What If…!!! – Love Short Story

Love Short Story – What If…!!!

Exam times are the hardest ones to spend, because you will be literally having no time to pass at all, either it’s studies or it’s ‘what next to study’, this doesn’t mean we are studious, instead it simply means we dig the well when we are thirsty.

The 2nd PU annual exams were scheduled to be starting from the 2nd of April at 9.30 in the morning. I left home at 8.45 and it was a 20 minute journey from my home to the college. I was never a believer of the co incidents shown in the movies, I always felt they are too imaginatory to be true, but that day I did feel what I felt was not so right, because that day the girl from our class who had crushed me and torn me into pieces appeared on the road with the front tire of her vehicle punctured. I slowed my vehicle so that she could see me passing by and ask me for help and yeah I was as happy as a sandboy imagining what it would do to our ‘would be’ relationship, hell yeah! Wasn’t I happy?!

I was nearly 50 meters away from her, she turned back and looked at me. Reading her face I was sure that she would ask me for help, I just pretended as if I didn’t knew her and as I was about 5 meters away from her, I stopped the vehicle, didn’t quite knew why I stopped, because neither she asked me for help nor there was any signal of her asking for help, then I realized the reason for me stopping my vehicle was, her father picked her up, with me just squandering that golden chance of knowing her and helping her and may be to plant some feelings of love as well. But, it wasn’t to be and which again forced me to conclude movies are indeed far imaginatory to be true.

With sheer disappointment, I entered the exam hall only to notice the girl who seated on the desk beside mine was none other than Prarthana, the same Prarthana who had crushed me and torn me with her looks and that cute smile of hers, the same girl with that coal black hairs, the girl with those brown eyes and long eyelashes and finally the same girl to whom I almost helped to reach the college on time for the exam. I was amazed to see her in the same exam hall as mine for first and beside me? Ah, hell yeah! I was as over the moon, which again made me feel, those movie co-incidents aren’t so imaginatory after all. I somehow didn’t want to kick this golden opportunity as well, so I thought of asking Prarthana to lend her pencil sharpener for a while, so that it would ignite a conversation between us. I managed to give strength to myself after saying, “Come on boy, you can do this!” to myself, the supervisor entered the examination hall only to inform Prarthana that she didn’t belong here and that her seat was in the classroom beside the one which she was in now. Then, I realized my name was Yashas and her name was Prarthana and yes the “Y” and “P” are not close enough to be coming in the same class whose strength is around 40. This incident again managed to wash away that belief in co-incidents if ever there was one.

I handed my answer sheet to the supervisor as the siren sounded indicating that I have successfully managed to spend the three precious hours in the exam hall. I was moving back to my home on my vehicle and Prarthana was taking a walk back to her home or may be to the place, where she had left her vehicle behind in the morning. The sun was very heavy on the citizens of the Infinite city as he was showering the blessings upon us in the form of heat. I knew this was the right time to get our ‘would be’ relationship going. With a hope that her dad would have been busy in his office or wheresoever he worked at, I was moving towards her to ask if she needed help in preventing the Sun from sucking her make-up. I slowed the vehicle and when I was around 10 meters away, from what would have been The beginning of my ‘would be’ love life, my sister landed from nowhere and said,

“Phew! Glad I met you, this sun is beating down, the heat is simply unbearable. Come let’s go.”

and sat on the remnant of the seat which I thought Prarthana will be the one resting on. Another belief was proved wrong by me which was “Third time lucky” Ah, well I wasn’t and it just made me realize that “Some things are never meant to be”.
And this time around my belief on co-incidents did manage to improve a bit but co-incidents of not the kind which we see in movies, but what we experience in real.

***
Days passed by and my feelings for her went unexpressed. We had our common entrance test which is popularly known as CET and it was on the 20th of May, with some preparations behind me of how to guess the right answer among the 4 choices given, I left home for a college which was completely alien to me. On the way my eyes were searching for Prarthana, if she is standing near the pavement with the tire of her vehicle punctured, but sadly this time around there was no such opportunity.

I entered the exam hall and to my bad fortune, she wasn’t in the same exam hall either, I was disappointed of not seeing her for such a long time. It was 15 minutes to go for the exam as Prarthana entered the hall along with a lady lecturer, maybe she helped her in locating her place and with intense pressure on her face, Prarthana came to the desk which was situated beside mine and sat there, I just got up and was moving out of the class as the supervisor halted me and asked,
“Hey Mister, where are you going?”

“Umm, well, I just want to confirm if my place is in this classroom or no, because it’s destined that this girl and me can never be at the same place.” I murmured.

“Sorry?”

“Nah, I’m just checking if my number’s in this classroom or no.”

“What’s your number?”

I showed my hall ticket to her and to my joyousness she confirmed that my number was indeed in the same classroom. With all gleefulness, I came back and sat on the desk beside Prarthana’s. And as I sat on the desk, Prarthana giggled seeing me, I didn’t quite understand the reason for her tee-hee’ing but was glad to see that she recognized me.

“Well, can I know the reason for the displaying of your white tooth?” I put forth my question in a rather polite manner.
She just nodded as if to say ‘Nothing’

“Ah, so you are one of them who giggle for nothing huh?” Hearing the reply, she kind of turned red.

“Oh I’m so sorry, I should have known, you are one of those who are being paid by the toothpaste companies to display your milky white tooth.” I taunted.

“Shut up Yashas, I thought you are a very nice and silent guy.” She replied in a manner which was somewhere between an angry reply and a jovial one.

