THE APARTMENT
Winchester Apartments, situated in a peaceful locality inside the city of New York, is probably one of the best places in the city to live. This place has access to everything. IT companies were flooded around it and there is no shortage of supermarkets and malls. It was a locality where youngsters would love to hang out; well, some with their friends and most of them with their partners. Door number 427 had one person who was different from the others living there. A loner, as he would be known among others, who was barely seen talking or even give a smile. For a guy with a pretty face, he was too serious. Few teens had a crush on him for his rugged appearance, boys found him weird and old people were mostly scared to talk to him. A fourth of his salary went on rent which was reasonable considering the geography of the city. Besides he didn’t have anyone else to spend on. Before moving in, the previous tenant had left behind some belonging. So our guy didn’t have much household stuff to buy either. Such was his life. A boring and alone life and he was used to it now. But one thing always made him somber; his black diary. He used to write every night; it might be things from his past, some songs, some poems or anything but it would always stay with him inside the apartment.
One Saturday afternoon, after tirelessly cleaning and arranging the house, he was relaxing in front of the television with an orange. Suddenly he heard someone slamming the door. It was then he realized that he had forgotten to lock the door. Pissed as he was, he turned around to see the unwanted guest.
“Who are you?”, a question which he had to ask came from the other side from a beautiful woman. She was mysteriously attractive with curly hair and nerd specs. Sporting a black skin fit jean and blue top that toned out her perfect shape. For a moment our guy was lost in admiring her beauty. Shaking his head and continuing with his orange he asked her cockily,
“May I know who the hell you are?”. She was a little piqued by his approach. “This is my apartment. I stay here and that is my sofa you are sitting on. I want you and your stupid things out my place or else I am calling the police.” She sounded desperate he was hardly giving ear to her. He was busy with his orange and once finishing it he stood in front of her with his smoldering face,
“Look, lady, I don’t know what you are talking about. I have been living here for 5 months ‘legally’. It is you who has barraged into my house. So…. get out of my house before I call the police.”
By the time he had finished his sentence, his voice had been raised showing his anger towards the uninvited guest. Any independent person would not like to be dominated by others. It would hurt their ego and such was the situation here. Both were arguing on top of their voice. Her voice was shaking with sadness, frustration and some other emotions and biting her teeth she said,
“I’m already broke, and I don’t want further problems; so just, just please leave the house. I am not asking you to leave immediately but please in some time.”
He wasn’t shaken at all. In fact, he came up with a cold reply,
“ That is not my problem. You are leaving this house now. I am staying here and I am not willing to leave this place. Get out!”.
She sat on a chair next to her sobbing, having no idea what to do next. She had left the apartment 8 months back without telling anybody anything. She sat up and decided to call the owner. But what would she tell him? Could she tell the truth that she left everything for a guy who eventually left her dry with nowhere to go? That she left everyone for him and he was busy dancing around relationships hardly caring about her?
Get Ajay Antony’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
But what other choices she had other than calling the owner and tell him her tragic story. She eventually called him narrated her side of the story in the most pitiful way. He told that he would come there at once. By this time she knew that she had an edge of hope of getting back the apartment.
The owner came home and listened to both of their stories. He was sympathetic towards the woman and neither did he wanted the man to leave as he has been a good tenant. He sincerely wanted to help her. After thinking a while, he came up with an idea which nobody expected. “ See, I really want to help you guys. So whatever I am going to tell is going to benefit you guys……Why can’t you share the apartment?” The man was taken aback and so was the girl.
“What?”, a question came in chorus.
“ I am paying to stay alone. I don’t want to share this apartment. No! I won’t, I won’t do it”, and the man had made up his mind. The woman was still in a dilemma of what to say. The owner stepped up and said, “Come on, look at her. She seems helpless. Let her stay here for a while and settle herself and once she is done she would lookout for a new place.” But the man seemed adamant and he didn’t want to share the apartment. The owner was losing his interest and gave his final word to both of them,
“ Listen! If you guys want the apartment, you have to share it and this sharing is only temporary. Girl, once you have settled yourself, you have to look for a new place”. She was reluctant to the idea too but she was running out of options so, it seemed a fair deal. The guy was not pleased with it but he didn’t want to give up the place either because of being it close to his work and also to his favorite spot in the city. But eventually, he did agree and so the girl moved in with him.
The girl seemed to loved by everybody in the apartment. A complete contrast to what her roommate was. But whenever she met them she was asked these common questions, ‘Where were you all this while?’ ‘What happened to you?’ ‘Did anyone kidnap you?’ and some even asked ‘How did you agree to stay with him?’. Well, for the former set of questions she had a common lie. For the latter one, she had ironical truth,‘The world is filled with jerks like him, I know how to handle them.’ For the guy, it was like some pirate had hijacked his ship and made his life even worse than it ever was. Every day they fought with each other. Sometimes it was for the wardrobe, sometimes it was for the restroom, some time for cleaning the house and sometimes even for listening to music aloud. All this was evidently done to irritate each other so that one would eventually give up the apartment.
