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*People Pleaser*
*Part V: The Goodbye*
"You, what?!" Ivan startled.
"Umm, don't you feel the same about me?"
Constant fear of losing my friendship with Ivan started to give me chills; his silence and horribly widened eyes looking at me sharply was kind of scaring me. How can I be so stupid to say this without knowing the circumstances?
Breaking the silence, Ivan replied, "That's not how I feel about you, I wanted to tell you that I shifting to another state for my further studies, so this will be my last day of meeting you."
I stood their in silence. Why didn't he tell me about this before? Was I not much important enough for letting me know about his leaving one day before?
"I know you would be thinking why didn't I tell you before, but believe me my parents decided this out of nowhere and are asking me to come back to my old state as soon as possible," Ivan said looking down at the road with a sad face.
"Oh," I said.
That's what I was remained to say, how differently it hits to know that the person who took the most place in your heart is leaving you in a second, but what more can we do rather than accepting that the person whom you think will be with you till infinity is leaving you in middle of it?
"Okay, isn't there any chance of us meeting back again?," I asked looking straight into his eyes with a little fear.
"Surely there is, I will try to meet you after some months, till that time we can stay connected on social media," He said.
"That would be nice," I said faking a smile.
I know that it's not going to keep our bond as it was before with such a long distance, and after such a weird awkward confession I know our friendship isn't going to be very much strong indeed.
"That's for it today I guess, see you next time," Ivan said.
"We both know this is going to be the last time for our meet because you aren't going to meet me again after knowing that I have feelings for you, you will instantly try to book one of the nearest flights and will fly off with a single message that you are leaving," I said with a tear falling off from my one of my eyes and clenching my dress's edge.
"That's not how you th-"
Before letting him say anything more, I ran away to my house with great sadness.
*Next Evening*
It was nearly 6:30 pm in Evergreen Park where I had a long conversation with Crystal. She tried to convince me and told me not to think about Ivan anymore and made me feel calm with her presence. Due to some urgent work she left to her house leaving me alone with the sad time where the Sun was biding a goodbye to the sky.
Giving a sigh I stood from the bench on which I was sitting and was about to leave, but I saw Ivan looking at me and coming towards my direction.
"Oh, no," I instantly mumbled to myself. I am not ready to meet him again, more than that I ain't ready to have an awkward conversation with him.
He came towards me and said, "I need to tell you something which is very much important, after hearing that maybe... maybe you will stop getting sad after getting rejected."
"Is there anything sadder than your rejection?," I said bluntly.
"Yes," He said with no emotion.
"Oh, then maybe you should tell me, at least I will stop sobbing for that rejection and will give my more focus to the another sadder thing," I said without thinking about his feelings.
"Okay," He responded and continued, "At start I wasn't really interested in being friends with you because I knew that you are like others, the one who doesn't care about others' feelings and a selfish one. But I don't know why but I started to see *her* in you," He said with a bitter tone.
" *Her*? Oh, your ex lover?," I responded with a bitter tone too.
"No, my sister. I had a sister who was 3 years younger than me; she loved me, a lot, a lot that... even after breaking my heart into infinite pieces she still wished me to have a good life," Ivan said with teary eyes.
"I don't get it," I replied.
"Let me tell you clearly. My parents always discriminated her because she was a girl, and loved me because I am a boy. They always supported me with whatever I wanted and gave a very little support to my sister, Valencia whose dreams were higher than me. I tried to love my sister more than anything, but my parents always scolded me to do so, they said that there's no use of loving her because she is going to forget you after getting married to her man. My parents and I always had a very bad argument whenever they said something rude to her. This all used to kill Valencia a lot, but she hid it with a smile, and I knew it, Holy God, I knew it... but I couldn't do anything, but I made a promise to myself that when I will stand on my feet I will take my little sister away from my family, but... life didn't wanted the same. Soon my parents decided to make me shift to another country for further studies. I defied it, but it wasn't of any use, I tried to convince my parents that at least let me go with Valencia, but they didn't agree. Later, I planned to run away from the house with Valencia but she didn't agree with it, she only said one sentence to me and that was, "You want to give me a happy life, right? Then study hard and come to me again, we both will leave our parents, and will live a happy life, my brother!," She said with the most beautiful smile which used to relax me and made me feel that beautiful and happy things do exist. I agreed to her and at last left abroad for further studies, and you know what, Saffrina? I regret the most for doing this,'' Ivan said with a clear throat.
"Why...?," I said.
"Because she died, the world killed her," Ivan said with tearful eyes.
*To Be Continued*
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