I was surprised, pleasantly of course that she knew my name and the way she replied kind of made me comfortable and I felt as if she was talking to someone whom she knew for years. Well, or it may be that she knew me for years, as I did viz two years in the PU college.

“Ssshhhh…. Silence” shouted the supervisor.

The supervisor came to me and asked me to check if the seal of the cover of question papers is unopened and as I signed, she passed it over to Prarthana for her signature. As the supervisor handed over that cover to Prarthana, she turned towards me and grinned and signed on that cover, below my signature, for a moment I felt as if we both signed for the agreement of register marriage and laughed to myself on that crazy thought.

Both the exams of the day got over and I was thinking of talking to her and asking her of how were her exams today, but her father was standing outside the college campus so I just thought I would let that thought of talking to her, wait for some time. The next day I got into the exam hall only to find out that the seating arrangements have been altered and I have to move to another class and when everything seemed to be on track there was a sudden breakaway in the track which made me take a path which was far away from that of Prarthana’s, as I didn’t see her that day and neither there was any hope of meeting her again, the love note which I had written consuming 5 long hours, to give her after the exams, had the fate of ending up being in my wallet itself. I got back with dejected heart and consoling myself by saying,

“If she’s bound to be mine, then she will be, come hell or high water”.

I struggled to sleep that day, but sleep is too good a thing to be distracted by anything else.

The results of the entrance exams were announced and mine was too big a numbered rank to have got into engineering, so I decided to join BBA in the Season’s College.

After spending nearly 75 days of my life doing nothing, the day finally arrived when I would be tagged as a BBA student. The first day of the college was a dull, boring day, there was nothing special to mention about. When I was returning back from the college, I passed by the Infinite college of engineering and technology and there I saw Prarthana with her friends coming out of the campus, may be the classes for the day were over. I took a U-turn, took out that love note which I had written 75 days ago and waited for her to move ahead of me, so that I could stop by, talk to her and confess my love. Prarthana bid her friends bye and was taking a walk back home(I guess) and as I approached Prarthana, who was nearly 100 meters away from me, at the speed of 25kmph.

An articulated lorry passed by me with a speed of 40kmph, which missed colliding my vehicle by a whisker, only to hit Prarthana who was crossing the road to get her vehicle. I was just awed by all the events that happened within a blink of an eye, it was simply heartbreaking and a feeling of grief and sorrow, which you get on seeing your loved one die in front of your eyes, can never be overcome. I all of a sudden could see the light flashing at the distant sky, the rain started to pour heavily as well and my vision blurred as the view of the moving wheels of the lorry changed to the rotating fan on the ceiling, the heavy rain pouring on my head turned to the sprinkling of water on my eyes by my Mom and the flash of bright light in the sky turned to a mere light from a fluorescent lamp.

The results were finally announced (not in dream this time around) and I had secured quite a good rank to get into engineering, I was all ready to meet new people, face new challenges and with a bit of hope to meet Prarthana as well. As in the dreams, there was nothing special about the first day in the new college and I don’t know how many have experienced dreams to turn out to reality, I was experiencing one, but with a bit of alterations, she had joined BBA and it was me who had joined Engineering. I took a U-turn and waited for her to move ahead of me and I was hoping for that articulated lorry to pass by so that I could save her and be a hero. And there it was, it did miss colliding with my vehicle by a whisker and I speeded my 25kmph vehicle to about 60kmph, but I didn’t manage to overtake it on time and the Prarthana whom I saw in dream was much more foolish than the one in real, because she waited patiently for the lorry to pass by and in an attempt to save her and become a hero, I almost turned into a villain by hitting her.

“Yashas! You almost killed me” she exclaimed.

“I thought you would cross the road” I justified

“Cross the road and get hit by that lorry huh?” mocked Prarthana.

“Well, whatever I can’t hold onto it anymore, here..” I handed that love note and continued “This is for you, read it but don’t tear it off or throw it off because it took me 5 eternal hours to write that one”

Prarthana opened as if she knew it was a love letter and she kind of looked surprised when she read that note of mine,
“It took you 5 eternal hours to write these 4 words in which one of them is a single lettered word, huh?”

“Well, I struggled to spell your name you know, it’s kind of tricky.”

I upholded

“And what did you end up writing, I Love You Prathana? You are incredible man!” she taunted but with a bit of jovial smile this time around.

“Forget all that now, I’m expecting a reply.”

She gave her brain a bit of thought and replied saying, “Well, I guess I like you.” she confessed.

“Do you love me?”

“Umm, how can you be so direct?” quizzed Prarthana asked

“Because I love you”

She didn’t reply and she started walking away from me, may be because I sounded serious this time.

“Hey Prarthana! What happened? Should I be expecting an answer?”

“Yeah, you should be and should be expecting one soon.” Prarthana replied turning back, winking her eyes with a broad grin on her face.

The sound, I heard a sound, sound of an articulated lorry blowing it’s horn to make the one crossing the road, thinking about something, aware that this ain’t a dreamland. Before, I could wink my eyes and do something about it, what until now was the happiest day of my life, turned to the most disastrous day one could ever experience, as Prarthana was hit by the lorry, and she was no more to reply to my confession and give that one big hug. I was wondering, how can getting your love be so easy, when she signaled that she too loved me by her cute smile, and now I realize why getting that moment of love was so easy because that is the only one I will be cherishing all my life with eyes full of tears and a WHAT IF, I had waited some more time to confess my love?

People say LOVE is LIFE, believe me it isn’t TRUE, because LIFE is CRUEL.

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