Almost Yours !

She heard it in the most causal way,

while passing the food around.

Someone said - 

who said, maybe her mother or

her sister,

but in that moment nothing mattered,

all that mattered was what was said.

"He got engaged"

Suddenly she was not hungry but

she still kept her head down and ate.

A strange stillness wrapped around her,

as if her heart has stopped,

the room has paused but

the world outside kept moving.

It had been months since the hope had died in slow pieces,

but hearing this now,

it was like someone had come to bury what little was left.

She thought of the several times she has seen him -

in social gatherings, in photos, at her Nana's house (mom's dad).

She always knew, 

even when she was little,

that her heart felt different when he was around.

Liking someone from afar for so many years,

god! its so frustrating,

So one day,

She gathered all her courage and,

she can never forget that day.

It was when he came to her Nana's house,

she and her mother were also there.

He had come for some work with her Nana -

tall, confident, the kind of presence that made people straighten up.

In the hall - 

where he, his dad and her Nana were engrossed in some conversation.

She was standing away from the sight of her Nana and his dad,

but she was in the sight of the guy,

they caught each other's sight,

in that moment everything around her slowed down,

it was just she and him,

and she said something -

not a confessing,

not even words,

but enough for him to look up sharply,

his eyes widening in surprise.

That moment only lived with them.

No one else knew.

She made this brave move only because

she had recently got to know that

his engagement was broken,

and that hope she always had ignited again.

She had also been engaged to someone else

who she never met.

It was normal in their families

to get engaged early 

according to their family authority.

Still, when she got to know that

he had broken off his own engagement,

her heart had lit up with hope.

Maybe now, maybe there was a chance.

Her family liked him,

even respected him.

Her Nana and his father had been best friends for decades.

Surely, surely, it could work.

And when her mother got to know that

her daughters heart was somewhere else,

she tried her best make it happen but

when the idea reached his family,

it was dismissed. 

no drama, no reason - 

just a quiet, polite no.

Now, she sat with the knowledge that

he belonged to someone else.

Today she sat with nothing but

silence in her heart and 

the faint memory of the bold move she pulled off.

Maybe someday she would move on,

be happily married to someone else,

in peace.

But she knew she would never forget him.

She would always carry the love for him with her.

Life would go on and so would she,

learning each day how to live without what she once dreamed of. 

inspired by - true events