Last chapter before Epilogue.
Howdy! Enjoy!
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(Rohan's POV)
I stared at Shanaya, stunned and unable to say something. I felt my vision being blurred for a moment and I blinked rapidly to make it clear. For a couple of seconds I sat there, completely forgetting myself before it finally hit me.
Abhi was in love with me.
My best friend for fifteen years was in love with me.
The fact that Abhi loved me, did not make me more surprised than the fact that I never understood it. This all time Abhi loved me but I never noticed. The care, the friendship, the understanding nature, the staying beside me through thick and thin-- they were all there because he was in love with me.
Surprisingly it did not hit me like a tide. It felt more surreal, more common, like it was meant to happen. But the big question still remained.
Was I in love with Abhi?
A sudden groaning sound broke me out of my reverie. I looked where Shanaya had taken Abhi and forcefully laid him down. She was grinding on Abhi, a cruel smirk of lust plastered on her face. She snaked her hand into Abhi's shirt and stroked his pectoral muscles. Abhi flinched at the touch and tried to break free but because of two of Shanaya's men holding his hand, he could not do so.
"Tsk, Abhi, don't try to break free. For whom you're trying so hard? For Rohan? Look into his eyes then." She said and gripped Abhi's jaw before turning his head in my direction. She then leaned onto him where her lips almost touched his ears.
Our eyes met. Mine and Abhi's. And I did not know what Abhi saw in my eyes but in the first time in my life, I saw his eyes glistening in water. The intense pain and shame were so potent in his eyes that it suffocated me. A single drop of tear trailed down from the side of left eye and he gulped. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down.
My inside churned. Abhi's was so much in pain that it was even hurting me. And I did not need someone to tell me why my best friend was in pain. He was hurt because Shanaya was forcing herself on him. He was hurt because he thought I hated him. He thought that I thought he betrayed me. His unconditional love towards me shamed him because he thought by loving me, he broke my trust in him.
But that was not it.
Abhi had always been my role model since my childhood. He had always been the perfect person in my eyes. My family was never much for feelings, so that department of mine was always filled by Abhi. And to think that there was a meaning all behind it, it overjoyed me. I was happy because Abhi loved me. I was happy to be assured that he would never look at someone else the way he looked at me. He would never replace me in his heart. My place in his life was permanent.
I was not angry with Abhi because he loved me. I was rejoicing because I was Abhi's one and only.
"Rohan hates you, Abhi. He hates you because you betrayed his friendship. You betrayed him by wanting him when he has been clearly in love with me." Shanaya said in Abhi's ears. Abhi removed his eyes from me and looked at Shanaya with watery eyes. Then he closed them. His hands went limp in the hold of Shanaya's men.
He was giving up.
"No." The word left my mouth in a calm but strong manner. Shanaya snapped her head towards me before giving me a crucial gaze.
"What did you just say?"
"I said, no. I don't hate Abhi. I can never hate him. And if you think I'll hate him because he was in love with me while we were in a relationship, then you're clearly mistaking, bitch." I said. Abhi's eyes snapped open at that and he looked at me in confusion.
"Yes, you heard me. I don't hate you Abhi. I can never hate you. Moreover I feel proud that you decided to love me when you could choose anyone else. Now get up, you bastard and get away from that motherfucking bitch before I decide to rip you apart from her. Come here and free me. We have our life and I don't want to waste any of my time behind Shanaya." I said and smirked. Abhi stared at me for some seconds before a cat-like smirk appeared on his face. I sighed. Oh, how I loved it when he smiled.
Abhi's eyes bounced back to Shanaya and in a flash of a second, with a jerk of his hips, he threw Shanaya on the floor. Shanaya fell down with a thud and cried out. And taking the opportunity of the friction of inattentiveness of the two men holding his hand, Abhi turned himself up and freed himself with a jerk.
Shreyan ran to Shanaya and helped her stand up. Tears were streaming down her eyes when she looked up and her eyeliner smudged down with her tears. She cried out psychotically.
"Why, Abhi, why? All I did was loving you, all I did was want you! Then why not me?" She cried out while holding Shreyan. Those men around us took their position to hunt Abhi the moment Shanaya ordered. Abhi scanned his surrounding and measured the situation before calmly looking at Shanaya.
"You are not Rohan, Shanaya."
