Hi fam!
The dark mode of Wattpad is finally here. I love it.
Warning: This chapter was written in just two hours with an unexplainable mood. I'm sorry if it's cringy, lol. I am not very confident about it, and I may rewrite a few parts in the night, I'd let you know if I make a lot of changes.
Books also updated today: His & If You Leave Me Now on Dreame. I've sent links to everyone who asked, but if I've accidentally missed you, please let me know.
Happy Reading. Inline comments are love!
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name: happiness
word count: 3100 words
published on: 20 May, 2020
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M A N I K
I'd be quick to believe that my heart almost stopped for a long second when I heard a scream, in the voice I could recognise anywhere and anyday.
Nandini.
I could feel my blood pump a little faster through my veins. I was scared, but I didn't waste a second to turn behind.
And there she was.
Fit and fine.
"Why the fuck did you scream?" I asked, slowly, emphasising each word.
She grinned, "You looked terrified of the darkness, I wanted to scare you more. Isn't that what one does to scare another? Shout in someone's ear?"
I didn't reply to her.
I took a moment to let my heart beat slower until normal and I caught my breath.
Little did she know, it wasn't the darkness I was terrified of.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she pouted like a baby, "I didn't think you'd be this scared. You look like you've seen a ghost."
"With everything that's happening these days, I don't think seeing a ghost will really terrify me," I mutter under my breath, "And no, I'm not mad. But thank you for the scare."
She smiled, almost victoriously, "Leave that. Did you look around. I did this all myself. With Aliya and Navya's help, of course."
I smiled, a little calmer, "Yeah, it's all beautiful... but do you mind switching on the lights?"
"It's supposed to be a candle light dinner. Are you still scared, baby?" She teased but walked to the switch board and switched on all the dim lights, eradicating the darkness out.
"You're here early, though," she said as she led us to the table, "I wasn't expecting you for another... five minutes. I was so shocked when I saw some figure entering my house in the dark, it almost gave me a heart attack, this is why I stayed inside to make sure it was you. And then when I was coming out anyway, I thought why not surprise you a little?"
"Shock is the word you're looking for," I remind her.
She rolled her eyes, "I told you I'm sorry."
"I should probably call Aliya and tell her I found you. She'd be freaking for no reason," I sigh, taking my phone out and ring Aliya up, but it goes unanswered.
She'd call back.
"Aliya reminds me," she cleared her throat, "I spoke to her about Aryamman."
"Hmm?" I ask her to go on as I lift the covers of all food trays to reveal my favourite dishes. I could swear my eyes shone brighter than the dim lights when I smelled the food.
"I don't think she's dating anyone else," she said, sadness written all over the place, "I don't even think she's moved on. You could almost see the hurt in her eyes when she spoke about him. He almost ghosted her, you know?"
"Hmm," I nod, "Cabir told me when you girls were shopping. I've mailed Jeff his details already, and she'd have already contacted him. I'm hope to hear back till tomorrow."
She nods, smiling, "I don't believe Aryamman is modelling. Did you even look at the pictures in his profile? Damn, he looked so good."
I coughed a little, "Bad manners, my love. Sitting on the table across one guy and talking about other?"
She rolled her eyes at me, "Manik please! You're telling me you didn't feel anything when you saw Aryamman's pictures?"
"I did," I agree. I felt a lot of things, "But mostly pride."
She smiles victoriously. "I made all this food alone! I've tried making it as much Indian as I can, because I really miss home, so I hope you like it." She says, nervously.
"I'm sure I will," I smile in reassurance, "It smells yummy. And, I'm really, really hungry."
"Manik?" She rolls her eyes, "You're always hungry."
"Touché," I laugh when there's a huge noise.
It takes me a moment to realise it's the cuckoo on the wall clock.
I stare at the girl in front of me in disbelief, "Could you have made this anymore creepier? All darkness and this sound. Seriously?"
She glares at me pointedly, "I love my wall clock. Don't you dare..."
"It's creepy," I retaliate, smiling.
"Manik?" She calls.
"Hmm," I answer expectantly. She had all my attention anyways.
"Happy Birthday!" She whispers.
"What?" I asked, surprised. Oh, the cuckoo made the sound 'cause the clock had struck twelve. I almost forgot it was my birthday.
She smiles as she gets up from her chair. I sigh, getting up as well as she puts her hand across my neck and hugs me. I hold her waist close and she relaxes in my arms, placing her head on my shoulder and I close my eyes, holding her as close as I could.
"Happy, happy birthday, Manik," she murmurs. I kiss the top of her head as she goes on, "I wish you all the love, and luck, and happiness of this world. This is the first birthday that I am with you, but I hope I can be for a lot of others. I love you more than anyone else in this world, literally now."
I pull her closer, as if that was even possible, "Thank you, love. I'm so happy you're here with me."
She breaks away from me, still on her toes to reach my height as she holds my face in her arms and kisses me on the cheek.
