Broken But Beautiful

51. My Tears Ricochet

Nandini

I parked the car in front of the front door of The Society, not stopping the engine. This was not my last stop today.

I felt his gaze turn at me as I stared ahead.

"I-" I heard him clear his throat, "I think we should stay away-"

I killed the engine. Got out of the car. Hoping he would receive the message.

Manik Malhotra was a smart man- he got the message all right. I heard the passenger door open, and then shut. I got inside the driver's seat, turned the engine on, put the car on reverse.

As I stood in front of the front gate of the Vardhan house, Alya's face lit up into a thousand Christmas lights as she spotted me.

But then they went of all at once.

I got out of the car. I flashed Alya a tired smile, who looked perplexed by my face. In the five seconds that I took to walk to her from the car, my smile broadened, my shoulders slumped, my eyes screwed up and my tears ricochet.

"Nandini? What-"

These were the last coherent words I heard before sinking into her, letting myself go.

Sometimes, being Nandini Murthy was exhausting.

Manik

My head always hurt these days.

I mean, I knew it was a common side effect of staring in front of a good old laptop, but at least the glasses and the coffee and the beer bottles used to help before. Strangely, nothing was helping this time. Aspirin didn't help before, wasn't expecting that it'd help now.

Except for words. Flows of words surging through my fingers, that hammered into the keyboard of the laptop. I was familiar with finger cramp, but what I was doing here was whole other level.

I still wished something helped with the headache though.

But then, sleeping 2 hours average since the last week might have something to do with that.

I stared at the laptop, sitting on the living room floor in the apartment they all were foolish enough to try and turn into my 'home'. This place would never be my home. No wonder I couldn't properly breath here anymore.

Because I was out of the 'illusion', now. What an irony, huh?

I closed my eyes, trying to remember the line I had just thought of two seconds ago. It was Emma's. Emma is finally gathering the courage up to call her mother-

"What is your problem with everything good happening in your fucking life, Manik?"

Staring up, I was blanked for second. Mukti Vardhan was standing in front of me, keys rumbling on her hands.

Wait, when did she come in? Why didn't I hear her come in?

"What-" I staggered on my feet, "Gosh, Mukti. You need to stop using that key to burst into this place like that,"

I blinked my eyes a few times. The sunlight was stark outside, and Mukti looked blurry still. I shook my head, ignoring the blurriness.

The blurrier here, the better- I guess?

"What did you do with Nandini?" She marched behind me towards the kitchen as I opened another beer bottle. It was 2 at noon and it was my second bottle. Well, along with two cups of coffee.

Didn't sound bad to me.

"Manik, I'm asking you something!" She spun me around, "What happened between you and Nandini?"