Someone Like You (7 page)

I don’t take his call. My phone has been off the hook all day. I know Akshat wants to talk to me. But I ignore all his calls and don’t reply to any of his text messages. This morning, I think I saw a big, red car hovering around my apartment building and I think it was him. He has been trying incessantly to get me to talk to him, but I don’t think I am ever going to do that again. I’m leaving for Nagpur today and I hope that he never comes to my college. I never want to see that perfect face or hear the perfect things he says to me.

As it begins to annoy me, I pick up my cell phone to turn it off. 19 Missed Calls, it says. And 8 Unread Messages. I don’t check them. They would all be the same.

‘I really wanted to tell you.’ ‘I was going to tell you.’ ‘I didn’t know how to begin.’ ‘I didn’t want to ruin things between us.’ ‘I didn’t want to lose you.’

Well. He lost me.

Two days ago, I woke up in bliss. I had been on the perfect date, with the perfect guy and it had ended with the perfect kiss. What could be better?
What could be worse?

It took just ten minutes to get from the first question to the second and in the process, all my silly, stupid, rosy dreams were crushed. From the best possible date a girl like
me could ever get, it became a complete disaster. If only I had known. If only I had known, I wouldn’t have been so torn right now, cursing myself and thinking about what could have been. No matter how angry and dejected I am, I still find it hard to push his gorgeous face out of my head, and I feel terribly guilty about it.

After my last date with Akshat, I had spent the night tossing and turning in my bed. I had spent countless hours thinking about everything that had happened and playing it back repeatedly in my head. Not being able to keep the excitement to myself any longer, I had called Simran, first thing the next morning.

‘Hello?’

‘Hi Simran,’ I said, grinning from ear to ear.

‘Hey. What’s up? Tell me if it’s important. Else I’ve to get to class. This stupid college schedule, extra classes on Saturday! It’s almost like they are paying us to study and not the other way around,’ she muttered, more to herself.

‘Oh. You’re busy. I’ll call you later then?’

‘No, no. What is it? I think I’ll bunk the lecture. I can’t seem to find the other shoe …’

‘Umm … something happened.’

‘Hmm?’ She still sounded distracted.

‘Leave it. I will tell you later.’

‘Would you just tell already?’

‘I … I met someone,’ I said. ‘I met a guy. He’s nice and we went on a date. And it was perfect. He is gorgeous. We went to—’

‘Wait, wait, wait! Hold on. Who is he? Where did you meet him? When did this happen?’ she shot a volley of questions at me. I could tell that I finally had her undivided attention. And I could hear the excitement in her voice.

‘I met him at Barista a few days back. He was so amazing. And then he asked for my number. When I got home, he
called to ask me out. We went on our first date today. To watch—’

‘You went to a movie with him?’

‘Yeah. Why? What’s wrong with that?’ I asked. The movie was the most irrelevant part of the whole deal. Why was she stressing on it then?

‘Did something happen?’

‘What? No, Simran, don’t be silly. He didn’t do anything silly! And anyway, it was
I
who suggested watching a movie, not him. He was the perfect gentleman.’

‘Oh. If he didn’t get physical, it’s okay. What happened next?’ she asked, getting excited again.

‘Umm … actually … we did get a bit physical.’

‘As in? What did you do?’

‘He kissed me. After he dropped me home,’ I told her. ‘More like a prolonged peck than a kiss, on the lips.’

‘Okay. Never mind,’ I could feel her shrug it away. ‘What next?’

‘Yeah. After the movie, we went to the Plaza for dinner. I had an awesome time there. He’s just so well behaved, you know? Polished—’ I said, but she cut me off.

‘Okay, now he sounds boring.’

‘Akshat is NOT boring!’ I said, and I was surprised at my tone. Just one date and I was already defending him?

‘Akshat?’

‘Yes. Akshat Verma. He is like a big businessman or something. He’s very rich, but I somehow feel awkward about it. He drives these big cars which draw a lot of attention and I don’t really like it,’ I ranted.

‘Niharika!’
she shouts. ‘You’re
not
going to see him any more. No matter what happens. You have met him the last time. You have talked to him the last time.
You’re not going to meet him again
.’

‘But—’

‘I have to go to class now,’ she said and disconnected the call.

I couldn’t do anything until she called again. I had put two and two together and I had guessed that either Akshat had something to do with someone close to my sister, or worse—my sister herself. It made me sad to think that my fairy-tale was going to come to such an abrupt end. I wondered what it was that he had done. Simran’s reaction seemed kind of extreme. What had he done to deserve that?

She called me a couple of hours later and I got the answers to all my questions. I was told not to talk and just listen. She went on to tell me more about Akshat and what he had done. I could not believe that he was the same guy who I had dreamt would give me my happy ending. I knew it was too good to be true right from the beginning.

She told me that everyone in Jaipur knew who Akshat Verma was—a rich, spoilt womanizer who would stick himself inside anything that moved. He was a number one bastard and Simran warned me against going anywhere near him. I asked her meekly if she knew him personally, and she said that I didn’t need to know. It became obvious that there used to be something between Akshat and her, but I didn’t want to probe too much into it. I know Simran and I know that there are times when she doesn’t want anyone to talk back to her, and this was one of those times.

She asked me repeatedly to stay away from him and the sheer desperation in her tone made me pause. She was behaving as if Akshat was a real threat to me. At one point, she even suggested that I get a new cell number and discard the old one, since I was leaving for Nagpur anyway. I thought she was getting paranoid, but I did not question her. I had already decided not to see Akshat again. I guessed that they were once in a relationship, and I would never date someone who had once been with my sister. One of the basic unspoken rules of sisterhood.

