Depression: Ahaan

“What’s the point?”Ahaan asks me. We are having their lunch in the college canteen.
“Wh-AT?” I ask him. I look at him, confused. This is the first time we’re meeting since that day at the basketball court. He’s been busy all week doing nothing but sulking over his breakup.
“What’s the point of it all? Our life? It’s so pointless!” Ahaan answers, glumly. We’ve been here for more than ten minutes now, but Ahaan still hasn’t taken a bite off his burger.
“Dude, just because they aren’t serving Chicken burgers inside the college canteen, that doesn’t mean you’ll go around blaming the entire universe!” I try to make things lighter, but Ahaan doesn’t notice the effort. He is busy staring at his veg burger initially, and then at the people coming in through the door.
“Fourteen months! We were together for fourteen months! All for nothing? That’s so unfair,” Ahaan says out of nowhere.
“Oh come on Ahaan! Not again!” I try to keep Ahaan from going along with his blue monologues, but all in vain.
“She didn’t even answer my letter. I mean, I know she’s angry, and I know we aren’t together anymore, and I know it’s a complete mess; but still. I thought I was worthy of one reply at least, you know.” Ahaan exhales a deep breath
“You are! You are worthy of a reply. But maybe, you don’t deserve a reply from her. Maybe you deserve one from someone better.” Ahaan shakes his head pursing his lips.
“I don’t know, man. I don’t know. She used to say that I’m the best guy she has ever come across, that I’m among the very few people why can make her smile even when she is furious over something. And now, I’m this guy whose existence she doesn’t even acknowledge. And—”
He’s going on, but I cut his words short. “You’re still the best guy any girl will ever come across. You’re the guy who can make any girl smile irrespective of her mood. Why do her words matter so much to you?”
Dinesh—a classmate of ours—passes by and waves at both of us. I wave back, but Ahaan just returns a tight lipped smile.
“Coz I love her,” Ahaan goes ahead with the conversation. “And I know I am not that guy. I am not the best guy ever, nor the one who can make a girl smile anytime. It was just she who found those things in me. And now that she’s gone, I don’t know what to do with myself anymore.”
I look down at the almost finished veg burger I’ve been holding in my hands. I’m trying to think of ways to make this better, but it seems almost impossible. We spend a moment in silence.
“I imagined all my future with her you know,” Ahaan continues. He’s at least talking up now. “I thought we would be together forever. Falling apart wasn’t even a remote possibility. I thought—I always thought she was the one, you know.”
And then, my eyes brighten up. I finally come up with something. I finish my burger in a hurry. “Give me your phone!” I almost shout at Ahaan in excitement.
“WH-at? Why?” he’s asks, baffled.
“Just give it to me,” I say. Ahaan pulls out the phone from his pocket, and I yank the phone from his hand. I start executing my plan. Ahaan is looking at me all the time, but all I do is grin. “There you go!” I say handing over the phone to Ahaan.
“NO! Are you crazy?” he exclaims as he comes to know what I’ve done.
“NO. I’m not crazy,” I tell him. “I know what you’re going through. But you can’t stay like this forever. You have to accept the situation. You have to move on. And this,” I say pointing my index finger toward his phone, “is your way. Just go along man. You’ve got to start anew. You deserve it, bro. You do.”