BUOY THE HEART

BUOY THE HEART

Part- 1

I knew he would come to pick me up, no matter how late he turns up. It has been his habit since our childhood. I, being a girl would always be on time whereas he, being the guy, was always late by at least fifteen minutes or more. No matter how many times I reprimanded him, he still would repeat it.

     Every time he arrived late, I used to glare at him, tease him seriously that he should have been a girl to take so much time to get dressed and I would threaten him not to be late the next time. But, he never much took my warnings seriously. His late arrivals continued and I just got more used to them.

     When one of the most important sessions of my life was starting, I was standing in the balcony adjoining my bedroom, overlooking the runway to my elegant parental house. He was supposed to arrive at five in the evening and it was already nearing six. Frustration flared through my mind and I picked up my phone to call him for the sixth time. Just as I was dialing his number, a black Benz arrived at the gate. I turned to see the watchman open the gate and the car ran towards the garage, took a U-turn and parked along the driveway.

He stepped out of the car and looked up directly at me, waving his hand and grinning broadly.

     That’s what he always did when he was late. He would smile at me warmly and greet me so cheerfully, say sorry with an earnest expression and give me a friendly hug. I would lose the leverage of my anger and would simply complain of his tardy arrivals instead of smacking him like how I usually plan while waiting. He would instantly change the subject and drag me away with him.

     I gave him a piercingly angry scowl as I turned round and headed out of my room, down the staircase, into the hall. He came in with a blissful smile on his face and said aloud, “Hey Buttercup!” No sooner did he step close to me, intending to give his usual hug that I stepped back, pushed him away and said, “Don’t try to play this time. You are an hour late!”

     “I know. Sorry,” he said, trying to look straight into my eyes with a pleading face. “You see, dad got me a new car and I was giving him a drive to his office. I had to thank him better too.”

     I did notice that he hadn’t arrived in his usual car. But the anger I had on mind completely neglected the observation. Now that he was being honest, I decided to give him another chance, like always.

     Sensing the change in my thoughts, he took my hand and said, “I was saving the second best drive for you. You know you take up after my parents.”

     He nailed it. I smiled and shook my head, sighing and said, “You sure have words at the tip of your tongue. But still, this is the last time I am going to tolerate this. Next time, I am going to snap your neck.” I punched his arm as hard as I could. Obviously, he didn’t feel that as a serious punch either. God, I hate his muscles.

     Before I could speak anything more, he pulled my hand, dragging me along, chattering avidly, “Come on, we have got a lot to do. And I think we can have our dinner somewhere on the way. I already told dad that I will be late today. So, we can go for a long night drive in my car.”

     “Aarav, relax,” I said, smiling again as I got into his car. “Nice car by the way. What’s the occasion?”

“Well, we got into medical college and dad was happy that I scored better in the entrance than his expectation. Though, that didn’t make much of a difference.”

     That was correct.

     Aarav and I have been close friends since kindergarten and we have been inseparable ever. His parents were rich business persons and so were mine. We had another thing in common. We both didn’t have any siblings, making our bond even stronger. We studied together, played together, partied together and fought as wildly as ever. We both had been dream of becoming of becoming doctors one day and we worked hard for the entrance. Though our marks had been well enough to get admission in a medical college, our princely parents thought we would do better in a renowned university. As a result, we ended up getting admissions in SRMC, Chennai, totally content with paying the high fees. We were due for joining classes in a couple of days and still had lot of shopping left.

     Aarav kept up a chatter as we drove. After a few minutes, he said, “Hey check this out.” He pushed at a button and the top of the car lifted, wound backwards, opening up.  

     “Wow, is this is an open top car?” I asked, enjoying the cool wind blowing at us.

     “Yeah. I loved it a lot.”

     “Keep it open always unless it rains or is too sunny.” I advised.

     “Sure, I would.”