I make her surprised face, which soon turns into a complaining one, "I'm the birthday boy. I deserve more than a cheek kiss."
She giggles. "Don't be greedy," she playfully slaps my shoulder, "And anyway, it's time for your gift."
"You got me a gift?" I ask.
She rolls her eyes as she walks to her side drawer and pulls out a box. "Ofcourse I did."
"You know you didn't have to..." I say, humbly. She totally had to. I love gifts.
"You love gifts," she nods her head in disbelief as if she read my mind.
I laugh, "I do."
She walks up to me with the small box in her hand and puts it in front of my eyes.
I chuckle nervously, "Nandini, I'm not marrying you."
She laughs. "You know, that is exactly what I told you when we had gone for our date on New Year's Eve and you gave me a ring box? I mean, I was right in saying that because I'd just met you, but I know you since so many years. And I love you. You'd still say no if I ask you to marry me?" She says sadly.
"Nandini, I......" I was speechless, really.
"Don't worry, Manik. I am not asking you to marry me," she chuckled, and then paused and then went on giving me a pointed glare, "But if I ever do, you have to say yes. You get that?"
"Yes, ma'am," I chuckled. She laughed as she opened the box to reveal a ring.
"I thought you weren't asking me to marry you?" I teased.
"It's a promise ring, dummy," she replied, smiling. I stiffened.
"Yeah, ironical, right? You gave me a promise ring and trusted me with your heart and I used that promise ring to break your heart," she sighed sadly, "And nothing I say or do can make it up for my actions."
"But I was wondering what to give you for your birthday all night and day long, and I could come up with nothing better than this," she says.
"Please don't," I say, "I can't take this–"
She cuts me off, "Please let me continue?"
I nod.
"So Manik, I wanted to give you this promise ring, like a blank promise, the way you had given me. With this ring, I entrust you with my trust and my heart and my love, and you can do anything you like with it. You can throw my heart away in more pieces than it already is and I won't complain a bit. I choose to not repeat the mistakes I did, I choose to trust you and talk to you and never run away or leave you. This is me, vulnerable as I am, broken in many ways, gifting myself to you," she says, looking straight into my eyes.
"That is more previous than you think, Nandini. You are more precious than you think," I say, holding her arms as firm as I can.
"Precious or not, I'm yours. You keep me or you leave me, it's your call. I won't complain. You once told me you don't want to fall in love, you want to rise in it, because falling means to collapse and anything that collapses breaks. I rose in love with you Manik, and I still broke your heart. So this is me, falling in love with you. I want to collapse and I want to break and I want to trust you to put me back the way you like or leave me the way I left you. I don't care. This is me just promising you that my heart will belong to you till the end of my life. No matter if we're even together or not," she completes.
"Do you mean it?" I ask, feeling my voice crack.
"Every word," she says sincerely.
I hold her face and gently place my lips over hers. She freezes for a little moment and I pull away. She opens her eyes slowly, as if in daze and the moment they meet mine, I kiss her again.
This time, she kisses me back. One hand still gripping the ring box and the other hand holding me. I kiss her like there was no tomorrow and she lets me.
I wish I didn't have to break away at all because sometimes I feel it wasn't oxygen keeping me alive, it was her. I called her my drug long before knowing how true it would be one day.
"I love you," I whisper breathlessly, "So goddamn much."
She was still catching her breath and so I go on, keeping my forehead on hers, "And I want you. All of you. The broken pieces and the whole. I want you to fall in love with me, break and collapse for me, and I'd hold you and put your pieces back together again. I'll keep you, my love. You're crazy to think I'd ever let you go."
She giggles.
"You may be the first one to say this, but I want you to know I felt this long before you did," I say. She breaks away confused because I had been the first to tell her how much I love her.
"What?" She whispered, narrowing her eyes at me.
"I wanted to rise in love with you. But I fell, Nandini. I fell in love with you, deeper than I had ever planned to. And yes you hurt me, and I still forgave you because that is how much I loved you. Kept convincing myself it's not true, but is goddamn is. My heart and me belonged to you long before you said it and they will, till the end of my life too. I don't care what the future has in hold for us. I don't care if we'll be together when we're seventy, but what I do know is that if I make it to you seventy, it'll be your picture next to my hospital bed when I close my eyes for the last time. It will always be you and there's nothing I want to do about it," I say, smiling from ear to ear.
I see her eyes glisten with tears as she sniffs and I wipe them away before they could roll down her cheek. She takes my hand which was on her face and kisses it gently.
"It's crazy, hmm?" She says, smiling and laughing at the same time, "We were just two kids, accidentally stuck up in the same house. Since the moment you became my friend I knew you'd be in my life for a long time, but I never thought this way. I never thought I'd love you so much. Hell, I never even knew I could love so much, let alone loving you. I'm these years we spent separate, I didn't think I'd meet you again, Manik, but deep down, I knew I'd never love anyone the way I loved you."
