The Clingy Fiancee

Chapter Three

Mehak was the kind of woman you rarely found. Her no-bullshit attitude attracted a lot of people, and she was independent, much more than me, when it came to taking her own decisions. She did those things a lot; just like she had decided, on a whim, that she would attend college in a completely different country, because she was tired of the confining rules of the Indian Society.

I clearly remembered those days, when all I could think of was her leaving me back here alone, and not being able to shed a single tear in front of her even though I cried to myself in my sleep every day. It was when she had started sending me pictures of her and her new friends, enjoying her freedom there, when I had been so proud of her.

She was living her life the way she wanted – something I could never, ever do.

It was kind of ironic; how I admired her for making her own path in another country, and how she admired me for making my own up despite the confinements I had in my life.

But right now, the last thing she was doing was admiring me.

I looked like a complete and utter mess, even though I had taken a long bath to clean myself. She was staring at me as if I was a ghost, someone she barely knew and couldn’t figure out. While my mother was still crying as if she was the one who failed me, Mehak stared at me with not an inch of sympathy in her eyes.

“You already know how much I hate the idea of having pets or babies,” She started, stating the fact that had been a stark dissimilarity between the two of us, “But looking at what you have made of yourself right now, I don’t think I even want to get in the mess of a relationship.” She said with a small frown on her face. “Did he really say he wanted more space?”

“Yes.” I said, blankly.

“Are you sure it wasn’t cold feet or anything? I mean he had just proposed, right? Perhaps you are overreacting.” She was still staring at me, perplexed.

It was true that she had never liked the thought of babies and pets. She had always thought that they were little brats existing only to make your life harder. On the other hand, I loved them; both babies and pets. Mehak herself had pretty bad experiences with men, but Neil and I’s relationship had always given her some semblance of hope that she would, one day, find the right man.

Now, she had lost that one string of hope and I couldn’t feel guiltier.

“I wish I was overreacting, Mehak, because if that had been the case then it would have meant that he will come back for me to take me home and clear out the misunderstandings. But he didn’t. He had clearly said that he is not ready for a marriage and also that I was clingy. He clearly doesn’t feel anything for me anymore.” I said, dejectedly.

“But how is that even possible?!” Mehak nearly yelled out in frustration, “You’ve been together for what? Seven years, seven entire years and you say that within just one week of his proposal he started to find you clingy and he doesn’t love you anymore? Even you know it sounds bullshit!”

My anger flamed, “It might be bullshit but you don’t see him here begging for my forgiveness or confessing his eternal love to me, do you? Those seven years have been nothing to him – they mean nothing to him anymore.”

“Again,” Mehak frowned, “That sounds bullshit. We have all seen how much he was in love with you and how much he loved it when you showered him with so much attention. Is something else the matter?”

“I don’t think so. Perhaps he just lost interest or he suddenly found someone worth his time.” I said, wanting to close the topic of conversation as soon as possible. I wanted to talk about her, about her time in the US, and how she was faring.

Neil was slowly becoming a past now, a taboo topic that I didn’t want anyone to mention if they didn’t want me to turn into a hulk.

“Maybe we should wait before coming to any conclusions. Perhaps he’ll return soon.”

“I think two months are enough for someone to think. Leave it be, Mehak, he’s not coming back. Why in the hell are you putting in so much faith in something that doesn’t exist anymore?” I muttered, keeping my voice as calm as I could.

“But sweetie, perhaps Mehak is right. Maybe he’ll soon realize how much he loves you and will come back for you. Why are you losing hope? Don’t you even have a little bit of faith in your love?” Mumma said, and I felt completely at loss of wits at that moment.

“I know that I am still deeply in love with him, Mumma, but I can’t say the same for him, not anymore.”

Both Mehak and my mother gave up trying to convince me after a while, because they knew how I was. Not only were they continuously torturing me with the incessant questions, they were also prodding on my feelings, giving no consideration to how heartbroken I was.

Sometime later, almost after an hour, someone knocked on the door again, and once again, it was the kind of knocking that annoyed me. Someone was very impatient to get the door open.

“Who the f**k is it, now?” Either the person was here for me, or for Mehak, and both the possibilities were rare because not many people knew that Mehak and I were here.

The moment I pulled open the door, I was greeted by a harsh slap to my cheek - and that too, a literal one, not metaphorical.

The slap was feeble, but it hit somewhere deep in my core because of how sensitive I already was. I looked up and was met with another shock – the one who had slapped me was none other than Ananya Sharma, one of Neil’s good friends.

This was one woman who had sworn to make my life terrible. It was a known truth that she had been in love with Neil for longer than I had known him and also that all of his friends had always shipped Neil and Ananya. Of course, it had made everything extremely awkward when I came into the picture – they suddenly didn’t know which side to pick. And at the end, they had picked hers, because well, she was their friend.

It had been difficult to digest it all for a while.

Perhaps, this had been the reason why he finally left me; his friends had finally convinced him that I was not good enough for him to spend his entire life with and Ananya was.

The possibility of it being true hurt so damn much.

“You f*****g b***h! How dare you?” Were the words she said to me after she had slapped me. How strange, those were the words, I should’ve had said to her.

“Excuse me, but you barged in here, slapped her, and now you are insulting her? Who the f**k are you?”

I was still holding my cheek out of embarrassment. I could’ve had slapped her, too, but here it seemed like Mehak was going to start a catfight soon.

“Why don’t you ask your friend here?” She spat at me, and I now realized that she was not the only one who was here at the doorstep. After the cheek warming welcome, I didn’t even want to invite them inside.

“And what is it that I did to deserve this?” I asked her, appalled.

“Don’t you give a f**k about his feelings? You were in love with him, weren’t you? Then how could you leave him?” She stepped in closer, her pretty features dissolving into those of rage, “You are asking what you did, huh? Well you know what, you ruined his entire life.”

“I ruined his life?!” I wanted to laugh at her; did she come to me with incomplete information? “Do you even know what you are f*****g talking about?”

“You have no right to talk to her that way.” Ishan, Neil’s best friend stepped in to rescue her, “After you left him alone, you don’t get to insult someone who’s been standing beside him for so long.”

“What?!” I sputtered in horror, “Are you all delusional? Of course, you are!” I wanted to start crying again. It was a horrible trait: crying when you were beyond mad. It made me feel too weak and pathetic. “Didn’t you ask your best friend, Ishan? He broke off the engagement with me! He was the one to leave me alone! Aren’t you guys happy?” I glared at Ananya, “After all you were the ones who convinced him that he was doing a big mistake in marrying me, right?”

While Ishan, and his other two friends fell silent in horror, Ananya was the one who sighed in relief and rolled her eyes, “Thank God, he finally paid attention to what I was telling him all the time.”

I was pretty sure that she didn’t mean to say that aloud, because with the gasps of outrage that came out of her friends’ mouth was enough to tell me that she was the only one who had filled his mind with poison.

A poison Neil had willingly taken in and had thrown me out of his world.

I was pissed now; she was blaming me for God knew what and she was now insulting me right to my face. I was about to slam the door shut on her face when Ishan stepped forward and stopped me, “Wait, please. There’s something we need to tell you.”

I was still glaring at him, completely ignoring the tears that were running down my cheeks, “I’m sorry, I really didn’t know –”

“Get over with it. I know you never liked me anyway. Is there anything important you have to tell me?” I snapped.

He hung his head as if in shame. He then sighed slightly, his face slightly pale as he told me: “Neil died, Myra.”