Neel

By the time I reached home next morning, I saw mom’s winter shoes outside rack. She is already there. I opened the door and went to kitchen where she was cooking breakfast.

“You weren’t there when I came in.” she initiated the conversation.

Taking water bottle out of fridge I replied,

“I stayed at my friend’s house yesterday.”

“Hungry? I made eggs.”

“Sure.”

On the table she put two plates, one for each and she started with where we left last time.

“First of all, I will apologize as how I acted last time. Second, I will answer all your question in one go. We only have one shop left now because the rest two were used to pay all the debts your father had. It was not an easy decision to make but I had to. When you were in college, your father got the habit of gambling which led us to have loan upon our head. We used to have fight and arguments about it and that he would quit doing that. But he didn’t. Nonetheless, the debts are paid and we still have our one shop through which we can at least have a living for now.”

I was just dumbstruck.

“Why didn’t anyone of you tell me that?” I asked her.

“Because I didn’t want anything to your studies. And you couldn’t have done anything, moreover you would have become the part of argument as well which wouldn’t have helped in anyway.”

We both were halfway through to finish our eggs.

“And I am so angry that because of our financial status you have to quit college too, but I promise you just in a little time when we get back on our feet a little, I will try to put you back so that you can end your college.”

I hold her hand, I could see and feel her crumbling,

“Listen, that’s not important right now. And we will make it through this time I promise. We just need to work on our communication skills.”

She chuckled a little, “Yes, we have too.”

When I started washing dishes, she told me,

“Today I am going to shop, you can do something else if you want to. It’s been a while since I went to shop.”

“Sure, I can take rest today even though its Monday.”

…

After mom left, I didn’t know how to process this situation. And in some way, I wasn’t in mood to process it. I wanted to do something to distract myself. So, I started playing games in my mobile which didn’t lasted much. Then I thought how about if I sleep extra today.

When I went to bed and closed my eyes, my mind wondered in the memories of Dharm and the time I spent with him. All the thoughts which I had for Nick are now being replaced by Dharm one by one. And this thought concerns me.

/* Nick was the first person I ever liked, and that didn’t end well. What if the history repeats? This time I will lose the only friend I have in here. I don’t want this to happen at all.

But what if it works for something good? I will have a partner who is my friend too and who understand me way in and out.

Uhhhh why does it had to be so messy… */

And that’s how I ended up not sleeping, but time did spend. Its 12:30pm and mom would be coming for lunch soon. So, I went to kitchen and start preparing lunch for her.

By the time I was done, mom arrived and was happy to see food on table.

“Thanks beta, now I don’t have to cook.”

“Well, I was in some so I did. Now I am heading my room to sleep.”

“Sure, go.”

I laid on my bed again and wishing I won’t start thing about Dharm when my phone vibrated. When I looked, it was a message from Dharm,

“Free this evening? How about you drop at café around 8?”

“Sure, I will.” And I sent a smile along with this.

Well, this day can’t get any better. And with a happy smile I drifted off to sleep.