It was 11:30 PM.
The kind of night where silence feels heavier than the burger in your hand.
I was at McDonald’s — my comfort zone. No crowd, no chaos,
just me, my burger, and the freedom to let tomato slices escape without
judgment. Most of the place was cloaked in darkness, except my little spotlight
corner. One worker manned the counter half-heartedly, and the vibe screamed: ghost
town with fries.
As I bit into the burger, my phone pinged.
“One new message from Rossy Angel (not her real name).”
Rossy. Long curls, perfect body, too-hot-to-be-true. She’d
added me months ago, and we’d been chatting casually. Tonight, though, the
message wasn’t casual.
“It’s been a month since we started chatting. I think we
should meet.”
For a second, I almost dropped my burger. I mean, when does
life gift-wrap a moment like that? Still, I told myself to play it cool. No
desperate midnight replies. Morning would do.
And just as I sank my teeth back into my burger…
I heard it.
A moan.
Not the fun kind. Not the ghostly kind either. (Though,
let’s be real, even demons wouldn’t moan like that. They’ve got some
self-respect.)
The counter guy had vanished. My corner spotlight felt like
an interrogation lamp. Against all better judgment, I tiptoed toward the sound.
The darkness cleared. A hunched figure came into focus.
Not making out. Not a ghost.
It was a man. Crying.
A Face From the Past
“Ravi?!”
He looked up. Tears, sweat, and… wait, bald? Fat? Could this
be the Ravi — college hunk, six-pack flaunter, envy of every guy, crush
of every girl?
“Vinay?” he croaked.
Oh, it was him. Or what was left of him. My foot went
straight into my mouth:
“You look so… different now.”
Translation: You’re not hot anymore.
He smirked bitterly. “Yeah. No longer the hunk. Lost the hair too.”
And then came the gut punch: “She dumped me.”
The Shock
I braced myself. “Rupali?”
Ah, Rupali. College goddess. Eyes that could hypnotize,
smile that could heal nations, hair that had its own fan club. If anyone dumped
Ravi, it had to be her.
But he shook his head. “No. We parted ways after college.”
Then he whispered the name.
“Rukmani.”
My jaw fell to the sticky McDonald’s floor. Rukmani?! The
girl Ravi used to run from like she was an unpaid electricity bill? The stalker
with short hair and persistence as strong as garlic breath?
“She’s different now,” he said defensively. “Caring.
Confident. Almost my size.”
Fair enough. People change. Love changes. Burgers don’t.
“So why did she dump you?” I asked gently.
His answer? A dagger wrapped in clichรฉ.
“Because… it’s not you, it’s me.”
The Universal Breakup Escape Hatch
I stared at him. “Wait, she actually used that line?”
Ravi nodded, sobbing harder.
Now, I’ve always hated that line. It’s the Ctrl+Alt+Del
of relationships. No explanation, no accountability, just It’s not you, it’s
me. Genius, really. You get dumped, but you can’t even fight back.
“Bro,” I said, “what she means is: it’s not you, it’s her
bullshit. She bailed. No proper reason. No closure. Just a coward’s shortcut.”
“But, I cannot forget her.”
I tried calming him down but honestly, my sarcasm got there
first.
“Dude,” I said, “how can someone dump a person because
they’re mad at themselves? What is this logic? Like—my boss is yelling at me, I
can’t yell back at him, so let me just dump my partner instead. Genius
strategy! No mess, no drama—just utter the magic words and poof! Relationship
Houdini.”
He looked at me, gloomy, and said, “I spent seven years with
her. I was ready to start a family. And now I’m 31, bald, fat, and who’s going
to marry me? I think she found someone else.”
To which I replied, in my best motivational speaker
voice:
“Bro, if it’s really not you—it DEFINITELY is her. And if she left you for
someone else, then trust me, this is just the trailer. Tomorrow she’ll find
someone better than him too. Meanwhile, you? You’ve got stability, maturity,
and actual relationship skill. You’re gold; she’s just running after glitter.”
But Ravi wasn’t buying my TED Talk.
“But I can’t get her out of my head,” he sighed.
At this point, my patience decided to leave my body. “Wait.
She ditched you without a reason after seven years and you’re stuck
daydreaming? Bruh, this is the time to burn her photo, flush it down the
toilet, and maybe hire a priest to perform an exorcism, not cry like a rejected
contestant on Indian Idol!”
He shook his head like a sad puppy, still clinging to hope,
and whispered, “She was so nice… it must be that new guy she keeps talking to.
Whenever I try calling, her line’s busy. Why couldn’t I see this coming? He
must have brainwashed her.”
And just like that, my hidden Sherlock Holmes DNA kicked in.
“Alright, my Watson,” I declared. “This means investigation
time. Does she have this guy on her Facebook friends list? We’ll track him
down.”
Ravi, with trembling fingers, opened her profile like he was
about to hack into NASA. His face looked like he was about to launch
Chandrayaan 3, except instead of the moon, we were aiming for… the truth about
his ex.
He scrolled through Rukmani’s friends list, hunting for the
villain of his seven-year love saga. We were both expecting some shady guy with
weird sunglasses and over-filtered selfies. But nope—nothing looked suspicious.
“Most of these guys I already know,” Ravi sighed, sounding
like a disappointed detective in a daily soap. Then he looked at me and said,
“And hey, I see you’re in her friends list too. Can you try to get the name out
of her? Just pretend you’re reconnecting with old college friends.”
I frowned. “Wait a second. I don’t even have any ‘Rukmani’
in my friend’s list.”
Ravi shot back like he’d just cracked a major conspiracy
theory: “It’s Rossy Angel.”
And that’s when my entire brain just… crashed.