Cricketer - 'A Story Of Love'

21

"Healing is a choice. It's not an easy one because it takes work to turn around your habits. But keep making the choice and shifts will happen. "  

I woke up feeling warm. I looked around me to notice that I was in the medical room. The nurse walked towards me with a small smile on her face and helped me up. She handed me some medicines and gave me water.

"He really likes you, you know?" she said while taking the glass of water from my hands.

"Who?" I asked dumbly.

"The guy who brought you here." I didn't know who she was talking about so I chose to ignore her. I remembered about my brother and the news. I started getting up as tears found their way to my eyes. I don't know what to do. He is in a different country altogether. I don't even know if bhabhi knows about this. The nurse stopped me from getting up.

"No no, stop. You can't get up right now."

"No, I need to go, I need to see if m brother is alright." I said as looked for my shoes. 

"Hey, hey, everything's gonna be alright. Your brother is gonna be fine. You need rest, please lay down." She said while keeping her hands on my shoulder and pushing me down.

"Why don't you understand I need to see my brother?!" I yelled at her and immediately felt guilty for shouting on a lady as sweet as her.

"Please stop, I'll have to inject you if you don't." She said while stopping me.

"Let me go." I started shouting, asking for her to leave me. I started crying vigorously as my body started shaking. I was getting out of control. The thought of losing my brother made me lose my mind. I can't afford to lose him, he is my only family. As I kept on crying and shouting for help, the door of the medical room flew open.

I looked at the door to see Abhay walk in. Without thinking anything, I took a leap and ran towards him. I wrapped my arms around his neck tightly and rested my head on his shoulder. I started crying. I felt him grow stiff under my touch, but he relaxed eventually.

"Please take me home Abhay. I want to go home. Please take me home." I begged him. He nodded his head and wrapped his arms around my waist.

"What did you do to her?" He growled at the nurse.

I held his shirt in tight fists while shaking my head, as if trying to say that it wasn't her fault. I stayed in his embrace, because it was making me feel safe.

"No Abhay, please take me home. Please." I said as tears kept running down my cheeks.

He sighed and put one of his arm below and the other around my shoulders and picked me up bridal style. As he mad his way out of the college, with me in his arms, I could feel all the eyes on me, but I couldn't care any less. I just wanted to be home. I craved him, all these months that I spent without him came running down on me. 

He made his way to his bike, he placed me in front of him. I know I was being needy, but it didn't matter, as long as he was with me and he didn't have any problem. All the way, till home, people were giving us looks, some were filled with adoration, while others were not. Abhay didn't seem affected.

As soon as I reached home, I saw a huge crowd in front of my house. The media was standing in front of it, waiting for someone to answer their questions, but little did they know that the house was empty. I didn't have any other choice but to enter the house. As soon as the security spotted me, they stood like barriers around me. Abhay too kept me protected. He held my and lead my way inside the house. The media didn't understand a thing abut privacy.

As soon as I entered the house, Abhay closed the door behind me. I didn't feel awkward having him with me, even though too much shit went down between us. I turned on the news, and pictures of the wrecked bus, videos of the accident kept on displaying. There was a picture of stretchers being taken into the ambulance. I couldn't control my tears knowing that one of them way my brother, my only family.

Abhay noticed me crying and sat down beside me. He took my hand in his and wrapped an arm around my shoulder. He soothingly rubbed my shoulders and we drifted off in silence. It was comforting.

I got up to get something to eat for me and him, and Abhay too accompanied me to the kitchen. As soon as we got up, the door of the house opened, and I saw Mayank on the door. He ran towards me and engulfed me in a hug. I was happy to have him him here with me, in this difficult time.

He pulled away and looked behind me. I turned around to see Abhay standing there, glaring at Mayank.

"Abhay, meet Mayank. Mayank meet Abhay." I said acting completely oblivious to the fact the I knew, they know each other.

"I think, I should leave." Said Abhay abd started making his way out. I quickly grabbed his arm to stop him.

"No, stay."