The Grease Story (Completed) - A SanDhir FF *A/N - Page 103* - Page 5

Part 8

She felt it on her face. Red, hot and full of life. Had the drop not fallen, the two would have stayed where they were. Right in the middle of the earthquake. The drop was their little savior. The moment it touched Sanyukta's cheek, she snapped back into reality. She rose from the floor, surprising Randhir in the process. She didn't want to ask where the blood came from. She quickly wiped it off. "The ceiling will become the floor any moment now!" she said while shaking him.

"Ouch!" he yelled, making Sanyukta regret the shake. "What happened?" she asked, concerned. He turned around and showed her his bloodied back. A large chunk of the pillar had hit his back. The drop of blood had fallen from over his shoulder. Fortunately, nothing had penetrated his shirt. Or so it seemed. They would have to check his wounds later. She hugged him right then, silently thanking him for taking the fall for her. He gently pushed her away saying, "We have to get out of here." Sanyukta was sure that none of Randhir's nerves were damaged, as he could manage to walk, but not all by himself.

She had to support him, and not the other way round for the first time ever. They limped slowly towards the exit even as the building was slowly collapsing around them. He had his arm around her shoulders. She tried to walk as steadily as she could, as his back was bleeding more with every step he took. Fortunately, they were on the first floor, so it wasn't a long way down to safe ground. They reached the staircase and prepared themselves for the last bit of struggle. They started walking down the stairs very slowly at first, as Randhir's back was only getting worse. After they were halfway down the stairs, Randhir felt an excruciating stab of pain on his back and he collapsed to the floor. Sanyukta lost her balance too and fell to the ground.

Randhir had his eyes open and was breathing normally. That was such a relief for Sanyukta. Fortunately, she had a dupatta on. Tearing and tying only a part of it on Randhir's back wouldn't make sense. There was too much bleeding. She would have to use the entire piece of cloth. Sanyukta's troubles were alleviated when she realized that the tremors had stopped. Randhir realized that too and gave her a faint smile. Now they would only have to get out of here soon enough to save Randhir.

She smiled back and helped him sit upright. She slowly removed his shirt, in order to tie her dupatta on his back to stop the bleeding. Even in these circumstances, she couldn't help but notice his perfectly built torso and chiseled chest. Randhir almost read her mind and grunted. She grew red in embarrassment and was quickly transported out of her dreamland and into the present. She was embarrassed, he was ecstatic. She put his shirt aside and went behind him to die the dupatta as his was relatively immobile. She started wrapping it all the way around him, as he was smiling to himself. She made sure it was tight enough, yet not uncomfortable. As her white dupatta turned red because of his blood, she realized the urgency of the situation and quickly put his shirt back on for him. She helped him get up again and they slowly made their way down and out, not afraid of any falling debris. Soon they reached the ground floor and found all their classmates staring intently at them. Kaustuki & Jignesh, both seated in chairs because of their injured legs, rose and jogged to hug the two of them. They thought Randhir & Sanyukta weren't coming back. That explained the staring from their classmates and the sudden reaction from the injured duo.

"Don't hug Randhir!" shouted Sanyukta as Jiggy was just about to hug Randhir. Both of them gave her a look that said why the hell not. She explained what had happened to Randhir and immediately called for a stretcher for him. "Why are you doing so much for me, farzi?" he asked her. "Because you did so much for me without thinking why and how," she said calmly. Everyone heard that and had eyes gaping wide open, only for the two of them. Sanyukta felt terrible for letting Randhir get hurt so much and not getting a single scratch on her own body, so she didn't care about what people heard and how they reacted.

So she isn't as foolish as I thought she is, Randhir joked to himself. The stretcher came and was about to take Randhir away. But before they could, Sanyukta stepped forward and hugged him as tightly as she could without hurting him. She whispered a quiet "thank you so much" in his ear again and had tears in her eyes when she finally let him go. His eyes reflected those tears, as if they were from the same source.