SS: A Bend in the Road [Wattpad link-P.126] - Page 76

"Stop burying your nose in the book while walking" Geet said annoyed at how nervous Neelima seemed before an exam.

"You aren't going to learn anything new in the last 30 minutes"

"Contrarily..." Neelima said, raising up a finger but not continuing the thought further, lost in going through her notes.

"I'm going to find where my roll number is marked. Good luck for the exam" Geet said as she heard the bell, which alerted her that there was only 10 minutes left before the examination.

Neelima half waved not looking up, and was taking a turn in the familiar corridors when she had run into someone unexpectedly hurting her head to the person's chin, dropping her spectacles at the sudden collision.

She looked up with her wide eyes and blinked at the man who picked up the spectacles without a word and extended it to her.

Vikram Khurana stood there, without a sarcastic remark, without his usual intense gaze, just extending her glasses to her.

"Thank--" she didn't even finish her words before he let her take her glasses back in, and stalked off from her, the words half hanging from her lips.

Dev hiked his bag higher as he got down from the bus at the familiar outskirts of the village.

The welcoming wheat fields and the fresh breeze filled up his senses. He had felt something twist in his gut painfully. He remembered this was where he had seen her first. Covered with dirt, and worry in her eyes, it's here he had laid his eyes on an innocent only to hurt her immensely.

In his bag, was the rolled up chart of his portrait and a couple of other sketches she had drawn in the past month, each of them depecting a random corner of their home, but somehow interconnected to the intimacy they had got accustomed to.

There was a sketch of his backyard, yellowed leaves shed around it, a man stretched across the bench, the back of his head and his spread arms across the metal seat visible.

Another one had the silhouette of a couple, their eyes not meeting each other but looking down at the base of the candle placed between them, nothing but a part of their faces glowing in the golden light of the candle.

Somehow each of these sketches held so much significance that it physically hurt him deep in his heart.

He stopped on his way for a smoke and tea when something caught his attention.

Someone at the tea still was talking about the downfall of the once village head Handa's family.

He could see through the disgust as the men discussed the topic.

"Brij has gone where he deserved to go" they spoke.

"I can't believe that man could not think twice before wanting to murder his sister"

At the outset we can't see any change in the city guy who was having his tea. However, only if you observe closely can you see that his hands slightly shook.

The men continued on about the mysterious disappearance of young girls before Geet's case has come out in the open.

Dev felt his throat go dry, but he steeled his heart. This is why he had come, to face the truth, and face it, he will.

He had waited till the men left before going to the tea stall vendor and paying up for his tea, and casually asked about the girl they were talking about. Just to ensure she was alive.

The tea stall vendor, if found a question from a random stranger weird, he didn't mention it.

All Dev got from him was that Brij was arrested and he heard some villagers saw Geet a couple of months back.

And that was that.