Chapter - 36
"Sid, just got to know that ritika is out of coma" Arun informed, after sid answered the call.
"Really?" It took a few seconds for sid to understand.
"Yeah. I'm here in the same hospital. She is back to consciousness a two days back. She's completely fine now" arun responded with joy.
"Send me the address. I'm coming" sid replied before hanging up the call.
Roli looked at him as he said the last words.
"Are you going somewhere?" She asked, watching him preparing to leave.
"Yes" sid replied, briefly as he grabbed the car keys.
"Wait. You got your hand hurt. How can you drive?" Roli pulled him back.
"Roli, it's important, I should go. And I can drive, okay?" Sid was surprisingly not yelling at her. Perhaps, he understood her concern for him.
"Still I can't let you go. Let's do one thing. I'll drive you wherever you want to go" roli suggested, quickly.
"Arey, it's too long.." before sid could complete his sentence, roli grabbed the keys from him.
"Too long? Then I'm definitely coming with you" roli said before turning around and walking out.
"Stubborn kid!" Sid sighed as he helplessly followed her.
Roli drove as sid gave the directions. As sid said, it was indeed a long distance. It took more than two hours for them to reach the address, which arun sent.
"Hospital?" Roli stunned as she got down from the car and looked in front, where she was standing.
Throughout the drive she hadn't asked sid about where they were going. She just focused on driving and let sid to give instructions. She was confused to know that sid wanted to come to hospital.
When she was about to ask sid, she saw arun, nitesh and ruchi walking towards them.
"We were waiting for you to come so that we can all go together" nitesh, who just reached there with ruchi a few minutes back, said to sid.
"Let's go then" sid said as they were prepared to go.
Roli, with a confused look, trailed them.
After a few minutes, they all reached the room in third floor.
As they entered in, roli found a girl sitting on bed, holding a juice glass in her hand.
Hearing the foot steps, that girl turned towards the door and smiled brightly at the sight of them.
Roli watched her keenly as her mind quickly recognized the girl.
"Ritika" thought roli in her mind.
She still looked the same as she was in the photos, which roli saw in Sid's laptop. Except the fact that her face looked a little pale, perhaps, because of all those days she had been in coma.
There were a middle aged couple in the room. Supposed to be ritika's parents.
Roli recognized the man as she happened to met him already.
He thrown an angry glance at them for which they all remained silent.
Ritika turned to her parents as she said "Maa, papa.. you both go out for a while. I've a lot to talk to my friends".
Considering her words, her parents left the room, silently.
As they left, ritika turned to sid and gang as she exclaimed "so, after a very long time!". Her voice sounded so happy.
Ruchi rushed to her and hugged "how are you?".
"I'm perfectly fine" ritika hugged her back.
They broke the hug as ritika turned her attention to the boys and asked "how are you all?".
"Good" sid said with a rare smile, which surprised roli, who was watching the scene.
"We missed you so much" ruchi said as she sat beside ritika.
"Me too" ritika confessed with an emotional smile.
"She?" Ritika's attention finally caught on roli as she pointed at her and asked.
Sid looked at roli, who was standing like a statue.
"She's roli" sid said as he signalled roli to come forward, which she obeyed absentmindedly.
"She's my..." Sid paused as he didn't know how to complete the sentence. He obviously wanted to introduce her as his love. But, he wanted to confess it first to roli herself and that too in the most memorable way ever!
He had to swallow the further words as he pushed out "..My family friend".
Little did sid expect was his words had broken roli's little heart.
Was she just a family friend for him? Roli found it hard to accept. She felt like as if someone daggered her heart.
"Your family friend. Then she's my friend too" ritika's words brought roli back to the reality.
"Hi roli" she wished for which, roli forced a smile as response.
"Roli, you're so cute" ritika admired with a smile.
"And we've to be mute when she talks" sid cut in middle, making all giggle. But, roli was in no mood to respond to any of his mockings.
"Sid, you're still the same. Always pulling others legs" ritika laughed.
Suddenly sid remembered something as he said in all seriousness "Ritika, I'm sorry... Because of me.." his words interrupted by ritika.
"No, sid. It's not your mistake. You don't need to blame yourself" ritika said, holding his hands.
"And have you forgotten what we've decided on that day" she continued with a smile.
For which sid too smiled and kept his hand above hers' as he said "how can I forget that".
"Now enough of this emotional talks. And tell me how's everything going on" ritika said, taking her hands back from sid.
"Not sure until now. But, from now on, it's going to be fun" ruchi replied, hugging ritika from sideways.
Soon they all started reminiscing their old days. Roli stood at side, silently watching them. She watched how sid was smiling happily. She hadn't seen him like that before.
Sid's happy face made her smile. But, her eyes became moist with the thought that she wasn't the reason for his happiness. She slowly took backward steps and left the room quietly.
Coming out of the hospital, roli couldn't hold her tears anymore. It was almost dark outside. Cool breeze hit her face as the tears rolled down her cheeks.
With the picture of Sid holding ritika's hand and smiling at her kept flashing in her mind, roli's heart started getting heavy. She kept taking forward steps without her own knowledge of where she was going.
Inside the hospital room, everybody was involved in chit chatting.
When sid turned his attention, he found roli missing. He watched the whole room but, found her nowhere.
"Where's roli?" Sid queried, as he looked back and forth to find roli.
"She was here till now" ruchi said as she looked at the place, where roli was standing a while back.
"I'll go check out" sid walked out of the room.
Sid looked in the corridor but, roli wasn't there. He then tried her number which went unanswered.
He searched for her in the whole third floor. But, got no clue of her.
A few minutes passed by. With the every passing second, sid began to worry as he still couldn't find her. He kept trying her number but got same response. No answer.
Thinking roli might have returned to the room, he went back.
"Is roli came back?" Sid asked as soon as he entered the room.
"No. Haven't you found her yet?" Arun asked with concern.
"I've searched every corner of the hospital, she's nowhere here" sid replied, worriedly.
"Relax, sid. Try reaching her through phone" ruchi got down from bed and walked up to him.
"I'm trying but, she's not answering" sid began to lose his patience out of worry.
Just then ritika's parents came back to the room.
"She will be somewhere around here. Don't worry, sid" nitesh tried to console his friend. They've never seen sid being so worried. It made them worried too.
"How can I not be worried. It's almost one hour and I still couldn't find her" sid was being restless. He still kept trying her phone. But got no response.
"If you're talking about the girl, who came with you. She went out of the hospital" ritika's father said after listening their conversation.
"Out of the hospital?" Sid turned to his side and asked.
"We saw from the window when she walked out" he replied.
Sid didn't wait any further as he rushed out of the hospital to search for roli.
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