     We shopped for three hours in a row, never feeling tired or bored and then headed to have dinner in a food court in one of the malls. Till twelve in the night, we kept ourselves to the roads, taking a long drive. He drove me back home when I fell asleep, resting my head on his shoulder, as usual.

     My parents weren’t at home by the time we arrived, thanks to a late night business party. I was so asleep and disoriented that Aarav carried me inside, woke me up enough to say, “Good night Buttercup,” and left.

***

     Arriving at college wasn’t so dramatic as I imagined. We both sure travelled by the road as Aarav needed to get his car to college. Driving from Hyderabad to Chennai didn’t seem so tough to him, though we stopped on the way for more than a couple of times to take rest at hotels. Our parents took a flight and arrived very well before us. By the time we completed all the formalities and officially lodged into the university hostels, my dad was ready with a gift for me.

     “There’s your brand new Hyundai Verna,” he beamed at me, pointing to a white Verna parked in the hostel parking lot.

     “Dad!” I was indeed surprised. I had my own i10 car back at home, but I never bothered to get it to college as I was sure Aarav would always be there for help. I had never thought my dad would surprise me without me asking for a car. I gave him a hug, thanking him. Aarav and his parents arrived by then. After a good dinner and not so top notched- sentimental farewell, our parents left.

     Settling down in SRMC was easier than I thought. We had individual rooms in our hostels and we could have an AC on our own account. The classes are ultra-modern and the campus has a cool cafeteria named Annex, a garden restaurant, an NRI tuck shop which has almost everything one would ever want. I had immense fun setting up everything in my room and by the 1^st evening of our stay, Aarav and I were communicating on Skype, showing around how we arranged our rooms. The thing I loved most was the benches we had in front of our hostel, under the shade of trees, right in front of the basketball court. I mentally decided on sitting there every evening so that I could watch Aarav practice basketball (he is an awesome player and used to be our school basketball team captain).

     I loved the hospital and our classes. Aarav and I somehow managed to sit next to each other and we had our roll numbers allotted- consecutive numbers as usual.

     I made friends easily. Neha, Deepika, Jaya, Lekha were a few of the girls who had their rooms next to mine. They were quite friendly and we started going to the mess together. Our class boys were kind of friendly with all of us.

     But it took us a week to understand that people were mistaking my relation with Aarav. Everyone thought us to be involved romantically and we had to clarify to everyone that were best friends. ‘Friends’, not anything more.

     It was Friday evening, six days past our admission. I was waiting at the fast food section in Annex for Aarav, for dinner, and he was late as usual. I was toying with my phone, thinking if I should send a message warning my idiotic friend when someone slipped onto the seat in front of me. I looked up to see one of my fellow classmates watching me with a smile.

     We both had never spoken to each other and it seemed a little awkward. Finally, I said hesitantly,    “Hello.”

     “Hi,” he said. “You are Adithi right?”

     “Yeah. I’m sorry, I don’t know your name.” I was sheepish.

     “It’s okay. I’m Rakesh.” He extended his hand and I shook it formally, feeling unsure.

     “I guess you must be waiting for Aarav?” he asked me.

     “Yes. He always turns up late,” I tried to sound casual, though my anger was boiling up.

     “Well, boys generally relax when they are with someone understanding. After all, you are such a good friend to him.”

     “How do you know that?”

    “My room is next to his in hostel. We are kind of getting along well.”

     I smiled. Something about his accent seemed different. “I don’t think you are from somewhere in India, right?”

    He grinned. “Correct. I am an NRI student. Landed in from Manhattan. My parents stay there and so does my whole family from two generations.”

   “Oh, that’s cool.” I smiled, feeling comfortable as I talked more. Sure, he was looking handsome and seemed to have really charismatic manners. Within a few minutes, we were happily chatting away and laughing over his witty words.

   “Seems like you are having fun.” I heard him say with disappointment. I turned to see Aarav standing a few feet away, looking at us with rounded eyes.