Chapter 3

InkedImagination

@Queen0fDarkness

Chapter 3: A promise sworn

"I'll be fine" Geet assured her friends, Nyra and Pinky. "Bhai is going to pick me up, don’t worry. I'm going to finish up then I'll call him" she ushered them out the library doors.

"Alright, fine. We're going" Pinky answered. "Call us if you need anything".

"I'm going to be fine" Geet responded, she returned to the table she was sitting at slipping her earphones in and focused on her laptop screen as she tapped away on the keyboard writing her essays to give in for her final year.

Geet jerked when the chair was scraped back, she frowned seeing Maan across from her. He sat down glancing apologetically at the librarian who had shushed him.

"Maan, what are you doing here?" Geet whispered glancing around curiously. She knew, she did not have to really question him. He was here to talk about what she had witnessed. Had he known that she had watched him last night as well?

No, he would not have known. It was dark she internally shook her head.

"I think you know why, Geet" Maan answered with a sigh avoiding her eyes, he looked embarrassed. Had he had a choice, he would have wanted to avoid this altogether, but she held the strings to the show of his life like a puppeteer and she could steer it in a direction he didn’t want to go through.

Maan finally gathered the courage he needed in order to confront her and met her eyes. "How much did you see?" he knew she had seen something; he did not miss the fake nonchalance she had portrayed yesterday, yet her eyes tried to make sense of what she had witnessed.

"Enough" Geet answered, she did not elaborate. A string of lies might escape telling a story that might seem much more believable than the one she had witnessed and did not want to believe.

"Can we talk?" he asked her instead of procuring a lie on the spot like her brother did many times, Geet nodded. She saved her work switching her laptop off and shoved it into the laptop bag and stood.

Maan led her out and gestured to the café next door as the seating arrangements were quite good as there were enough distance from the next table which meant no one would be overhearing their conversation.

Maan ordered them hot drinks and grabbed the tray leading Geet to the back of the café, she placed her laptop bag on one of the empty chairs and thanked Maan for the hot chocolate.

Maan pondered how to start up the conversation, what could he say? He was an 18-year-old who has entered adulthood and was still being beaten up by his father. Could he tell her the truth? Bring the words he had quashed down and kept hidden for years.

"Maan…" Geet called his name softly, she did not know if it was difficult for him, but she wanted to at least share just so he had someone to speak to. "Does Kabir know?" she asked even though she already knew the answer. Such a thing would not have been shared with his friends, not even her brother. They would have probably teased him endlessly.

"No" he shook his head. "Geet, you can't tell anyone" he told her desperately, no one would have believed he was apologising to a teenager, that too, Geet Singhania. Kabir's younger sister.

"I won't" she assured shaking her head. "Does… does he hit you often?" she queried; her bottom lip pulled in between her teeth worryingly.

No, he wanted to say, he wanted to make up an excuse. He searched for one as well.

"When he's drunk" he said words that showed another glimpse of his world to her, his eyes avoiding hers and focused on the cup of latte in front as if it were the most fascinating object.

What has he just done? he felt his heart pounding heavily, it had not pounded so much even when he heard the stomps and drunken slurs of his father coming towards him.

"Why would you not tell anyone? Did you not call the authorities?" she breathed out.

Maan slowly looked up, he noted her concern spilling from her voice, her compassion pouring out through her eyes, her breathy sighs of shock and he smiled. "Thanks, Geet. But he is my dad. He's just going through a phase". He had not had anyone shower such concern in the entirety of his life, the feeling washed over him like waves crashing over rocks consuming him whilst he tried to keep his head above the water.

"How long have you been sleeping outside?" Geet whispered.

"I enjoy looking at the stars" he chuckled feigning ignorance as if she hadn’t shown a deal of concern. He wanted to pretend this wasn’t happening, pretend he wasn’t spilling his guts out to a teenager. If he joked, they could sweep this under the rug and go back to just being acquaintances. She, being his best friend's young sister, and he, being her brother's best friend.

Geet looked at him in a different light, he wasn’t her brother's equally rubbish friend, his eyes filled with a depth of sadness she couldn’t understand. His eyes which she assumed was filled with mischief was just masked with pretence. And, everyone had missed it. Even Kabir.

"You don’t have to pretend with me" she replied softly. "I won't gain anything from you talking about it. I will however go home with a heavy heart and wonder about the boy next door".

"You don’t speak like a 16-year-old" Maan remarked tilting his head and watching her.

"I'm a special kind. Nerdy, remember?" she answered with a small smile.

"Only the nights, he kicks me out" Maan admitted softly, she blinked, and he repeated his words.

"Why?" she whispered, her eyes filled with compassion and her heart felt as if it were being squeezed. How can someone hurt another human, no less their own son.

"A drunk doesn’t need a reason" a chuckle escaped his lips, but it was hoarse and empty.

