The phoenix was born from ashes the day Raji and Nitesh saw each other in the college classroom for the first time and immediately took a liking to each other. They were so different that people could not understand the reason that made them best of friends and that they both would share almost everything with each other. The first thing she saw about him was his nice cute face and a different persona who genuinely looked decent but a typical MCP who would dominate her for just being a girl. He saw her as a hot and sexy girl, an extremely shallow impression of hers. His outlook for her was that she could be the perfect girlfriend he had wanted for himself.
God only knows how they became inseparable friends. They would be huddled, heads down everywhere and had a world of their own that made everyone around them jealous. As soon as he started to learn her, he found her more in being rather than just her external appearance. He found her to be the perfect partner one can ask for. She was an amazing person with the rare combo of beauty with intelligence. She was caring, smart, soft hearted and of the things she could cook. She found him to be dominating and powerful, what she had always wanted in her man to be. He could take care of her at the same time could protect her. But something very essential was amiss from their relation.
They never stayed aloof from the rest but even when they were around others, their sense of communication would be their eye contact and nothing else. They never felt it necessary to let others know of what they were thinking and planning. The never present and omnipresent communication made them all the more invincible to the attacks from other friends. People never could understand the kind of relation they shared.
That fateful day came when Raji had to meet a family for marriage. It came as a shock to both of them. They had just finished their college and had big plans for their future. She realized that she loved Nitesh and she could not imagine her life beyond him. She had not seen them separate after three years such a close relationship. They had never confessed their love to each other but all knew it was there. Raji confronted Nitesh with her feelings and another bomb dropped. Nitesh loved her too but he would not marry her, “could not” that’s what he said.
She was heartbroken. She could not understand where she stood as the hindrance in Nitesh’s future plans of becoming someone big. He considered her to be his strength, his pillar of support and someone he could look up to in a lot many aspects. He could not let her go, but she had to now as he didn’t have any reason to hold her back.
Raji was going, and he felt miserable every minute of his life thinking about that. He noticed that Raji had started to be a little reserved in his presence and that they had lost their key communication. He had to say things for Raji to hear, which made him flare up at every small piece of talk they had. Nitesh felt Raji going away from him. He would still not let his authority loose on her. He would bash everyone up whoever, he felt, made his advances towards her. She could not understand this behavior of his as it made her scared to talk to him anymore.
Just another day, another piece of conversation - and she supported another guy, Aseem, in there as he made better sense. Nitesh got so angry that he called her names publicly and said that she was a back-stabber. Raji could not contain herself when Nitesh called her names as she could not figure out a reason for that. She asked, but all she got was anger, hatred and nasty sarcasm from him. She tried to reason but they fell on deaf ears.
It was all a part of the joke being carried forward from one person to the other. Why was it so difficult to understand? One person got fired earlier and now it’s her turn because she supported someone else. Nitesh didn’t know about Aseem and his presence in Raji’s life that why he blasted her using offensive words, which were unbearable for any (would-be) husband. Aseem was protecting Raji, and so was Raji.
This was the first time that Raji lost her cool too. She yelled back that he had lost his right to run her life and he was no one to comment on her preferences and she again supported Aseem. She said that she is getting married to him and he is the one she will always support for the rest of her life. She had felt that it was her fault that led to end of their relationship. She could not fight for Nitesh this time as she had to stand opposite and defend Aseem who was more important.
How can love get nasty? Why can’t it just be contained as a good feeling? She lost Nitesh, forever, when she wanted to hold him but he was unworthy of the effort. She would not. Aseem felt her pain and stepped forward to apologize to Nitesh, but she could not let her fiancé down in front of her friend. She fought for him after all. She had to choose and she chose Aseem.
Raji was in pain but she realized that if Nitesh was unable to understand her stand and would desert her just because she defended her fiancé then he was not worth being a friend. She felt emotionally drained and thought that all of the last three years with Nitesh were a waste of her feelings. She chose now to burn their relation and feelings down at her own will. She knew she will never be able to respect Nitesh for what he had done to her and that Phoenix’s are imaginary.
