Sun and Sea: It's All True, I Love You!
Narrator: Rohit
We were now a couple and were together for more than a year. I had started college to get my Bachelor's degree in Economics and Anu was in his 12th standard, a model student, always first in class. I never told anyone but in the town of that size they knew, two good looking boys always together was not a difficult equation to solve. Anu kept to himself so no one asked him about us but I was questioned repeatedly and I didn't accept or deny it. I was in love with this idiot, the happiest in my life and proud to be with him. If I denied the rumour of being in love they would have thought I was doing drugs because the way I acted now, like I was high all the time. I was better at everything and constantly elated. I would bounce on my feet till I met him after he was done at school and then were together every minute till I dropped him home. It started with me waiting to pick him up on a corner road first but in the time we were together, I changed my parking spot slowly and finally at the gate of his school and he progressed from greeting me with a nod to a hug and lasting a few seconds more each time.
His parents knew but ignored it and we were constantly at my place, gym or Café Noor. Anu had started singing at Café Noor but his songs were heartfelt and his own, the café got extremely popular for indie music and Open Mic, with other artists showcasing their talents solo or collaborating with him. I would just work there behind the beverage counter and beam at him with pride and love. This idiot here made me crazy and sane at the same time.
I had gone to pick Anu to celebrate his 18th Birthday eve and was standing at the entrance of the cafe looking at Anu, finishing a Hindi song "All you need is that person to fall in love." and he looked at me. It may have been a coincidence but I wanted to shout out across the room to him, "You are that person Anu and I LOVE YOU!" But I had promised him so I just stood there staring and when he smiled at me, I stared some more with a big smile plastered on me like a complete idiot in love.
Bhumi stopped me on my way to the kitchen of the cafe, "Rohit! I know you and Anu are together and he tells me and the news is you have come out to everyone important to you, but you know our family right! Anu may not be able to do it till he gets out of our home." She looked expectantly towards me, wanting to know my intentions and future of her twin brother and best friend.
People started talking about me as I came out to everyone who asked but did not exclusively divulge the name of my boyfriend. I smiled at her itching to say it aloud to someone for sometime now, I had the response rehearsed in my head for so long.
"Bhumi, I love that mess sitting there and staring at us right now wondering if we are talking about him. I know now more than ever after spending so much time with him, I have loved him from the first time I saw him at your restaurant on that chair under that light and I will love him till he wants me to and then will love him without telling him. We are in this forever and I will do whatever it takes and stalk him wherever he goes to be with him. That guy there, your brother is my soulmate."
We celebrated his 18th Birthday, just the two of us in my car with a muffin and one candle but I have never seen Anu so happy. "This is my best birthday ever, so much better than the way we were treated at my 17th birthday by my parents at my place last year. I shouldn't have called you." He said this a hundredth time in the past 12 months as he opened the gifts I had bought for him. I smiled and kissed him, sharing a bit of the muffin with him, "You know I will happily do it again, I was not going to leave you alone in your room on your birthday anyways and ever. And next year we are having a real birthday party and you have no say in it. On your 18th, I want you only for me but on the 19th, we share it with everyone."
He looked down, his hair falling on his face. "You know I topped my class again." He tried changing the subject and turned around to keep the gifts in the back seat. "I want to do something special on your birthday." I insisted. "I am special!" He blushed and smiled, touching my face softly. "Shit! See you can make me do anything you want, with words and a look. You are dangerous to me!" I kissed him, keeping the muffin on the dashboard and moving on top of him on the passenger seat, hurting my back and scraping my arm.
"Fuck RK! You are crushing me, you fucking tree!" Anu started giggling as he pushed me away, I pressed my weight on him more and kept kissing his face as he moved it away. "We need a bigger car!" He was now laughing heartily.
I quickly opened the driver's side door, got out and opened the passenger door and picked Anu out of the car, making him giggle even more. "You know how emasculating this is? Being picked up from the car, off my feet by a man!" but he weaved his hands around my neck and kissed my cheek and neck. "We do it in the wild today." I was laughing with him but was extremely turned on by a happy Anu.
"I swear, If I get bitten by any creepy crawlies in there, I will break off with you and become a monk." he laughed. "I have arranged for a room there,Cutie!, I am not putting my most precious thing on the ground." I kissed him and put him on his feet, held his hand and guided him to my friend's farm house I had arranged for the night.
"How many psychopaths do you know? Looks like everyone in your circle owns a murder cabin." He wondered but followed me. "You tell everyone we are together and I will not have to find such places." I said it with a smile but meant every word.
"I will baby, give me time and I will say it to the world that you are mine." He promised.
I got up to keep the cups in the kitchen as Anu recounted some of our fun time together, like when we are playing WWE moves and I was giving Anu a chokeslam when Pa walked in and thought I was hitting him. Pa started hitting me with his slipper almost immediately and chasing me around the house till Anu stopped him, laughing hysterically which Pa joined and I pouted at them all night.
Some things you don't talk about but these episodes live in your memory vividly forever. For me it is the first time I saw Anu, our first kiss, the day he came to see me after us loosing our virginity together and our first almost breakoff.
Around Diwali time, a couple of months before our 2nd anniversary, Pa and I had to go to Amritsar for a week for a family gathering. This was before FaceTime and unlimited minutes. The first couple of days were fun, meeting my cousins and seeing the place and trying the local food. I and Anu talked on the phone at night but not as much as I wanted to, since he had to use the public phone. I told him about my time in Amritsar and he constantly spoke about cricket practice and the team.
On the third day, I got restless and lonely without Anu and that night we didn't speak much as he was tired from practice and wanted to sleep. On the fourth morning I woke up sad and irritable, constantly thinking about Anu and missing him. By the weekend I was angry, angry at me for coming here for so long without him and at Anu for letting me go.
I was also experiencing a new nasty feeling, as Anu spoke about his teammates, especially Ravi, a career guy. His parents were doctors and he was studying to go to the UK for medical college, so basically he was a nice looking rich boy who was way smarter than me. The feeling of jealousy was new for me and completely unpleasant, by the end of the trip, I was not much of a company for anyone including myself.
I dropped Pa and left the luggage at the door and drove back to look for Anu. Bhumi picked up the call at the restaurant and told me he was at the school grounds for practice. I reached there but couldn't get in without my ID. I walked around to the public gate of the school cricket ground and saw it was only Ravi and Anu practising on the pitch. Anu was bowling in different styles and Ravi was batting them. They were laughing and Ravi would run to Anu after every ball. Laughing and talking, coming very close to him.
When he suddenly hugged Anu, I saw red, "This is it, I will kill this motherfucker!" I muttered and shouted, "ANU!" He looked around and spotted me, Ravi instantly moving a foot away from him. Anu dropped the ball and ran to me without looking back, smiling ear to ear, but my eyes were fixed on Ravi.
As Anu reached me, I hugged him to me, a little longer and more intimately than we used to because of his fear of getting in trouble with his parents, "You done?" I asked without looking at him, jealousy and anger now mixed into something vile and moving around my head. He turned around and waved at Ravi and got in the car. I sneered at Ravi and got in.
"How was the trip? What did you get for me? Was it cold? It has been crazy cold here for the last two days." Anu started talking as he laced his fingers into mine over the gear stick.
