~Don't Let Go~
Bipolar : A disorder associated with mood swings ranging from depressive lows to manic highs.
I don't know about depressive lows but manic highs? That's a definite case here.
For about a second I watch Manik's face exhibit a range of too many expressions.
From a deadly smirk to a little confused to a little in thoughts to finally settling onto the realization of something horrid.
From a cocky son of Satan to a scaredy cat.
I am unable to point a finger at what exactly does these string of expressions mean but I realise I'm also the least interested in doing so especially after getting myself humiliated by this arse of a person.
So without meaning to ask him to throw a light at his colorful range of facial acts, I turn around on my feet and take a step closer to the door.
Just as soon as my hand touches the door knob, it leaves it too.
Why?
Because some external unwanted force jerks me away from my place right into his cologne layered hard as a rock chest, my back aligned with his front.
My eyes widen in reflex and I start to scream, "Wh-"
"SSHH!" But I fail.
Manik presses his palm to my mouth, sending my voice back to my voice box.
"Don't make a sound." He whispers.
"Manik." The voice outside in the basketball court grows louder and closer.
I move awkwardly in his hold, trying to push his hand off my mouth but he being the hulk I being small, I fail in achieving success.
"Stop moving!" He whisper shouts.
But not giving a damn about the instructions given to me, I continue to squeal and squirm under his hold.
I think I should add this activity ; squirming and squealing while being held captive, in my daily routine because this kind of an instance happened with me yesterday once and today, twice. I think I should now be used to it.
"Stop it Nandini!" Manik hushes furiously.
My muffled voice tries to communicate with this jerk but obviously nothing comes out coherently to even make slightest bit of sense.
And like hell I'm gonna stop. He has no control over me.
But before I start to protest again, Manik whispers into my ear, "I'll leave you, okay? I'm leaving you now but don't make a voice and don't move a step outside this room."
I swear to God when I say this that I am trying my level best to not let his hot breath fanning my ear affect me but I can't help myself at all.
I need him to stay away from me because only I am aware of the things that his proximity does to me and my insides.
"I need you to nod if you agree to do what I said and I'll leave you." He breaths into my ear once again and I nod immediately.
Manik cautiously removes his hand from my mouth and starts to move away from me, allowing Mr. Oxygen to happily slither into my system.
This is the distance that he should maintain from me for me to function normally and not like a psychotic love-struck baboon!
Not that I am love-struck. Just saying.
I take a few deep breaths and turn back to face him for a deep question and answer session but I find Manik walking away from me hiding somewhere behind a locker.
He peeps from behind that locker and tells me, "Do not shout."
"What?" I frown.
"I'm gonna switch the lights off."
"What? Why?" I stare at him with my eyes wide open.
"Are you in the locker room?" The guy's voice sounds closer than before and with that Manik switches the light's off.
"Manik!" I whisper.
"Don't freak out. Just walk to me." He says quietly.
"I can't see, you asshole." I grit, getting restless already.
"Nandini just walk straight." He whispers.
"W-where?" I look aimlessly into the darkness and stay affixed to my spot.
"Ugh. What the fuck did I do to deserve this today?" He mutters thinking it's not audible to me, but it very much is.
"I heard that you jerk! Shouldn't it be me saying that anyway?" I whisper shout.
In the next second Manik tugs on my arm and drags me along with him. I follow stumbling twice on my feet until my head hits a wall to which Manik pushes me into.
"Ouch!" I retrieve my hand back from his hold and rub the back of my head.
"Shush!" Manik hushes as he takes his place in front of me.
There's not much that I can see in the darkness besides Manik who stands hovering above me.
"You have some nerve ordering me around after all you are making me go through." I grit, "That hurt, by the way, and-" I begin to continue but once again I find my mouth being covered with his palm.
"He's coming here Nandini and I want you to shut up your blabbering for once!" He orders with his eyes wide open starting back at me and all I can do is stare back in silence.
I don't know what he is trying to do but I think it's something really important to him.
But I shouldn't even care.
But he seems way to serious about this.
But again, I shouldn't even care.
Manik removes hand from over my mouth and I decide to keep shut. Just then we hear the door of the locker room open, "Definitely not here." The guy says to himself and then we hear the door close.
Manik titlts his head backwards, "He's going." He curses under his breath.
"You wanted that." I whisper to him.
"No." He says and moves away from me in a rush.
"NO!" I quickly tug on his arm pulling him back, "Don't leave me alone you dumbass!"
