(Previously)
Chapter 3
His parent’s decision to sell their old house for a new apartment didn’t go down well with Arav. He never wanted his old place to be sold. He grew up there; those old red bricks bore signs of his childhood. They stood witness to his lonely adolescent as he spent them on the staircase humming songs from Satyajit Ray’s “Gupi Gayen Bagha Bayen” all afternoon and staring at the sky where a lonely kite was his sole companion, looking down on him. He didn’t like this place they were living in. Though this arrangement was temporary, he couldn’t live under a roof from where he couldn’t see the sky. There was no light in his room. Every day he felt as if his inner child was dying. Suffocated from all this, his smoking tendencies increased and so did the number of his Facebook statuses. They were through which he could release his anger and frustration. He was a little apprehensive of Abha though. She seemed too considerate to be true. She always seemed to understand him. It’s been weeks since they are talking and the frequentness of conversation just keeps growing. And yet he can’t find more than two old pictures of her. Was she even real or was he talking to a fake profile all along? Arav felt angry at his own foolishness. But he couldn’t help trusting her either. As if her soul called out to him. It was a bond hard to explain. Whenever Abha was online, he felt as though a thousand sun rays had fallen on his gloomy dark windows, glimmering through the shattered pieces and lighting up his dark nights.
She would often come up with quirky names for them both. This girl was seriously an avid reader. Arav didn’t know if he was impressed or just afraid that he will never match up to her intellect. She knows so much !
“Do you know what Fidato is?”
“NO.”
“You know what?”, she said, “you are my fidato.”
"What is that" he felt confused.
"Find it out." Abha was being in a playful mood.
Arav couldn’t contain his curiosity. He searched its meaning. Fidato in Italian, meant Trustworthy. She claimed he is her most trustworthy friend. He just didn’t know what to reply. He just wrote, “thank you. It means a lot. It’s a beautiful name.” ‘Beautiful just like Abha’, he thought.
Abha sometimes could not understand why Arav was so disturbed. She couldn’t guess his eccentric ways. Being whipped by routine for too long, his unconventionality amused and intrigued her at the same time. They were alike in a lot of ways, and yet nothing alike. He was like a fresh air brushing against her dusty walls, making her scream for freedom. Here was a man, who at one moment was the best friend she could ever have and at other times he seemed completely shut in. Despite never seeing him in person she felt very familiar with him. His childish face and tantrums wouldn’t reveal his age, but his eyes were deep enough to hide a lot of secrets she thought; as she kept browsing through his pictures. “He has such an innocent face, but his eyes…” she couldn’t stop staring at them. As if they pierced her soul through the pictures. She could sense as if there was a great sadness in him which he hid behind those thin smiling lips of his. She wished he would tell her but she couldn’t force him. “What are you thinking”, she’d ask often. “nothing”, he would reply with a grin on his face. “Do I bore him”, she would often wonder. One thing was very evident of Arav though. He seemed really attached to his pet bird. His love for animals was really amusing to her. His passion for music attracted her even more. She could sense her feelings drifting but he was so much older. What if he refused her? A girl standing on the threshold of being eighteen just! She didn’t pay much heed to these feelings! Today she had texted him when she got the time.
“hi”..
“hey”..
“can we talk? I’m free now..”
“We can, but I’m in the middle of something. Is it okay if I text back a little later?”
“Why? On a date? Or is it your girlfriend?” She said playfully.
“No, I don’t have one. I’m watching Rocky 4.”|
He just brushed her aside saying he’s watching “Rocky 4”!! How dare he? Was a stupid movie more important to him than her? She felt humiliated, hurt. But she decided to let it pass. They are just online friends. What more could she expect?