MG FF: In the dark between stars||Note page 38|| - Page 5

Chapter 2: Cloaked in the dark

Geet had appreciated her brother stepping in and tackling the bullies down a notch 3 years ago when she'd been 13 years old. She loved him for it.

But now, she regretted it.

Since that evening, word had spread about Geet's eldest brother and everyone, but her friends avoided her like plague. They were afraid of the consequences of saying the wrong thing and hurting her feelings.

16 years old and she still didn’t have a boyfriend.

Everyone in her class had a boyfriend or girlfriend at least once.

She grew jealous hearing her friends talking about their boyfriends or girlfriends, and how they shared intimate parts of their life they hadn’t shared with anyone else. She wanted that.

Braces gone leaving straight pearly whites, her once limp hair were silky strands that passed her shoulders that she could put in a ponytail and a messy bun as she pleased, her spots disappeared thanks to her trusty creams she'd applied religiously and refused to join the other girls concealing her face with layers of makeup.

The Singhania genes had kicked in and she was stunningly beautiful and all natural.

Unfortunately, it was this Singhania name that had the boys shutter their mouths and hide away.

Where everyone feared crossing her path being Prem Singhania's young sister, others respected Kabir and were cosying up to him and gladly listening to his rubbish demands.

Since that evening, Kabir and Maan became a hot topic in the school making them even more popular and being great players on the football ground helped them as well.

She was grateful and thanking God numerous times when they'd finally left high school.

Kabir and Maan were now in their final year of college before they'd enrolled for university.

Fu*k sakes Jay cursed as he walked the small steps and knocked on the front door. He hoped and prayed that he didn’t come face to face with Prem Singhania. The threat from 3 years ago was still vivid and engraved in his mind. He had not forgotten that. He will not forget that. Prem Singhania had ensured that. Please, God. Make sure the raavan isn't home. F*cking Kabir. Sorry, God. Sorry. I won't swear.

The door opened, he squinted and sighed in relief. Then his eyes wandered.

Nerdy was hot he thought. Jay hadn't seen her since he'd left for college.

"Yes?" Geet frowned resting her hand on her hips. She knew exactly who stood in front of her.

"Geet" Jay offered a smile.

"What do you want? Shall I call my bhai?" she crossed her arms.

"No, sorry" he shook his head. "Kabir asked me to pick him up, the f*cker doesn’t have a car yet".

Geet cringed hearing his cuss, she shook her head stepping aside and opening the door. "Kabir bhai! Your boyfriend is here" she yelled out.

"Boyfriend?" Aparna gasped. "Shivani, suna tu ne. Kabir ka ek boyfriend hai"

"Naani" Geet giggled whilst Jay shook his head stammering as he tried to correct the elderly woman who looked like she was about to have a heart attack.

"You stupid cow" Kabir scowled grabbing the pillow and chucking it on his sister.

"Prem Bhai!" she called for her eldest brother knowing he'd be at her side and protect her instantaneously.

"Why do you always call him?" Kabir hissed glaring at her and looked around.

"Why don’t you leave my baby girl alone?" Aparna smacked his shoulder and joined Geet on the sofa pulling her close and enveloping her.

"Naani! She's yelling to the house that my boyfriend is here! The neighbours probably down the road must have heard her" Kabir scowled. "Mama!" he yelled. "Tell, Geet".

"Kabir, why don’t you leave Geet alone?" Shivani walked out shaking her head. "Aren't you supposed to be going out?"

"I'm going" he snapped pulling his phone out and dialled Maan's number. "Hey, are you coming? Jay has arrived" he said over the phone listening to Maan's response then cut the call. "Give him 10 minutes, he's coming over" he told Jay and walked over to the sofa and sat down.

Geet giggled tilting her head back resting on the sofa, she smiled feeling the familiar touch and closed her eyes at the press of Prem's lips on her forehead.

"Hey, baby girl" he greeted and walked around the sofa joining her and sliding his arm around her shoulder enveloping her.

"Bhai" she grinned entwining their arms together resting her head on his shoulder happily. She looked at her brother with admiration and immense love.

Prem frowned seeing a familiar face across from him, he shook his head at his brother who was busy tapping away on his phone. "Who are you?" he questioned focusing on the familiar face but couldn’t make out where he'd known this guy from.