"Just wait here. This is important."
"No. Stick your feet to this ground Manik. If you leave me in this dark creepy room, I swear I will ruin whatever you are up to. I'll shout and tell that guy you're here and whatever you're planning on doing will fall apart." I warn him.
Manik runs his hand through his hair in frustration and sighs.
"Come with me." He says taking my hand and pulling me along with him.
But as soon as we get two steps ahead of our previous spot another voice fills into the air of the basketball court and Manik stops.
"Sam."
And this time it's a girl.
"Rhea?" Sam -that guy- says, sounding not as relieved as Manik does.
"Thank God she came." His hold on my hand loosens and he heaves a breath of relief.
"What is going on here?" I ask, more confused now than ever.
First comes a guy, that is Sam and Manik gets all tensed up. Then comes this girl.. I think Sam called her Rhea, and Manik suddenly relaxes.
"Ma-"
"Don't say a word until they're both gone. Okay?" He interrupts.
"But-"
"What are you doing here?" Sam's voice cut's through the air and I decide it's best to shut up for sometime.
"I came to talk to you." Rhea replies.
"How did you know I was here?"
"Where else do you ever go to? You're either here or with Manik. I called him up and he said you weren't with him so the next best place was here."
"Damn you Rhea! Are you serious right now?" Manik mumbles.
"Why do you even try when you know you suck at this?" Sam says.
"At what?"
"Lying."
"I'm not ly-"
"Manik called me up and asked me to meet here. If you were going to try then you should have thought of a better lie, Rhea."
Sam sounds damn agitated.
"Sam-"
"Manik set this up. Right?" Sam confirms or morelike just puts it out there like he already knows.
I look up at Manik who's eyes are closed tight and his lips are pressed together into a thin line.
"What is going on?" I whisper to Manik but he doesn't answer me back.
"He is just trying to help." Rhea says.
"Help? You call this help?"
"Sam-"
"He's such a- I'm going to kill him!"
"Sam, you need to hear me out." Rhea pleads.
"What?" Sam shouts furiously. "What more do I need to hear or see, Rhea? What more is left for you to show to me?!"
Looks like there's a lot of drama coming up here. But why am I an audience to this again?
"Can you please just talk to me once! It's been two weeks and you haven't even talked to me properly." Rhea sounds so desperate right now.
"Do you think I should be talking to you after what you did?" Sam asks.
"I think you should listen to me for once. You don't even know what I have to say to you." She says.
"That's because I don't want to." He disapproves harshly.
"Manik thinks you should. He heard me out. Why can't you?"
"Because Manik wasn't an audience to his girl and some random guy's make-out session, Rhea!" Sam shouts and my eyes dart towards Manik who's looking right back at me.
"Manik doesn't know how it feels to have been torn apart like I was at the sight of you and whoever that fucking guy was! He thinks he can share my pain and misery but he can't. This is mine and mine alone to deal with. He can't understand or even imagine what I went through and I hope he never does."
I think I already know what Manik is thinking but because I have been wrong about him so many times in the past few days, I don't want to just assume anything anymore. So I move my eyes away from Manik and zoom into the conversation on the otherside of the door.
And anyway, I am not his girl. Maybe I never was and maybe I never can be.
"Okay. You don't trust me. I get it. But you do trust Manik, right?" Rhea asks.
Wrong decision on that. Take it from me, this guy is a certified liar.
"I don't know if I can because he played me too. He called me here and now where is he? I think he and I need to have a serious talk now."
Good thinking, Sam.
"Fuck." Manik curses under his breath.
"I think I agree with him." I whisper causing Manik to look at me in annoyance.
"What? He's right."
"And what would you know about me Nandini?"
"Enough to tell that you're an evil manipulator and a liar."
"A manipulator?" He shoots me a bizarre look.
"Yes." I nod and remove my eyes off his face.
Liar. Liar. Liar.
He's just full of lies and empty promises.
I hear Manik mumble something to himself but it's not loud enough for me to be able to hear it.
"I was not supposed to be a part of this but thanks to you and your constant blabbering and assuming stupid stuff, we're both stuck here. And now unless they don't go away, we can't either. So shut up and stick to your place for however long they decide to argue upon this." He whispers back.
What the hell.
"You're accusing me of this?"
"Yes, I am."
"So why didn't you just leave me right here?"
"I think that would have been better!"
"Fine then."
"Fine."
