Ishaan and Aditi: Part Three

The Rain

“Perfect! Just the way I wanted it!” she said happily, looking at the painting he made.

Although it came months later, he finally did finish making it. She had to keep reminding him, because he was as much of a procrastinator as herself. But she wanted to see ‘Jyoti’ happening and she wanted Ishaan to paint it just as it were in her head. If he couldn’t, no one else could. She loved that about them.

“Okay then, I gotta run! You owe me a treat by the way!” he said, giving her a half hug and rushing out.

She stared at the door for a few more minutes after he was gone. Somewhere she had a weird feeling. She didn’t like the brief meetings anymore. She just wanted to spend more and more time with him, even if they did nothing. She liked it when he was around because she felt like she could talk to him about the strange and random things that went on in her head and he found them just as cool as she. Earlier, they went on photo shoots together. He would ask her help him with the setting of the place, sometimes hold the white paper in front of the camera and even ask her how the picture looked. She felt involved. Like, she knew what he was doing.

Of late, he was taking technical classes in photography from a lot of experts. He even had his photography group- a bunch of amateurs sharing their skills, knowledge, lenses sometimes and their ideas and photographs with one another. He often went on shoots with them. They all had become good friends and he liked spending time with them. They would go for coffee, exhibitions, seminars, editing studio visits, and interact with professionals in the field. He was getting close to especially two of them- Ram, a masters student, trying his hand at photography for about a couple of years and Natasha, a third year student, new to photography, but with a natural talent to take beautiful pictures. He spent a lot of his time with these two.

She missed him. A strange silence filled her room and her mind every time she thought of him. She stayed silent in class, trying to concentrate, trying hard not to let his absence ruin the moment for her. He always made time for her. Even if it were two minutes of saying hi and a hug and running back to what he was doing- he tried, she couldn’t deny that. She began thinking of the last time he stayed over and they spent some quality time together, it was while watching The Exorcist. She laughed out loud in the middle of the class thinking of how Ishaan screamed somewhere in the middle and sprung up, his fingers clawing her arm. That too cause she just tapped his shoulder from the other side! The class stared at her laughing hysterically. It was one of those rare moments where she was caught unguarded, being herself. They all smiled, she did look beautiful and funny laughing that way.

“Do you mind sharing the joke with me Miss Aditi? What is so funny that you’re laughing like a moron in the middle of my class?”

“Sorry ma’am. Please excuse me.”

That night it was chilly and unusually windy. The curtains in her room kept blowing. She sat near the window and thought of home. She loved this weather- she could almost smell the rain coming, an earthy, murky kind of smell. She just sprang up and rushed to the kitchen area and made herself a big cup of coffee. The cup and her laptop, she sat down near the sill and started writing. The rain, the best muse for an artist, especially a writer. She typed away without even reading it, the words were all pouring out on the keyboard. Once she was done, she looked at her work- it missed Ishaan’s illustrations. She looked out, the yellow street light colouring the street orange and the wind sweeping the dried leaves away and scattering them everywhere.

She took out her phone and began typing- “Where you? Please call me when you see this.”

Waiting for his reply, she started watching an old Hindi film- Padosan. It always cheered her up. It reminded her of her dad, and home. She missed her parents and their light-hearted attitude especially in times like this when she felt blue.

An hour past the film, the doorbell suddenly rang. Aditi sprang up. Her heart was beating so fast that she thought it would pop out. She ran to open it, she knew who it was. She opened the door and there he was, standing a few drops on his grey t shirt and his hair.

“What up? Something happened? Saw your text…” he looked a little concerned and in a hurry.

“No no. I wrote something.”

“Oh. Okay. Cool. Hey Adi, I’m sorry I gotta run again. I have just an hour before my hostel deadline and we need to take a few pictures just when it’s about to start raining. Perfect weather and we set up our cameras and stuff. Just came in to check on you.”

“Okay. Go ahead.” she said, almost half-heartedly.

“I’ll just drink some water” and rushed in to the kitchen area. He kept his things on the kitchen top and gulped down the entire bottle in one go.

“We need to catch up! Have so much to show you and tell you! I’ll call you, okay?” and gave her a hug and hurried out of the door.

She was getting used to this routine now. But somewhere she felt so lonely and alone that even the movie was failing miserably to cheer her up. She looked at the door for a couple of more minutes before sitting down on her reclining chair. She hugged her cushion and before she realized it, it was raining down.

“What the… What happened?” Ishaan ran and sat on his knees in front of her.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, her voice groggy and eyes red.

“I left my stuff here so I came back. What happened to you? Why are you crying? And why didn’t you tell me something was wrong?”

“It’s nothing. Just mood swings. You carry on. I’ll be fine in a minute” she said wiping her tears.

He took out his phone and made a call- “You guys carry on. I can’t make it… Just ask Ram to keep my stuff with him. Yeah, I’ll collect it from him tomorrow. Yeah, let me know. Okay. See ya”

She looked up from her cushion and stared at him, he was looking at her. Her tears flowed more vigorously. She tried to not cry out loud.

He cupped her shoulders with both his hands and looked at her, into her eyes.
“What happened Adi? Are you mad at me?” he asked, almost apologetically.

That was it. She broke down. She had held it within too long.

“I’ve missed you. I feel scared being so alone. I have nobody to tell my stupid little things to. We don’t even draw or write together anymore. You spend so much time with those two. I don't even like that girl so much. I don’t want you to go away. I miss my dad. I miss feeling joyful and bored. I just feel sad all the time. And I don’t like feeling like this.” She was sobbing. Her eyes were red and her nose and ears were bloodshot. She looked like a child who had cold. He had never seen her this way, so helpless and vulnerable.

Without a second’s thought he just pulled her into his arms. It felt the most natural thing to do. She buried her head into his chest and wept.

“I’m right here Adi and I’m not leaving you and going anywhere, kid. I could never do that” he whispered into her ear. She stopped crying and looked up at him, “I’m sorry Ishaan… I just feel too emotional suddenly” she said, wiping her face.

He held her face in his hands and smiled, “I have all the time in the world for you Adi. I’m sorry… Been a little busy. Tonight’s the night- tell me all you did past few months when I wasn’t around too much and show me what you wrote. We have serious catching up to do!”

The smile lit up her face again. It was the same gorgeous face and smile that had caught his eye the first day he met her. He sat down next to her and pulled her close. She poured out all that she did and he interjected all her stories with his sarcastic comments. She had to ask him to shut up every now and then.

She leaned back on his shoulder, closed her eyes and snuggled closer to him.

“I’ve missed you too, kid.” And he gently kissed her head. It kept pouring outside.