Guilted: Wars Against The Past (Editing)

F o u r t e e n

H

e saw the white wrap which was just below his knees. Kalim kind of limped but he looked fine.

The air around them was silently awkward and Abed just didn't know how to word out a 'sorry'.

"Where's Meera?" Abed asked not seeing any sign of her.

He had to ask about Meera otherwise Kalim would figure that something was up, as Abed always asked about her.

"She's at her parents."

Abed only nodded.

They both were sitting opposite to each other on either of the couches, none of them willing to take the conversation further.

After a good long silence, Abed whispered,

"I'm sorry."

Kalim shot his head up to him and made a face,

"Well, that wasn't hard, now was it?" He said amused.

But Abed could sense the mockery behind his words.

Kalim let out a laugh, "I can't believe that it took you two weeks to actually come to me and just say a word."

What? That was not the reason why he was here.

"I should not have shot you." Abed reasoned.

"Yeah, you shouldn't have been even born." Kalim joked.

Though he felt a twinge of offence, he played along,

"But I was born, and you have no choice but to live with it."

"Yeah, yeah!" Kalim rolled his eyes.

"Hey, umm,.... who called the police?" Abed asked hesitantly.

"I did." Kalim shrugged.

"I knew it, you bastard." Abed said while his voice was laced with anger and betrayal.

"I wanted to live, you know." Kalim snapped.

"But how, and when? Why didn't I notice or something?" Abed asked quizzically.

"Man, I am the police, who are you kidding?" He said with obviousness. "We don't need to dial up the three numbers, my walkie-talkie has this advanced button, you press it, the nearest station can actually track your location and be wherever you are within minutes or so."

He paused.

"I got lucky to actually reach out to the button from over my coat. When you started punching my stomach at first, I knew you wouldn't be able to stop or resist yourself. You were way too angry to notice anything at all."

Kalim finished and Abed only nodded.

"Cool."

"No, it wasn't cool!" Kalim clenched his jaw.

"Okay." Abed said while throwing the stone in the air, allowing Kalim to catch it.

"I keep my words." Abed then said.

"God, I still remember that exchange." Kalim whispered wile shaking his head.

"Yes, when you had almost killed me." Abed muttered, while being zoned out by the old memory.

"I was only wrestling!" Kalim suggestively protested.

"Say whatever you want, but you can't deny that you were beating me up like a wild gorilla, which resulted in me being admitted to the hospital for a freaking week."