ABHIRA: THE RULE BREAKER'S GIRL

CH11 I GOT YOU...!!

“Sir, I can still let Abhimanyu Sir know on his headset, and we can fall back to Plan B for the schedule.” The event coordinator flipped through the pages of the schedule.

“You will do no such thing. Abhimanyu will want me to leave as well.

No change,” Vansh ordered.

Akshara put her hand on Vansh’s shoulder.

“Can you sing when you are…”

She had a tough time maintaining her voice when she spoke, and she could not imagine the pressure Vansh would feel while he was performing when his mother was in critical condition. She was still in post-surgery care, and they did not expect anything like this to happen when the procedure was successful.

“I’ll be fine.” Vansh nodded at the event coordinator and walked over to the setup area.

Akshara followed him, worried about Vansh, but she kept her concerns to herself for that moment. She took a few minutes to gather herself, sending silent prayers for Vansh’s mother’s recovery.

She kept her eyes on Vansh for any signs of stress, so she could work with the event coordinator to change the schedule so only Abhimanyu and she would perform. It was part of the protocol that Abhimanyu had formulated for each one of the performances.

She was relieved when Vansh maintained his composure, song after song, and they were on the last song of the night with Abhimanyu and Vansh performing. Abhimanyu was on the guitar and Vansh was on vocal, and it was one of Vansh’s mother’s favourite songs.

Halfway through the song, Akshara noticed the wobble in Vansh’s voice, and her stomach coiled in response to the sadness. She knew his voice was going to weaken further, but there was no way to change the plan at that point. The event coordinator froze, visibly recognizing the shift in Vansh’s voice.

Akshara looked at Abhimanyu, who was now looking at Vansh, but his friend had his eyes on the crowd.

Akshara thought of something. “Get me a microphone, I can sing this song. It’s classical, and Abhimanyu will not—”

Her words were lost when they heard the tempo of the song change, and Akshara didn’t need to look to see who was singing. It was Abhimanyu, and it had been almost ten years since she had heard him sing a classical song.

Her heart came alive just like the crowd as if they remembered how good he was with classical music. She closed her eyes, taking in the magic in his voice as he continued to sing. She opened her eyes to find Abhimanyu standing next to Vansh, his arm around his friend’s shoulder as he sang.

The crowd went crazy when Vansh joined his voice with Abhimanyu’s, and the remaining moments were a magical concoction of the best voices of that generation of singers for an elevated experience.

Akshara blinked away happy tears as the men hugged each other singing in a single voice. The audience erupted just like the team on the stage. Vansh and Abhimanyu picked up the song from the top when the crowd cheered for an encore, and Akshara looked in amazement as one of the backup band members went to Abhimanyu to take the guitar from him to play, so he could sing with his friend.