Love Before Graduation

The sound of the first ring had just started ringing when I disconnected the phone.

This is too much.

What was I thinking?

Why would Rian talk to me now?

For him, I had become like an old newspaper, which people read and then forget.

The phone was in my palm, eyes were out of the window.

The rain had stopped.

The moon was unnecessarily showering its beauty, as if it was writing a letter to an unknown city, which no one would read.

Suhina.

You didn't just take my Friends .

You took away my courage, my being myself, everything.

The thought came, quietly - as if a broken glass pierces my foot and there is no pain until blood is seen.

What did you say?

Why did everyone stop looking at me?

The phone was still in my hand, my fingers were trembling – not from fatigue, not from cold, just from the emptiness that gnaws at a living person every time.

Now no one talks openly.

All that is left is fake smiles... and strange accents.

Holding the phone tightly.

Tomorrow.

Yes, tomorrow I will ask Arin.

He still must not be like everyone else.

Maybe he can still see me, the way he used to.

If he didn't care... then why would he talk to me today?

He is different.

The time that everyone else had left behind still lingers in his eyes.

The moonlight was scattered on the floor, like dusty dreams.

I smiled – a broken smile, like a forgotten song.

Thought for a moment

​​who knows, maybe Arin is also sitting somewhere in this moonlight, thinking... about me?

Oh God. What delusion am I living in?

I ran my fingers through my hair, annoyed with myself.

But my heart did not listen.

My heart never listens.

I started waiting for tomorrow.

Knock, knock.

My thoughts broke.

"Come in," I said - my voice so soft as if I was asking for forgiveness from myself.

The door creaked.

Kayra entered.

There was the same tiredness in her walk that those who carry the world on their backs all day feel.

Without saying anything, she collapsed on the bed - arms and legs spread, like a child who has given up.

"Are you tired?" I asked - hiding the pain in a smile.

"I am dead," she mumbled, burying her face in the pillow.

I smiled - the same smile that does not heal rusty wounds.

Kiara kept on babbling – project, submission, school, teacher...

I just kept on watching – thinking that I wish my problems were also this simple, this innocent.

I wish life was as difficult as filling a notebook.

"Hey Aira," she said, turning over.

"What?" I asked absentmindedly.

"When will Subh return?"

I was startled.

"Where has he gone?"

"To the village with a friend," Kiara said

"That is why he is missing from school too," I said – to myself.

"Don't you two talk?" she taunted.

I laughed – it was not a laugh, it was just a tired sigh.

"Yes, of course," I said, "he asks me about my pain every evening."

I got up suddenly, jerked my hair back.

"Enough now. Come on, get out!" I held her hand.

"What?! Have you gone mad?" she screamed.

But I pushed it.

The door closed.

Sticked.

Silence.

Strange.

She ruined all my moonlight,

I muttered.

Whenever I start becoming the hero of my film story, some important reality enters.

I switched off the light.

The room was plunged into darkness.

There was only the air outside, and the moon - the silent witness.

I covered myself with the blanket, closed my eyes.

But sleep? 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

It was as if she had become an unfaithful lover.

Arin.

Her name kept slipping through my veins - slowly, without any sound.

He must be laughing somewhere.

He must be living.

Completely unaware of the fact that in some corner of this world there is someone who still waits for him... aimlessly, meaninglessly, but with all her heart.