Heart Within Art

Chapter 17: The Sunset.

"You are doing well, Aryan! Your Elo rating is increasing! After two weeks, we have a tournament! You and Charvi are taking part in it!" Anand ordered Aryan.

After months of practice, Aryan was finally stable in his chess games. Anand appreciated his tactics.

But Aryan's mind drifted somewhere else. Whatever happened today was beyond his imagination. He couldn't let go of the image of Ruhi crying in front of him while his hands were curled up into fists and he wasn't able to do anything.

After his class, as he rode his bicycle, his eyes drifted to an ice cream shop, and he halted his cycle. He remembered that Ruhi craved ice cream whenever she felt sad.

He took five minutes, bought a blueberry-flavoured ice cream and a family pack. "I hope she feels a little calm with this," he thought as he looked at the bag he was carrying, which had the ice creams.

Ten minutes later, he reached her house. The door to the apartment was open. He looked inside and saw Vansh sitting on the sofa, reading some kind of book.

"Vansh?"

Vansh looked up from his book, only to find Aryan entering the room before removing his shoes outside.

"Where's Ruhi?" Aryan asked him straight.

Vansh stiffened a little bit because why did he care about Ruhi? He thought Aryan had come to see him.

"Umm... She is sleeping inside her room with Tai and Maushi," Vansh answered.

Aryan handed the ice cream to Vansh and requested, "Once she is awake, give her this to eat!" He then turned back to leave.

Vansh looked at the ice creams and then at the fading figure of Aryan. "Huh?"

...

As Meera caressed Ruhi's hair, Ruhi slept soundly on Meera's lap after crying for hours and hours.

Ishita, who was also tired from the whole day, slept beside Ruhi.

Meera looked at Ruhi's face, which showed nothing but scars from her past. Meera's hand softly glided over Ruhi's eyes, which were still wet.

She exhaled softly. After all these years, her daughter has expirenced only trauma's.

"I am sorry!" Meera slowly whispered as a tear dropped from her eyes.

She looked outside the window at the birds returning to their homes, the sunset spreading its colours after shining brightly for the whole day.

Meera remembered the time when Ruhi suffered bullying at her previous school, which she couldn't find out about until her daughter was on the hospital bed, fighting for her life.

That wasn't enough. The deaths of her dog, grandmother, and father took over her teenage years.

Meera felt an ache in her chest. She felt that, as a mother, she wasn't able to even protect her daughter from all of this.

"I hope your sunset comes one day!" Meera thought while looking at the frame of her and her father posing together for the picture on the wall.

...

Ruhi stretched her body after sleeping for nearly two to three hours. She peeked at the clock, and it showed that it was already seven in the evening.

She slowly rose from her bed, only to feel the pain in her back. She stretched to ease the pain, only to notice that the window of her room was open.

She walked slowly towards it to close the window, only to notice the light from Aryan's house.

She crouched a little, only to see Aryan peacefully sleeping on his table. The chess pieces were scattered around his table.