “Idiot, do you even know why I am mad at you? What are you apologizing for?” Somehow what she said brought some relief to Arya. May be he wasn’t totally wrong. The randomness and the frequency at which his mind was generating thoughts was way beyond what he could handle. Arya responded with a huge amount of skepticism in his voice, “Err… No. I was thinking may be me falling in love with you is what made you mad.” “Listen. I was only angry about why you did not tell me much before”, Nisha replied and paused. Arya did not know what she was trying to tell him. Was she in love with him too? She continued in a softer and yet affirmative tone, “I really like you very much Arya. In fact I think I love you too….” Arya was grinning from ear to ear. Ajay was getting restless on the other side as Arya walked into his room and shut the door leaving Ajay behind. Arya did a little jig and was jumping with joy. She went on, “But, what is this boyfriend-girlfriend thing going to change between us? I still find it hard to trust you Arya. What if you like someone else suddenly? What if you ditch me?” Arya spent the next few hours trying to convince her everything will be just fine. “Nish, look I really love you. I don’t know what I can say or do for you to trust me. Tell me if there is anything. All I can say is I will never do anything to hurt you.” There were minutes of grave silence as Arya could feel his heart thump against his chest. Nisha was quite flustered and was still confused. She was in a tougher situation than his. She loved him and yet couldn’t get fully involved. She confused herself and confused him. “Ok Arya, now that models are coming up, we should finish working out more problems. When do we start?” she threw him totally off with that question. She was digressing and clearly showed she did not want to decide. Arya asked her in disbelief, “Oh my god, out of the blue, where did that come from? What did you decide about us?” Nisha with some discomfort said, “I don’t know dude, I still cannot trust you and I am really confused. Can we stop talking about this?” He sat there and thought for some time and suggested, “If it is time you want….” Before he could finish he was cut-off. This time with more clarity and lesser thought she almost blurted it out like she was telling a secret, “No Arya. I don’t want to spoil our friendship and ruin everything. I know you like me, you know I like you. Leave it at that and let’s just be friends.” Arya stood there in total shock and all of a sudden his excitement died down. He continued to listen to her in a state of utter disbelief of what he was hearing. When she ended he told her in a questionable yet clear tone, “Ok Nish, let’s work out first 10 chapters this weekend. Ok?” They both hung up after 4 hours and they felt very bad. They both were now in a place where it felt like there was something between them, which they both were trying to stifle and get rid of.

The following weeks were serious studies and they spent most of their time talking about academics. On the day of the last model exam, Nisha walked up to Arya and they discussed the question paper. After it was done they went back home. She called Arya and they were discussing how much they would potentially score. He was quite casual and said, “These aren’t the boards Nish, why bother so much?” She let him speak on and then finally like she was gathering courage all this while spoke up, “I cannot stop thinking about you Arya. Have you really forgotten me?” He was taken aback. She surprised him all the time. “What do you mean forgotten? I am still trying hard to digest the fact you said no. I am the one trying to find my lost heart.” She retorted almost in anger, “What do you mean you are the one? I am in a worse situation if not the same. It’s not been easy for me to see you like this ok? So stop talking nonsense.” They continued to tell each other how much they meant to each other. All of a suddden Nisha said, “I love you Arya. I don’t know if I said it the other day when we spoke. I really do. So what do you think? Should we go ahead and be in a relationship?” Arya had nothing to say. Arya had lost all his capacity to think. He sat in his room speechless and awed by how confused a girl can be. “No Nish, over the last two weeks I just realized how important the board exams are for our lives. I think we should concentrate on our studies now.” Nisha was almost in tears after hearing that. He could hear her sniff on the phone. “Hey Nish, please don’t cry you know what I mean right.” She hung up on him.

They met in school the following week. It was the last week of school. Their study holidays were starting and they had their board exams to prepare for. In the last week they hardly ever spoke. If at all anything it was mostly about some doubts they had to clarify with each other. Ajay and everybody else found out there was something wrong, but, no one could ask. The board exams went by and Arya called Nisha. “Hey Nish, how are you? How did your exams go?” he asked like nothing had happened. Nisha replied tersely, “Yeah all good man how about you?” Arya told her it was all fine and he went on to ask her about what she had planned for summer. Nisha told him she had some work to do and hung up very quickly.

A couple of days had passed and Nisha called Arya early in the noon. “Arya, I am going away to Bangalore. My brother is going to work there. We are going away.” He did not have enough time to digest what he was hearing. He had to say something. “What? What? Seriously? Or is this one of your jokes?” Her response was affirmative, “No Arya we are taking the flight the day after tomorrow.” Arya still in complete shock asked, “What will your address be? I’ll write to you. What will your phone number be? How will I contact you Nisha?” Nisha sounded worried, “I will write to you dude. I am really going to miss you. Keep writing to me ok? Keep in touch.” She left Arya no time to say anything; her mother was calling her continuously. She had to go. There were a couple of letters exchanged in the few weeks of summer, after that they both got busy with their new lives and they lost touch.

Arya wrote something for her in the last letter, that he awaited a reply for, a reply that never came.

“I wish I could have stopped you…
 I don’t know why I said no…
 I thought the moment was lost…
 But, now I know I am still in love, insanely in love and this is true…
 I am still trying hard to let go…
 Every single thought still lingers, every memory of the sweet past…
 This life I am living sans you is completely new…
 Used to it, I have to get, I know….
 The void you have left in me is vast….
 For, all I have left are the Remains of a Lost Heart….”

***************************************End of Chapter 3****************************************

P.S: Keep your fingers crossed to see how this emotional journey evolves :) 
P.P.S: Please leave me your valuable feedback