"Mhmm," I nod, pursing my lips, my voice slightly breaking, "I really wanted to love someone else how much I loved you. But I knew I couldn't. And there was a small part of me that didn't want to, that wanted to wait that someday you'd come back and everything will be fine again, and we'd be like the past. I wanted that, nothing else."
"Is it, though?" She cuts me off, "Is everything fine? Are we back to the past?"
"No," I reply honestly, "But I know everything will be fine as long as we're together. And we've changed. No matter what we do, we can't go back to the past, that's not how it works. But we can work with what we are today, can't we? A little broken, maybe. Tainted, a lot. Changed, for sure. But you're still the you I fell in love with and I only hope I'm still the me you fell in love with."
"You are, you are," she nods, looking away, "And I think I think we can work with this. Someone told me, being broken isn't bad, but not accepting it is. I'm broken. And I know you are too. And I think I'd love to fall in love with every shade of you."
"I didn't think when you bumped into me in SPACE all those years ago that we'd be standing here and I'd be in love with you. God, I can't believe this, you're here and I'm here and we're okay," I say, convincing myself.
"We're okay," she nods happily, sniffing, "And this was our story."
"As twisted as it was, I'm not going to change a single thing. Death is inevitable, people who were meant to die, would have died anyway. I'm done blaming myself for things that were out of my control and u won't let you blame yourself as well. You know what, this is our story and I'm in love with every single page of it, whether we spent it together or not. I won't change a goddamn thing," I say firmly.
She looks at me for a second, "Me neither. And I won't let anyone else change it too. As twisted and crazy and tragic and saddening and suspenseful and mysterious and maddening anyone thinks it is, this is our story. And we get to decide how to see it. And I think it was fucking beautiful."
"And only we get to decide how to fill in the remaining pages," I agree.
"I think with happiness. The way things were when we first moved in together. We've been through a lot, Manik. I think we deserve some happiness," she says as I moved behind and wiped away my eyes that were beginning to fill in. She smiles.
"I fucking agree," I chuckle, "Only happiness. Happy starts now."
"Now," she agrees, "But I think it is also our duty to return back the happiness to those who sacrificed theirs to keep us safe, Manik. We need to piece us back. We need to piece Fab5 back."
He nods. "We'll do that, together."
"I was thinking if you could rehire those detectives behind Mukti? It's possible she was covering her trails then because she needed time and didn't want to be found. But now... when everything is finally happening in our favour, I think we should try again," she suggested softly.
"Yes. Yes," I instantly agree. "All of us are here. That leaves only Mukti and Aryamman. If everything goes as planned, we'd have Aryamman here next week. Things are finally rolling in our favour, I think we should try too. I'll call the detectives tomorrow. I think I should even call Smaran you know? Cabir said he'd been keeping an eye on all of from a distance and he's been here from the start. I think he'd help."
"Yeah," she agrees, "It's cold. I'm going to increase the temperature."
"Wait. Wait!" I call and she haunts.
"You didn't even give me my ring," I fold my hand across my chest.
"Oops," She giggles and then passes me the ring. I glare at her.
She rolls her eyes and walks at me, grabbing the ring herself and slipping it in my index finger. This was when I realised she was wearing the ring that I had gifted her all those years ago too.
"You kept it," I say, gently rubbing my thumb against that ring. The diamonds in the stars still shone just as bright as when I first took it.
"Ofcourse I did. It meant the world to me, it still does," she shrugs.
I purse my lips, looking at her in awe.
"Now can we please have dinner? I am hungry," she insists.
"You're always hungry," I mock at her and she laughs as sit back.
"So what, are you officially my girlfriend now?" I raise my brows at her and even in the dimness, see the red hue spreading across her face.
"I–," she began answering but the door bell rang.
We looked at each other for a brief second and chuckled. The irony. Last time too, when I had asked her to be my girlfriend, the door bell rang and she couldn't answer me because Inaaya came in.
And along with her, she brought in the storm. I wondered what this door bell would bring in.
As I opened the door, it was my three friends this time, smiling with goofy expressions and dinner parcels in their hand. "Happy birthday Manik, as soon as I heard Nandini made food for you herself, I came to eat," my bestfriend grinned and went straight inside to the table without even hugging me.
The girls came in and hugged me and wished me a happy birthday, apologising on how they tried their best to stop Cabir but it was almost as if he was attracted to the food with a magnet.
I laughed.
Happiness. The storm was over. This door bell definitely brought back happiness into our lives.
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Questions:
1. How was the update?
2. Rate it on 10?
3. What's your favourite part?
4. Did you expect this to be the reason for Nandini's scream? ;)
5. I'm fearing the confession part was a little cringy. Did you think so?
6. I hope we're not moving too fast? After everything that's happened, I thought it was only fair for them to finally tell each other how they felt.
7. I was thinking to take a one week time leap and directly show the Milan trip. Should I do that or what you like to see more of Cabir-Manik or the girls catching up?
8. Do you think I should rewrite anything in this chapter?
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Please, please stay safe.
Thank you and have a nice day.
Love,
H.