Ishq | (complete)

19 | na-umeed

Kaash woh jaan jata ke nasha to sirf waqti hota hai aur junoon sirf fanaa karta hai. Dono ka anjaam sirf barbadi hota hai. Aur Shehryar ne us waqti aur aarzi janaat ke liye apni deen, duniya, aur ruhaniat sab kuch barbad kar dia.

He wanted to forget, no, he needed to forget to breathe again. He stumbled back towards the bar, asking for enough to drown himself to the point to forget the pain and his existence altogether. Asmara always took from him and even though she wasn't in his life anymore, the mere existence of her memories would take away one good thing that happened to him. His Rapunzel. Only if he knew, but that was the thing. He never knew. He was always too late and too drunk when he would show up at his destruction.

"Laila," He stood shaken as he realized the consequences of his rash behavior. The files fell from Laila's hands, scattering all around him synonymous with what their relationship was to become. Oh, fuck no. He'd bring the hell down to earth before he lost her. "Laila" He tried to reach out to her but she held up her shaking hand.

"Please!" She held on to the door as if it was too hard to stand. The voice as still as ever, but today it was ominously painful. His hands curled in fists as Junaid held her elbow walking her to sit on the sofa while escorting the other lady out of the house, leaving the two to stew in desolation. Her beautiful eyes were filled with grief and he was the one to cause it all.

"Laila!" He followed, but she sat on the sofa her held bent, held between her hands. What have I done? "Laila."

"What? what do you want me to say?" She moved her head, snapping her eyes open at him. Her eyes were brimming with tears, holding the pieces of his forlorn promises. Or that he made a spectacle out of her trust in him. "I trusted you with everything in me. Every hope, every way I could find... I put them all in your hands and trusted you with it." Her eyes let go of the tears she had been trying to hold. They were freely falling on her hands. He'd seen her cry many times before, but not like this. Not helpless and heartbroken like how she was in that moment. His heart cracked watching her so broken like that. He was the cause of all that.

❧❧❧

"I'm sorry." The broken words left his lips, but they were useless now, no matter how many time he said them.

"Sorry doesn't fix anything. This is not your one-night-stand which will get fixed with a sorry and a bouquet. This is about the lives of those hundreds of kids who will have nowhere to go. This about the kids who will be put in danger because you couldn't stay celibate for one night." She stood up, trying to figure something, but everything seemed to be in dark and she had no way out. "What am I going to do? This is all my fault."

"Laila. No-" He took a step towards her but she stepped back as if any closer, his existence would burn her.

"It was a favor. You could have told me if you didn't want to do it. Nobody forced you to do anything. It would have been better if you told me no that day. I would have done something. I would've gone to court or did something, but you robbed me of that time." She snatched her bag and her jaw tightened as she picked up the papers Junaid had collected and put on the coffee table. Her hand curled around the documents, wrinkling them. "Next week they'll be thrown on the road, left to die, and all that is on you." She threw the papers on his face, left him standing in his living room she left with nothing in her hands, but burning tears.

"Inaaya," She called her friend as her voice broke through the phone.

"We'll figure something out." Inaaya held her hand as they sat in Laila's office. Inaaya had come running in her scrubs, with her raven hair tied in a bun. Laila was thankful for her presence as she couldn't go home. Malka would sense her pain from miles no matter how hard she tried to hide. "I'll talk to my Dad, his lawyer will figure something out."