Kabir looked up from his phone and noticed his brother staring at Jay, shit. Bhai is going to kill me if he knows Jay is the same boy who'd called nerdy in front of everyone. "Uh, Maan must be waiting outside now" Kabir stood. "Bhai, we're going out" he pulled Jay up and turned to leave.

"Kabir" Prem called.

He halted wincing and looked apologetically at Jay who'd looked as terrified.

"Be home by 10pm" Prem stated.

Kabir's shoulder's sagged in relief, he quickly agreed and hopped out the doors with Jay.

"Your brother is damn scary" Jay muttered. "I think my heart has stopped" he placed his hands on his chest. "My God, you think he's a mafia or something" he huffed.

Kabir looked over when he heard a hustling and smiled when Maan joined them.

"So, where are we going?"

"Why were you running late?" Kabir inquired.

"Never mind about that" Maan shook his head. "Aren't we running late?" he asked.

"Oh yeah, come on" Kabir agreed and they huddled into Jay's car heading to their destination.

"Bhai, you cheated" Geet whined as Prem bounced the ball away and leaped up making a basket. The sun had set, stars twinkled, and the siblings played in the dark. The overhead lamp providing them the light they needed in order to play. Prem had gotten their backyard fixed for her recently, before they'd go to the local park and play basketball however since Prem had gotten busy he wasn’t able to join her as much. So she'd begged her brother to fix their backyard up for her so she can spend time with him whenever he's free.

Prem laughed huffing, he rested his hands on his hip as his sister stood tapping her foot looking cross at him. "I'm sure it's always the other way around" he swiped the sweat from his face using his t-shirt.

"I want a rematch" Geet informed crossing her arms.

Prem held up the ball teasing her with it as if he were going to hand it to her, but quickly held it up away from her reach. Geet leaped forward attempting to reach it, she laughed chasing him around their yard, with the sounds of crickets, their laughter echoed.

The sound of arguing garnered their attention and they looked towards their house confused and pondered. Geet smirked using this as an opportunity to distract her brother and leaped slapping the ball away which flew over the fence into Maan's garden.

"Let me go see what Kabir and Naani are arguing about now" Prem told her. "Go get the ball, baby girl" he gestured and jogged inside.

"Naani, what happened?" Prem questioned seeing his grandmother swinging her cane around threatening Kabir with it.

"First, he came with his boyfriend before. Now he smells of alcohol" Aparna frowned.

"Bhai, I swear I didn’t drink" Kabir held up his hands.

"Come here!" Prem glowered, he grabbed Kabir's t-shirt pulling him telling him to open his mouth. Prem smelled his breath and released Kabir, "Where did you go where they're serving alcohol?"

"Uh…" Kabir pondered.

"Tell me the truth" Prem snapped warning him silently.

"Brad's beach house, they had a party" he mumbled.

Prem cursed, "Go and shower!" he pointed. "Kabir, I think its time you chose wise friends" he stated.

Kabir nodded and stropped out the living room heading upstairs.

Outside, Geet searched for the ball. She opened the backyard door stepping out and nudged through the opening in Maan's fence. As it was dark, it was difficult to look for the ball.

Geet jerked when she heard furious echoes of yelling and something crashing against a wall, she decided she didn’t need the ball and hurried to leave when she tripped. She backed away crouching down near the bushes as the door swung open.

"You're good for nothing!" a furious yell barked.

Geet's eyes widened when she saw Maan shoved, he tripped and fell down the small steps onto the gravelly path. Geet covered her mouth hiding her gasp biting down on her lip, her heart sunk to her stomach. This felt so surreal. This couldn’t be real. Surely not. This was Maan. Her brother's best friend, funny, cocky, Maan.

She winced seeing him brush the corner of his mouth and sighing heavily. He spat, coughed and cleared his throat. He brushed his hair back and crawled wincing and sat against the large tire in their yard. He exhaled throwing his head back, his voice sounded different, it was more of a wheeze.

Geet watched him silently, he curled his arms around his knees, and he broke down crying softly. She didn’t need the light to see the tears that slipped down his cheek as he continued to rub his eyes furiously.

Geet looked at the house, it stood tall similarly to their house next door, yet this looked monstrous to her, why wouldn’t it be? She had heard the bark of hell coming from inside.