"I'm leaving." I tell him and the same time I hear the same words echoing in the background but in a much lower pitch.
"Sam please, I said I am sorry. " Rhea sniffs.
Manik scoffs, "You can't get through two steps alone in this darkness."
That seems funny to him? He's making fun of me? Oh this little so tall shithead.
"Watch me." I grit.
I turn back around and flick all the switches on the switchboard behind me, turning the lights onn and sprint towards the door before Manik can get a hold of me.
Twisting the knob, I open the door and barge into the tension filled air of the basketball court.
Sam and Rhea turn to face me, both of them looking as startled as anyone could be.
"Nandini?" Sam frowns.
"Who is she?" Rhea looks back and forth between Sam and me.
"I'm no threat to you. Don't look at me like that. I am not associated to your boyfriend or 'ex' in any way." I answer to the overflowing questions in her brain because the look on her face clearly says that this is the first thing that came to her mind.
"Were you hiding out in there?" Sam asks as I head over to the middle of the court to retract my phone from the floor.
"Yes. Because I've got nothing more to do in this world than to hide out in that stupid locker room with that jerk of a person." I mumble to myself.
I really wanted to say that out loud but Sam isn't the one who's done bad to me. The guy hardly knows me. Plus he was the same guy who pulled Manik out of Karan's face that other day in the canteen.
From the looks of it, this guy seems the most decent of all and right now, also the most heartbroken.
I'm no Manik Malhotra to go all heartless and rough on a person already having a bad day, so I decide to keep shut but not before I tell him this one thing.
I turn around to face Sam once again, "I really want to pretend I heard nothing but unfortunately I did hear a lot of things. And even though you'd want me to stay out of this because, who am I to interfere and blah blah.. but, I think everyone deserves a second chance."
Sam shakes his head in denial, "You don't know anything."
"I actually kind of heard everything you guys were saying. So I think I do know something." The same moment Manik walks out of the locker room without making a noise and stands in front of the door behind Sam telling me to shut up already.
But screw you Manik.
"No one get's it right the first time." I continue, "There's always a mess up or something to ruin it for you and that is why second chances exist. Sometimes people don't even ask for it yet you tend to give them multiple chances because you think they can still change, because you believe things can change and to be honest, it's all about what you believe in."
I fix my eyes to Manik and find him looking back at me through every word I say.
Because I know he knows that he is the person I have multiple second chances in store for and no matter what he does or how far he pushes me away, I always bounce back with another second chance for him.
I know there's something very very odd about all what he is doing.
He's a puzzle.
A maze.
Something that I can't solve.
Something that I can't escape.
Because when I want to, he won't let me and when he wants me to, I won't let myself.
"Are you sure it's something you wanted to say to me or something that you've been holding in for long?" Sam replies, bringing my attention back to him.
"It's something that I think everyone should know about." I tell him, "I think you should consider it. Just a girl to guy advice." I give him a small smile before taking one look at Manik.
He's just standing there hard as a rock. Like a heartless, non-living yet breathing creature and all I can wonder is, why is he so hard to get through?
Why is everything so complicated with him?
What is his story?
"A girl to guy advice, huh?" Sam smiles from the corner of his mouth.
Damn. I know he's someone else's love interest but the dude is just as hot and cute as Ma-
What?
Nothing.
"Nandini, should I too give you a guy to girl advice?" Sam asks.
"I guess?" I shrug.
"No, it's more like a bestfriend to another bestfriend advice."
Catching on the hint he throws, my eyes drift towards Manik who's eyes are on the verge on popping out their sockets.
"S..sure." I look back at Sam.
"Don't let go."
"W..what?"
"Don't let go because you haven't lost anything or anyone."
-----
Hey guys! I'm kinda back! Yay.
You all wanted a chapter so badly that I had to post this. I had most of this written already since December to be honest, but I had thought a thousand times to replace this chapter and put some other scene in here. But I couldn't really think of something else so soon and I had to post because I promised ya'll so I just tried my best to modify it.
And btw, I love Sam more than I love Manik. Because even though Nandini did intrude, he didn't stop her from saying what she had to say to him even though he was at his worst at that time. And he didn't lash out on her either.
And he takes every opportunity to sail the MaNan ship! 😂
He's like a true calm person. I love him tbh. He's a true babe, you'll see 😉
Hope you like this one.
Next up MANIK'S POV!
I will try to post another one whenever I can but no promises yet.
Do comment and vote!