Chapter 10: The Rainy Night

Back then Meera asked me, if he wouldn’t delete her, would I break up?

I hesitated and replied, “I don’t know.”

I’d always been the girl who forgave, who waited. Even Meera looked tired of telling me the same things.

But in those days, I didn’t contact Rohan anymore, even deleted all those chat records I’d worn smooth.

Every night, I’d scroll through our old messages, thumb hovering over the delete button. When I finally did it, I felt lighter. Like breathing after a fever breaks.

I really seemed to have changed, uncontrollably, without warning, suddenly changed.

It was scary how quickly I could let go of something I thought was my whole world.

I was actually really ready to break up with him.

What surprised me, though, was that on the third day of the silent treatment, a drunk Rohan stood in the rain outside my hostel.

The rain plastered his hair to his forehead, his shirt clinging to his frame. The security uncle shook his head, muttering under his breath about love making people pagal. The rain battered the hostel gates, thunder rumbling. Rohan was slumped against the wall, soaked to the bone, shivering.

When I went downstairs, his soaked body leaned right against me, his head buried in my neck.

He smelled of alcohol, which I remembered he never used to touch.

His breath was warm against my collarbone, heavy with Old Monk and regret.

I tried to push him away, but it was useless. The more I struggled, the tighter he held me, squeezing the air out of me.

I felt the hostel security uncle watching from his booth, shaking his head in disapproval. I wanted to melt into the pavement.

“Rohan, you’re drunk, let go…”

“Ananya.” He interrupted me.

With a hoarse voice, he whispered in my ear,

“I deleted her.”

He actually deleted Priya. He actually deleted Priya for me.

But why did I feel nothing at all?

I wasn’t sure what was going on. It was like liking him had become a habit, and suddenly feeling nothing left me lost.

No matter what, my breakup plan was interrupted on that messy rainy night.

We went back to how we were before. His only request:

Never mention Priya again.

I agreed. But in my heart, something had already ended.