A Breakup Triangle

One of my close friends, Rajesh, recently had to break up with his girlfriend, and, in an extraordinary way, it affected my love life.

Rajesh and I were childhood friends, entering and exiting our rebellious teenage years together, and were similarly placed in the threshold of adulthood when the most singular incident happened.

Rajesh was typical in the sense that he was overtly romantic, sentimental, and at the same time practical and a bit shrewd; this mixture, as the readers will agree, is rare among men. He was not traditionally handsome, but with slightly curly hair, beautiful eyes and with two cute dimples when he smiled, he looked attractive.

However, the most amazing ability he possessed, at least quite recently, was that he never took the first initiative of ending a bad relationship. He would hang in there until the relation runs its natural course to death. Systematically ignoring and strategically upsetting little by little, he once said was the secret to make the girl break up with him in an unwanted relationship.

Recently, these tactics were being practiced on a girl named Jeny. She had a charming face, her dark eyes brought with it all the romantic promises of distant dreams, her brown skin radiated like honey shining under the caressing rays of the sun, and her slender body could make any man’s heart go wild with a desire of unknown passions. She was my secret crush in the school, and I liked her tremendously even when my friend was ignoring her and not returning her calls most of the time. For Rajesh, somehow, she was not exquisite enough, and he was seeing another girl already.

Knowing my friend, I confessed my love for Jeny to Rajesh, although I was reluctant at first. He seemed to look cool and gave me a go ahead, saying, “ I am glad, my friend. She is deep and philosophical like you, you know, not my type. As much as you are concerned, you have my best wishes to go for her.”

As Jeny didn’t know that I and Rajesh were friends and that I knew her relationship status, it was not awkward for me to ask her for a date, to which she agreed after some persuasion. The first date led into another, and such meetings followed in the backdrop of my blossoming love for her. I was confirmed of her love for me when she returned my ‘I love you’ with ‘I love you too’.

I said this to Rajesh, perhaps a little boastfully, to which he seemed a little confused, amazed and turned silent not for long until he changed the subject himself. His reaction hurt me a little, but I forgave him immediately thinking I would have done the same. But this was not the reason for his reaction, was something I knew latter.

…………

It must have been three to four weeks after the incident when I visited his hostel. He was out, so he told me to wait there over the phone. This is when I found his diary under his pillow. I turned the diary, and found the following, which was written two days before:

“It was too much for me to bear the girl, Jeny. She has the audacity to call me for a date while she is in a relationship with my best friend. I did what I had been avoiding all my life. I had to break up with her. That was easy. I went to meet her and greeted her with ‘I love you’, to which she replied, ” I love you too”. And just then I said, “ this is what you told my best friend too”, and I simply walked away from there.

At last, I could get rid of the girl. No disturbing calls and late night sleepless talks, I hope from now on.”

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