18th February

6.10 PM

A SLAP echoed through the hall of Mallick residence. The storm had come as the winds danced crazily, in agony, in excitement. For my knight holds the sword now and I know the next move.

The red mark on Nikhat Mallick's cheek and the tear-stained face seems familiar to me, too familiar for I look at the girl with curly hairs standing at some distance now. Her black orbs hold no remorse, for my knight had seen the worst.

The familiar faces turn to me, Mallick elders look at me with shock, they hadn't excepted me here, I was never supposed to be. Their beloved son walked away from the scene, the coward had left again. Who didn't was another familiar face, once my anchor who betrayed, the one who called for the war, Zaheen Razadani. My friend once, who turns to be the biggest foe.

The confused faces of Amma and Tanveer looked for answers, and for them, I do the honours, "I think Nikhat forgot to say you something Tanveer, why don't you ask her what it is?"

My voice is dipped with venom, I was surprised myself that I had it in me. A small smirk covers Simran's lips as she waits for the checkmate, for I had just called the check.

"Nikhat what is it?" Tanveer asked cautiously.

"What the hell are you doing here Khwahish? Didn't you learnt your lessons?"

"I did but I suppose you never will. I had asked you before, stop playing with my friends, I had always told you this. But you never listen." I said. She had ruined my friendships.

"Get out of here right now." She screamed and advance towards me.

Only when I thought she will do something stupid, Tanveer stands before me with a frown and clenched jaw. He shakes his head in disapproval.

"Don't you dare to talk you her ever like that again? She is my friend who owes me my whole freaking life." The words left his lips and two heads turn towards him.

One in apprehension one in pain, both lost in memory. Simran looked into my eyes once again and withdrawals briskly, the denial of the pain lies there which I couldn't miss.

Zaheen looked at me with pain-filled eyes, a guilt that is there which holds the pain we all have suffered for years. And he steps toward Tanveer for a handshake, my anchor was back.

"Hello, I am Zaheen Razadani, Nikhat's husband." A gasp left Amma's lips as Abeera holds her by shoulders. A check again.

Tanveer's face lost all colours in realization as he turns towards me. As the memory of me crying in his backyard under the scary night fills his eyes. That night sky had mourned as I sat amongst the storm. The thunder that used to haunt me once did nothing to me that night, for I had lost all hopes of happiness, the war I had left being lost all my baits.

Clad in that heavy lehenga, and heavier pain in my shattered heart, the zardozi dupatta pierced my skin as the words played again and again near my ears. I was the happiest bridesmaid in the morning, Amma had put kohl behind the back of my ears, she said, 'Happiness looks great on me'.

Happiness that didn't even stay for another night, for the bride, my best friend Simran was abandoned on her wedding day. The groom had run away, the groom, Zaheen Razdani with someone I never thought of, Nikhat Mallick. The girl we despised.

And I stood there absorbing the shock, seeing her father fall. Their honour was at stake when someone came forward with a cunning smile from my behind, someone I hadn't seen in two years. He stopped just a few steps behind me, Simran held me tight as he whispers, "I am going to ruin this friendship which had ruined my love." His love, me.

What happened next was only something I witnessed like a corpse. Armaan Mallick had married Simran, with a promise of hellfire to raise. And I saw life going away from me.

That night I came back to Tanveer's place, sat on the green grass as the clouds roar I cried. A storm had passed and the house crumbled down. A house of cards, my cards.

"You wanted to tell me this yesterday?" He whispered. I nodded. Another pang of guilt hit his face as pain morphed his account. He never wanted me to feel the pain again yet he was the one who pushed me inside the hellfire this time.

"And Nikhat why did you lie to me?" He asked.

"I love you Tanveer..." She started.

"You mean you loved my money Nikhat, not me. You were always clear about it, so was I. I cared about you Nikhat but I guess you don't even deserve my one glance let alone all the care." With that, he walked out with Amma following him. A last check.

"You can never handle my happiness right?" She spoke, I laughed hard.

The breezes ceased silencing the air around and then it happened. Another slap echoed through the hall and everyone standing there could feel their toes curl, I bet. Nikhat falls on the ground and the scene is much similar to the way I was fallen that night.

I had visited the Mallick's for the first time and the last, to meet Simran. I was leaving the city, I was leaving the people here. And as I was about to step in a push arrives in my direction and I had fallen stumbling back. "You are never welcome in my house ever." She closed the door on my face. And I knew one day I will bring the storm along

one day I will make her House of Card crumble down.

Her mother steps towards me but stopped seeing my eyes, the blank eyes who used to look at her with respect, and she had lost it all in the game of lies and deceits. Her father lowers his eyes, and her brother who started the hellfire stands at the end of the hall with a pained look.

"A happiness that you gained after snatching others was never bound to stay for long. A peaceful life that you wished for after ruining ours was never bound to happen. You had wronged all of us, Zaheen, your brother, Simran all because you wanted to hurt me. And what was my fault? I had sinned to love your brother." Silence engulfs us as the breezes bows down to me. Years of pain had been spoken as I look ahead to the tears of my past lover.

"I had loved him. Had. Past tense. A past I had left behind long before, at least I wished to, I tried to. But you just dragged it for this long and see where you stand today. A broken marriage a family who are ashamed of you.

And see where we stand today even after the storm, Simran and Armaan are together today, at least they are trying to be happy. I move on and have a life away from everything shit and you still stand there empty-handed."

As I showed her the mirror of truth, a tear left her eyes. Guilt morphs her expression as I turned my back and walk towards the doors. A checkmate it is.