Shanaya clenched her teeth and stared at Abhi. There was such a fire in her eyes that if looks could kill then Abhi would have already turned into ashes. But Abhi did not care about the way Shanaya was looking at him and started taking long strides towards me.
"Obstruct him." Shanaya ordered. Five of the men she hired ran towards Abhi's direction and surrounded him. Abhi calculated their gestures before the five of them attacked him. My heart was beating heavily when I saw Abhi tackling those men just fine.
Abhi punched the man who came first square on his face so hard that one of his teeth broke. He cried out and sat down, holding his mouth. The remaining two among four attacked Abhi. Abhi kicked one of them in the gut and he coughed up blood and he held the other's hand backwards before punching on his back and then broke his hand. The last two did not have the courage to come up to him and fight him. Abhi gave them a cold look before he ran up to me and quickly freed me. I stroked my wrists when Abhi opened the steel cord and looked at Shanaya and Shreyan. Shreyan looked totally amazed by Abhi and Shanaya's mouth was hanging agape. She could not believe her eyes. She looked fazed by Abhi and angry with him at the same time. Abhi did not spare them a single glance and took my wrists in his hands. My wrists were marred with cuts. He sighed and brought them to his lips before placing a chaste kiss on both of them. Then he looked up and looked into my eyes before smiling.
"I always wanted to do this." He whispered. I smiled lightly and the next moment, Abhi's lips were crushing down on mine.
A current went through my whole body before a spark of gasoline ignited somewhere inside my body. I crushed Abhi's body to mine and pulled him down more to get a good hold of him. Abhi cupped my both cheek and deepened the kiss and I snaked my arms around his neck. The world around me seemed to withered like dry leaves and I forgot the presence of everyone around us until it was just me and Abhi.
Shanaya's inhuman yell was the thing that brought me back to the real world. My attention came back to the reality just as Abhi deattached our lips. From the corner of my eye I saw Shanaya yelling towards her men like a lunatic. Shreyan was having difficultly controlling his sister. The remaining men whom Abhi had not fought down, came and surrounded us.
I looked at Abhi and he looked at me. He gave me a final kiss on my forehead before giving me a little smile.
"Ready?" He asked.
"Ready." I answered.
In a fraction of second we broke down on the people. Abhi went to the right where I went to left. Handling those people in our condition was difficult but they were not so much powerful like I thought. With some punches, kicks and headbutts, half of them were down. In the mean time, Abhi grabbed the phone Shanaya had snatched from him before and did something on it. He then looked at me and gave me a single nod. I understood that he had informed my father about our situation and just within some time he will come here with the police force.
This new discovery of our upcoming freedom made me fight with double strength. I was happy about the time that was going to come in my life. Just within some moment this fight would be over, we would be free and then my new life with Abhi would finally start. I will finally get the person with whom I actually belonged.
But, as I said before, human thinks one thing and something completely opposite to it happens.
The sudden sound of a gun firing made me stop completely dead on my track. I whirled on my heels only to find that Shanaya was holding a gun. Her hand was in upward direction which meant she fired upwards. She was laughing lunatically before she looked at Abhi. Abhi looked extremely cautious and he took a defensive position though that would do nothing if Shanaya suddenly decided to fire the gun again.
"If you don't be mine, I'll kill you." Shanaya said. She was not herself anymore. Instead there stood a control freak who completely lost herself in the love of my best friend.
"Kill me, I don't care. Being dead is better than being with you." Abhi spat. My heart thumped in my ribcage and my eyes widened.
"No!" I yelled out. Shanaya snapped her head at me before pointing the gun towards me. I slowly raised my hands over my head. My eyes flicked to Abhi when I saw him getting tensed. He shook his head towards me frantically but I did not pay him any attention. Being dead was better than not being able to be with Abhi. I could not go through same pain I endured during the previous month.
"You." Shanaya spat, "You are the root of all problems. Because of you I lost the love of my life. Because of you Abhi does not pay me any attention. Everything fucking happened because of you." Shanaya said the last part through her clenched teeth before pointing the gun in Abhi's direction again.
"I'm not crazy, Abhi. I'm not going to say that if I can't have you then no one can. I can't live without you. So anyone who tries to come between us, has to die." She said and in a fraction of second she pointed the gun at me and fired.
