Agony aunt

*The names of the characters are people I really like, but the incidents are purely fictional*

Smi sat dolefully stirring her coffee, as if the swirling contents would change her mood.
I jumped at her and said my chirpiest “G morning”.

She just raised her eyebrow at me to acknowledge my presence!

Hey Bum! What’s up..?? Did Atlas shrug or what?

Atlas didn’t shrug. But Venkat did! She said dully. I had to catch her eye only for a moment to know something murky lay ahead.

“What do you mean” I asked, perfectly knowing what was coming.
One needn’t be a rocket scientist to know what had happened, especially after knowing her for as long as I did.

Break up...Venkat…Ditch…

It had to be at least two of those three words. Of the three I despise and dread the last word. It does terrible things to one’s confidence.

“You know what I mean” she said, with little drops of liquid crystals starting to fill her big eyes. They looked beautiful. I wish I could tell her how beautiful she looked, If only it were happier times.

“It won’t work” he said,
Be...because he thought I was way too serious for him”. She managed to sputter.

“That punk is so going to hell” I swore under my breath.

I love Smi, not only because she is my dearest friend but because she is a creature who is nearly perfect. I would have said PERFECT but if only she had a smaller nose!

She is not a delicately featured shapely figurine that one associates with beauty. But a defining face, a firm figure, a sensible head, and the most ‘definite’person.
There was nothing subtle about her. She was like white blinding light. Plain but brilliant. Pure but will give color to what ever she touches and always diluted anything dark.

Then she fell in love with Venkat, I saw all these defining attributes of her slowly but surely vaporizing.

The first thing which jolted me was her absolute change of attitude. It was highly unlikely of her to say “but babe, think for a moment why she did that”

Empathy was something none of us believed in. One cannot slip into another’s shoes or 'feel' from their perspective. It was simply stupid because “Heck! My foot size is bigger. I can’t even try fitting in yours.”

Sympathy… Yes, we allowed ourselves to pity people who expected it out of us, since it was our moral duty!.... But never empathy.

It threw me and Navy. We were aghast to see such a radical change in her!

I knew people changed when they “fall” in love…

But I couldn't fathom how deep one would actually fall...

Now she lay, fallen before my eyes. Her spirit crumpled like the pamphlet you crumple and throw carelessly on the road.

That what he did to Smi.

He gave her hope, showed her a rosy world, painted her life like Van Gogh and then threw a whole lot of muck on that painting she treasured.

I may sound cruel, but I am glad she has been “ditched”. It is a blessing which came with no disguises. Smi just has to acknowledge that blessing.The Blessing of hope.
Hope is like a boomerang, just when you feel it deserted you, it will come right back into your hands.

He may have wrenched her heart out .But me and Navy can give her a transplant.
He planted a million doubts in her mind. But we’ll club them one after another.

After a long silence that fell between us, I pressed her palm gently and said
“Hope is your friend …trust it”

She calmly said…“I do”.