Have you ever seen a bull spitting fire through its eyes when a red cloth is held in front of it ?? ..have you ...
If you have then now nandini's face is exactly the same as that of a bull raging , aiming manik (poor guy) as she stepped out of her room.
Manik came back to his room all tired of the drama he had to face all day because of soha. She was getting on his nerves no doubt, but it was inevitable. Sighing he removed his tie , blazer followed by his shirt that's when Nandini barged in.
Manik was happy and scared at the same. Happy cause he missed her soo badly all day, only he knew how much he craved for her one look and was scared by looking at her. The look she carried as if she will dig his grave right then and there scared him. He gulped looking at her.
Nandini came in and slammed the door. She came near his side bed table and started searching for something which made manik cring his eyebrows. Nandini opened the lower draw there she found what she wanted, a first aid kit. And this increased maniks curiosity and fear.
Nandini pulled out a cotton and dettol bottle, she kept the box aside and stood up facing manik who stood like a statue at his place. She walked towards him gritting her teeth, her eyes flared.
As soon as she stood in front of him, she pushed him backwards causing manik to fall on bed backwards.
"Nan..." he words dried of when she climbed on his lap , straddling him with her legs on the both side of his hips. Manik was confused till no end. Looking at her after a whole day, his feelings were surfacing. He soo wanted to hold her,kiss her, cuddle her but situation was soo complicated that he didn't know what to do.
Nandini sat on his lap and opened the cap of dettol and dipped cotton in that and started rubbing it on maniks cheek exactly where soha kissed.
"Nandini what are you doing" manik held her arm to stop her. 'Why the hell was she applying dettol on my cheek' was the exact question running in his mind.
"Shut up" came her authoritative voice which made manik shut up that instant.
Nandini rubbed on his cheeks a few more times until she felt that all the soha's germs were off his cheek. She kept the bottle and cotton aside and held maniks nape bringing him close to her face.
"Listen to me Mr. Manik Malhotra and listen to me very carefully, if I ever see any girl touching you or kissing you trust me next time dettol will be replaced by acid" Nandini said in dead tone literally bringing goosebumps on maniks skin.
"Nan-dini " manik managed to speak gulping.
"Do you have anything to say or share" Nandini asked still in dead tone with a ray of of hope that manik might share everything with her.
Manik shook his head in no.
She sighed.
'Stubborn nutcase' first thing that came to her mind.
Nandini stood back on her feet and started walking towards the door that's when manik realised what really happened. He stood up and went behind her and held her arm.
"Nandini wait" he said quickly.
"What" She said turning around gritting her teeth.
"Look I'm sorry ..I ..I ..." he stammered not knowing what to say all he wanted was her to stay with him.
"J" she said.
"Huh"came his confused response.
"After I it's J , I thought you forgot what's after 'I' soo I was reminding you of english alphabets" Nandini replied with pure sarcasm.
Manik controlled himself from rolling his eyes.
He fidgeted badly thinking what to talk , how to make her stay but nothing popped on his mind. He was clueless of what to talk.
Nandini stood there tapping her foot expecting him to say something but seeing at him all fidgeting she rolled her eyes.
After a lot of thinking manik gave up.
"Ahhhh ..i don't know what to say" he said running his fingers in his hairs in frustration.
"You have loads of things to say but you chose not too" her humourless words instantly made him guilty.
"Nan..." Nandini spoke in between.
"Oh !! Why would you even speak to me , you have a GIRLFRIEND right go talk to her, all the words will come out flowing like a river " Nandini said quoting the word 'girlfriend' in air.
Seriously this made manik mad.
"You really believe in all this " manik said gripping both her arms pulling her close.
"If its not true then tell me the truth manik" it was the first time that nandinis tone soften.
Manik instantly left her arms ...
"There is nothing I can say to you Nandini, atleast not right now" manik said pleading through his eyes not to ask anything. Nandinis nostrils flared at this.
"So you wont tell me?? " Nandini said gritting her teeth. Though she knew half-truth she wanted manik to tell her, everything even the part that Cabir doesn't know.
"I ...I can't" manik said caressing his nape.
"FINE ... GO TO HELL" Nandini snapped and was out of his room in no minute leaving him all helpless.
Next Morning...
Nandinis pov...
My head !! It's a dustbin right now filled with soo many things. I soo need a break. That when I decided what all I'm gonna do today. I packed my bag for college , I still had 1 and half hour for college soo I thought of watching any one episode of Castle.
I was about to sit on bed with the remote , I heard a knock.
"Come in"
Mukti peeked in before coming in.
"Good morning" she wished.
"A very good morning madam" I said grinning.