Abeera walks ahead of me and as I am about to step out of the residence of pain, a hand stopped me. I smiled as I turn to her, hugging her tight. It's been years since I had done this. Oh, I missed her so much.

"You won it at last." She whispered.

"We won it together" I smiled.

"I know Baby," I laughed. She used to call me that all her life.

The memories of two best friends, nearly sixteen springs running through the corridors of the school with Zaheen chasing them came back to my eyes. Those were good days.

Then she handed me a photograph, edges turned yellow, an old photograph. I turned it around and my eyes burn at the memory. And I witness the winds stuck there reliving those moments again. That's a memory of me, Simran and Zaheen.

I do sometimes wonder what went wrong between those two. But Zaheen's one step ruined our years of friendship. I don't remember the last time I talked to Zaheen. He just disappeared from my life. And even I didn't try to contact also. Somewhere between growing up, I lost my so-called best friend. But I don't regret that.

The innocent smiles on our faces scream our happiness. The shines in our eyes speaks a lot more than we do today. The love the friendship the emotion of being carefree with no worries is still prominent in that photo.

The messed up hairs the half-done shirt of Zaheen and the way he's looking at the lens says a lot. Simran speaks a different story, she's busy admiring him, the childish love. Well me, I'm just laughing, must at some lame joke of mine. I hated the uniform but this pic comes out too good. If I can get a chance I am so ready to relive that day again.

I remember the person behind the lens now. It's was him, Armaan. Yes that him, my ex-boyfriend. These memories brought a smile lingering on my lips and tears screaming to fall anytime soon.

But the message behind the pic still stole my heart. It says 'baitha diya falak pe mujhe khaat se uthaa ke',

"I thought you would stay in touch with me, at least I hoped that," I said in a low whisper. She passed me a smile that screams pain, an accusing pain.

"But I understand now it must be difficult with your husband." She nodded,

"It was difficult with my husband." I gulped. So she had made her choices, she had chosen her husband before our friendship. The memory of choosing Simran in place of Armaan came to life as his words rang in my head, 'Today you are choosing a friendship before my love, tomorrow your friend will choose her family before you. For a friendship like yours never survives.' We belonged to different caste and it was bound to happen someday, but still, it pained knowing she had chosen him in place of me.

"I understand, we need to prioritize our relationships. So you have to look after your husband you are bound to." Then she looked at me and smiled again with those dimples visible.

"You are right Khwahish. I need to look after my husband who happens to be in crazily love with you." I gulped.

"The just who calls me Wahish the first time he made love to me." I took a step back. My eyes looked past her to the figure that witnesses us, the man who broke my heart in zillions of pieces and I had done the same with him.

A cold wind passed us whispering the bitter truth in the surround. Simran and Armaan were honour bound. She had lived a life full of compromises and he had lived with guilt, and they don't deserve that. I had pain for years in abundance but they had suffered in hands of dignity. A marriage of convenience, a graveyard they close for their relationship to bloom. They made a house of cards, and they wished to live in it through the storms. I gulped.

"I am..."

"You didn't even know the pain for being guilty. And I wish you never face that. I and Armaan had suffered for our choices, for our silences. That day I could have said a no, but I didn't I was scared. That day he could have chosen to act maturely, he didn't he was so raged." And we all suffered.

A little girl not more than four springs comes running towards me hugging my legs, and I lost my breath. Their daughter.

"Ap Mumma ki friend ho?" She asked, I nodded.

"Mai Wahish hu." And at that moment I lost every ounce of breath left in me.

Their house had crumbled long before and they had rebuilt one with new hopes and happiness. I gulped as my eyes locked with the father of the little girl, who passed me a smile that screams all the pain he had suffered.

"I need to leave now Simran, have a great life ahead." I hugged her.

"I am having one, at least a content for." She smiled a genuine smile.

And with that I walked away from there, from there, from Mallick resident, from my past, only to never look back again.

7.30 PM

I entered through the large gates and passed the green lawn. The breezes sway as the mist covers the lake in front, a mist of grief carried in the breeze of pain.

I sit on my cushioned swing watching the fallen petals of Brogainvellia. The beauty they hold even after being fallen. Sometimes somethings are better lost, they look beautiful from afar.

I closed my eyes as the past hours plays a troll in front of me. The mist is clouding my senses, I need to go back home. Home I shouldn't have left. I kept my eyes closed in a wish to end the pain.

A din of steps was heard and the familiar fragrance of woods mixed with lavender engulfs me. I didn't open my eyes in the fear that it can just be my illusion and he will fade away in thin air as soon as I open my eyes. I feel him sit beside me and then I was engulfed in a hug. I was home again.

"I won Ansh," I whispered, still keeping my eyes shut.

"I know you have, and it's okay to cry for that, for you had won the war but lost a lot more in it too." And then my pool broke, I cried in his arms for my past life my past love.

And he keeps on soothing me, just like I did years ago. My eyes go towards the lake, now the mist had gone and I can see the end of the alley. There stood the man, Mera Pehla Pyar, in his bike going away from there after smiling at me, fading away just like my past. For my first love stayed behind the curtains of pain and I found my home, my solace in the arms of my love, my Ansh.

"I missed you so much." He whispered.

"We missed you too." He smiled then his eyes widen in realization, he shakes his head and I nodded.

"Tell me you are not kidding."

"I am not, you are going to be a father, Love." He screamed in happiness as he twirls me around. The breezes dance along as the sky drizzles in happiness. The spring of love is here, and let it stay with us for eternity.

For I know, first love stays buried and last love stays on the surface with you always.

Kyuki khushiyon ko mera pata malum tha, aur yeh khushiyan maine aur Reyansh ne khud chuni thi.