Kyon ✓ (Abhira)

Bonus (1A) Mendak aur Sherni

Bonus (1A) Mendak aur Sherni

"Kaisa tha conference?"

Akshara hummed, nodding her head although all she felt was terrible and her anxieties shooting more faster than usual. She looked at Abhi, who was rubbing his hands and sniffing at the lavish spread on the table. She gulped, feeling weird and out of place, and she looked around at the beautiful set-up, the entire room was filled with professional doctors, surgeons and so many intelligent people that Akshara felt little in front of them. Abhi who had received an award for being the most notable surgeon in the city, was eyeing the food in delight and Akshara could see the eyes of the women watching him in delight.

His presence was enough to garner attention and Abhi had been so busy with his people, that Akshara felt sidelined throughout the entire day. She was really proud of Abhi, and felt so privileged that he had chosen her to be his plus one but her insecurities seeped in quickly and she felt she should have not tagged along. Her therapist had suggested her to enter the world slowly, take a deep breath whenever she felt anxious and not continue her negative chain of thoughts.

But her therapist did not know that Abhi was surrounded with beautiful, successful women who looked drop dead gorgeous and were way confident than she could ever be.

And Abhi was happy with them, especially Adhira Shetty, who was not only Abhi's girlfriend in his college days, but was also a doctor and really pretty. They even danced together, and Akshara saw them from the far end, hand in hand, happy and equally perfect for each other. She felt suffocated but she could see them two, together, and here she was, not fitting in his group, in his world at all. Now when it was dinner time, her overwhelming feelings were messing with her head and she wanted to go home.

Alas, home was miles away and taking a flight all by herself was not her cup of tea.

"Food is amazing," Abhi moaned in happiness as he took a bite of the shrimp, "Akshara, you have to try this!"

Akshara's eyes were blankly looking at the dish in front of her, her mind flashing all the moments from the day where Abhi was perfectly happy without her. And that was not a bad thing, in fact, in their one year of relationship, Abhi had never seemed this happy as he was today.

She tired him a lot.

Her therapies, anxieties, panic attacks, pills, appointments, depressive episodes, mood swings and her lack of self esteem.

These were all that ganged up and stole all the happiness which Abhi really deserved, he would never tell her how difficult she was getting or how unhappy their relationship was, but Akshara could see that he wasn't the Abhi he should have been. She was tying him down, she was drowning him because she was his anchor, pulling him down by her weight.

Akshara was feeling suffocated, although they were seated in an open lawn restaurant, she felt hard to breathe. She looked at Abhi, the guy who was happily talking about his day, but she felt sick to her stomach. This was no match, she was no match to him, he deserved to be happy.

Nahi Akshu, please, hold yourself. Abhi loves you a lot, and he would never consider you as a burden. You're loved.

Akshara chanted her favourite mantras, trying her best to calm herself down and smiled when Abhi forwarded her the spoonful of rice.

"Tasty hai na?" His eyes lit like a kid who had gotten ice-cream before dinner and she nodded, smiling. "Maine kaha tha, tum meri baat sunti hi nahi." He fed her again and Akshara tilted her head, teary eyed as she looked at him.

Was this real? Was she really the love of a man, so sweet and so genuine? And what had she done to get someone as him?

"What happened Miss Goenka?" He teased her, tilting his head the other way and she smiled, "aisa na mujhe tum dekho," He sang, or tried to sing, making her laugh, "seene se laga lunga..."