And they broke up.......

She woke up to his fingers gently caressing her back - gliding from the back of her neck all the way down her spine to back again. From what she gathered, it was early in the morning. She felt tired but knew she had to get up. She turned around and faced him. He opened his eyes and smiled a sleepy smile. She leaned in and they kissed. Soon after she got out of bed, looked around the messy room while he lay straight on his back with his eyes closed. She tied her hair up in a messy bun and started gathering her things - socks laying by the door, camera on his desk, a lipstick on the dresser, her perfume lying next to his deodrant, her scarf on the floor, the towel on the chair, some dirty clothes in the corner. She carelessly tossed everything in the suitcase and threw on the first pair of jeans and T-shirt she could see. She put his oversized old T-shirt she changed out of neatly on the side of the bed.

"You could take this with you, you know," he said. She hadn't realized that he was observing her all that time.

"It's yours," She replied quietly.

"But you love to wear it at night. You can have it."

"It's alright," She said and looked away.

She untied her hair, decided to take a quick shower then cancelled the idea. It was still dark in the room. She went into the bathroom to wash her face. A moment later, she came back quietly and started brushing her hair.

"Breakfast?" She looked at him who was still laying on his back staring at the ceiling.

"Yeah," he said after coming out of his thought process.

They looked at each other. He gave her a weak smile.

She came out into the kitchen, and poured him his favorite cereal. She did not have time to do anything elaborate. She heard the shower go off briefly before he walked into the kitchen with wet hair and dressed in jeans. On any other day, she would have found him attractive, be a little mischievous, play with his wet hair, but that was not the day. Instead, she pointed to the table. He smiled. They sat down and quietly ate breakfast.

"Juice?" He finally broke the silence.

"I dont think we have any," she replied.

"Oh, I suppose I would have to do grocery myself from now onwards."

"I suppose... but don't worry, you'll be fine, I trained you well," she said with a smile.

He laughed for the first time that morning.

After they were done eating, she took the dishes and washed them. As she was washing, he came up to her and hugged her from behind - putting his arms around her waist and his head on her shoulder as he usually did. she kissed his forehead - as she usually did.

When she was done, he let her go.

"I think I should head out now," she said.

"Yeah," he replied and went into the bedroom to grab her suitcase. She took hold of the other bag and her purse while walking out of the apartment behind him. As she exited the building, she looked back at it, just soaking it all in with all the memories they made in and outside of this building. He had already put her suitcase in the car and was walking back towards her. She stood there watching him. He came up to her and tried taking the bag off her shoulder.

"I can carry this one myself, you have already spoiled me a lot, I need to get back in the habit of carrying everything myself," she said with a smile.

He didn't reply. Instead he leaned in and kissed her. They kissed for a long time before she gently pushed him back.

"I will see you around," she said brushing his shoulder with her hand.

"You better" he replied.

She smiled and started walking towards the car. As she opened the driver's door, she turned around and waved at him before disappearing in the car - her face was naked with love. This was something they never talked about - love. But she allowed him to take one clear look at it. It blazed from her. And then she left.

Stuck as friend forever..

Rohan could have smiled at that moment but the dryness of his cracked lips didn’t stretch his blistered cheeks to a grin. He was hoping things will change. The done would become undone. He looked at the coffee mug and read -’Friends Forever.’ He looked at the mug again and remembered the coffee chats on the same table and how she held a mug tightly to warm her cold hands. She was the closest he had ever been to zenith of happiness. He knew no worries and no hundreds and thousands of things that bothered him otherwise. With her he felt free, liberated and relaxed. He remembered her walking through the glass door every morning passing a smile that would melt his heart and made him believe in existence of angels. He thought about the numerous occasion when she would come to him and ask him to help her out with her silly problems. He remembered how she made an innocent face and hit her forehead slightly with her hand and said -’Oho!’

Ritika was his reason of existence, so much so he breathed her. Ritika was his primal reason of any thing in his life. They giggled and giggled without realizing the reason of the giggles. Ritika had gone on a fifteen days break from work when she gave him the mug on her last day before her break began. She was going with her family to relax. Rohan knew he would miss her and would feel incomplete but he knew he would confess his love for her when she will come back.

Fifteen days passed with great difficulties and Ritika came beaming brighter as ever. Rohan could have cried with hapiness looking at her face but couldn’t as he wanted to be strong. Rohan picked his mug and they headed to the cafeteria. Rohan was about to tell Ritika about his feelings when Ritika announced -'I am in love.' Rohan felt deaf for milliseconds. He smiled to hide his disbelief and kept looking at the same face which made him happiest and saddest at the very random moment. She kept talking and talking and he kept bringing himself back from the wild imagination he had sported in those fifteen days. He cursed at his unremitting status quo of friend!

Ritika logged off from her system early that evening and asked Rohan to tell others that she had to leave early if in case anybody asked. She picked up her stuff- her big bag with things that even she didn’t knew was there inside and her umbrella and headed for the door. She came back in a frenzy and hugged Rohan and said bye and rushed through the door.

Rohan could have smiled at that moment but …………..

I wrote this story today morning and even I cant believ I just completed it in half a day :-o..seems like I am really improving :D....or maybe on second thoughts I am just too veili these days for the story to come out so smoothly :P...Watever do tell me how is it ?? :)