Sundays had rebelled from being an epitome of togetherness. The thought of spending a Sunday alone dreaded Javed so much that even on Saturdays, which were half days at work for him, he would sit in his office till six, waiting for Roohneet to finish her work and meet him up on her way back to her home.

They were together from more than two years, and yet they were continuously discovering each other’s angels and devils. The relationship had had its share of howls and grunts to make them habitual of each other’s ability of loving and hurting each other at times.

Roohneet, belonging to a Sikh family, fell for a Muslim guy who was the only Muslim guy she knew who spoke against Islam and other religions openly. Javed’s fearlessness about sharing his thoughts had been unmistakably attractive for her.

Javed, a skeptic Muslim, adored Roohneet for her flamboyance and for the independence she gave him over everything.

They met, they liked each other and soon enough, they found themselves wrapped in the warm pink quilt of love. But, too much warm becomes uncomfortable at times.

The main problem among them was the distance of any sort. Whenever Roohneet kept Javed at a distance, the devil in him overpowered his senses. They fought like enemies over the issues that friends often ignore without even discussing.

She had felt the power of his palm on her cheek once, he had been woman-handled as well. They made it a point to shout and abuse each other during every argument, big or small. Both of them made sure it remained equal among them, in every sense.

As we take the Sun for granted, both Roohneet and Javed took each other’s love for granted. And one day, the volcano erupted, again. Few moments of pointing fingers, frowned eyebrows, glaring eyes and wide open mouths resulted in a silent Saturday.

On Sunday, though things were meant to calm down, Javed had other plans.

~~~~~

Minute 1

‘Do you want to make things right or not?’ Roohneet asked Javed over the phone.

‘No’, Javed replied bluntly.

‘Why not?’

‘Because I don’t want to! It’s been limits. You want to end it this time, go ahead and end it then. I don’t give a damn.’

The next moment, all hell broke loose when Roohneet lost control over herself and started shouting like crazies, ‘You third grade person! How dare you show such attitude to me? I am fucking trying to make things right and you don’t give a damn? Why? What the hell are you so egoistic about? You don’t want to set things right? Fine! I curse you for the rest of your life! I curse you Javed! I’ve wasted two years of my life with you! You self-frustrated person! No matter how much I try, you will remain a third grade person all your life!’

The pitch rose further higher as she said, ‘Listen to me! You don’t dare to contact me! Delete my photos! Keep them! Do whatever! Do not dare to contact me! If you dared, I will sue you and make your life hell! This relationship is over from my side! Get lost!’

The three beeps of disconnection of the phone call made Javed exhale a deep breath he was holding since she started speaking. Expressionless, he looked into the void, dropping the phone by his side. His fingers ran through his ruffled hair and went on to grab the pillow. He turned slowly and dug his head into the pillow. A suppressed growl rose from the depths of his heart and then all became silent.

~~~~~

Minute 60

The tossing and turning continued like an infant. His thoughts travelled from the day when they shared their first kiss to the day he slapped her for the first time. He came out of the room and looked at the cloudy sky. A lone cloud flew in the sky, changing shapes as it went. Javed felt like that lone cloud. He yearned to jump towards the cloud to ride towards the feeling associated with the word alone once again. At the very first hint of sadness creeping inside him, he began to think of how to spend the rest of the day.

Why waste a good day? Let’s go watch a movie.

He began to get fresh and by the moment he brushed he felt that he would be cheating on her if he went to movie alone.

He picked up his phone once again and typed a quick text to Roohneet, not of the apology, but of asking her to go movie with him. But, instead of sending the text, he discarded the draft. He decided to read and finish the book that was waiting to be finished.

~~~~~

Minute 90

His pupils were focussed at the center of the fan that was hung at the tin roof to suck heat from the sun and blow it all at him. I have been taking a lot of heat since morning anyway, he thought. To make the heat bearable, he decided to take a shower.

The tap water was boiling hot as well. He had to wait for a while to allow the pipe to cool down with the flow of cold water through it.

Time heals everything, he thought as he poured the first mug of water on his head.

~~~~~

Minute 120

Unable to decide what fruits to buy, he didn’t buy any. He walked into a super market instead and began to fill his basket with snacks, biscuits and juices. He had read somewhere that going to shopping after a break up keeps emotions under check.

At the counter, while checking out, it began to rain. His heartbeat rose in anticipation that Roohneet must be getting highly emotional as she loved to get drenched in the rain and probably today she was too sad to enjoy it. But, then he was reminded of her hurtful towards him in the morning.

She deserves to be sad. She chose it.

~~~~~

Minute 180

A sudden rush of excitement passed through his body when his phone beeped with a text message notification. The message was from Roohneet. Send someone to collect your books.

With an expressionless face, he replied back. Don’t need them.

~~~~~

Minute 240

She hadn’t replied to his text. The picture of his books being thrown out or burned in anger loomed before his eyes. He had lost the remaining bit of hope he had clung to after he received no reply from her for an hour. To divert his mind from constantly thinking about her, he began to clean his room. While cleaning, he came across the photo-frame that she had given him.

Why should I keep it? Why should I keep any of it?

He hurriedly began to look for her stuff and started centralizing it at his mattress. There was a small polythene bag full of drawing paper cuttings with hundreds of quotations written on them. Once upon a time, he had pasted those quotations on the wall of his bedroom to remind himself of the fact that how special she considered him in his life. He thought of burning them away. Soon, he found himself on a treasure hunt. His almirah was full with stuff gifted by her. His phone was full with her pictures, emails and texts. His email accounts were full with notifications of her entire social activity. His cloud storage was full with pictures and chat uploads as well.

She was literally a part of his life and she had decided to end it today. It was waiting to happen anyhow. The bundle of energy had been long lost. Over the last few weeks, it was just about feeding their respective egos by pointing out faults in each other. None of them thought about the faults they were committing while forcing the correctness which was in no way healthy for either of them.

He kept all the physical stuff on his mattress and copied all the digital stuff in one folder on his laptop’s desktop. All they had shared over the last two years was going to be a history soon.

So, it ends.

~~~~~

Minute 300

It was a fresh start for Javed. While cleaning the room, he had decided to ask her once about the stuff he has of hers. May be she needed some the way he realized that he needed his books too.

I can donate the books to a worthy reader. She has been keeping the books with her from over a year and how many has she read? Not one! She said she wasted two years? I wasted so much time, money and energy on her. I should take back my books in return.

While searching for the courage to text her about the book, his gaze fell on the scotch bottle he had been saving to drink with Roohneet.

Hell!

Alcohol is a magical liquid which contains the power to double your happiness and half your sorrow, or vice versa, at times.

He opened the bottle and sipped a little. It was hot, it was sour. He had not used water or soda in a long time but he had always used ice. Today, he had none. He somehow gulped down the sip. After a brief moment, he took another sip and it began to feel better.

Time heals everything.

~~~~~

Minute 360

He was continuously avoiding the phone call of a friend from last half hour. Scotch had already started working on him. He ignored the call again and opened Facebook. Inspite of continuously forcing himself to not think about Roohneet, he opened her Facebook profile. To his sudden surprise, he didn’t find it.

Deactivated. Drama queen.

He logged into his twitter and saw that she had already unfollowed him. Moreover, she had deleted her whatsapp account as well. She was pushing him out of her life. She was totally done with him.

~~~~~

Minute 420

The alcohol was making him sleepy and dizzy. He was playing 2048 when he received a call from Roohneet. He saw the number and a faint smile appeared on his face, for he knew why she was calling.

~~~~~

For the record, they are still together, till the time they fight again.