He held my left hand in his and was tracing the lines on my palm with his fingers. He started drawing thick lines first and then the thinner lines. When his fingers started tracing the lines on my wrist, I felt a little awkward. I moved my hand from his hands to grab the beer bottle next to me. I think he understood that I wasn’t comfortable with he tracing those lines anymore. We were sitting on the wall guarding the beach. The soothing sounds of the waves were adding to the serene moment we were living. The evening sky was playing our favorite game of colours. We were talking about good and bad dreams we saw in sleep. I could see a gleam of happiness in his eyes when he was talking about the dream of the successful startup he always wished to start. He was so lost in the dream that he stopped drawing on my palm. He instead wrapped his hands around my palm. It was my turn to talk about a dream. He was so lost in his parallel world that he didn’t realize that I haven’t spoken a word since long. I didn’t bring him to reality to remind him that it was all just a dream. I liked this feeling. He holding my hand tight, and we sitting on the wall, watching the waves come and go, just like dreams, come and go. I had a feeling that he wasn’t telling everything he saw. Maybe he didn’t want to, so I didn’t ask what about the dream he wasn’t telling. We sat there for long. The moon’s reflection on the water was getting bigger. The last beer bottle was empty now. I removed my hand from his hands, held his face to kiss him. I couldn’t. I kissed his forehead instead and started walking on the rim of the wall. I didn’t look back because I didn’t want to have a sad memory of him. He stopped me holding my hand and said, “don’t want to know the part of the dream I didn’t say?” of course I wanted to know. But, it was late already. He doesn’t hold the same place in my life anymore. And I didn’t want to give him that place again. He knew, if he’d said the full story, I would stay back. And I knew, if I’d stay back, I would be repeating the same mistake again. So I just release my hand from his hold and tell, “all the best for your dream” and leave.

Pic Courtesy: Instagram account, @vysh_t