B2 • Lacuna

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• Timeline •

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• Timeline •

A few days after Vinay's departure.
aka, post their breakup.

●○●

I flipped through the pages of Vinay's diary mindlessly as the gears of my mind began to whir. I'd taken a small detour from the restrooms after lunch to our makeshift DantelSoft office to check up on my deadlines, but had ended up pulling out the fat black notebook, it's leather cover all weathered and soft under my fingers. 1999 was embossed in silvery gold letters on the upper right corner. It was the year when he was born.

I'd probably read Vinay's three times by now and although the pages housed his deepest, darkest thoughts and the small things that gave him something to wake up for every day, I absolutely loved it. He wasn't Anne Frank and his hardships definitely weren't anything like hers. They were merely a different kind. And to me his diary was no less than a freaking masterpiece.

I knew now why he couldn't bring himself to so much as even consider not going to Cornell. Being shunned by society, your parents at that, is hard. And desperate times call for desperate measures. Vinay had been borderline depressed for a long time after that, eventually leading him down the path of self loathing and destruction.

Swallowing, I blinked away the wetness that had started to appear in my eyes.

It had been one and a half month.

And like every other hormonal teenager I'd read dozens of cheesy romances filled with temporary breakups and sorrowful fanfare. Too bad I wasn't living inside a story book.

Vinay's absence hurt, both mentally and physically. Although I'd accepted everything for how it was going to be, there would be times when something as trivial and mundane as passing by a motorcycle showroom would trigger my feelings. My mind would shut down momentarily and my heart would clench painfully.

The frequency of those feelings was slowly decreasing though. I suppose time does help to heal as long as you don't force it and go with the flow.

"Akira, are you going to come to the meeting with TYCHE this afternoon?" Harsh's voice slapped reality back into my face.

He walked up to my workstation casually, a couple of assignment binders in one hand.

"Yes, I will." I nodded, exhaling deeply before rubbing my eyes.

Harsh paused, before asking, "Are you sure you want to meet them? I know that they fired you unfairly and all."

I sighed, sucking my lips into my mouth.

"I think it's time for me to put that behind me too. I understand now that they did what they had to, to save face in the corporate world. That small mistake could have cost them millions, maybe even ruined them completely because they're still classified under the startup category." I said thoughtfully.

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