“That Unconditional Love for My Best Friend” - The Best #LoveStory Ever

Here’s a fictional short story on the essence of unconditional love – the best feeling ever!

“It needs immense strength to give, without expecting anything in return (not even appreciation). And the day, you can give such unconditional love, is the day you free your soul.” ~ A Believer.

It was my first day in graduate school, and I stepped into the premises with loads of excitement. Few moments later, my eyes caught a glimpse of a tall guy, with unkempt hair and a flustered look writ on his face. A thought flashed through my mind – Yes! This was the same guy I’d met outside a coaching institute almost a year back. We didn’t even know each other’s names, and he had given a slam book to me, requesting to give it to another girl in my class. We didn’t speak a word more. I was quite bewildered at his confidence that I would get his work done without even knowing him. Neither did I pass on that book to the girl, nor did I see this guy after that.

It was one of the weirdest experiences of my life back then. So, the memories were still vivid.

Now, after almost a year, there he was – right in front of me! I didn’t know how to react. I’m sure he didn’t want to see me there. He looked pretty embarrassed. As luck would have it, we were grouped into the same class – Section X, Roll Numbers – 83 and 88. Gradually, we started talking to each other and soon turned from classmates to friends. Hardly did we spend time alone with each other, but somehow we connected in a big way. With time, I observed the uncanny similarities in all our characteristics – we had the same favourites, spoke the same way, reacted to situations in a similar way!

This clearly explained why we understood each other so well, even if we hardly spent time together.

Days passed by and we grew from friends to best friends! Now we could shamelessly laugh at his first crush experience, for whom he’d given me that slam book in the coaching institute. By then, he already had a girlfriend and I was dating another guy. It’s not that we were not committed enough to the people we were dating at that point. And yes, we had a pact that we would somehow never discuss about our respective partners with each other. I had a strange belief that if we discussed relationship issues, we would end up getting closer to each other at the cost of hurting our partners.

So, we gradually drifted apart, being convinced that wherever we are in our lives, we are happy and content.

A year later, I was going through a difficult phase, wherein I was subjected to an uncomfortable level of verbal abuse and friction, because of the nagging insecurities of the guy I was dating. Something had snapped between us and I’d already lost my respect for him. Being a strong girl myself, it was unlikely of me to have tolerated that beyond an extent and hence we broke up. Exams were approaching then and I was busy dealing with my own mental turmoil. It was a bad phase.

Even though I always lent an ear patiently to all my friends’ issues in life, I was always very bad at expressing my own problems. I would just not let anybody know what’s seething within me.

And now, I had begun missing that best friend of mine – my confidante!

Coincidentally, that friend of mine gave me a call that night. Just listening to the tone of my voice, he could make out that something was definitely amiss. Nobody had ever sensed that before. That one question from him – “What has happened?” – was enough to break me down. I cried the whole night and poured my heart out, in front of him. He was there throughout, rock solid as ever.

That’s when I realised that HE’s always been my cocoon, no matter what.

Days later, I confessed my love for him – an unconditional platonic love with no expectations or demands. I hardly expected anything in return and let him decide. Finding me so vulnerable, he chose to distance himself from me and simply left. I was left all alone. I missed him for years. We never talked after that.

Sometime later, I rose up to understand the real meaning of ‘unconditional love’ – love which is happy and content above all, love which loves without any terms, love which seeks for only happiness of a loved one. And this form of love is serene and definitely different from the passion of a romantic liaison. He made me much stronger and resilient to life.

Today, I reminisce about our times together and have nothing to regret about. I have found my best partner for life and am happily married. He’s fallen in love like never before and headed to the altar with his better half. We still talk today once in a while, and still laugh about the uncanny similarity in our thought process.

I’ll always wish happiness for him, wherever he is. I’m sure he does too!

Probably, there are certain people we meet in our lives, with whom we connect more than anyone else. We discover that the vibe is certainly not generic and we understand each other perfectly. We are too similar. And this person might not always be a great partner. This person might not always be your ‘significant other’. It could be anyone – a friend, sibling or parent. For me, I found this vibe of unconditional love, in my best friend at school.

Have you found yours?

Please share your views on how you liked this short story, in the comments section below.