Love Short Story – The Nightmare with a Silver Lining
Photo credit: bullboy from morguefile.com
He turned around and an overwhelming sense of deja-vu engulfed him. He had seen this before. Where? He couldn’t recall. He saw everyone’s faces and they didn’t look surprised. Rather, they looked happy! He looked at the stranger amidst his friends. Who was he? He looked familiar. Then he looked at the girl he loved. Oh! How much he loved her, he thought. She was blushing a dark shade of red. He noticed that the pink in her cheeks were for the stranger.
He looked closely at the stranger and immediately recognized who he was. And in that instant, the ground beneath his feet had slipped away. He wished it was a nightmare but it was not. It was real life. Yet, nothing seemed real. In a matter of seconds, everything he believed in, everything he had hoped for, every dream he had, every possibilities he had considered, everything just crashed and burned around him.
He was dying a thousand deaths. People around him looked ecstatic. Who is this, everyone asked? He is the one. The one, who had travelled a thousand miles to be with her, who was her knight in shining armor, the cynosure of all eyes; the one, he wished he never had to meet. Life had chosen the perfect moment again. On a day that he thought would be his biggest. On a day he was going to go down on his knees to propose to the woman he loved. Life had chosen the perfect moment again. He thought no one could possibly love her more than him, but there was maybe someone who did. She looked happy and blissful.
He felt alone in a crowd. No one talked to him. No one said – “I’m sorry. It’ll be all right” .No one knew nothing.
He had to flee, so he made thousand excuses and did. He thought he’ll escape but providence brought him back to the nightmare again. She looked beautiful. He just wanted to tell her how much he loved her but it didn’t matter anymore. He wanted to just get close to her and say – “happy birthday, my love”.
He started walking towards her. But sure again fate had other plans. She had her arms around him. She looked at peace. He turned around and wished it didn’t hurt so much. He wished he wasn’t so selfish. He hoped that it’ll all be over soon.
But, she had said she was confused. He had loved her truly. But, she had said she was confused. She didn’t look confused to him. Had she been lying? He just wanted the nightmare to be over.
The day changed, and there it was in his inbox, a ray of light. His first love! A love forgotten only because, another took its place. They met, they laughed, they ate, they walked, they said goodbye, and he found happiness in the midst of all that sorrow. Life, he thought, has to be like this.
Back to the nightmare! The people bid farewell to each other as he looked on. Lost in his own little world. Trying to live in the moment. He looked at her, she looked back. He looked away, lest his eyes belie the steel he had put on. It wasn’t the inevitability of the goodbye that surprised him; it was her panache in the finality of it. It was Mumbai, but it felt cold, so cold! Dasvidaniya, he whispered to himself for no one paid attention!
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