Imperfect Perfections

[10] Past

"Off to Khairan Nagar?"

"Yeah, it's where his sister is. Or rather we can say, his entire family is."

"When will he be back?'

"In a month the marriage will be done, as he had told us a week before. And maybe a week for all the hangovers. Because it's him, we can expect a month and a half"

The laughter of such ignorance poured in, as he settled down on the canteen chair. There weren't the usual crows for it was the fourth period. After having dragged a sad butterfly to the canteen, Harith, the perfect boy was now handing over a chocolate shake for her.

'It's good, right?"

She sipped it. The same as the water she had drunk seconds before. Tasteless.

'Look, Fami...There no way I'm gonna hurt you more with reasons I can't fathom but the reverse is acceptable, you know. So, why don't you relax and tell me what happened this weekend? Cause I don't even remember the number of soju bottles I had, to forget all that?!"

His expressions made Fami break into a curt smile.

"Woah! I made you smile"

Fami slipped into her thoughts, and asked,

"How much do you have often?"

"What?Drinks or the joke club's sessions?"

She shook her head, at the dumb joke.

'Drinks"

"Of course, three bottles every week! Look at me, girl!"

Fami nodded as if it couldn't be so true as it was now.

"And parties like those, last night?"

He rolled his tongue,

"That ain't frequent. But...yeah, we do have that at special occasions."

"What was yesterday's?"

"A rag party, with the specialized DJ's extra pops and-"

"Not that!', she gritted. Harith pulled back his head, in a frightened gesture.

"The special occasion yesterday was..?"

Harith held his breath. Of course, he could have lied, couldn't he? Yeah..said so, because millions of girls heard his lies every day. Beginning from the simple lies he told, to the big ones; nothing made a difference. Girls came running after him. Used them, and there; its done. But she! Somehow, telling a lie to her made his heart clench. It made it more difficult than he could imagine.

"Harith, your silence isn't an answer.."

"I found your cheating..so me and Jake...did it.."

She didn't wince, which showed how much she had known. How much she had suspected.

"Fami, i-"

"No need maan. It's not even your fault! It's all mine. However you guys found out, I don't even want to know..but yeah, hear it...I'm betrothed!."

Harith's funny face which had brimmed in laughter to enlighten her up, dimmed down like a dead bulb.

"Then why all this?!"

She held her tears, clenching those jaws.

"Because it felt unreal to let my to-be-hubby Farhan to suffer so much.."

The to-be-hubby part made him gag.

"To-be-hubby?The f**k do you even know about the two of them, Fami?"

She looked at him. He was fuming.

"Do you even know why the best friends of Medieval, whose voice went in one span, whose bodies collided in one go, whose beauty dashed within another, whose grades dropped and got up in one pace; break apart?"

She screamed,

"I KNOW!"

Harith stopped.

"Then why the melodrama?! f**k you..but you are the first girl to have caught a broken soul like Fahim...."

She averted her gaze. "No...I don't-t-t believe that..."

He sneered,

"Then don't...Because since your goddamn betrothed, then who the f**k cares? Now I know, why Fahim ran away a month before itself..It must be because he wants to forget you...or rather accept the f*****g truth-"

"His sister's marriage right?", she asked, open-mouthed.

Harith, in such a state of mind, didn't feel like lying. His anger burst, and thankfully there was not even a cafeteria staff there, to take a glimpse of such a rare view.

"But why go to a house which he hates?!"

"Wha-at?", Fami stood up, hysteric.

"He was nine. And she had been the world for him. Ever since his dad left with another woman in the picture, she moved out and brought him up alone. A single mother and the perfect one; that is how he described her. It was his good days, until when one day he came back from school and found out a big scene. That changed his life"

"What scene?"

Harith bit his lower lip.

~Ten years before~

"You are the wrong person to be in such a situation. Go back to him and live your life, properly!"

"Yes, Fathima listen to him"

She threw the plates off which they had eaten into the tub, and swirled around. Her saree which was dressed a little off, came flying against her sister's face, dashing her eyes.

'Ouch!"

"I already made myself clear. My son is happy. I have a job. And I'm happy too. What is wrong with you all?"

"He is alone!"

Fathima knew the voice. The commanding voice which had made her life this way.

"Mom~~"

She smirked,

"Umma became 'mom'. I see, how my daughter is turning modern. There is no mistake in him when he decided to leave you...Anybody will"

She stood still, with her head hung. Never in her life had she spoken back to her mother, and she thought she never could too.

"You are going back. Faisal had called. He says it's all a misunderstanding. She was a college friend and you walk out like that! How shameful! How embarrassing!"

Her sisters, Suleika and Rukkiya, agreed and a bunch other cousins, who had gathered in her kitchen of this small rented dorm, was shaking their head too.

Except for her.

"No Umma..I won't go back..I have to live..happily and this is how-"

"Shut! What is a woman without a man? Leave this freaking bank accountant job and run back to him, before he marries another.! I don't want to even hear what you have to say"

But she shook her head, and with swollen eyes held her mother's hands.

"Umma, please~~I'm not an accountant. I'm a CEO. A big position also...Fahim is also happy. He loves this life, unlike the days when he cried after that man beat him all up. Even the little one..she too, is..come, see no..come see her", she said with happiness, thinking over the baby, and dragging her mother.

But a slap thundered it all.

"Chey! Why can't you understand, harami? Walk back with your children! Think of what society will say? Khairan household has always been the pride of society. And I don't want my daughter breaking it-"

"Out, mom.."

The old woman cringed her forehead as if she hadn't heard.

"What?"

"Out!"

She didn't say another word from her dripping tears. She just pushed them all outside, like ants come into the wrong place. Despite their commotion and confusion, they were pushed out, annoyed and irritated by a woman who had heard enough.

She fell on her knees and closed the door.

Then she cried.

Fahim watched.

~PRESENT~

Fami couldn't say anything. She was awe-struck and caught in the dilemma of a life she knew she would be able to relate with.

"Aunty did live strongly for five more years. Until her little girl became five years. She had gone for the job and she never came back"

Fami met his gaze, in shock.

"Yeah...And the next thing he heard, was her dead body, was found hanging at the roof of her office room."

Fami flew up from the chair.

"Nobody knew what had happened. Dismissed off as a suicide, even by her ex-husband. with whom she lived five years.....even by her household...with whom she lived half of her life ...not a soul, suspected a killer...."Suicide it is.", Bang! That is what they said.."

Harith bit his lip. He never cried in front of girls. But this felt impossible.

"However, only Fahim who was a boy in his teens knew it hadn't been so. "

"He knew...somebody was behind it all...somebody had killed her"