18. The Artistic Apology

Yes, it was her, my most intimate chum. We avoided them and decided to ask her about it later at hostel. Preethi messaged her, “Hav u reached ur uncle’s place”. A micro reply, “s”, obviously Anu didn’t want to be disturbed.

On the way back, I recalled how I took her to meet kiran on the excuse of getting his 2nd sem books and genral senior junior talk. Anu also called him ‘Kiran’ and also told him about the anonymous messages, and kiran illogically apologized to her. Anu kept messaging some school friend of hers, but never told much about him. Everything dawned on me now.

Anu came back to the room. We were silent. She broke out after a minute, “Please girls I am really sorry, I beg you please talk to me, I should have told you, but I was worried.. I was confused..” she was blabbering in grief.

She repeated, “ Please speak to me..I thought you people will mistake me”

Maria, “You bitch, it’s not us, but you, you are the one who has committed the mistake, an unforgivable one.”

Anu avoided her, and wept more, kneeled on the floor near my cot, caught my hands and apologized with tears.

Divya, “You betrayed all of us, you lied to us. You cheated on your best friend and her trust.”

I didn’t mind her taking Kiran. I never gave a fuck about him. I would have rather been happy about it, if they had opened it up to me. The thing that anguished me, that kept on tormenting me the whole evening was that, she, my best friend ever, lied to me. She hid things of such a huge magnitude from us trickily.

I knew Anu, she badly needed love. After loosing her mom at 10, and her caring grand ma a couple of years back, with her fears of losing her ailing father Anu needed someone, some soul not just to love her, but also to be with her forever. Kiran used this soft-spot well. He cared for her, or at least pretended so, and Anu naturally fell for it.

“OK, ok relax. Everything is fine. I know you like Kiran and this is no big surprise and I am happy about you people. Just calm down, relax”, I said with a softer expression.

Anu hugged me and continued to sob. I took her shoulders in my arms, “ But I still couldn’t pardon you on hiding this from me. Don’t do this ever again.”

Anu swore that she will keep up her trust worthiness for life, but I was skeptical, not just about her, but her new found relationship.