After that everything happened in a blurriness. I heard Abhi crying out and running towards me, felt a sudden push. I was going to fall down but somehow I balanced myself. The push was so sudden that it caught my breath. I was catching my breath when Shanaya's blood curling sorrowful yell caught my attention. I looked back.
And I froze where I stood.
I knew that things at last had come to an end. Everything was going to be alright temporarily. No, not everything. Not my broken heart and-
My heart was never broken because my father called me his useless and good for nothing son. My heart was not broken because my parents loved my elder brother much more than me and never failed to remind me how pathetic I was. My heart was not broken when the girl whom I loved more than everything, betrayed me- no. Nothing of these were able to break my heart.
The fact that broke my heart that among these fake smiles and false sympathies of this goddamn world, the only person who wanted the best for me, was lying in front of me.
He was lying in a pool of his own dark crimson coloured blood. His chest was slightly heaving up and down, eyes half closed, his plump rosey busted lips slightly parted. He was holding the side of his stomach where he was shot. But he could not stop the flowing of the blood. Every now and then, he was wincing in pain, but never let out even a small cry of pain.
I could not hold myself any longer. My body was shaking ferociously. I slumped down beside him, sighing soundly. I stroked my fingers through his thick, black hair which was sticky because of the blood on it.
He understood my touch and looked at me. Then he smiled. It was very rare of him to smile, but it never occurred this important, this necessary to me.
"Ro-Rohan?" His voice was cracked, making his voice more reserve.
"Ye-yes?"
"Everything's gonna be a-alright now." He smiled brightly. Life sparkled in his eyes and almost for a second, I thought that life was going to last.
"You sure?"
"Ab-absolutely."
The tears that were threatening to come out for a long time, I could not hold them back anymore. I did not sob, tears were only making their way down on my cheeks. I wanted to believe him so much. He was my rock, depending on whom I learnt to stand up. And now that rock was slipping.
And I could not do anything about it.
He coughed and blood gushed out of his mouth. This blood was darker, more intense, almost making it black.
Suddenly, he brought his hands near his neck. He pulled out the chain he used to wear with the locket featuring half of a heart. He used to call it "The Missing Piece of My Heart".
He grabbed my hand, put the chain on it and then went back to hold the wound beside his stomach. My heart started beating faster. He would never give this to someone unless he was going to-
"Rohan?" He called. He sounded weak, exasperated, out of breath and mostly, exhausted.
"Yah, mate?" I tried to bold up. I did not want to cry anymore. If I felt weak then everything would be gone.
And by everything, I meant him.
"Ke-keep it. If you ev-ever find the per-son with the oth-other piece, then m-match it with it." With every word, he was trying his best to breath, but his breaths were getting weaker and shorter.
"No! You aren't going anywhere! You promised me that you and I will find that person together! You can't break the promise!"
By the time I finished, my voice was just a faint whisper. He chuckled and raised his left hand to brush my cheek. I leaned into his touch and closed my eyes to remember every stroke of his soft hand. I knew blood was smearing onto my face, but I could care less.
His hand felt cold. He was never cold before. He was always warm, even warmer than the summer.
Then suddenly, he gripped my hand tightly. My eyes fluttered open and I looked at him. I did not feel panicked, only my heart beat quickened. He took a long deep breath. His chest heaved up.
"Rohan?" I looked at him, unable to produce any sound.
"I love you." And with a smile of satisfaction on his rosey plump lips, he breathed out and closed his eyes. His tight grip on my hand loosened and his hand fall on the floor. An expression of happiness and peace was dancing all over his face.
Everything around me seemed to have stopped. The air seemed to have stopped flowing, the time, the song of the birds-- everything. I did not know when the police arrived and took those men-- kidnappers away, when the ambulance came, my father, my family came-- I knew nothing. I felt extremely calm. I never felt that calm before.
I leaned down on him, keeping my head on his chest and wiggling closer him, like we were cuddling. I focused on my heart beat and closed my eyes, letting those silent tears fall from my eyes.
And then I realized that I never loved anyone actually. Not my mother, father, elder brother, that girl- no one. From the first time, I was actually in love with him. The only person who used to understand me, used to hold my hand when I got afraid, cried with me, laughed with me. The person, who was lying under me now, in an infinite peaceful slumber. It was always him and it will be always him.
My best friend Abhimanyu Singh. My Abhi!
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Only the Epilogue to go.
Till then, happy life.
_#Spidey, over and out!! ;-)