Sitting on a huge rock by the shore, I stared as the sun departed leaving behind the darkness mixed with a soothing vibe and a beautiful picture. It felt as if that upside-down mirrored image of the sky floating in the water was calling for me. Picking my flats, unknowingly, my feet started moving towards the water. I stopped when I felt the cold water tingling my toes.

It was relaxing in its own way. Finding the perfect spot where the water touched my feet after every few seconds I sat down on the sand holding my legs close to my chest. With my eyes closed as my breathing calmed, my thoughts settled, I lost the track of time. My peace broke as the phone vibrated in my pocket. It was an alarm reminding me that it was ten in the night already and I should go back to the house.

Dismissing the alarm, I shook my head with a small curve on my lips as I saw a picture of us three best friends on my screen, the craziest people you could ever find. Even that picture screamed madness. One of them was making a "V" sign covering her face, just eyes visible, one was pouting to the extent that she looked like a duck and I was the one clicking the selfie and my expressions were clear enough to show I was so done with both of them. However, I love them with my whole heart.

My chain of thoughts broke again as my phone rang. Picking up the call, I took my sandals with another hand, and started walking back home, which was just a five-minute walk from the beach. All I heard on the call was them shouting over something. Shaking my head for the nth time today, I cut the call and sped towards home.

We live in India but actually came to Thailand to have a relaxing vacation from work. By "we", I meant my two best friends and me. As I got closer to the house, a frown settled on my face as I saw media and some overhyped girls around the corner of the street of the beach house I was living in. Ignoring them I made my way to my house, unlocking it I sensed something weird. It was quiet and this made me worried sick because those two girls who were shouting in my ear 2 minutes back were all quiet which is rare.

I shouted out their name "Jainu? Sach?" and started walking towards the living room. "Oh, here you guys are. I was calling you out." Both of my best friends have the same name, Isha, one is Isha Jain and the other is Isha Sachdeva. But this never created a mess or problem between us. I was more close to Jain but Sachdeva held her own importance in our group.

None of them responded but I was sure that I saw them gulp.

"What did you guys do?" I said sitting in front of them. Suddenly both of them came and sat by my side and started blabbering from which I only got "It was unexpected", "We promise it was not intentional". I was starting to get frustrated when I saw him coming out of the washroom.

I do not know what happened but it just came as a reflex and pushing them I stood up glaring at him. Anger and sadness both of the emotions making their way together in my mind. It was a mess. I turned my back towards him, not being able to look at him anymore without bursting out into angry tears. I tried controlling myself, grinding my teeth together, and then looked at my friends.

"What is he doing here?"

They spoke as if they had prepared for this already. One sentence each. "We don't know to be honest."

"We just heard a lot of noise from outside so we went outside to see what was happening"

"It is when we saw him; he was mobbed by media and fans"

"We were about to go inside when he saw us"

"And the next thing, he was in here saving himself from the mob outside."

After finishing, they both looked down.

I was angry. I was angry at them for letting him in, I was angry at him for leaving me without even explaining anything. I turned around, gathering courage to face him. He broke our promise and my trust but even then, he had the guts to stand in front of me. "You mean nothing to me," I said, repeating the last line he said to me before he disappeared from my life. He looked up in my eyes. His eyes were glossy, telling me that he was hurting too.

Tears were sitting at the edge of my eyes making everything blurry and were ready to flow. It hurt to see him. I gave him a disappointed look and went back to my room. As soon as I entered the room, I could not control it. Sobs and tears made their way. Not being able to stand anymore I slid down against the bedside.

One moment I was at peace, smiling, and other, I was a crying mess. I don't remember when I started thinking all about it. It had been 5 years. We were actually happy together. He was improving his singing skills day-by-day. He was down to earth and kind to everyone even after he was quite famous on Youtube and had won a reality show. His honesty and loyalty made me love him even more.

A company signed him in. It all started after that, he started ignoring my calls and texts. I thought he might be busy so I decided to surprise him by going to his studio. I thought he would be happy to see me but it went all wrong. He ignored me as if he did not even know me. It felt as if someone was hitting me continuously right in my chest. I gathered up the courage to go and stand in front of him. We fought. I cried and he said things without even a bit of hesitation as if he meant to say those things for a long time. It felt so easy for him to say everything, I could feel his shoulders loosening as if he was releasing his burden, "You mean nothing to me. Do not be clingy, please. You were just another friend I left." he ended with the blank face that he was carrying throughout the whole conversation. It was the moment I felt the last sting in my heart and my tears stopped. A cold shiver ran through my body, it was as if someone was laughing at me pointing at my face when there was no one else in the studio apart from us.

