This is a short chapter dedicated to my friend Rumi who dared me to write a sad romance that everyone would relate to, without using any dialogues. Hope I have made some justice to it. Let me know how you guys think about this.

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He was taken aback when she hugged him. I could see him glace at me when she pulled him in and circled her hands around his neck, pressing herself for a warm embrace. Though his hands stilled at the sides for a second, he then wrapped her with both of his arms. It was not as tight as he usually held me when I asked him of a hug, but I couldn't help feel uneasy at the sight in front of me. My stomach at that very instance knotted together, painfully twisting itself into the tangles of pure unadulterated jealousy.

Even after all these times, she still had an effect on him, taking him by surprise with her every move. I could tell it was awkward for both the parties and when he smiled after pulling away, I had to look away in fear that my insecurities would be spilt out on the corner street if I wasn't careful.

He saw me casting my eyes towards the dirt on the road rather than putting all my attention to the conversation they held. How could I? She was once his everything and she had hinted me that she was jealous of my intimacy with him. I still believed that she had some kind of a claim towards him. And a part of her still liked him.

Besides, she was perfect.

With long dark silky hair and an apple shaped face, she was as lean as him not gaining a pound even if she hogged down two hamburgers in a row. She was confident, independent and witty all at the same time. It was obvious that any guy with a sane mind would fall for her even without her trying. And so had he.

But she was the one who had pushed him away. Used him when he was required. Asked for help when she wanted and then finally said that she had had enough. But him? He would go back to her in a matter of seconds if she would have him. And when she didn't, he turned towards me as a consolation prize.

We were three sides of a triangle, always clinging onto each other making sure that none of us fell. If I could be honest, it was actually a trapezoidal triangle, with him having the lengthiest side and me having shortest.

I guess I had fallen for him way before I could realize. If she was perfect, then he was with perfect flaws. His curly hair was never kept properly. His teeth were crooked and across his face, there was a doctor's stitch which he often said that he had gotten that fighting off a wild bear when in reality it was a motorcycle accident.

All his flaws were redundant when it came to his heart. It was as pure as gold. He would stand next to you, holding your hand even if you had plucked his heart out and thrown it to the gutter. He would never hurt a soul and would absorb all the pain if that meant his loved one would smile at him. And his mind? It ran faster than his long legs and often, he was found catching his breath to steady his mind.

I loved him. In more ways than one.

He was the support system I could have ever asked for. He had the perfect set of words when I sulked in the gloomy dark with no one to cling to. He knew how to turn my sour moods into the ones where I cried of happiness. He made me feel important and noticed even when I had doubts of my own.

While I secretly admired him from afar, he was falling for her with her every laugh. Our triangle seemed to become more isosceles with me holding them far from each other. Their attraction was too strong that it made me smaller at every passing minute.

Eventually, I had to get out of the picture. The triangle was now just a line with them overlapping onto each other at their every breath. I had cried and cursed, with no one to listen to my sorrows. Suddenly, I was all alone with no words to keep me grounded.

But when I heard them breaking up, a tiny ray of hope had made its way towards me, igniting my senses with the new opportunities thrown my way. I wanted to welcome it with both hands.

When she had used and thrown him away like a tissue, I had picked him up using the same consoling words he had once used on me to keep me smiling. It had helped. Unlike before, we were talking and laughing like nothing had pushed us away. We had made our own paradise in the midst of the chaos we were in.

At least, I was content until she came back with greater force than I had ever anticipated. Somewhere someone had mentioned how he had moved on and found happiness for himself far away from her. She had planted roots of misguided enmity in me towards him. It was silly, really. But I had taken it to heart, nurtured it like my own and harvested it before I could think.

When I gave him the silent treatment, it was her turn to sweep him clean of me. And she had. Every last bit of my memory was wiped off as if I were just a mere dream. Fragments of imagination that he had imbibed when she wasn't around, were erased. And the worst part was seeing him walk towards her like a wasted zombie in spite of the things she had done to him.

How could he walk towards the same girl who had broken him beyond repair? How could he forget all our blissful moments and crawl back to her? How could he ignore me and stand on her side, making me the culprit of taking advantage of him when he was at his lowest?

Things didn't make sense until I was spiraling into a bottomless dark depression, gravitating towards my own doom. I was the homewrecker scaring away people who came to me. This time around, I was the one who was used and cast away.

I made myself scarce, keeping everything to myself to see the guy I loved to be happy. Even if it took my blood and tears all over again, I wouldn't hesitate to redo everything I had already done.

That day, he had walked back home to me with bloodshot eyes and paler skin. It was over. Between him and her. She had thrown him away with no reason to pin-point to. His everything was nothing to her. As she trampled over his heart just to see if he kept a smiling face, he had walked away, not turning back.

And he had walked away towards me. To stitch him up from the scratch and make him breath with ease.

I was just a consolation prize he had gotten.

I knew I couldn't play their tennis with my heart at stake. I knew I couldn't risk myself getting into the hollow over again for the same man who had walked out on me seeing her smile. I knew I couldn't let him treat me like a nurse to heal his wounds.

But with him pleading me, begging me to help him... how could I ever have said no?

I loved him. In more ways than one.

He was mine, at least for now and I knew if my heart wanted to smile again, this was the moment. If I didn't steal it, I would never be able to cling to the light that was shining through a small window of my own prison. Without second thought, I had accepted him.

I told him I loved him. Told him that I wanted him more than he could want me. But I never got a response that was mutual. He only hugged me back and kissed the life out of me, hoping that his actions would deliver the words that his voice couldn't.

His arms always wrapped around me as he hugged, pressing me to him muttering words of solace, holding me tight with a silent promise of never letting go. His kisses melted away the sane part of me that often reminded that my time was only till he was around. That he could turn my back any time he wanted, and I would still have no power over him to make him stay.

For now, I enjoyed those moments where my heart warned me that it would burst out of happiness and my legs gave up as my knees turned weak.

Now, looking at the two of them smile at each other after everything we had gone through stuck my heart like a lightning bolt. It was everything I had dreaded. I was yet again an option who could be discarded when the main person entered the room.

My eyes brimmed with unshed tears anticipating his next move which was pretty predictable from where I stood. Her hands in his, it would be a miracle if they even remembered to recognize I was there with them to observe their rendezvous.

I took a step back. I had been here in the same shoes and in the same situations more times than I could count. I couldn't stay behind just to witness him choosing her over me again. To let me go when he had found her.

But before I could walk away, a hand clung to my wrist. Though the grip was strong, the gentleness in them was too difficult to miss. My eyes snapped immediately to the owner only to see him shake his head at me. The pain it bore was just a reflection of what I had gone through. A drop of tear rolled down my eyes before I had the chance to wipe it away.

Letting go of her hand, he turned towards me, wiping the stray tear away as he pulled me into a bone crushing hug that we always shared. His soft kiss to my forehead was all the assurance that I needed at the moment. It was his way of letting me know that it had been me all along. And I accepted it without a doubt.

What's love without a blinded trust? And this time around, I had decided to trust him. Because deep down, no matter how many times we messed up, I knew the real reason for sticking with him.

Because I loved him. In more ways than one.