Last night, I ran into D online. The usual pleasantries exchanged, she suddenly asked : "You been in touch with P? " "Nah, why? Anything up?", "Nope, not really, you guys were great friends werent you?","I guess we were", "Hey, Sandy, Can you call me for a bit?" "Sure".

I bought myself a phone card, and called her. Its strange how you can never forget some numbers. I used to call that same number every single day of the week for almost six months. I could close my eyes and punch the right buttons, I even remembered how it sounded on the tone-dial. Some things never change.

We hadnt talked on the phone for almost a year, but conversation flowed with almost alarming ease. We had had the worst of times when we were together, fighting about everything, misunderstanding everything the other said. And then there was the blame game at the end of it all, whose fault was it? Now, all that seemed far away. Too far away, in fact, to seem real. She hadnt changed one bit, and I had changed way too much.

I knew there was something she wanted to tell me. We yapped for a while, playing cat 'n mouse. "So, how are things between you and P", she asked. "We havent talked in a long time, but I think I'd still call him a good friend". "You should call him sometime". "I know, but ...". P and I were in the same dorm for our first year, but never really got to know each other during the time. We first ran into each other at a basketball tourney. He had gone to cheer on his lady love, and I was there to ogle at the women jumping up and down. As the tourney built up, so did our friendship, and by the end of the week, we were ready to die for each other. At the end of my first year, I had to move out, and we sort of lost touch. I'd run into him here and there, sometimes at a badminton game, sometimes at the dining hall. The strangest thing was we'd need about a minute to get into our 'best friends' mode. And so it went on, chance encounters which often ended up becoming long conversations. In our final year, we had a lot more time on our hands, and our friendship blossomed. So much so that many people doubted that we werent "just friends".

It was around this time that I first met D. We hit it off from day one, and call me romantic, I thought I had met the right person for me. Long hours with D, followed by extensive philosophical discussions about Love with P took up most of my time. I introduced D to P, and they became very good friends. Things were all hunky dory till graduation. I was leaving for the US, and D and I were having a really rough patch. To make things worse , I started suspecting that something was up between D and P. I accused them of having an affair behind my back. I broke up with D soon after and my friendship with P was scarred forever. We stopped calling each other, and moved on with our lives. The last time I had talked to him, he said something about dating someone from his office.

I woke out of my reverie. "Sandy?", "Hmm?", "I think you should call P up one of these days", "Why dont you stop playing games and tell me what it is?" ...... "Well? Hello??"... " Umm, Sandy, I'm getting married to him next month". "Oh".

It didnt hurt as much as I thought it would. In fact, it almost didnt hurt at all. I smiled to myself : Some things never change, but thankfully, some things do.