Page 6 of That Same Old Love

“Sidhu!” she said and ran to him and hugged him tightly, while also managing to squeeze out some tears.

“Are you alright?” Sidhu asked her gently as he held her.

“No. I’m not,” she said with her voice trembling and accused Samrat of grabbing her and then forcibly kissing her.

Soon her voice rose and she became hysterical. Their other classmates and friends from the party heard her shout, and gathered around them, and she repeated her accusations again in front of everyone.

Samrat was silent all the while and he didn’t defend himself.

Even Sidhu looked torn, since he knew her pretty well.

But she had goaded Sidhu to defend her honor by hitting Samrat. Sidhu had no choice, but to punch him. And Samrat didn’t lift a finger in defense. He simply left the party right away with his friends.

Mahi cringed, recalling Samrat’s expression when she hurled those false accusations in front of everyone. She wanted to go back in time and slap some sense into her twenty one year old self brat. Maybe even sit on top of her to have a long talk with that messed up kid.

“God, what was I thinking, when I accused him with those horrible allegations, and just because he rejected my drunken advances. No wonder he hates me even now,” she muttered as she stepped out of the shower and quickly dried herself.

She decided to skip the moisturizer, since it was already pretty humid and hot, and wore a comfortable long mid-thigh length Minnie Mouse night shirt with loose cotton pajamas.

The past years had changed her a lot, in both appearance and in her mind.

She had never been classically beautiful to begin with, and now she was no longerstriking, as some people had described her during her teens and in her twenties. Her five feet five inches body had filled out, making her look like a woman and no longer a young girl.

But she knew that some of that sarcastic, attention seeking teenager still lived inside her, and probably would remain there, until the day she died. The only good thing was that she had changed considerably and could have more control on herself.

She got out of the bathroom, and remembered that there was no food at home except for a couple of granola bars in one of her bags. She was way too tired to bother with some chores or shopping. So, she simply lay down on the bed, and stared at the rotating ceiling fan, recalling the main reason she had wanted to move back to India.

Mahi, most of us are hit by tragedies one way or the other, and curse our fates. But fate is not our enemy. We are. When you lock yourself away from the world and retreat to yourself, you are destroying any chance of happiness you may ever findin your future. You can never control your life, but you can choose who you want to be, and what you want your life to be like.

After her aunt had said those words, she felt ashamed. Her aunt didn’t have much choice on whether or not she could live. But she did.

At that instant she knew that there was still a lot of fight left inside her, making her want to grab the chance to start over. She didn’t want to be that broken person anymore, drowning in self-pity.

Soon she had purchased her parents’ house—who were more than willing to sell—and flew to her hometown with all her belongings.

Just then, her stomach grumbled loudly, interrupting her thoughts. Feeling hungry all of a sudden, she walked into the living room where her bags were still lying unpacked.

She got out the cell phone and put on the headphones before playing songs from her music list. She sat next to one of the bags and began to rummage through it, looking for the protein bars.

It was getting really hot, making her break into a slight sweat in-spite of her recent shower.

Deciding not to take her top off, she removed her pajamas to cool down.

She sighed loudly in relief as soon as she felt the cool breeze on her legs, and continued to dig through the bags.

By the time she found the protein bars, the floor was littered with her clothes and other belongings. She was just about to tear one of them open, when she had a weird feeling that someone was behind her, and was watching her. She quickly turned around and almost had a heart attack seeing someone standing inside the wide open door.

* * *

“What the hell!” Mahi shouted, pulling out her headphones, and glaring at Samrat.

He didn’t respond, and his gaze was directed towards her, to notice what she wore or wasnotwearing.

“Eyes on my face, mister!” she snapped out.

She was sitting on the floor with crossed legs, but got up slightly and knelt on her knees, concealing her underwear and legs. “Why are you here?”

“The door was not locked and I have been ringing the doorbell from the past ten minutes. I think it’s broken.” He raised an eyebrow. “Are you always this friendly with your guests or am I an exception?”

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