Geet glanced around his backyard, she felt her heart hammering noticing a sleeping bag close to the tire and her eyes returned to the broken boy who'd cried in the darkness of the night.

"Geet" Prem called out searching for his sister when he realised she had not returned.

Maan frowned hearing Prem, he stayed low hoping Prem wouldn't see him. He brushed the corner of his mouth getting rid of the smear of blood and swiftly wiped his arms and hands over his jeans hoping it looked like dirt and not dried blood. He clenched his fists trying to seem nonchalant and minding his own business as if it was normal to be sitting outside in the cold dark night, it was a good thing he'd crawled across to the tire that sat on the green blades of grass.

Maybe it wouldn’t seem so odd. Had it been stones or slabs of concrete, then it would be.

"Hey!" Prem leaned over the fence and noticed Maan sat on the grass. "Have you seen Geet?"

"Uh, no" Maan shook his head. He bit down his lip standing up and masked his pain plastering a smile. "Has she gone to a friend's?" he asked seemingly looking around, he maintained a straight polite face as usual hoping Prem would go back to his house already. He needed to sit.

"No, our basketball fell in your garden. I told her to get it" Prem muttered. "Geet" he stepped back and opened the backyard fence, he looked down the alleyway and searched for his sister. His words had Maan's heart sinking, he looked around the garden and sighed in relief. His shoulders sagged in relief and he thanked God silently.

Geet cringed hearing the concern of her brother's voice as he called for her, she didn’t want to come out. She wanted to sink back and remain cloaked by the darkness.

"Geet" Maan called as he walked over to the backyard door ready to open when he heard a rustle and her voice. She was here. In his garden.

"I… I'm here" Geet called out, Maan glanced over his shoulder and his eyes widened as she crawled out from bushes, the overhead light from next door shone a little into the garden and he looked at her.

When she stared back, he knew.

Prem hurried over and lifting her onto her feet.

"Baby girl, what were you doing there?" Prem brushed his fingers across her hair wiping the dirt from her cheek and rubbed her shoulders. "Are you okay?" he searched her.

"Bhai, I'm fine" Geet assured, she glanced over his shoulder at Maan. He avoided looking at her. Geet smiled turning her attention to her brother. "I was playing hide and seek with you, but you got scared" she chuckled nudging him.

"Baby girl" Prem shook his head. "C'mon let's go home" he led her out, Maan noticed the ball and handed it to Prem. "Thanks" he nodded taking the basketball. Geet looked at Maan and this time he'd looked at her, silently pleading she wouldn’t say a word. Geet nodded and offered a smile walking away with Prem.

Heated embarrassment had Maan's cheeks red hot, he brushed his fingers through his hair watching Geet Singhania walking away, her attempts of acting nonchalant may have fooled her brother, but she hadn’t fooled him. She knew.

He cursed tugging at his hair and glanced across to next door, his eyes drawn to her bedroom window. Light flickered on and he held his breath as she appeared at the window.

She pulled the curtains closed averting her eyes. His shoulders sagged whilst he burned with the acknowledgement that she had seen something tonight, he racked his brains wondering if she'd tell anyone, he wondered if she'd tell Kabir.

He had to speak to her, he couldn’t let this get out or he'd be the laughingstock of their college and this would follow him around.

He couldn’t have his image tainted or anyone's attention drawing to his life here. He had done everything to keep his home life separate, and now Geet Singhania could destroy that.

In the darkness of the night, she thought of the boy next door.

Geet curled into a ball hugging her pillow tightly, the images she'd witnessed she could not forget.

One glance wouldn’t hurt, would it? She tiptoed across the floor, pushing the curtain and searched. Curiousity and anxiety had her fingers curling against the material pulling and she blinked, her breath hitched, and she found him.

In the dark between stars

He lay in the sleeping bag

Hands crossed behind his head

His eyes lost, unfocused whilst trying to search for something

As if he sensed her, Maan turned and looked at her window.

It was just dark.

He couldn’t see her.

No, she's asleep he concluded and turned away.

Minutes passed, she watched.

In the darkness between stars.

Precap : A promise sworn

Hope you've enjoyed this chapter, it is different from innocence though inspired by the teen bit of the story. 😉 As explained, the only similarities is probably is Geet is young 😆

Thank you for the wonderful comments 🤗Appreciate it so much ❤️