"What brought you to my room soo early in the morning wait let me guess abhi ran away unable to handle you anymore, am I right?" I asked smirking as she came and sat in front of me on the bed.
"Shut up Oki there's nothing like that, abhi would never leave me" she said with a mean look.
"But I'm here for another reason"she said ducking her head down.
"And what is it ??" I asked raising my eyebrow.
"I'm sorry" came her guilty filled words.
A wrinkle formed on my forehead.
"Why sorry mukti ??" I asked taking her hand in mine.
"For snapping at you yesterday, you were just making me feel better but me as dumb as I am snapped at you for no reason, I'm really sorry " awwwww...that's the first word which crossed my mind. She's such a cutie pie and on the other side her monster brother. Huh !!
"Hey !! Don't be sorry Oki , even it's my fault too I was insensitive at that time, I should have behaved according to the situation" I said my point.
"No ..don't be sorry actually you were correct , we were soo disturbed by Bhai's statement that we couldn't think beyond that. Thanks to you for enlightening us" she said gripping my hand smiling.
I smiled back.
"Soo we are good ??" She asked nervously.
"Hah !! Too much of formalities to take in bitch but yeah we are good" I said with wink making her chuckle. Laugh suits her a lot.
"Hey there is another thing I wanted to discuss" she said sitting comfortably.
"Sure ..what is it ??" I asked.
"Actually abhi and I planned for our engage-....." I cut her words in the middle.
"Oh my god!! Oh my god !!Oh my god !! I totally forgot about that" exclaimed, obvio its my bestiies engagement yar, come on.
"Shhh !! Calm down jumping bean ..let me complete at least " she shh'ed me, eventually I calmed down nodding at her to continue.
"Abhi asked the pandit (priest) about the dates and all before letting our parents in , that's when pandit gave a date on coming Monday ...." again I couldn't handle my excitement. She specifically said coming Monday as today is Tuesday.
"Thats great!! oh my god " I jumped on my bed, mukti hit her forehead.
"But there is a problem " that caused me to stop jumping.
"What problem ??"
"Look, we thought everything fell back to their place and now we don't have any problems soo we could get engaged happily but what happened yesterday ruined it all, that soha !! God!! Why does she had to come back and ruin everything. Everything was just perfect and that witch couldn't handle it and jumped in to destroy it. " She said spitting fire.
"Mukti I don't get how soha is a problem for your engagement" I asked her.
"Nandu how the hell will I get happily engaged when my brother is stuck with that soha" she sighed.
"Mukti first stay calm Oki, look what's going on between manik and soha is none of our business, I don't know whether soha is doing something to ruin thing or not but you, yourself are ruining your plans. Don't let her bother anything, stop thinking that even she exists. Just concentrate on you and abhi , manik can take care of himself he has Cabir ('and me' I wanted to add) for his help. So stop worrying about him" I stuffed some brain into her. I don't understand why she keeps others ahead of her own self.
" so should I talk to mom dad about this ??" She asked still in dilemma.
"Arre duffer, your still asking , wait let me dial " I took my phone out and dialed uncles number.
Uncle picked up the call.
"Hello princess " he greeted cheerfully.
"Hey uncle, how are you it's been soo long that we spoke " I pouted at the end.
"I'm fine baccha (child), I'm just busy with the work load over here " he said sighing.
"Don't stress yourself more uncle and haa mukti is over here wait I will put on speaker" I turned on the speaker.
"Hey dad" mukti greeted.
" Hey mukti , how are you baccha(child) ??" He asked.
"I'm fine dad , how is everything going on there ??" She asked.
"Everything is fine here except work load , it's tiresome actually I thought of calling both of you at night but you guys only did" he said.
"And mom ??" She asked.
"Wait she was here only ....nyonika ( he called her) ..here she is " he said , I guessed turned on the speaker.
"Hey babies , how are you both ??" She asked.
"We're fine " we said in chorus.
"Aww I miss you both" aunty said.
"We miss you too aunty but your daughter has something to say " I said in excitement.
"Really what is it " uncle answered.
"Dad me and abhi ..th..thought of engagement" she said getting nervous. Uff !! Soo girly.
"Haa I know beta(child) , abhi's parents called yesterday that's why I wanted to call you at night " he said calmly.
"You knew" we both said in chorus + shock.
"Haa baba that's what he said " aunty said.
"But how " mukti said getting confused.
"Dumbhead !! Obvio abhi would have informed his parents " I said knocking on her head.
"Oww" she said rubbing her head slightly glaring at me.
"And here is the thing, as time is less we ordered all the things required for the engagement , today evening we are having Skype chat with abhi's parents to discuss about the ritual stuff and engagement will be held for 3 days " uncle informed.
