5. Hear me Once

Well, I didn't mean to see him just as I enter the studio or the room which Piyush had told me to come in. He was standing, his back slightly bend and head leaned towards the table surface with his hand working on a sketchpad and a sketcher held in his hand. I had no idea that he was interested in doing a work like this. His fascination world always was found under the designs of technologies. He would always be in his game room like a lion in his den. Crawling him out was like getting the roots of trees out with our hands.

Both of them were a tough job.

I would apologize to him and then move on from the past. It was both of our mistakes, but my actions were the one which led to it.

Entering in more, I saw Piyush was standing next to Dhruv which I hadn't seen before. His eyes fell on me with a narrowed look. "You're late."

"Traffic." I wasn't an easy person to apologize.

He ignored, and grabbed a sketch and sketching pad and handed me on my hands. I wasn't expecting it which lead to little disturbance.

He gazed at my hands. "Clumsy hands." He was more like getting on my nerves mentor. "I told you yesterday about your assignment. Show me your imagination on the page. I will check on it when you both end."

He left without saying anything to both of us. I noticed we both were alone in this room. Dhruv head didn't snap to my direction as he continued to stroke the pencil on the page. It was like I didn't matter anymore now. Before he would just smile by seeing me. His hard hands didn't look like something who would paint and design. I knew he was always good at painting and sketching.

"Dhruv." I called to him, but he ignored me. I again called him and he ignored me. This happened for some more time when I lost my temper and yelled at him.

"Dhruv fucking Malhotra. I am talking to you!" I yelled.

He lifted his head in a bored manner and gave me a look.

"I am busy." Three words and he again knelt his head back to the sketch.

My mouth was open. Nobody ever said to me they were busy and ignored me like this. Nobody had that right.

Annoyed, I jerked his pencil away from his fingers. His one hand was on the top of the table which curled and faced me with a cold look which was enough to make me frozen. I had to get used to this looks, but every time it was arduous than before. I just couldn't accept the fact that he hated me.

"What you want?" He barked.

I crossed my arms over my chest before replying, "You're being childish."

"How?"

"By ignoring me, clasping on the past and so more."

He cocked his head to one direction with a raised eyebrow. "Done?"

I nodded. "Good. I need my pencil back."

I should have known he was stubborn when he wished upon something. The tightening of my muscles doubled, and the feeling of rejection escalated in my heart.

"Listen to me once." I waved my hand in the air with fury behind my own eyes.

He sighed deeply and tugged his hair in annoyance.

"Sanchi, don't you get it?" He faced me. "The meaning of handle your own fucking mess. We were something, we lost it. I don't know you. Simple as anything in the world. Stop being a clinging girl. I'm not interested in you. I'm not anymore the stupid Dhruv who always listened to you."

My face was in shock. Dhruv never cussed before. He hated cussing. His new friends changed him and his appearance too. He used to wear glasses till 10th grade, but ever since he made Kabir as his friends, he was changed. His clothes were changed, the way he talked was changed and he became popular.

He never looked at me again.

Because to be popular, I had left him. And he had left me because I had hurt him for my own selfish reason.

"My pencil, I won't ask again." Sighing, I dropped the pencil in his hand. Nothing was going to make him listen to me.

His eyes never went up again, but he knew I was staring at him with a disappointed look. "Do your work. I'm not your boy toy again to stare at."

You were never my boy toy.

I took a sit farther away from him, opened the sketch pad and started drawing on it the design which I had thought about yesterday. My pencil worked on its own accordance on the paper. I forgot that Dhruv was even in the room and worked with my myself. The ideas pouring out of my heart, making my hands move. One sleek here, one there. Some layers here and there.

It happened for some more time when my design was done.

Seeing it, I was satisfied with myself. Looking up, I saw Dhruv sitting in the distance with his eyes closed. I roamed my eyes to his figure and saw he was changed from school boy look. His muscles were grown, tightened. His jaw was hard and sharp. He was no more the lanky boy but had some weight on him.

Any girl would be attracted to him. No wonder he got married so soon.

