His Favourite Book

Chapter 9 - Aashna, Please!!

Trigger Warning: Slight build up towards a serious fight (with a weapon).

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Aashna desperately searched everywhere on the road, but it seemed like they were already gone. She walked a bit further in hopes of finding them. She had reached the front of the ChaiScript Book Cafe when she heard the bike and screaming sounds from a distance. She saw their headlights shining through the other end of her sight. She stood, right in the middle of the road, tightening her grip on the wood timber, at her side. She spread her arms to make her presence known. The road was empty, at least no one to their knowledge, around. The bikers, still yelling, came near her. As expected, they lowered their speeds expecting her to move out of their way. But as adamant as she was, not her, but they had to give in and stop, just a few feet away from her. She had constant, confident eye contact with them, whose faces were hidden under helmets. She walked towards them.

"So you finally have the basic decency of stopping when you see someone on the road. Good. At least y'all are wearing helmets too." She said, still throwing a death stare at them.

A girl, sitting in the backseat, took off her helmet and replied, with unhindered arrogance, "Girl, you better get out of this way. It's not good for your physical health, ya know?"

"Oh, I know! I also know a lot more than you, kiddo. You seem to be a minor. How old are you? Old enough to bear the pain of this?" Aashna smirked, eyeing the wood piece.

"Woah woah there, miss. That kid was too slow. He had it coming. But guess you are asking for it. With all this threatening shit." A boy who was driving another bike got off it and moved towards her while unbuckling his helmet. He was about to hit her head with the same helmet when she held it from the other side with her left hand, "So you are in fact the culprit." Aashna threw the helmet behind her and heard a cracking sound. The helmet's glass probably shattered, but she couldn't care less. The boy, shocked, ran towards his helmet. It was heavy and was thrown really far away. It was a strong throw, given she had used her non-dominant hand. Even the others were out of words for a few seconds and couldn't move. Aashna used up these few seconds and turned to chase the boy.

"You're indeed still a kid, caring for that helmet amidst an ongoing fight. Now YOU have asked for it!" She raised the wood timber to hit him. Just then, two arms grabbed her stomach tightly and picked her up, taking her away from the boy. The idea of looking behind to see who it was, didn't occur to her. She continued arguing, "Who are you to care about my physical health after ruining the mental health of so many people!!"

"AASHNA LEAVE THEM!" shouted the person who was still holding a restless Aashna in the air. She kept throwing her hands and legs to get off the hold, but it was pretty strong. "THEY'RE KIDS! DON'T HIT THEM!"

She was kept down and turned. Her anger-filled face softened into one with confusion spread over it. "Abeer?" She mumbled seeing him there.

Meanwhile, the kids hastily tried running away from the scene. Aashna turned her face and pointed the wood piece towards them, shouting, "HEY! Stop right there you-"

Abeer held her cheeks to keep her eyes on him. "No! Please!" She shook her face in refusal but before she could reply to him, they heard the police siren nearing them. They looked at the police jeep at the corner where the helmet had fallen. Abeer tapped her right shoulder with his left hand and assured her, "The police are here. Please don't do this."

Abeer's face was shining because of the jeep's headlights falling directly on it. He saw Aashna squinting her eyes in the blinding light, so he raised his left hand from her shoulder up in the air, to cover her face from the light. He saw her half-angry, half-confused face and again said, but this time, in a soft whisper, "The police will take care of it. Okay?"

Aashna was still quietly gazing at him. He used this moment to slowly take away the wooden log from her right hand, into his right hand, without her noticing, and repeated, "Tell me! Okay?"

"Okay." She said inaudibly.

"Louder?"

"Okay!"

"AASHNA!" Kartik and Muskan came running and panting towards them. "We kept searching all over! Here you are!"

Muskan saw the police forcing some kids to get into the jeep. "You... you didn't hit them, right? They won't arrest you, RIGHT?"

Aashna left a sigh, "No." She looked down only to see that her hand was empty and that the wood was in Abeer's hold.

All of them went towards the police jeep. All the helmets were off by now. Their faces could be seen ever so clearly, thanks to the jeep's strong headlights. Aashna finally recognised them. "You all are... those? School kids from the cafe?" They looked at each other while getting the handcuffs on. They recognised her, too, from the same cafe they used to meet at.

The officer in charge told Abeer and Aashna to be at the police station. Kush's parents were called, as well.

- X - X - X - X - X -

[3 am, Aashna's house]

"So? What happened there?" Muskan asked, handing Aashna a glass of water. She drank a few sips when she saw Kartik with folded hands, death staring right into her soul. She coughed and looked away from him.

"Yes... so... apparently they were bunking their school to meet at the cafe. They were planning on their supposedly fun routes to drive their bikes. Not really theirs, they were gifted bikes by their parents. Those extremely rich and influential people, you know? With political contacts and all. Feared by everyone. Stupid people. Now their children will be punished for harming a child, for scaring the local people, for driving without a licence, while being a minor, at that, and some other charges I don't remember. Kush's parents were furious, as they should be. Oh, and Abeer went home. Kartik told you about him, right? He said that he had heard the bikers and came down to avoid any further mishaps, and succeeded, I guess?"

"Yeah. On time. Only he could calm you down, perfectly, that too." Kartik said, still staring angrily at her.

"That he did. He called the police on time and he was also- DUDE STOP PIERCING THROUGH ME LIKE THAT! God, you're scary! The wrongdoers needed to be scolded, so why am I wrong?" Aashna couldn't keep on the topic.

"YOU were scary there! And what scolding? You almost thrashed them!"

"Stop it, you both." Muskan calmly said. She was used to them bickering like this, anywhere, anytime. "Aashna, your evening power nap was too powerful, Turns out."

Kartik left for his home. Muskan took off her neck support from the fractured hand and slept. Aashna sat to study in her regular habitat, with a table lamp and camphor diffuser. She was left with 3 days to use all the books she had borrowed. However, her mind had different plans. She was still stuck in the moment when Abeer grabbed her face to stop her. They had barely met enough times for this, but his touch somehow felt soft to her. She stopped only because he had asked her. To whom was she to lie? He saved her from doing something extremely wrong. To top it all, he looked ethereal while doing so. She remembered how he stared into her eyes with a face lit up by distant lights and hair flowing in gentle winds, how he covered her face to protect her from the bright light.

Meanwhile, Abeer was thinking the same. It was way past his bedtime but the thoughts of the night bugged him too much to be asleep. He laid down on his bed, fully covered up in his blanket, and stared at the ceiling. He couldn't forget Aashna's confused face when she kept looking back at him before she could utter a simple 'okay'. He slowly brought his hands up, out of the blanket, and looked at them, recalling their touch. 'I hope it was not weird for her...' He was lost in overthinking. He wondered what would've happened had he not called the police on time.

Suddenly he realised what he was busy imagining. He closed his eyes tightly as if wishing to disappear, kicked under the blanket in shame and forced himself to sleep.

The night was long and none of them wanted it to end.

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A/N: Got too cheesy I think... (lol)

See you in the next chapter! Until then, happy reading <3