Page 336 - The World's Best Boyfriend

you saw me laughing at you and that you remembered that when you first talked
to me.’
‘. . .’

‘You still talked to me. Why?’
Aranya sighed. She closed her eyes. ‘I was lonely.’
‘You didn’t have to be nice to me. I laughed at you and ran,’ said Dhruv,

guiltily.
‘It always helps to be kind. Humans are hardwired to be nasty, vengeful
people and who would know better than the two of us. We are programmed to

hate, to destroy, to be born pure and die evil. We are a mob. So I was just being
nice . . . because it helps.’
‘It’s what I fell in love with, Aranya,’ said Dhruv and shook his head. He

reached out for the cigarette packet and found it empty. ‘I will just get another
from my room.’ He waved the empty packet.
‘I’ll come with you,’ said Aranya and they both walked towards his room.

Aranya found the cigarette packet under a month-old pile of unwashed clothes
generously sprayed over with a strong insecticide-smelling deodorant. She
tossed it to Dhruv. He lit one and took a long, languorous drag.

‘That’s why it hurt so much when you threw me under the bus,’ said Dhruv. ‘I
know, I know, you had your reasons but I was twelve and I had fallen in love for
the first time. And the last.’

‘I’m sorry, Dhruv,’ said Aranya. She sat on the creaky chair and leaned back.
‘Like you said, I really had no choice.’ She drank from the bottle till it was
empty. She got up and kept it outside the room.

‘This is all so fucked up. Can’t you stay, Aranya?’
‘I can’t, Dhruv. There’s nothing to stay for,’ said Aranya and sat on the bed
next to Dhruv. ‘I will have a life there. And as you said, it’s all fucked up here.’

Aranya looked at Dhruv, her eyes glazed over.
‘I’m here.’
Aranya laughed sadly. ‘For now, you are, Dhruv. But what about tomorrow?

Day after? Forever?’
‘But you will never be happy with Raghuvir, will you?’
‘You overestimate love, Dhruv.’

‘No, I don’t. I spent three months in love with you when I was twelve and the
wretched thing has followed me ever since,’ said Dhruv, grumbling.