selfishly selfless

Chapter 15: Indescribable

The black night held different meanings for different people scary to soothing but for her it held no meaning except for the unspoken support she finds in it as if her grandfather was protecting her, assuring her to stay put and that is what has held her since the physical demise of the most important person in her life, but as said it was only physical in every sense.

She could feel his presence whenever she needed that, the out of the blue dreams which held a 15 year old anaya with her dadaji and that was adjustable.

But when the need of feeling his physical presence beside her radiating off that warmth which was reserved only for her overwhelms her, those breakdowns are the most vulnerable she has been till date.

Anaya tried to seek that same warmth from her uncle the very same day of her dadaji's demise was the first and the last time she let herself fall vulnerable in front of anyone, but in vain cause that warmth left the moment the cold body of that man turned to ashes.

The cold wind yet soft wind smothering her reminded her that and a drop appeared on the one of the two faces displaying on the bright skin.

"I was not in the wrong na dadaji."

When the cold sensation on the wet trail increased that is when she noticed she was crying.

When she tried to clean the drop off the screen while caressing the face of the man in his late fifties being hugged by a teenage girl both of their faces laughing to the fullest.

But then a slight mehandi spot left it's presence on the already not so clean screen in the process, she switched the power button off resting the device on her lap and stared at her henna cladded hands till her elbows and sighed before bending her face downwards and rising her knees simultaneously to clean the remaining wetness and not to smear her face with the partially dried green paste.

"Why can't this dry the same as the preservatives one. Uggghh!" She scrunched her face in irritation.

"Let me." A deep voice alerted her and she hastily rubbed her cheeks with the fabric dangling on her knees.

The dim lights falling on the rooftop from the fairy lights hanging from the terrace to the ground floor made the visibility enough to not trip.

He took a seat beside her on the ground dangling his feet down the edge of the roof and supported his hands on the railing ahead unlike her who was seated folding her legs and hands midway in the air due to the still wet henna.

The silence laid out was contrasting the loud emotions thundering inside each of them.

Neither of them broke the silence till he took an audible breath"I tried not to let your avoiding session to heart until I got to know that you missed lunch and dinner and just had a coffee for breakfast."

She looked at him and changed her sitting posture by bringing her knees to her chest and settling her elbows on them and again looked at him waiting patiently for her to answer.

"Why do you care?" The slight vulnerability still lingering to her tone left him speechless for a while.

"I... I .." he was lost at words and this was new for of them.

Her mood shifted from gloomy to amused looking at the man who holds so much power stumbling on words.

The small smile turned to a full fledged laugh when the expression of ridicule happen to cross his face.

"I don't know yarr." He said in a childlike manner and this increased her laugh but soon tears spilled out from her eyes.

To hide them from the person in attendance she turned her back to him.