I was never good at talking.
New place.
New faces.
Too many words I didn't know how to use.
I stayed quiet.
People thought I was rude.
But the truth was, I didn't know how to begin.
Then there was Prakirti.
She smiled like she didn't know how heavy the world could be.
She talked to me like I belonged there.
She didn't force me to speak, she waited.
Slowly, because of her, I started opening up.
And slowly, I started seeing the cracks behind her smile.
The day she ran away from the picnic...
that day changed something inside me.
She cried like she had been holding it in for years.
She told me things she never told anyone.
Things about her home.
Things about pain that followed her everywhere.
That day, without saying it out loud,
I promised myself something.
I'll be better for her.
I'll protect her.
I'll be a safe home.
When she came to my house that day,
thrown out by her own mother,
my chest hurt in a way I didn't understand.
I wanted to do something.
Anything.
But all I could do was sit beside her.
And I hated myself for how small that felt.
We became best friends.
The kind who talked about everything.
The kind who stayed on calls until sleep took over.
The kind who understood silence.
When she asked, "Will you be my BF?"
my heart almost stopped.
Then she laughed and said, "Best friend."
I smiled.
Because being her best friend wasn't a loss.
It was still her.
Truth and dare.
When they dared me to propose her,
my hands were shaking.
I had waited for that moment for so long.
And when it finally came,
I panicked.
"Dare completed," I said.
The silence after that hurt more than rejection ever could.
That night, I confessed properly.
She didn't reply for hours.
Each second felt like my heart was forgetting how to beat.
But when she finally replied...
that night became one of my most precious memories.
Things were normal again.
Until that voice note.
Her mother's voice.
Angry.
Threatening.
Violent.
My body started shivering.
My mind went blank.
The calls kept coming.
Again.
Again.
I didn't sleep that night.
I was scared for her.
Scared of losing her.
Scared of destroying her life.
Then,
blocked....
I broke.
I cried until my breath stopped making sense.
I thought this was my punishment.
I decided I'd take all the blame.
But nothing went as I thought.
At school, she avoided me.
Didn't listen.
Didn't look.
Something inside me died quietly.
After school, I walked home alone.
Then I saw her.
Sitting on a bench.
Crying.
I went to her and sat on the ground.
When she looked at me, she hugged me.
And everything I was holding back collapsed.
That's when I stopped talking.
And you stopped crying.
You looked at me and said,
"I'm sorry."
"I'm really sorry."
"I've done so wrong with you."
And I didn't know what hurt more.
Losing you.
Or knowing you were blaming yourself.