“But……. I love you, remember? I want to give you the happiness you deserve.”
Tick. Tick. Tick.
The sound of the turning second arm of the clock pierced right through the silence. “What’s the problem?” he texted again.
And now the online became “typing….”. His heart began pounding. “The problem is….. We are human. We don’t just want to survive, we want love.
That’s what sets us apart from animals. Somewhere within, you know it already. You know you don’t just want to see me happy, you too long to be happy. We don’t expect in love. It’s selfless.” She texted.
And as he read through her message, he realized that she had a point. He did want to be happy. “You expect too much from me. I can’t keep up. Your words, your over-thought texts suffocate me. Perhaps, you are right. You probably do love me. But I don’t and I will never. You knew that from the beginning.” She texted again.
“I doubt whether you know a single thing about friendship or love. It’s not just something you flaunt openly. It’s the emptiness you feel without seeing her daily. It’s something you experience while wholeheartedly giving without expecting anything from your significant other. It’s not just something you say often, it’s like being there from someone always minus the judgement. That alone makes you happy”. She texted once again.
There were no words left for him to text. No over-thought replies, fancy words or love quotes to send. Blank.
He was in dilemma, pondering over what he had done.
Finally, he assembled the courage to start typing. But midway, she texted again. “Don’t ever talk to me again”, read her message.
And with that, her ‘Profile picture’ and her ‘last seen’ disappeared.
He still typed the whole message and pressed ‘send’, fully knowing that the text will never get a ‘blue double tick’. “I don’t have many redefined qualities. However I know how to stay, or let’s just say, I don’t know how to leave………………………………………”
–Preetam
