I waited outside, read reports of Indian helicopters being shot down by Pakistan, and waited for the photograph-cum-letter to drop out of the diary. And when it did, Brahmi and Sahil passed the piece of paper between each other, disbelief writ large on their face. The letter, I should reveal now, told of a passionate love story between Arundhati and me. It started with Arundhati and me being accidental pen pals, and then being lovers. We had kissed not once but multiple times. Our love transcended all boundaries. But now it was breaking down. I had shattered her heart because we were too young to be in love, too naive, there was a world left to explore, and because I felt we were limiting ourselves. The letter was her lament against me, her anger with herself for falling in love with a charming boy like me, and her failure to hate me. In the letter, I was the heartbreaker.
‘How could you do this to Arundhati?’ asked Brahmi in the canteen.
‘Do what? I didn’t get you.’
‘We found a letter in the diary. We know everything. Did you not think what Arundhati would go through?’
‘I seriously don’t know what you’re talking about,’ I said.
‘Please stop lying. How could you hold your brother responsible for anything when you’re like this? You’re a hypocrite, Raghu,’ said Brahmi.
‘Listen—’
‘No, you listen, Raghu. You kissed that girl and now you’re leaving her? Weren’t you the one who was all up in arms against your brother because he was behaving in a similar way?’
‘I know it seems wrong but you have to listen to me,’ I said.
‘What possible explanation can you have, Raghu?’
I leant back and affected a learned pose. I said, ‘I did this for her and not me. Was it easy? No, it wasn’t. But rather than it happening later, it happened now. We are both too young to take this decision of being together. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone younger than twenty-two. I agree I made a mistake but I’m now correcting it. Sahil, you would know, right? I have heard a lot of things about you. You must have been in love with girls, right? Broken their hearts? Left them to cry as you left them behind?’
Brahmi looked at me with disappointment dripping from her eyes.
Sahil sighed. ‘Yeah, that happens sometimes.’
‘Yeah,’ I said, chewing the word lazily and spitting it out like I was cool.
Brahmi looked at both of us. ‘I thought both of you were better than this. If both of you can’t grasp the simple concept of love, there’s no point in us being friends.’ She then picked up her bag and left. I watched her leave the canteen. Now that my task of splintering their relationship was done, I got up too.
‘Where are you going now?’ asked Sahil.
‘I’m going home, genius.’
‘I have nothing to do back home. Would you fancy a game of basketball?’
‘Would you fancy a memory game with the periodic table?’ I scoffed and left the physics lab.
Later in the evening, I found Maa giggling on the phone for a good ten minutes before handing it over to me. ‘It’s a friend of yours from school. Sahil Ahuja. He’s a charming young boy, isn’t he?’ She smiled.
I took the receiver. ‘Hello?’
‘Hello, friend!’
‘Sahil?’
‘Yes, Sahil!’
‘Where did you get this number from?’
‘Telephone directory. Hey, listen, I’m sorry for the basketball thing. I just assumed you played the game too since Brahmi did. I didn’t mean to offend you.’
‘I wasn’t offended. I just think it’s a stupid game loaded in favour of taller people like Brahmi and you. It has nothing to do with skill.’
‘I never looked at it like that. But hey, there’s something I also wanted to talk to you about. I don’t know how to say it but I will just say it. I know you like Brahmi.’
‘What are you talking about? I don’t—’
‘I have seen you following us in school, Raghu. Unless there’s any other reason for why you were peeping in from the lab windows for the last couple of weeks. I know the letter was fake too. You’re not dating Arundhati, you never did.’