I assured Simran that I would stop seeing Akshat. I wasn’t angry at him, but then Simran wasn’t really the irrational kind either. Whatever that happened three or four years earlier must have been serious enough for Simran to hold a grudge for so long. So, no matter how hard I fought to get his perfectly shiny hair and gorgeous jawline out of my head, I knew I had no choice but to do it. I had to end it.

I had called him right away.

‘Hey Niharika,’ he said. ‘What’s up? I have been missing you.’

‘I wanted to talk to you about something …’ I began, getting straight to the point.

‘Yes?’

‘I, uh, we can’t see each other any more,’ I laid it out straight.

We stayed silent for a while. And then, what he said shocked me. He asked, ‘Is this about Simran?’

‘What … what do you mean …?’ I stammered. He knew?
He knew?

‘Did she ask you to stop seeing me?’

‘Akshat … you knew Simran is my sister?’

‘Not at first. But yes, I realized soon,’ he replied, as if nothing was wrong.

‘Then why didn’t you tell me?’ I asked.

‘I was going to … but it looks like she beat me to it. She asked you to do this, right?’

I was baffled for a moment, but not for long. I rushed to say all that I had to say, before things got out of hand. ‘Yes, she did and I am going to do just that. I don’t know what happened between the two of you, but I don’t want any part of this. I don’t want to hurt my sister. So, it’s better that we end this right now. Please don’t call me or text me and please don’t try anything stupid. It won’t work; I’ve decided.’

‘Come on. This is just unfair and you know that,’ he said. Simran had just told me that he was a player and womanizer, but somehow, as he said those words, whatever she had said
had started to take a back seat. But I had to be strong and concentrate on the job on hand.

‘No, it’s not. My sister doesn’t want me to see you any more and I respect that. And you knew that I was Simran’s sister and you didn’t feel like mentioning it to me? You knew I wouldn’t talk to you, didn’t you?’

‘No, Niharika. Yes, I do admit that I should have told you. But the first day when I met you, I had no idea who you were. It was only the second time we met that you told me about your sister. I didn’t want things to get weird between us. I really like you and I didn’t want to screw this up,’ he said, every word more sincere than the other.

‘You know what? This is exactly what my sister warned me against. You and your pathetic lies. Why me, Akshat? Go and try it with some other girl whose sister you might not have pissed off before.’

‘I didn’t—’

‘Shut up, Akshat. This is the end of the conversation. And this is the last time we are talking. Don’t try to contact me ever again.’

‘WOULD YOU JUST LISTEN TO ME ONCE?’
he suddenly shouted. That shut me up immediately. I was taken aback. That was it. I hung up and vowed to never take his calls again. Almost instantly, his frantic calls started. And the messages, which I stopped reading after the fifth one. I have to admit that it was a little tough for me to do. Even when I broke the news to him that I knew about his past alliance with Simran, he wasn’t thrown off his feet. He, instead, was extremely calm and wanted us to talk about it. How could he be so calm? And perfect?

I flop on the bed and dig my head in the pillow, silently hoping to
not
see his perfect smiling face in front of me when I open my eyes again. I hope I will not see his outstretched hand waiting for my hand—I hope I will forget the two
most beautiful days I spent with a stranger, who ended up being a devil of a person.

I doze off a with huge
why
on my mind. I was happy with people not knowing about my existence.

I have been sleeping for the last four hours, but still, the moment I wake up I can almost smell his cologne on me. I feel pity for myself now. How can I be so into him when I don’t even know him?

My mother shouts from her room and asks me if I am done with my packing. I am, and it just adds to my already crushing pile of misery. I look around the room one last time. I have spent my entire childhood here and I am going to miss it. I grew up here. I shared this room with Simran till the time she turned fifteen and wanted a separate room for herself. She was growing up and I wasn’t old enough to understand why my sister wanted to sleep in a separate room. Three months later, my father turned the balcony into a room and Simran shifted there.

For more than a month, I used to knock on Simran’s door and apologize for whatever mistakes I had done. She never let me in and I never understood why. I slept next to Mom for the entire next month. And for the next three after that, in my room, with the lights on. I feared that my sister had stopped loving me, but eventually, life crawled back to normal. This is just one of the million memories that my room holds.

As a family, we have been very close and very loving. Hugs and kisses, birthday celebrations, anniversary celebrations—we have never held back from any of those. We, as a family, celebrate everything. I still remember the days when Dad got our first car—a second-hand Maruti Esteem. Simran and I were so happy! We used to pester Dad to take us on a drive
every day, and even used to fight for the front seat. The car still stands proudly in our driveway and it looks good for an old car. Dad says it has character.

Leaving this house feels like a huge chunk of my life is being cut off. Being a girl, I know that I might never come back to actually live here again. After graduating, I would probably go to some other city for a Master’s, then to some other for a job and would probably get married after that.

Just thinking about all this makes me sad. I check my luggage one last time, remove my cell phone from its charging point and put in it my pocket.

Akshat Missed Call (23)

As if I don’t have to deal with enough, I have this awfully good-looking and sweet monster to forget. Did he really like me so much that he couldn’t tell me the truth, fearing he would lose me? I don’t know. I don’t want to think about it. But whatever the answer, I can’t see him any more. Because the fact remains—he probably once dated Simran. I know it will take me a long time to find a guy, but I’m not that desperate. I would prefer being single than dating Akshat.

‘Mom. I’m ready!’ I shout.

‘Tell Dad. He has been waiting for you.’

I pick up a few bags and make my way to the car.

‘All done?’ Dad asks as he opens the boot of the beloved car that had once dropped Simran to her college. Now, it is my turn. I think of my parents and I wonder how hard it is for them.

‘Yeah, Dad,’ I hug him and he hugs me back. I can see he is trying very hard not to cry. Yes, he is very emotional and he cries during movies too. I love him for that. At least, it lets us know that he cares and we are his world.