"3 days"again we said chorus.
"Of course man !! It's Raj Malhotra's one and only daughter's engagement, it's obviously going to be a huge event" uncle said proudly making us smile.
"Soo what all events will be held in 3 days ??" I asked.
"First day will be the pooja, as now manik is in talking terms with me, nyo and mukti and even he came out of his shell back to his old self , your aunty wanted to keep a Pooja for the family well being " he said. Both mukti and me stilled. They don't know about soha. Shit !!
We both looked at each other with scared emotions. We don't know what will happen when they will find out.
"And next day there will be a cocktail party and third day will be the engagement" he said. Umm plan is nice.
"As in for now we have decided this much , further things we will decide after talking to abhi's parents. Don't worry nyonika will inform manik about this " he said.
"Thats great uncle, muktis engagement's gonna be huge blast" I said in excitement. Mukti smiled wholeheartedly.
"And haa as we are busy over here we will arrange an event manager to take care of events " he said.
"What !! No uncle ..it's muktis engagement and we want to make arrangements ..." I whined.
"But princess you have college" he said sweetly.
"So what , we all are there na Oki fine today will ask everyone and inform you, if they say yes then we all are in" I said demanding.
"Pakka princess" he said.
"But dad when are you guys coming " mukti asked.
"On Saturday baccha " aunty answered.
"Oki then we will discuss everything tomorrow now it's my college time" I said glancing at my watch.
"Haa beta ..take care of each other, bye" both said and cut the call.
"Soooo..."mukti said fidgeting.
"Congratulations" I said jumping on her taking her into a bear hug.
"Thank you" she said locking her arms around me.
I went to college after the time I spent with mukti. I didn't want to see manik due to yesterday's event and to my luck I didnt see him. Classes ended in the evening , I knew mukti will be celebrating with others as she told me she will inform everyone and I wasn't in a mood to be alone. Soo I choose to visit the hospital.
The hospital where rishab stays. I think mukti visited him in the afternoon to share her happiness. Thinking of that my lips broke into a smile.
Today I drove the car myself , informing ramu kaka that I don't need his services today. He hesitated but I assured him that I will be fine. I took some chocolates on the way and some balloons as I heard Rishab loves balloons and chocolates.
I went to his room to find him playing with some board game moving the pawn aimlessly. My heart constricted at the sight. Now I understand how manik and mukti might have felt looking at their sibling like this.
I brought the smile back on my face and entered the room.
"Hey rishab "........
®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®®
I don't know for how long I have been playing with Rishab. I mean he is the cutest soul I have ever seen. The way he talks , the way he murmurs, the way he pouts when doesn't understand what I'm saying is too cute. Today for sure we both got along too well. He was happy playing with me and me too.
All the headache, all the pain i was going through was just gone. I was at peace spending time with this pure soul.
"Mam it's time for Rishab to sleep" nurse informed me. From the evening she was admiring me and Rishab the way we played everything. She is a sweet person.
I smiled and nodded.
"Take care young man and I will be back soon" I said kissing his forehead. His eyes became sad. Even I felt sad. But I had to leave.
I waved a bye and made my way out after receiving a smile from him.
Spending time with Rishab was refreshing , truly I felt light hearted. No worries no nothing. Spending time with that innocent soul made me innocent for a while.
Yeah right 😏😏
Hey I was trying to be innocent!!
I glanced at time in the car, it's 10pm. It's not like anyone will be waiting for me. I shook my head, I don't want to think about him.
I parked the car in front of the house, driver came to take the car key to park car in the garage and I gave him.
Uh-oh, runnin' out of breath, but I
Oh, I, I got stamina
Uh-oh, running now, I close my eyes
Well, oh, I got stamina
And uh-oh, I see another mountain to climb
But I, I, I got stamina
Don't give up, I won't give up
Don't give up, no no no
Don't give up, I won't give up
I was humming the song to myself as I entered the house but stopped on my tracks.
Everyone, I mean everyone were in the living room. All girls looked worried ,all boys except manik sat on the sofa trying to call someone I guess. They all looked worried. Manik was pacing from left to right tapping on the phone and kept it near his ears. I cringed my eyebrows. What the hell is going on here.
I stepped in and started walking, everyone's eyes snapped towards as they heard my heals sound. I took my phone out only to find 58 missed calls, soo they are worried about me. Soon everyone breathed out looking at me except one. Manik.
His eyes were furious , he was glaring at me as if he will burn a hole in my eyes. ahh !! As If I care.
I walked towards them as if nothing happened.
Manik ➡ angry, Nandini ➡ cool ..not a good combination. Ready for some heated I mean hot fight.