||The Dusking Sky Ch.6 Part 2||*08/07*{PG.26} - Page 4

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Chapter 3 ~ The Arjun

Airports. Universally one place, where one is raw and vulnerable.

Cracking my neck side-to-side, I blankly stared at the LED displays flashing destinations one after the other, as I waited for my Uber.

Dehradun, I read. My heart skipped a little faster.

Flames of memories gushed in, slashing open few wounds, that had been stitched away. Everything spun around me, making it harder and harder to breathe normally.

My throat burnt.

I cannot have another panic attack, I cannot; fisting my dress in a tight grip, I console myself. Pressing my back against the nearest wall I could find, I inhaled a lung full of air and exhaled out a slow, steady breath. I repeated the action several times to make sure my breath isn't shaky anymore.

There, you have control.

How wonderful would it be, if one could reach their desired destination without suffocating themselves with complications that came along? A tiny part of me wished, she could hold a boarding pass, wheeled her suitcase to gate eleven which lead to her home.

It had been almost a year since I had walked away from the city, I loved more than anywhere else in the world.

My, safe haven.

Only, it did not remain so. It was ruined permanently by demons of my past. The burn in my eyes got stronger, reminding me of my promise to never shed a tear for those demons. So, I stepped away from the wall I leaned on for support and turned my back like I had months back to make an exit towards the warm breeze of Mumbai, awaiting me.

*** ***

"He, WHAT?" Noor took a break from stabbing her spoon enthusiastically into the tub of chocolate ice-cream and looked up, in shock. Cross-legged, we camped out in our open balcony at wee hours of the night. This somewhat had become our ritual when we had to talk important things, more like silly topics which we considered important. She had returned a while back from her shift and without wasting a second, I had narrated my entire morning mishap to her.

"I know, right?" I waved my spoon in disbelief. "The guy was decent enough to feed me his fries"

"Not to forget, he knew your name" she pointed her spoon at me, "are you sure you didn't tell him?"

I licked my spoon in thoughts, replaying the scene "nope! I clearly remember, I didn't."

Pausing for a second, Noor puts down the tub and slid closer to me, "I have got it, Zo" she whispered holding both my upper arms, "he was hitting on you!" A sly smile crept up her face.

I swung back in shock, "are you crazy, Noor?" I looked at her like she's lost her mind.

"Seriously, think about it" she starts, "why would any sane guy go around sharing his food with a random girl, he just met."

She's got a point. "I don't know maybe he felt bad for me" I shrug, picking back our abandoned ice-cream. It was the only lame explanation I could come up with at the moment.

"Was he attractive?"

Okay. Wow! That came smashing out of nowhere.

"I don't know" I mutter, under my breath and continue to scoop chocolate chips out from the almost, melted ice-cream.

"What do you mean you don't know? It's either a yes or no", she snatches the tub away so I can stop ignoring her. "Nooor yaar! Can we stop talking about this random guy?" I cribbed, hoping she doesn't notice the tinge of redness spreading across my cheeks.

"He was good looking, wasn't he?" she nudges my arm with her elbow, not ready to drop that annoying smile of hers. Clearly, she wasn't letting this go.

"Okay, fineee! He was quite attractive and had a really cute smile, happy?" I say, in a nervous rush, already feeling my cheeks burn. Noor claps her hands in excitement, "details please." Her hopeful eyes told me she was ready for a bed-time story. But this bed-time story has to wait since I am not ready to even admit it to myself about how I felt regarding his looks.

So, to take matters into my hands, I take an enormous bite from my ice-cream tub and gesture to Noor, with my hands that I can't really talk. She rolls her eyes, knowing exactly what I was trying to do. "You don't have to choke yourself, I'll stop."

Gulping down the ball of ice, I smile, blinking away few tears that had welled up from brain freeze. Ice-cream to the rescue, always.

My roommate lets out a frustrated sigh and stretches her arms high up. "I think I need some sleep before I turn into a zombie she yawns, unexpectedly looking much older than her age.

