Part 3: The First Fall Out

Somewhere between waiting and doubting, I started slipping into silence.

It wasn’t anger.

It wasn’t sadness.

Just… a dull ache I carried quietly.

One afternoon, I was at Sana’s place — we were laughing, watching something random — when she turned to me and asked, “How’s the thing with Ritvik going?”

I smiled. “Nothing much,” I said casually.

But she saw through me. She always did.

She pressed a little more, and I finally told her everything — the ghosting, the excuses, the hidden chats.

We opened his Facebook account again. Same thing.

New girls.

More archived chats.

Still no message to me.

Sana looked at me, annoyed for me. “Do you have his number? Let’s call him. Ask him to come online. You need to take a stand, Anvi. If you don’t now, you’ll regret it later.”

I knew she was right.

I wanted clarity — but the fear held me hostage.

What if I confronted him and he said, Let’s break up?

What would I do then?

I wasn’t even sure why I cared so much… but I did.

After a few rings, Ritvik finally picked up. He came online.

I couldn’t bring myself to type.

So Sana did it for me.

She messaged him like she was me — my voice, my hurt, through her fingers.

“Where were you?”

“Why didn’t you message?”

“You left me hanging — didn’t even drop one line. One second of your time — was that too much?”

He gave the same excuse:

“I was busy with housework. Relatives. Chores.”

Sana looked at me and whispered, “Even if he was busy, one message — just one — could’ve calmed your overthinking.”

I nodded silently.

She asked, “Should we talk about the other girls?”

But I said no.

If he wanted to hide them, let him think I didn’t know.

Let him carry that lie.

Then she said something that stayed with me.

“Anvi, take a decision now. This is just the start. If you walk away now, you’ll heal. But if you keep pouring and he keeps emptying — you’ll lose yourself in the middle.”

So I made a decision.

We messaged him — said we should break up.

And Ritvik… simply said, “Okay.”

That one word crushed something inside me.

So easy.

So casual.

Like we were nothing.

Like I was nothing.

I had never even confessed to liking him.

Never planned on being in a relationship.

And yet… here I was, heartbroken — as if I had loved him all my life.

I smiled in front of Sana, laughed like it was no big deal.