Chapter 23

chapter-21

Prem sat in his room, specifically which was heer mann's room and looked down the lawn through the glass window. The woman intrigued her, those eyes like two drops of coffee in a lake of milk expressed so much that he felt uncomfortable around her to the point where he wanted to bang his head on a wall so that he could remember something, anything. It was as if he has been through a time travel since he woke up in his hospital bed. He can identify his family but he cannot put a correct hand on the date and year. He remembered crashing but didn't remember that he was in India and was about to get married. Everyone has been telling him that he was madly in love with heer mann but why can't he remember then, her face should trigger something but No.. it's all a blank.

He was confused when he saw her standing beside his bed in the hospital and soon it was like emotions were churning in that room. There was confusion, hurt, and frustration and above all he felt guilty. He has seen those beautiful eyes radiating hurt and then going ice cold the next moment while she held stiffly and walked out of his room when he didn't recognize her. She didn't come back to meet him in the hospital while he was there but occasionally he would see something move away from his glass door when he looked and a strange feeling lingered inside him. He did ask preet that if she came to meet him but preet has refused to say a thing and he has realized that preet was very loyal to heer. He must be really madly in love with that girl because his brother never hid anything from him but he was hiding things, not telling him because someone else asked him to and that was something new to get accustomed to. He even noticed that his brother stared too long at meher, who was indeed a chubby, cheerful girl and was heer's sister. She came to meet him, bringing him food and would look at him like she is waiting for a sign for something. He liked her, she is like the small sister he never had.

He was soon released from the hospital and was disappointed as well as relieved to see that only preet had come to take him back home. Disappointed because he thought he will get to see heer, notice her reaction but relieved because he didn't know if he was ready to face her. What is he going to say or do? Its like he has been thrown to a stranger and he is supposed to know everything about her. While his ride back home he found his all time chattering brother silent to the core and that nagged at him so he cleared his throat to get an answer and that was rewarded by a glance towards him from his brother. Without loosing the chance he went ahead and nudged him to talk, "so preet , we are going to the mann house right ? I donno I am so uncomfortable with this whole thing."

Prem saw his brother twitch in his seat, as if deciding what to say and then spoke, "you wont be uncomfortable PB, its just like home" Prem sighed and retorted back, " I donno what to say to heer, everyone looks at me as if they are waiting for an answer"

Saying this prem leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes and to him it looked as if preet didnt want to talk back or didnt know what to say but as the car lurched to a stop infront of the house he heard his brother speak softly before getting up and sliding out of the car, "whatever you do PB, dont break bhabhis heart"

The rest was a blur for him, his parents hovered over him, so did teji aunty and he knew the woman reflected warmth and motherly feelings for him. He knew his father was watching him with his hooded eyes and even disappointed but balraj uncle embraced him in a hug and welcomed him home, giving him a tour like it was his first time for them also. His sister, meher, nihaal, Harman and preet has disappeared and even heer too wasnt in sight, so he guessed they were holing somewhere together. He was finally taken to a room which he shared with preet and with all the pictures hanging on the wall he guessed it was previously elder Ms.Manns room. Great just Great. Thats what he needed now, her pictures to haunt him.

Preet paced in mehers room like a lion caged and heer had a migraine growing with all his pacing, mehers fidgeting, Harman and mayas and veeras constant chatter regarding ideas which included bashing prems head to bring back his memory. The only other guy sitting quietly like she was-was nihaal. It was too much to take. She has managed to be out of prems way after his initial confusion seeing her and the hurt that had followed her. She couldnt keep away from him, so she sneaked a look whenever she could and now she has to face him, he was in the house. With every inch of determination she had she raised her voice, " it would be very helpful If you all stop whatever you are doing for few minutes, its definitely not helping at all"and with a sigh she got up and looked out the window and heard preet murmur from behind her, " he is like my PB but he is not my PB, I mean nothing makes sense, its all my fault"

Heer heard everyone murmuring a protest and then heard her sister speak, "its not your fault, stop beating yourself up, we need to do something "to which veera spoke, " this is what I have been saying, maybe another accident will trigger his memory back" and soon Harman and maya joined in the vague ideas, heer closed her eyes and leaned on the glass and finally she heard nihaal clearing his throat and everything became quiet, " you guys need to calm down, beating prem up or making his car get into an accident isnt the solution, you people sound cute but this is not happening, we need to bring back everything prem forgot, I donno much but maybe there were places he, heer and everyone of you visited together or the way he proposed, we need to bring all that back and maybe he will be back" heer could feel all the eyes boring at her back, waiting for her to say something and finally she looked back towards them, "there is no harm in trying, I want my prem back"and everyone just busted out again with ideas and she closed her eyes thinking what she has gotten herself into and will she really get him back?

