The Rose

Sumant looked at it. It was just perfect. It had just flowered properly and all the petals were spread out at just the right distance. It had taken him half an hour to find it in the garden and another fifteen minutes to clear it of thorns. But at last it was ready.
Priya was going to love it, he could feel it in his bones. Sumant couldn’t wait to see the delighted look on her face, when he handed it to her. So he put on his bag and carefully holding the rose in his right hand so that its shape didn’t get spoilt, headed out for college. But he had hardly taken ten steps when he felt something tugging at his shirt. He turned around to see a small girl with long curly hair, looking up at him with light brown sparkling eyes. “Please Mister, can I have that rose? I want to give it to my mother.”
Sumant shook his head and turned to leave, but then stopped. He looked at the tearful face of the girl, the glint in her eyes, her rosy red cheeks and smiled. Bending he handed her the rose, and patting her head, went off whistling.
Aanchal, clutched the bright red rose tightly and ran towards the grocery store in which her mother was shopping. Reaching her mother she held up the rose as high as she could and shouted, “Look at what I got for you Mommy!” the mother took the rose and hugging her daughter, kept it on the counter with her groceries. Then picking up the packets they left the store.
Pranay picked up his bag and started walking out of his parents store when he noticed a long stemmed rose lying on the cash counter. Picking it up, he headed off to school, absent mindedly playing with it all the way. Rushing though the school corridor, he banged into a surly looking girl who was taking out something from her locker. “Sorry Tanya! I’m kind of in a hurry!” he shouted as he paused just long enough to pick up her book and hand it to her, but it was long enough to see the expression on her face.
Tanya frowned and turned back to her locker. She toyed with the bottle of sleeping pills as she pretended to search for her books. Nobody cared about her, they wouldn’t even miss her once she was gone. Today, she would finally find the courage, and get it over with. It was only for the best.
She gloomily walked to her English class and took a seat in the back row. Just as the bell rang she saw Pranay walk in. He looked around and spotting her walked towards her.
“Hey, I’m really sorry about before, I must’ve really bashed you up.” Before she could say anything he placed something on her desk and said, “Here, this is for you.” Smiling, he walked off.
Tanya looked at the pretty rose on her desk and smiled, something she hadn’t done for a long time. It made her dark face light up, giving her a pixie like look. She happily clutched the rose throughout the day.
Sumant came home that night with a sinking feeling in his heart. After all, he hadn’t been able to give Priya the perfect rose. But as he got into bed, he couldn’t help but have the weird feeling that he had helped someone, somewhere. Smiling, he turned off the lamp and called out to his sister in the next room.
“Goodnight, Tanya!”