Here's the third instalment of my attempt at a short story series...

Taste 3: Bitter

“All students are requested to get into their classes. Prayer is about to begin.” As clichéd and boring as this may sound, that’s how college always began....every single day for the years that I was there. And as an extension of the cliché, students who were otherwise as high spirited as wild horses would simmer down to sniggers and inside jokes while the speaker blurted out the pre-recorded tones of our ‘dear’ principal, a bob cut bearing woman of the name Mrs Jebaraj. I slowly walked in and sat down at the first bench, a place that I had staked simply because no one else was willing to do so. As I was trying to wipe the sleep out of my eyes, I turned back as I did every day to see the sparkle dance in her eyes. My Avi’s eyes.....

Avi and I had been best friends for the last 5 years, ever since I moved to the city after my parents’ bitter divorce. She was always the cheerful sort, never short of a smile and always ready to counter anything I said with a cutting remark, initiating arguments that became the norm every day. Everyone around us always thought there was more to us than met the eye; and they were right, just not in the way they thought they were. Avi and I loved each other like siblings and our greatest regret was that we weren’t actually so. Those eyes that lit up my day and that twinkle meant only for me were what I lived for and what got me through everything life could throw at me. We were so happy....till ‘she’ joined.

Alaina came to our class in our second last year as an exchange student, but never left after experiencing life around here. She was actually a very sweet girl, smart, pretty, affectionate and most of all, helpful. Avi and I instantly gravitated towards her and the three of us began to spend a lot of time together. But I knew I was losing my hold over Avi when she started paying more attention to Alaina, leaving me in the dark many a time. It started with little things: a coffee after college, partners for a quiz competition and jokes. But things slowly got worse, with them going off on trips without me, having their own inside conversations and most of all, being very secretive around me. I was starting to disappear from both their lives and become a non-entity to the rest. Life became constant agony as I could neither tear myself away from them, nor bear to watch as they got closer and closer. The day we graduated, Avi was asked to give the valedictory speech and in it, she spoke the words that haunt me to this day,” Life has so many twists and turns, but when you have friends to help you on your way, it becomes the greatest journey you can ever make. Here’s to Alaina, my one and only true friend. May the world be our oyster!”

 I’ve never stayed back in college before, but that day I felt like it was the only thing I could do to clear my head. After everyone had left, I decided to take a walk around college. Nostalgia dogged my footsteps, not of classes and experiences, but of Avi and the things we had done together. There was a wall where we had convinced everyone to write what they wished about any teacher they hated and then showed it to the teacher concerned at the end of the year. Here was the canteen where Avi and I mock fought about what to get for lunch and who was on a diet. A bench there, a small step there....everywhere I looked, I saw me and Avi. Before I went home, I decided to go back to the stage one last time, just to take in the fact that it was all over. When I got there, I saw the both of them under the lamplight holding hands and talking as if they’d never see each other again. I stayed in the shadows where they couldn’t see me and watched them embrace, kiss each other and walk out of college hand in hand. And just like that, it was all over. My Avi was gone...

It’s been 20 years since that cold day when we graduated. And today, as I sit on a park bench in the frosty morning air, I look back on everything that happened. I heard the both of them got married a few years ago and now have a little family of their own somewhere. They never contacted me and I didn’t try to find them either. Sometimes, I wonder why things had to turn out the way they did. But then it strikes me; maybe it was because I loved Alaina too...

 

I wrote this a part of a series of stories I wanted to write but I never got round to doing. The plot's clichéd, I admit but the idea of a friend like this was something I always dreamed about....

Taste 1: Sweet

Casey. I will never forget that name ever in my life. You meet many people in life but can’t always remember them. Then are a few people who change your life to such and extent that you can’t help but want them to live forever. Casey was that kind of guy. He was kind, helpful and always with a smile on his face. I still remember the day we met. It was the 7^th of May and I had just entered middle school. And as was my luck, I caught the eye of the school bully. For apparently no given reason, he decided I would be his punching bag for the rest of the term. So after school he cornered me, pushed me against a wall and demanded I give him my money. I thought I would be smart and con him into letting me go. So I asked him why he needed it. All I got in return was a punch in the stomach. Out went my option of being smart along with a bit of my lunch. Just then Casey walked by and asked what this was all about. The bully asked him to mind his own business and focussed on parting me from my money. Casey came between us and stopped him in his tracks. I was afraid they would come to blows when a teacher walked by and noticed all of us in the corner. Guessing what had happened he led the bully of to the principle’s office by the ear. Casey and I stood there, sizing, each other up. All I could think was what would have happened if he hadn’t walked by. I thanked him and we shook hands. That handshake sealed what I thought would be a lifelong friendship. From that day Casey and I became best friends. He was there for me whenever I needed him. The day of my first heartbreak, he consoled me and told me there would be many like such but I would know when I met the perfect one. The day I lost my bike he was the one who helped me scour the neighbourhood to look for it. We laughed, played, fought and lived life together. Casey was also a great animal lover. Every stray he saw on the road, he’d nurse and give to the adoption home. We existed in a world of our own and Casey understood all my fears and desires. We had planned to go to the same college and graduate together. We even planned to build houses next to each other. All these boyish dreams were shattered in just one day. It was the 7^th of May, exactly 5 years since I had met Casey when I heard on the news that there had been a shooting in the local mall. I thought nothing about and was about to go out when a chill ran down my back. I suddenly remembered that Casey had said that he would be going to the mall that day. I rushed to the mall as fast as my legs could carry me. Just as I arrived I saw the police carting off the criminal. I can never forget the expression on his face. It was one of complete calmness, as if he had just come for a shave or a haircut. I fearfully walked into the lobby where they had arranged the bodies. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the familiar outline of Casey’s body. I lifted the sheet and saw that serene face, those eyes closed and that everlasting smile on his mouth. I broke down and wept right there. I felt somebody move me away and saw it was Casey’s mom. She dropped me back home and I told my mom the bad news. We held a midnight vigil for him and in the morning when we received the body held the briefest of funerals. Even then, quite a few people had come to attend the function. A few days later, we got to know through the paper that Casey had not been one of the direct victims. He had died trying to save a little girl and got gunned down in the crossfire. Till the end Casey had stayed true to his nature. Even now, every May 7^th I visit his grave and just stand there, wishing God had not taken a way a boy so sweet and innocent.