The more prem looked at her pictures everywhere, the more complicated things became

The woman intrigued her, those eyes like two drops of coffee in a lake of milk expressed so much that he felt uncomfortable seeing her pictures around and to the point where he wanted to bang his head on a wall so that he could remember something, anything.

He sat in the room and looked down the lawn through the glass window, relieving every thought since he woke up. It all came full circle.. And then with a sigh he got up and headed for the shower.

One by one all of them emptied the room and headed to the living room, but heer didnt want to go, all she could think was what if he didnt want to see her, she stood rooted to the spot in the room when nihaal placed a hand on her shoulder and she looked up, " I know him longer than you know him heer, he is going to come around, if he loves something with an intense passion then no memory loss is going to stop him, you just need to have a little patience" heer couldnt hold back, it was as if a big brother was talking to her and first time since the accident she let her tears slip, "I am just scared but I am going to try .. thank you .. for everything"and she gave him a small hug and with her head held high went downstairs to face the inevitable.

Heer saw everyone lounging on the sofa and her mom was busy preparing lunch with gayatri maa, prem was nowhere in sight, so she went ahead and was about to sit beside meher when prems dad called her to sit beside him and she went ahead to sit by him. she thought he was going to speak to her, say her something but he just put his hands around her and that was more than enough for her, she realized that sometimes words were not needed to express love and warmth and in that moment she realized that she has to fight to get him back, for herself, for everyone else. There wasnt an option.

Within a few minutes gayatri maa came out of the kitchen carrying a cup of coffee and purposefully came and stood infront of heer and pushed the cup in her hand murmuring to her to take it to prem and once again panic took over her resolve, " maa, mai kaise" to which gayatri maa sighed and said, " shadi to tujhe hi karni hai na mere bete se"and heer could swear everyone was smiling in there except her, "lekin"to which she got another retort, " lekin wekin kuch nahi, wo mera beta hai, janti hu main use, ek baar pyaar kar baitha wo tujhse, phirse bhi ho jayega" and with that she headed back to the kitchen and heer was stuck with the cup.

She looked at others for help but it suddenly looked as if everyone was busy staring at the ceiling and walls and god knows what! So she finally heaved a sigh and with determination headed for the stairs, she has to face him some way or the other , better alone, then she will have the time to gauge his reaction towards her. She reached her room which was occupied by prem and knocked thrice with no response and something stuck her as odd, maybe he was in the shower and she can have the cowards way out by placing the mug and leaving before he came out, so without wasting a minute she moved the knob under her hand and forced her entry into the room and the next second she was eneveloped by total darkness as the door closed behind her. Muttering a curse under her breath she headed towards the side of the bed to turn on the lampshade when a solid, wet figure collided with her and the cup in her hand went crashing down on the floor and she went spinning down but was saved by the bed which was under her and suddenly lots of muscles and flesh and a man . no not some man .. prem was on her and they both were on the bed.

Prem left the bathroom door a little ajar after the shower and came out with his trousers on and the towel hanging down his neck. The darkness soothed his headache but it was impossible for him to find his shirt in the avid black bedroom, so he went for the lampshade beside the bed and another soft body collided with him, citrus and candy that was his first coherent thought, the smell of something sweet yet having an edge, but before he could process anything else the feminine body stumbled and something hot went crashing down on the floor, pricking him on his toes and as she tried to catch hold off him, they both tumbled and before prem could stop the fall, he was lying, pressing above Heer Juneja, looking at her Big Brown Eyes.

The irony of the situation was not lost to heer, the history was repeating, wasnt it few days back when she came in his room for the first time and they both crashed together, while maya took everything in wrong sense.

she went inside and let the door loose and it automatically closed leaving a small gap and then she stumbled into something and the next moment she knew that she was holding on something wet and hot and as the realization dawned at her her mouth opened to scream but she doubted that something came out ..

It was as if it happened yesterday and so much has happened since, the first time she was in his arms like this while he was wet because of his shower was full of anger, confusion, sudden blast of warmth and so much more for her and then she and prem reached a level gradually where lying in his arms felt like the most normal thing in the world and now this has come to full circle, they both were again lying in each others arms but there was so much distance between them and last time heer wanted to run away from him but she got him closer and closer and closer and this time she wants him so much closer that her heart ached for it but will the fate again betray her, without thinking much she put her palm on prems cheek but instead of giving in to her warmth she saw him flinch and she could feel her heart breaking..

Thats all aishu