"When you got married?" I found myself asking him. I needed to make my mouth shut.

His eyes were closed, when he replied back, "None of your business."

He wasn't going to reply to my any questions.

"I'm sorry." His eyes opened in my answer.

He raked his eyes over my face. "You don't mean it."

"I do."

He shook his head. "You don't even know the meaning of sorry."

Like always before I could answer, Piyush entered the room in his musical walk. He was like a cat walking on a stick. He should be a dancer rather than a designer.

He looked both of us before pushing his hands forward. Getting up, I trudged and placed the sketchpad in his hand. Dhruv did the same.

Piyush scanned our designs. His face was blank, giving no reaction to the designs. I waited and waited and waited. He should reply. I wasn't much of a patient person.

"Well," He clicked his tongue. "Not good. Not bad." He swiped his hands. Dropped Dhruv sketch on mine and my on Dhruv's hand. My face was wearing a look of confusion like a veil. "What makes a designer best is when he can see what other design is lacking. See it and make it better." He gave us a harsh glare. "But don't be discreet about it."

We nodded our heads.

"But what if I don't like anything in her design?" Dhruv asked.

You would like it. I was damn sure about it.

Piyush smiled and leaned his back on the table. "That's why I am giving you her design. You need to see someone can and always be better than you."

"I'm sure she isn't the one." He mumbled very slowly.

Piyush brushed off his comment, maybe because he knew we both had some trouble.

"C'mon. I need to make you see something." He didn't wait for us when he started walking away. When he was out of the room, I circled Dhruv wrist with my hand to stop him. His hand stiffened under my touch.

"Remove it." He didn't look at me.

"Why are you being so rude to me?" I saw how he behave with Alina and his friends. Never rude, always smiling and talking with them freely. Why was I so different now?

He swiveled his head to shoot daggers. "Because you deserve it."

"It was in past. Forget it. I did a mistake. You did a mistake. I said sorry."

He shrugged his hands of mine and shoved them in his jeans. "I wasn't the one who left her best friend for some popularity tag and made fun of her. I wasn't the one who left my best friend when she needed me the most. I remained with you but you left. Just left." His words were so true.

I flinched but masked it quickly. I should have been there for him when I knew what he was facing. I shouldn't have said those words to him that day. So many regrets. "I said I'm sorry. I had no idea what I was doing. It was in past. I miss you, Dhruv. Our talks, play time, meeting under a tree, being in your game room, making fun of others and being us."

His eyes were softening when I said that thing. My one mistake and where we had been placed. He stepped ahead, I stepped back. He was close to me when he said something. "Tell me, Sanchi. Have you apologized if I haven't come in here? Been the other designer in mom's place?"

My silence was the answer. I would have avoided him, but he was here and I should make amends on it. But deep down, I knew I would see him if I was joining his mom studio and I was ready to apologize. It wasn't that late.

"Yes. I would have apologized."

His face turned to shock and he wasn't a good actor to hide it. He looked down at me with a blank look. "I don't forgive you then. You ruined us. I don't miss you at all."

The hurt came back with a pulsing effect on every part of my body. I started feeling tired, angry and furious. Emotions started bottling up in my mind. I wanted to yell at him for stop being this stubborn, stop living in the past and move on from it. But something in me whispered it wasn't my right to do anything like this.

I had lost him. He never missed me at all.

But he was lying. I was sure he was lying because then he wouldn't be this cold. He would have talked to me normally.

If we ever broke up, bear. I will miss you.

He didn't remember those words, but I do. Friendships weren't hard to forget. Broken friendships hurt as broken love.

"If you never missed me, then why being this cold? Why you're behaving like you're hurt?"

He remained silent and said nothing in return. His eyes shifted to the room, avoiding my stare. "I don't answer you."

But you had to answer that question of mine. You couldn't run away always when we both would meet each other every single day.

He turned around but not before saying, "Sorry has to be earned."

Then I would earn it, no matter what. Make my mistakes better. Make you see the truth of us.

I want you back. When Sanchi want something, she always gets it.

But then why winning you back seemed a futile thing? Was our relationship that much scarred?