I watched her sympathetically--she puts in hours and hours of hard work every single day without a single complaint. Her happiness enclosed within her multiple jobs. But no surprises there, she has been this way for as long as I can remember. Noor was around ten when her family along with her had shifted to our neighbourhood in Mussoorie. We didn't get along that well in the beginning but eventually, I don't remember exactly how since it's been years and it hardly matters anymore because she is the family I can't live without.

Noor's passion for art in food got her where she is today. It's a shame--if only her parents could see the brilliance in her then, they would be proud to have her. She came to pursue her dream to be a pastry chef, here in Mumbai when she got scholarship at a culinary university. What happened with her parents? That's a story for another day.

What matters is that now, she works part time as a pastry chef and part time as a waitress. Waitress, because she is fairly new to this game and wants to earn enough to open a cafe of her own someday. Mark my words you will soon see long que of people showering love to this cafe.

** **

Mushroom omelette, freshly fried hash brown with ginger tea is the ultimate blissful breakfast, one craves for, every morning. To be honest, who has the time to make such an Instagram-worthy breakfast? Not to mention, it took me ten alarms and fifteen back-to-back snoozes to make this artwork and admire it. Very rarely, I happen to want to cook this kind of hardworking artwork. Takes a lot of inspiration and frankly, a picture from your Instagram timeline.

A wave of sigh leaves me as hot ginger tea burns my throat. Almost, nothing can make your day better than a cup of tea. Almost...

I am about to take a bite of my hash brown when a sleepy Noor shuffles into the kitchen, rubbing her eyes. "Why are you still in your pajamas" she yawns, brewing herself a cup of coffee and strides leisurely towards the breakfast bar where I was sitting.

"I have an afternoon shift today, you forgot?" I finally take a bite of my breakfast and immediately scrunch my nose in disgust. I did everything right. It looked fantastic. What happened to the taste?

Smiling, Noor blows steam off her mug. "Why didn't you wake me? You know I would have made you a better version of mushroom omelette" she says, leaning against my chair.

"Of course, chef Noor--but I have to learn someday" I trail off, stuffing another bite of my pathetic breakfast.

"OH.MY.GOD!" Noor yelps unexpectedly, rushing towards the oven. "I completely forgot I had to deliver this, Zoya" she screams at the same time magically produces baked brownies out of the oven that smells mouth-watering.

"How? Wait, when did you make this?"

"Early morning"

It suddenly hit me. "Oh, no wonder! I thought I smelt cake but declined it off as one of my delicious dreams." I watched her delicately wrap the brownies onto a fancy basket.

"Zo, I have another catering assignment in Bandra. How will I make it to both places at the same time?"

"I'll go"

"What, really?" she squeals with excitement.

"Yup! I have nothing to do till late afternoon, anyway. Just text me the address" I say, taking a sip from the only right thing, my ginger tea.

"You are my savior", she rushes to hug me. "Okay so, listen she quickly recovers from our hug and begins to instruct me, "it's in south mumbai. You have to collect the keys from the security people of their building, since no one is going to be home. You just have to place this basket of brownies there and leave. I'll talk to Arjun so he can inform the security that you are coming."

My brows lift in astonishment, "Noor, hold on. Did you just say--Arjun? Arjun Hooda?"

"Yeah, why?"

"There has been only one Arjun in your life so far and if he is, who I think he is..."

I can see a slight discomfort in her eyes but she quickly recovers. "Yes, it's the same Arjun from my university days."

"You mean your ex Arjun, from university", I am so lost right now.

Noor clears her throat even though she doesn't need to. "It's not how you think it is."

"I didn't know you guys still talk."

"We don't", she sits on one of the stools at the breakfast bar. "We are just friends on social media. He learned recently about my work as a pastry chef at Marine and asked for a favor."

"So what, these brownies are just a favor? Nothing else?" I question, still not convinced.

"Yes! He's hosting a party at his place and wanted me to bake these brownies for him" pointing at the brownies, she explains.

I eye her suspiciously, "Noor."

"We both have moved on, Zoya" she mimics my tone.

Narrowing my eyes, I walk away to my room. Somewhere deep down, I knew Noor was hiding something.