One evening, the man returned home late from work; frustrated, he kept his food on the table and left for his favorite spot in the city where he could find peace. The girl had been sleeping all day and was woke up by the slam of the door on his way out. Still drowsy, when she walked out all she could see was food on the table. Now girls and food always have a special bond. Seeing food on the table she started to enjoy the cuisine. She had wolfed his dinner to bits after which she was hit back to her senses. It was a big mistake from her and there was nothing funny about it. She knew this would lead to a big fight. None of the apologies were giving a satisfactory scenario in her head. She knew ever her cute sorry face won’t help. So she was preparing herself for the inevitable. He returned home and saw her sitting at the corner like a punished school kid. She had prepared a whole speech to explain her innocence. But as she looked up to him she was taken aback. She saw him looking at her with tears. It was as if he needed a shoulder to cry on, a friend to talk to, probably someone who can listen to him. But before she could say anything he went inside hiding his tears. For the first time ever since moving in, she felt something for him.
The next morning, he left early for work leaving her all alone in the house. She wanted to know the reason behind the unusual reaction from her room-mate. For all she knew, he was a grumpy young person. Her curiosity was driving her crazy. All she could think was filled-up eyes. Just as she was recollecting the events from the previous night her eyes fell on his black diary. She knew that her answers were in that diary but still her good morals were telling her that it is wrong to read someone’s diary.
For most people, something isn’t wrong unless you get caught in the act. Their fallacious doing is ethical cause no one sees it. Such was the situation here. Even though she knew that it was wrong of her yet she did it knowing the fact that the man won’t be around for another 6–7 hours. She opened the diary and on the first page, it was written as ‘TO YOU WITH LOVE’, as she kept reading his diary she realized that they had something very common; their Past. The young man had been cheated by a girl whom he considered his world. She had been everything to him and the way in which he had described her, her eyes and his love to her, could to compared to the greatest writers. The diary had poems about her, ballads and even some of their beautiful moments which he had painfully written. For him, she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen and when she cheated on him for another man, he turned lifeless. The last thing written in the diary was about the previous night : “While coming back I saw her with him. My heart skipped a beat. Even after seeing her a billionth time, the excitement which I get, the ‘sweep you out of your feet’ moment is still the same. My love for her is still fresh and hasn’t changed. She saw me but ignored, and walked past me. I was hoping that she would stop and come back to me and things would go normal again. A part of it did come true. She stopped, but turned to him and kissed him expecting me to see it. My heart cannot take it. I don’t know what went wrong between us; I don’t know why we aren’t together; I don’t know why I loved you so much…..”. Her eyes were filled up by the time she completed the book. She realized that he was the kind of person who would love someone forever. She understood why he had such a rough exterior, maybe all he needed was hope; hope that he is not alone; hope that someone is there to love him as he does; hope that there are hopeless romantics in the world. The day went by and all she could think was about him and his writings. She pictured the events from his diary as if she was watching from a distance while he was with his lover. While they were romancing, while they were on their dates and while they were breaking up. She empathized with him but what more could have been done.
Night when he returned home, he found food on the table with a note “SORRY :-)”. He looked at it and smiled. Seeing him smile she knew that her apology was accepted. As she came out, he winked and smiled at her suggesting everything was okay. As he was eating, she went next to him and started with a hesitation , “I read your diary. I know what it is to go through something like that.” Volcanic eruptions are unpredictable. We never know when they would blast off; such was his anger. The words ‘I read your diary’ triggered him. He burst out with anger and yelled with a heavy voice , “How dare you?… How dare you touch my stuff?… You know what you have crossed your limits. Let me put this out straight, nobody touches my stuff and if you come to me again talking about the diary or pulling up my past, then God forbid what happens next…. Get out of my sight. GET OUT!!!”. What did she do wrong? She wanted to comfort him but reminding him about things that broke him on first was not the right way. What did he do wrong? He was trying to bring back something that was long gone. She was crying in her room and he was sitting with guilt.
Next day, the morning was bright and birds were chirping which was adding flavor to the beauty. Apartment 427 was quite. He was sitting on the table, spooning his cereals with a long face. She woke up late and walked past him to the fridge. He was embarrassed for his yelling last night. Without even looking up to her, he said, “I am sorry”. She stood still for some time then smiled. She brought a cup of coffee with few slices of bread and sat next to him, “Hi, I am Aarya.” “ I am Aram”, and so a love story began.
