Aashna was walking through one of the corridors of the Hospital, searching for Abeer's room. Reaching the right room, she peeked in through the door's small, see-through glass. She saw Abeer sitting inside, on the bed, writing something in a notebook. His initial smile gradually turned into a frown as he kept on writing and finally closed the pen, only to stare at his notebook. He seemed to be in some deep thought.
Abeer was writing in his diary. He kept reconsidering texting Aashna about her situation back at home but ultimately decided not to. That's when he heard his hospital room's door opening.
"May I visit Your Majesty, if you don't mind, Good Sir?" Aashna entered royally, in an attempt to distract Abeer from whatever his frown-worthy thoughts were.
"OH! Hello. I wasn't expecting you here..." Abeer was surprised to see her there.
"Yeah, me too, honestly." She replied as she scanned the room.
"No one else is here. Come, sit." Abeer offered her a seat right beside his bed.
Aashna sat in front of his open notebook. She kept her bag aside while asking, "You were writing something with such concentration. Even in a hospital. Damn, this motivation."
Abeer chuckled at her words, "Oh no, haha, it's my diary. I was writing about you, actually."
"About me?"
"Yeah, you can read, if you'd like..." He hesitantly passed his diary to her. "Just... don't turn the pages... Please." He added.
"Sure sure." Aashna held the diary and started reading, "[Dear Blossom,] Hey, that's a nice name! [The Art Competition was done amazingly well. I'm really happy with how it all turned out at the end.] Oh yeah, it did! [I hope the same goes for Aashna and Girisha back-]" Aashna stopped reading when she suddenly remembered that canvas made by Abeer.
Someone... no, him. HIM. HE had made a canvas and created an artwork representing HER. It was him, whom she had met not so long ago, but had formed an unusual bond with. No, very usual, actually. Being with him, for her, was as normal as breathing.
Abeer was expecting her to read further but when he saw her in some thoughts, he tilted his head to the side as if to ask her what was wrong. Aashna snapped out and blinked her eyes at the speed of light while struggling to get words out of her mouth. "Uh- uhm..."
Abeer slowly took the diary back from her and closed it before keeping it on the side table. "If you need to hesitate, you might as well say it sometime later, when you're comfortable."
"N- no... I uhm... Thank you! Thanks for that canvas... I don't know what a proper gratitude would be, but-"
"You're welcome. I just did what I admired and what I wanted everyone else to admire." Abeer noticed Aashna thinking hard for a reply, so he extended his words. "You know... I was a little disappointed when I didn't win after all that hard work. But then, that judge... he described my work so beautifully, that I forgot I was there for a competition. I guess that's what an artist craves the most, right? People understanding the sentiments of the artists and finding a piece of the artists in their artworks- what more could one wish for?"
'Is he calling me a piece of him?' Aashna thought to herself.
"Are... you listening?" Abeer asked.
"Ye- Yeah! Agreed. Totally!" Aashna replied almost immediately. 'Stop reading so much fiction you dumb girl,' she thought again, while playing with the hem of her kurti in nervousness.
Abeer chuckled at her reply. "Anyway, how are you here today? And you seem happy too. Things went well at home, I guess?"
"Oh, right. Girisha lied about her shop getting robbed. It was her making me go there and settle things with my parents. I can't say if things went well... but I've decided to make things well. I had a nice conversation with my parents and exchanged some promises. Things don't seem well with YOU. Why are you here?"
"Ah, about that... I sometimes get sugar shootouts. I take care of myself regularly, like going for walks, consuming less sugar, exercising and all... but the last few days I was engrossed so deeply in preparing for the competition that I forgot my health. The sugar thing affected my eyes and yet I kept ignoring it and worked till I strained my eyes. I had my medicines so I'm much better now. Here I'm compensating for all the exertion from days and the food that I missed. It's not that serious, I'll leave today itself. I didn't think we would meet today..."
"Oh, that's a nice coincidence. I had just left home this morning when Muskan told me about you being here. So...here I am... directly from the cab, with my handbag... see?" She lifted her tote bag to show him. It was filled to the brim and looked dangerously heavy.
Abeer saw something green-coloured peaking out amidst all the other stuff. "What's that?" He pointed.
"Oh, I was reading this in the cab. Guess? It's..." She took out the book and kept it in front of Abeer. It was the Panchatantra book. She used to read it whenever she had to take her mind off things. That was her comfort book.
Abeer's eyes glistened, seeing the pretty cover and the prettier pages. The book was fully annotated, and all the favourite lines of Aashna were clearly highlighted.
"I'll show another coincidence." Abeer bent down to pick up his bag from the side of his bed. He handed his Panchatantra book to Aashna. 'I don't know. I just felt like... carrying it with me."
Aashna gladly took the book and opened it. "Oh, yours is annotated, too!" She was happy seeing the book and turned a few pages in excitement. Her eyes involuntarily glanced at Abeer once and locked themselves on his face.
Aashna found him mesmerised by the book. His eyes were shining like those of a baby. He seemed to be reading every single line underlined and highlighted by Aashna and his smile grew wider after every page. The afternoon sun was shining as bright as his eyes, from the window. The sun's rays directly hit his eyes, revealing a deep brown colour of his irises. Their colour was so rich that Aashna finally realised why people write poetries on them.
Abeer was lost in her book, while Aashna was lost in the lost him.
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A/N: I feel this chapter was a little boring... (I think the next one will be boring too T~T)
See you in the next Chapter! Until then, Happy Reading <3
YOU ARE READING
His Favourite Book
General Fiction*MATURE BECAUSE*: It contains serious, sensitive and triggering topics like self-harm, unhealed trauma, assault, murders, etc. Reader discretion is advised. We are all flawed in some way or another, aren't we? How far can we go into our real persona...
