"YOU"

While leaving he told me that you should make potato parathas only for me and not for anyone else. I was about to complete my masters and he was going out for one year for his work and then he told me this, we were neighbours and exchanging food was normal between us. One day when I had made potato parathas for everyone, after eating the parathas he came to the kitchen and told me this. His eyes and his smile both raised many questions in me, but I couldn't ask him. This childhood friendship had now become more than just a friendship. He was leaving the house with his luggage. We usually talked only when we were face to face. Talking on the phone or messaging wasn't easy for us. I don't know if he ever zoomed in on my DP or not in these one year, but I spent hours every day staring at his Instagram posts and DP. In these years, I realized that I had become used to him. I had become used to obeying his every word, fulfilling his every demand, fighting and quarreling with him. Sometimes his jokes did seem bad to me, but today I am remembering these things about him. I don't know if he would be missing me sitting far away in a foreign country or not, but I am missing him very much. Time passed slowly and now it was time for him to come and a day came when he was returning to his city and his home. Both our families were very happy, I was also happy, but more than happiness, there was fear in me. I did not talk to him for a year, I thought maybe he has changed, I was scared that I will no longer have a place in the special parts of his heart, maybe someone else will be in those parts now, I stood at the door and saw his car coming, he was meeting his parents after getting down his luggage, preparations were going on for his arrival in both the houses, food, drinks, breakfast, everything, looking at him it felt as if he was not the person who had left from here, there was more fear in my heart, maybe that's why. I was told that you should make potato parathas for him, he likes it very much, I did exactly as I was told, I made it for everyone. Everyone at breakfast praised the parathas, but he didn't say a word, nor did he look at me. Perhaps he didn't even feel like talking to me. And somewhere deep down, I was thinking, "Maybe I'm wrong, maybe he hasn't changed." But while eating breakfast, he held his phone in his hands. He was constantly talking to someone. This was the first time he seemed like a stranger to me. He came into the kitchen to put the food on his plate and saw me standing there. I was waiting for him to say, "I told you to make these parathas just for me." But he didn't say anything. He just looked at me with a smile and asked me, "Are you okay?" There's been a long distance between us for a year. With tears in my eyes, I smiled and said, "I'm fine." Then, making an excuse, I went back home. I sat in my room and cried for hours, trying to convince myself that it was just friendship, which I mistook for love, but it was one-sided. After a while, my parents also came home. My mother came into my room, gave me the packet, and said, "This is yours." I have taken it and she left. I opened the packet and there was a box of chocolates in it. Seeing it I laughed that this was something worth remembering and I was not. I was angry and felt like picking it up and throwing it in the dustbin. I was picking it up when I found a note underneath which said, hey open this too. I opened it and inside it was a shining rose diamond ring. Seeing it my eyes filled with tears. I was crying and smiling too. I ran to my terrace and he was also on his terrace. And he told me that you may make aloo parathas for everyone but come running to the terrace just for me. I just stood there and kept looking with teary eyes and I realized that yes, in these past one year he too must have zoomed in and seen my pictures.