** **

Arjun. I had never really met him, only heard about their story through Noor. And I know for a fact, Noor use to be head over heels for that man. I did mention how she had fled from her house, right? Not in detail I know, but still you got the point by now. Yeah well, back then she didn't have me and was all by herself in this big city. Naturally, Arjun became the only family she could trust. They had the perfect relationship till---. My trail of thoughts is interrupted as my Uber driver hits the break right in front of my destination.

Silver Heights, I read. I cross-check with the text Noor had sent and seems this is it.

** **

The lock twists with a click. I peep-in uncomfortably before closing the door softly behind me. Now, I know I was given the keys and proper required authority to enter this luxury apartment but it still feels a bit theif-ish to enter when no one is around. Anyway, I notice an extensive hallway which probably leads to the main hall.

Interesting.

Making small strides, I walk, in hope to find the kitchen fast enough so I could escape this place quickly. As soon as I enter the hall, I gasp in astonishment. Besides the enormity of the hall, what gets my attention is the tiny details put into this room. The floor is wooden, beautiful reddish brown wooden colour lies underneath my shoes. Sunlight gleams through broad, blue coloured French sliding window glasses present at the center of the room giving me a splendid view of the marine drive. Being on the tenth floor does give you one of the best views, after all. Completely compelled by the authentic interior, I forget about the brownies for a moment and just enjoy the view present in front of me.

Curiosity. Curiosity killed the cat', ever heard of that phrase? Well of course you have. But how many of you ever obeyed that phrase?

I leave the brownies by the kitchen top which is present right around the corner of the living room. It's one of those kitchens that open out to your living hall. My job here, was done and I should I have exited without any trouble but the designer in me couldn't stop herself. What's the harm anyway, it's not like I am stealing anything? Somewhat close to window shopping---yes!

Noticing a staircase, which was wooden too by the way I decide to climb up and explore but instead, spot a sliding door right under the staircase. More curious to survey that area, I descend back down to slide the door open. If you thought the living hall was great, then wait till you see what is in here. I was awe-struck with the smell of shelves and shelves of books present. Clearly, this was the most gorgeous home library I had ever seen. Obviously, I step in and slide my fingers through few books while striding around the shelves.

My most peaceful trance is broken by a sudden flash of movement I felt behind me. It could easily be one of my weird imaginations, right? I lurk through the shelves towards the door which was still open and saw nothing extraordinary as such. See? Just imagination. Expect when I call out, "Arjun, is that you?"

I hear muffled footsteps coming near the library, in my freaking direction. Shit! Great, I have severed myself on a silver platter to some random attacker. I desperately, look around the room for some shield to protect myself. Then, realizing I still have my bag with me, I dig in to find something, anything sharp that could injure this attacker. I could hear the footsteps getting closer and closer. My heartbeat got louder and breath shallower. I rounded the corner of the first shelf trying to look through gaps in the shelf. My hand still in the bag finally came across my keychain which had a tiny knife attached to it. More like a toy knife I would call it since it wouldn't even cut an apple. But then something is better than nothing. Taking minute steps, I am about to slide over to the next shelf when I feel a touch on my shoulder.

Without a second thought, I scream bloody marry and pin the body against the shelf with such immense force that the shelf wobbles as though there was an earthquake. I cannot tell you how immensely proud I was of myself. So, proud that I did not even look who I was about to stab with my teeny knife.

Oh, don't worry all this lasted barely for a second before my forearms were clasped in a tight grasp and my body was pinned against the wall, instead. Crap!

I struggle to free my hands when I hear a familiar voice, "What the actual f**k"

I stop. Glance up. Those eyes, those brown eyes.

Stalkerrr.

Hope you guys enjoyed this update! Really sorry wont be able to pm right away this time. Will do it as soon as possible :)

Liked it 😃

At last she remembered that she didn't tell her name 😆

Continue soon

Arjun & Noor were in a relationship? Hmm.. Next chapter is smtn I'm looking forward to 😃 Zoya seems to have a tiny crush in Adi which is good 😳

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