Until One of Us Leaves ❤️

My name is Shalini.

I was twenty when all of this started.

A first-year college student who, from the outside, probably looked like any other girl—going to college, attending classes, worrying about exams and assignments.

But inside, I was somewhere else entirely.

There comes a phase in everyone's life when you don't really want to do anything. You don't want to study. You don't want to talk. You don't even know what you're doing with your own life.

I was in that phase.

I wasn't in the right state of mind to study, and slowly, college became something I started avoiding.

I began bunking classes.

Instead of sitting in a classroom, I would spend hours in the library, pretending to study while actually watching series, scrolling through random things, or simply wasting time.

One day, while doing exactly that, I found an online site where strangers could meet and talk.

I don't know what made me join.

Maybe curiosity.

Maybe loneliness.

Maybe I just wanted to talk to someone who knew absolutely nothing about me.

So I started talking to strangers.

That's where I met him.

He was somewhere in his thirties.

We spoke for a while, and eventually, he asked to meet me.

And somehow, I agreed.

The day we met, he came to pick me up in his car.

The moment I saw him, I was terrified.

I remember sitting there thinking, What the hell am I doing?

I didn't know him.

I didn't even know his real name.

But surprisingly, talking to him felt easy.

There was something strangely comforting about the conversation. For a while, I forgot that he was practically a stranger.

We ended up going to a hotel.

He wanted things to become physical.

But I was a virgin, and I was scared.

I said no.

He tried asking a few times, but eventually, he respected my answer.

Nothing happened.

We ordered food instead.

I come to know that he is already married.

I felt so bad.

It was such a strange first meeting that I didn't know what to make of it.

Later, he wanted to meet me again through that same site.

But I didn't want to become a homewrecker

So I left it there.

Life had other plans.

Not long after that, I went through a huge loss.

Something inside me suddenly woke up.

I came back to reality.

I started studying seriously again.

The girl who had been bunking college and wasting her days somehow managed to pull herself together.

I finished my first year.

Then the next.

And eventually, my final year too.

Somewhere along the way, I fell in love.

With my best friend.

He studied in another college, and somehow, without me even realizing when it happened, he became important to me.

After my exams were over, I decided I was finally going to tell him how I felt.

His exams weren't over yet, though.

So I went to his place to help him with his records.

And that's when I saw the messages from his collegemate. He is in a relationship with her.

I don't remember exactly what I said that day.

I just remember the feeling.

That horrible, sinking feeling when the future you've imagined disappears right in front of you.

I went home heartbroken.

And after that, I stopped talking to him.

And just like before, I slipped back into that blank space.

That feeling of I don't care anymore.

The difference was, this time, I didn't completely lose myself.

I went back to that online site again.

Maybe I was looking for someone.

Maybe I was just trying to escape myself.

I spoke to a few people.

But I didn't like anyone.

Then suddenly, I remembered him.

The man I'd met three years ago.

I still had his number.

He had been blocked all this time.

I stared the phone for a long time.

Then, for some reason, I unblocked him.

And I texted him.

Nothing happened.

No reply.

One day passed.

Then another.

After two days, I'd completely forgotten that I'd even sent the message.

Then my phone buzzed.

It was him.

He remembered me.

He told me he'd been busy because it had been his birthday the previous day.

His birthday.

I didn't even know his name properly.

I didn't know his birthday.

I barely knew anything about him.

I wished him belatedly and started asking about how he'd been.

And then he said something that made me feel terrible.

He had tried to meet me again back then.

He had actually come.

From his city to my city

4 hours in a car.

Just to meet me.

And I'd blocked him.

I felt awful.

So I finally told him the truth.

"I wasn't okay with meeting you because you're married. I didn't want to become a homewrecker."

There was a pause.

Then he told me something I never expected.

His marriage was already over.

They were divorced.

It had been two years.

I sat there staring at the screen.

Two years.

And suddenly I realized something else.

It had been three years since the day we met.

Three years.

So much had happened.

I had changed.

He had changed.

The girl who had met him at twenty-one wasn't the same girl talking to him now.

After talking for a while, I finally asked him,

"Do you want to meet?"

His answer came almost immediately.

"Yes."

And just like that...

After three years,

we were going to meet again.