Keeping the Promises by Dhruv Gajjar Read Free Book Online Page B

key. I saw you got a new ride,” Aakash demanded.
    “Ya great ride Gajju! I’m getting the same, but in blue colour,” Shilpan enthusiastically said to quote the line,
‘Boys and cars, a deadly combination.’
    “So, two places, two cars and five wolves. Seems like this town will go on fire,” Harsh simpered.
    But one thing is still and will remain a mystery forever.
    What the hell happened that night? And how did they end up waking up in those places?
    The three of us broke into laughter as I finished. This was the memory of a lifetime. Though I got rusticated from the hostel, I did not regret it. Well, I regret the trouble I gave to my father because of that, but keeping that apart, it was a hell lot of fun.
    “And you guys still don’t know what happened that night?” M asked.
    “No, everyone tried to remember what might have happened, but none of us do,” I answered.
    “Aakash does.” Ansh winked and we guffawed again.
    Ansh was feeling sleepy so he stood up and went out. M and I chattered about the event for a while until she had all her answers. Just before we went to sleep, she said, “Mithu, it’s promise time.”
    “Yes, ma’am!” I said with obeisance.
    “Promise me! You’ll be the string which will hold your family and friends together.”
    “Promise, my love!” I accepted without any reservation.

Few days have passed and yet I feel like it happened an hour ago, the reunion where I met his…our friends. We laughed together, we ate together and somewhere down the line, without letting each other know, we cried together. They all couldn’t stop guffawing when Dhruv narrated the hangover part. Everyone had come with their own theory of what might’ve happened. Aakash, who knew more than anyone else, was surprisingly sitting quietly with a smile on his face. There was an awkward silence when Dhruv narrated the part where he tied him with that rope. I could see their hidden smirk behind the silence.
    He comes with a smile on his face, opens the door and sits inside his car.
    “Where to?” I ask without attempting to hide my cheer.
    “My secret place…” I snap at him, dumbstruck by the answer.
    “What? You are not kidding right?” I ask in skepticism.
    “No, let’s go.” I hug him in joy as soon as I hear it.
    He drives me to the riverfront. It is better now, only for people. He liked it more when it did not have any railings so that he could just sit for hours and let his feet relax and to get massaged naturally and obviously – to think about me. It is now more clean, beautiful and near perfect, but not for him. I can see it in his eyes.
    “Thank you for bringing me here,” I say and hold his hand. Although it is not his secret place anymore, but he still loves it here.
    “Let’s start then! You will love today’s part.” He chuckles.
    “Then what are you waiting for?” I coyly answer, knowing that today he might introduce me to you all.
    And he starts reading.
    My name is Nirali Shah. I’m his first love…even before M, but not anymore. He is the first and last person I fell in love with, and even with all his pain, anguish and frustration, he cannot take that away from me.
    4 February
    O n that day, there were two different orchids, the usual purple ones and the second, having a stripe of white. Orchids are odourless but she used to smell it every day and when I asked her why she was doing this, she said that she could feel my presence in them. I then used to muzzle that she could feel me more by giving me a passionate kiss and she – as if waiting for me to say that – would lean towards me to give that passionate morning kiss. I then used to run my fingers across her waist, which could ignite her passion even higher. Although we’d been in a relationship for the past two years, we did not get intimate with each other completely, but we surely ascertained many hidden secrets about us. The fourth note along with the flowers said,
    Your waist, always a favourite for