She loves to relish the fine beautiful patterns the artists create using their vast color palettes depicting a story on each canvas. It was her another evening in such an exhibition, when her long forgotten friend approached her with a warm hello. She in return gave her a dazed look at first followed by a nod and a sallow smile. Somewhere she didn't want to accept the fact that finally they both met. Until now she remembered nothing of past, or else she pretended to. But after looking at that face she remembered every single element from the gone years and her miseries thereafter. She could recollect the times when she was burning in dearth of opportunities to pay her back for stabbing at her back, for taking away the love of her life, for those degraded morals she’d shown to her despite knowing every inch of her heart.
Now when she was standing before her, she had no clue what to do with her. Trusting her back seemed foolishness and plotting revenge was pointless now. Still after she thought she had moved on, there was a part of her that wasn’t satisfied yet. They say time heals all wounds, but in her case wounds took a backseat for a while with passing time. She wasn't over with the gone affair.
“How are you?”
“Thanks for asking, I am very fine”, her tone was soaked in arrogance. She was about to depart from unpleasantness when she grabbed her arm.
"So you haven't forgotten and forgiven me yet?" Sensing a tension between them she brought up the topic.
"Does it matter?” She never had any intention to forgive her ever.
"I am sorry, trust me I don't know how it happened!"
"Trust is a strong word for you. Forget it. I hope you both are doing well!"
"I don’t know about him", she continued, "a year later, he left me for somebody else, may be that gives you peace. May be that was what I deserved for the sin I committed. For all these years, I haven’t slept well. The guilt inside me is not letting me to. I want to confess it to somebody, to tell someone of what I did. But a fear that I will lose my pals, relatives or may be trust of strangers never let the words break out from my mouth. I couldn't share anything with anyone. One mistake and a burdened life, I don’t know how to take it further."
She listened to her. Her eyes all dried up with no sign of empathy, her heart seemed hard like a rock. Words fell on her but couldn't soften her stern face.
She continued, with a shaky voice, her throat filled up with penance, telling her how bad she feels, how blind she became, how worst their relationship was, how miserable her life had been. Her eyes were begging for a forgiveness. And She was listening to all this mutely. And after a while her mind started running faster than a blink of an eye.
'Why there is so much anger in me, mostly for her and not for him. He was the man of lose morals too’, She thought to herself, ‘why his mistakes should be forgotten when he purposefully got involved with my best friend. May be because we have often heard of the stories of men leaving us- women, for the greener pastures; that is when our best friends stand by our side giving us a shoulder to cry. No family, no one else knows us inside out like a friend knows. After we are done with crying and cursing part, there are only friends who force us to smile and live on!! I had none. I was abandoned by both love and friendship and was left alone and by myself in the dark.' That time she wanted to die or run away from the world around her but chose to live and fight the fake sympathy of people who knew her story, who gossiped behind her. And she survived successfully.
"You know how it feels when your trust is broken from both the sides you rely on the most? Hush! Don't say another word, because you can never know!"
They both were quiet for a while. Both of their eyes meeting with each-others. One’s were dry lost in deep contemplation, perplexed with change of emotions inside her while latter one's were wet in repentance. She further thought, while she couldn't overcome the infidelity by love and friendship, the lady standing before her couldn't find tranquility in the marsh of guilt and betrayal too.
After ages of high and low tides, her mind was calm. "I forgive you. Past should not affect our lives.", she smiled weakly."
"Thank you." A tear rolled down from her eyes, "Thank you so much. I will never give you another chance to complain."
"Please don’t expect a reunion from me. I can’t. I can only tell you I have no more grudges. I can only wish you good luck for your life." And she left from there, while her friend was staring at her flustered at first but with serenity in her eyes, later on.
Both of them had faced the outcomes of loving a wrong man. When she was thinking only she couldn’t move on from that shock, unable to trust people much in her life, unable to rely on one single person with all her secrets and missing that special feeling for somebody. She was successful but isolated and lonely inside. Now she was tranquilized, thoughtful, forgiving, stronger, and ready to take up next step in her life- ready to give love another chance. She was once again ready to trust people with friendship. A little curiosity budded inside her, how that man must be now, but for a while. She didn’t care much about past anymore. After all, that was an experience which made her stronger and visionary…