Geet gasped softly, she couldn’t imagine how his home life would be. She'd been brought up with a fun, loving family, even though her father had died when she'd been young, he'd loved her.

Without him there, she didn’t feel she was lacking anywhere, her grandmother, her mother, both her brothers loved her dearly, even if Kabir was being a rubbish brother sometimes. There hadn’t been a day when she'd felt unloved or uncared. Every single day, she'd woke with the sense of being loved.

Whereas, Maan would wake alone sometimes in the backyard or wherever he stays inside. Unloved and uncared.

"Don’t look at me like that, please" Maan lowered his eyes avoiding her. He didn’t want pity from anyone. He couldn’t bear the feeling of being pitied. He wasn’t a weakling. He respected and loved his father. His father was the only blood he'd known since he had lost his mother at a very young age.

He held a faint memory of her within his heart, but at times wondered if it was just a figment of his overactive imagination in order to feel loved when he was alone.

"I'm sorry" she apologised quickly shaking her head. "I hadn’t meant to hurt you".

"You didn’t hurt me, Geet" he voiced dragging his eyes up and looking at her, his fists clenched on his lap. "I… I've never told anyone this. You shouldn’t have to hear this". She shouldn't be aware of the evilness that surrounds them.

"You shouldn’t have to go through this" she countered softly. "Nobody should" she declared almost as if she wanted to protect him from it. She felt a surge of anger and frustration clawing at her, no, she did want to protect him. It wasn’t a question of if. This was wrong, she had been loved, adored, showered with bouts of it whilst he'd been enduring such pain and masking it with a happy smile whenever he'd come to their house.

"I'm fine" he smiled attempting to reassure her, but it didn’t work. "Promise me, you wouldn’t say a word to anyone" he looked at her seriously. He needed a promise from her. If he knew anything, it was that Singhania's are loyal to a fault in honouring a promise.

"Only if you give me a promise" she chewed on her lower lip wondering if he'd agree.

"What is it?" he frowned hoping she wouldn’t ask that he tell someone himself. It was with great difficulty and internally fighting, he managed to leave the house and search for her.

"You have to promise to speak to me about it, any time" she said.

"What? No. I can't promise you that" he shook his head quickly; he couldn’t do that. He was ridden with guilt just confessing to her now.

"Well, I can't promise to not tell anyone. You're suffering, I know it and you're asking me to hide it" she declared clenching her fists frustrated that he would not promise her this. She wouldn’t force him to tell anyone, but if he didn’t promise to this, she would blackmail him in this case.

"Geet" he urged looking back at her desperately begging her silently not to force him to make such a promise. Such a promise would burden her with the darkness of his house.

"Then promise me, you're going to at least speak to me, Maan" she replied leaning forward.

"You're only 16, Geet. You shouldn’t be hearing this. You should be out enjoying yourself and your teen years as much as possible" he attempted to explain.

"And you're only 18 years old. You aren’t much older, and it doesn’t seem like this only happened recently, Maan" she counteracted, pausing and bit her lip. "Were you going hungry?" she inquired.

Maan blanched.

"You were" she stated it as if it were a fact. "That's why in the evenings, you'd come around pretending to smell mama's food from next door and come to eat".

He swallowed his saliva as if his throat had dried up and needed quenching, his nose twitched, and his eyes stung. Words weren't needed.

"Oh, Maan" Geet whispered softly. "If you're not going to share this with anyone else, speak to me please" she urged. "Only then, I promise not to tell anyone. You can't be going through this alone".

"I don’t want to burden you, Geet. Not with this" he shook his head.

"Tough, its either that or I tell Prem bhai and your daddy gets an arse kicking" she threatened.

He chuckled at that, "Fine" he held up his hands in surrender. "You can't tell anyone, not your friends, not Kabir or Prem bhai please" he sobered.

"I promise, but you have to remember your promise".

"I will" he agreed, "a promise sworn is a promise kept" The words held more meaning than she could decipher. She looked confused for a momentary second before offering a small smile.

After they'd finished their now less than warm drinks, they'd exchanged phone numbers on Geet's insistence, and he'd rode the bus with her to her house dropping her off before he walked next door to his house.

In the dark between stars

She tiptoed edging the curtain and searched.

Anxiety clawing at her insides

Concern dripping her body

Her shoulders sagged

Tonight, he wasn’t there.

She returned to bed and succumbed to sleep with a sigh of relief.

As many of you know its Ramadan. I am going to be less active and only posting banked updates as and when I can. Messages, PMs are going unanswered for many therefore I would request you to pause on the messages Lol.

Hope you're all having a wonderful Ramadan for those of you who are fasting, stay blessed, stay safe, always. Make the most of this lockdown, enjoy getting to know your families and loved ones again. We've been playing ludo, snakes and ladders, connect 4 and having mini competitions 😆

[NOCOPY]