December, 2017

It was the second week of December, 2017. I stumbled over a girl who seemed a year or two younger as I looked out of my classroom. Only Later I found out she was my classmate. Her name was Shreya. Soon we became good friends. Every evening we used to walk back to the bus stop together from the college.

One day Shreya and me decided to go out for dinner. Usually, after the dinner she used to drop me. Tonight, she drank a couple of pints extra and was clearly not in a state to drive, so I decided it would be safe if she stays back at my place.

I have a phobia of losing people. I was scared of losing my new friend. I was just 12 years old when my parents decided to get divorced. Six months of living together before the mutual divorce, the court had ordered. The last dinner with them together is still my best dinner. God, I lost both of them that night.

I let Shreya sleep in my bedroom and I slept in my parent’s room. The next morning, I went to see if Shreya was awake. I saw her going through my diary. I went out to the kitchen, made two cups of tea and headed back to the bedroom. Shreya looked at me with her eyes open wide without blinking. She refused to take the tea. She quickly put on her sweater and got ready to leave. I begged her not to leave; she didn’t listen. She took the car keys and didn’t turn back.

After 10 minutes of pacing and relentlessly looking at my phone’s screen, I finally got a call.

“Hello?”

“Do you know the owner of this phone?”

“Yes, I am her friend Nitish. Where is Shreya?”

“Hello Nitish, we’re sorry to inform you, but your friend died in an accident.”. I disconnected the call, went back to the room and made an entry in my diary.

“The best tea of my life.”

Nobody was allowed to walk away from me even if they choose to. Neither my parents could nor Shreya. You see, I have a phobia of losing people. The poisoned drinks of my parents and the tampered brakes of Shreya’s car, no one is allowed to know about it, except the two of us – me and my diary.