I ran from there.

After a few days, I heard the news of him leaving the company because they were trying to overpower and control him. I couldn't gather courage to text or call him even if he was forced to cut off ties with me. He could have and should have fought for us but he did not. He didn't text or call either, and I was glad because I was not ready for him to come back. Now after 5 years he was here standing face-to-face and but it still hurt the same.

I stared at the clock; it was three in the morning and all dark outside, I needed coffee. I was a bit calm after all the crying. Dragging my feet to the kitchen, I made myself some coffee, and decided to sit by the window that had a beach view hoping it would relax me as it did before. It had been just five or more minutes I felt his presence behind me. Not seeing any reaction he decided to sit beside me with a cup in his hands. I could feel his hesitation.

Everything was so silent that the sound of waves and wind could be heard properly.

"I am sorry!" he broke the silence making me look at him and his eyes were already looking into mine. "I really am sorry. I know that I should not have said what I said to you that day. Trust me, I regret every word of it. You mean so much to me. You know why I did that and I know this just sounds like an excuse and me trying to blame them for what I did, and I know I should have fought for you not with you but I was scared. Scared to lose everything. I was being selfish, I didn't think about anyone else or their feelings. I don't expect you to forgive me but I want to have a new start and I want you to be with me, of course, if you wish the same. But always know that you were, are, and will be important to me." I couldn't stop myself from looking into his eyes while he spoke and his eyes proved that he was not lying. But I couldn't get myself to trust him again so easily. I needed time.

"I am going back to India tomorrow. I will leave in the morning so when you guys wake up you won't see me here. Say bye from my side to both of them please and yes, do tell me whatever you decide. I'll wait for you." He added with a small smile and left, leaving me in deep thinking.

I spent my whole day sleeping and it was already six in the evening when I woke up. I guess it was because of all the crying and thinking yesterday that left me with stress. This was supposed to be a relaxing vacation with my friends but everything messed up while coming to an end. He wasn't supposed to show up here like this, hell he was not supposed to show up anywhere near me.

Constant whispering noises brought me out of my thoughts and I could feel eyes on me. Looking at the door I saw both of my friends' peeping inside the room. One look at them, they took it as a signal and entered the room with a grin on their face. I was about to tell them how stupid they looked but they both decided to jump on my bed. Just a few hits and pushes and we ended up laughing together.

Our last days flew by fast and it was already the last night of our vacation. We had a flight at noon the day after so we decided to have a bonfire and spend some time sitting and talking. We did talk and spend these days together but we thought we just needed some time to process our thoughts and share.

We were just sharing all our past moments and embarrassing memories and laughing at them. "Do you guys remember how we fought in school?" I added. Both of them nodded giggling.

"Yes, our major fight was when we didn't talk for about 2 months in 11th grade," Jain said. "And even after that we had small fights here and there but it was our trust and bond that never broke and kept us together," she added.

"You know I felt really happy when we guys sorted out everything before I left for Pune," Sachdeva added smiling.

All these moments are alive and I hope they stay alive forever. There were many difficulties in our friendship and I know there will be more but I wish we work through them without fighting and get back with each other always.

"Hey, um I want to ask you something..." Isha asked.

I just hummed.

"Will you ever forgive him? I feel he was not lying that night."

I looked up at her raising my brows. Jain quickly added, "NO, NO, We were not spying on you or something... we were just worried about you so when we saw you sitting by the window we were about to join you but he beat us to it. We thought of joining you guys then he started talking so we felt you guys should talk but we stayed in case he ends up hurting you again and that's how everything happened." I nodded.

Looking up at the sky I added, "I forgave him long back, I just haven't told him yet. I believe everyone deserves a second chance." As soon as I finished and gave them a small smile, they both started grinning. Sachdeva looked like an evil cat and I badly wanted to tell her that but then decided against it.

"And dare you guys say anything to him. I will talk to him after we get back to India." I added in a playful-glaring manner. Both of them made an action as if they zipped their mouth.

Just with this, we three started laughing and remembering more of our old, gold memories.

Sometimes, time and friends are all that you need to make everything right.