The Ride

"You always do this," Akash told Priyanka and looked away. She could not see the irate look in his eyes, but she knew the look as she had seen it before, many times. This is normally how all their fights end. Him turning away but making it a point to make her realise that it's her fault before he turns away. Akash gets a beer from the refridgerater and switches on the TV. It's wrestling on the TV. He knows she doesn't like wrestling, in fact she hates it. He keeps the TV tuned to wrestling. She knows he is doing it just to irritate her. It means tonight he is not going to look into her eyes and say how much he loves her and cares for her. It means that he is not going to offer her a hot tea or drop her home on his old yamaha RX 100. It makes the worst noise and never starts in a single kick, yet she likes to sit on the back seat when he is riding. She is not sure, whether she will like it if someone else is riding. Since there is no ride back home and he seems to be in no mood to talk to her any longer, at least not tonight. She stands from the bucket chair she was sitting on, picks her handbag and gets out of the apartment, closing the door carefully behind.

She is on the street at 2 am and it seems like the darkest and the lonliest night ever. She holds her bag tight in a hug and looks at the sky. It's a clean sky, why cannot she find any stars. There are no autorikshaws tonight. Is it like that always or she had always been thinking about him to notice the empty roads on her rides back home with him. She just hopes he comes after her and offers her a ride. It's already 30 minutes she has been waiting on the street but he is nowhere to be seen.

She sees a bike pass her, the boy riding the bike turns back and looks at her but he moves on. Her feet hurt because of standing there for so long, and she so much wanted the boy to stop by and offer her a ride. She is no longer thinking about Akash, she is thinking about the boy on the bike instead. It's strange for her, because she has has not thought about another guy except Akash in last 2 years. She no longer wants Akash to come, she wants to boy on the bike to come back for her instead. It's strange, because she doesn't know anything about the boy, but she wants him to come back for her.

She is no longer able to stand and decides to sit on the footpath. She is almost to tears when she sees the bike coming towards her. The bike stops in front of her. The boy is wearing a helmet and she can only see his bespectacled eyes. He takes off the helmet. She stands up from the footpath and is facing the boy. She is almost to tears, and not able to tell whether these are the tears of sadness because of the fight with Akash or of joy of seeing her knight in shining armour.

"You seem lost?" the boy asks. "I was, I think," answers Priyanka and suddenly there is a smile on her face as if she has realised something. "You want me to..." the boy speaks, "will you drop me to Andheri?" she interrupts. They start laughing. Priyanka sits in the back seat and feels more comfortable than she used to on that old RX 100. This was the last time Priyanka thought of Akash.