Standing at the door to her room was Rishi.

He shifted his weight awkwardly to the side and looked here and there sheepishly. Mitali shut her eyes in guilt.

Rishi: Uh... I'll come a little later.

Mitali: No!

The boys looked at her questioningly.

Mitali: I meant.....no, you don't have to go anywhere, Rishi. Adi was leaving anyway.

Adi looked at her with hurt in his eyes. She avoided looking at him.

Adi: Yeah... I'm just gonna go.

Adi looked at Mitali one last time before walking out of her room with a heavy feeling in his chest.

Once he was gone, Mitali looked at Rishi and started,

Mitali: He was just....

Rishi: It's okay,Mitali. You don't owe me an explanation.

Mitali: No, I do. I am not going to start my new life with you by lying to you.

Rishi nodded slightly.

Mitali: I came up to rest for a bit. And I was sitting when he came in and started saying how he saw my hands trembled while taking the shagun.

Rishi: He wasn't lying about that, was he?

Mitali: No. I mean....yes....my hands were trembling,...yes...but... it's just because I'm nervous about starting this new phase of my life.

Rishi tilted his head to the side and walked up to her and said,

Rishi: Hey.... it's okay, alright? I'm nervous too. This whole thing is very intimidating and it can make you feel like you're on the edge of a building.

Mitali nodded and exhaled.

Rishi: But.... we're in this together. And unless and until we are together, we'll get through it.

Rishi held her shoulder and smiled. Mitali looked at him and pressed her lips into a thin line.

Rishi: Oh wait I almost forgot why I came here in the first place. Payal's mom wants to introduce us to some aunties. She's calling you downstairs.

Mitali groaned frustratingly.

Mitali: Not again. How many aunties do I need to meet before I am dead?

Rishi: Currently 5 of them. But the number might increase if you don't come down right now.

Mitali chuckled softly as Rishi back traced his way towards the door.

Mitali: You go. I'll come in a bit.

Rishi: K!

He did a two finger salute and marched out of the room. Mitali looked at retreating figure with a smile.

                 ~~~~~~~~~~~

The sky had slowly turned into a pretty hue of rubies and lilacs. As Adi stared at the drowning sun , his thoughts drifted off to Mitali again.

How had things become so complicated? How could he have messed up so bad? All he ever wanted was to see that pretty smile on her lips, that soft glow on her face when she blushed , the sweet sound of her chuckle everytime he did something dumb.....

And now everything was lost. He had lost her. He had messed up. He could never forgive himself for being the reason of her tears. No matter what he did. She was gone...far away from him....into someone else's arms. And all he could do was sit and regret every bit of his mistake.

They say it's okay to make mistakes, right? Humans are flawed species. To be human is to be flawed, to be human is to make mistakes. You get to make mistakes cause you're human. But not learning from those mistakes.... that's where the problem lies.

He had understood his mistake. In fact, he regretted every bit of it. The only problem was that he had learnt his lesson a lit too late.

Right?

From his peripheral vision, he saw someone sit next to him in the freshly cut grass of the courtyard.

He sighed.

' Do you still love her?'

Adi jerked his head to his right and found Rishi sitting beside him. He wasn't looking at him. His eyes were transfixed on the drowning sun.

Adi turned and looked back at the sun and said,

Adi: Does it matter? She chose you.

Rishi chuckled softly and said,

Rishi: That's what she made you think.

Adi: Huh?

Rishi: Her eyes. They reflect the truth. She can serve as many white lies as she feels like but those eyes....they give her away.

Adi looked at him questioningly.

Adi: You are in love with her , aren't you?

Rishi smiled and said,

Rishi: You caught me.

Adi smiled knowingly and said,

Adi: Yeah.... it's hard not to fall for her.

Rishi smiled and nodded.

They stayed silent for a few minutes before Rishi said,

Rishi: I know you didn't really give that ring away to some girl.

Adi looked at him questioningly.

Rishi: Don't look at me like that. Your friends told me about it.

Adi: They did?

Rishi nodded and said,

Rishi: I was convinced something was off when I saw you and Mitali in the cafe yesterday. Something about Mitali's story didn't add up. After all, if you were really bored of her, then why would you come here all the way from Mumbai? It was obvious that you weren't here to attend her engagement.

He paused before continuing,

Rishi: So I asked Ruhaan about it. He seemed the easiest to talk to. And he told me all about the misunderstanding.

Adi inhaled deeply.

Adi: It doesn't matter anymore. She doesn't even want to listen to me. She deserves someone like you, who'll take care of her and understand her like no one else does.

Rishi smiled and said,

Rishi: Except....love doesn't work that way... you can be with someone who is the most understanding person in the world and still not be in love with them. Love doesn't look at whether the other person is smart, or at your every beck and call.....it looks whether you find your home in that person.

Adi stared at him, utterly stilled.

Rishi: We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.

Adi exhaled and looked down.

Rishi: We find the love we think we deserve. And Mitali found that in you. She found solace, comfort......home, in you. Just like you did, in her.

He paused before continuing,

Rishi: Now I'm no one to judge her choice since I barely know you. But I do know that you do have honest feelings for her.

Adi: I do. But...she hates me. No matter what my friends say, I know that I made a mistake. I wanted to make her jealous and accidentally I made her insecure about my feelings towards her. I messed up real bad.

Rishi stayed silent.

Adi: I made the mistake of not knowing when to stop. I am so dumb.

Rishi chuckled and said,

Rishi: Yeah, that you are.

Adi looked at him questioningly.

Rishi: Just kidding.

Adi: If only I could go back in time and...

Rishi: You see... that's where we always go wrong. We want to just turn back time to stop ourselves from making the same mistake. We never think of actually rectifying what's already done.

Adi: So you're suggesting that I still have time to rectify my mistake?

Rishi: You're not as dumb as you look.

Adi made a poker face.

Adi: Why are you doing this? Why help me take the person you love away from you?

Rishi smiled and looked at the now purple sky.

Rishi: Love cannot be found where it doesn't exist, nor can it be hidden where it truly does. And anyways, I can't claim something that isn't mine to have.

The silence following that was so revealing that no words needed to be spoken in that moment.

Adi: So what do you suggest?

Rishi smirked and said,

Rishi: Oh I've got a perfect plan.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

8 down! 2 more to goooooooo!!!!!!!

I won't say anything about this one. Feel free to fight in the comment section about who Mitali should actually end up with. And do vote!

Love you loads,
Bosedisha