MaNan OS: Change

Manik Nandini Drabble/OS: Change

When Nandini Murthy had walked out of the stage that evening, she was beyond troubled. She should have been happy, ecstatic even; after all, their band had won the competition! With minimum practice, they had performed a song which was completely out of their comfort zone, and won! Navya, who had walked out of practice the previous night, had finally showed up at the last moment, and with a performance that blew everyone's minds away, they clinched the first place with Navya having rightly been hailed as the star of the day. Yet, even as she freed herself from the excited embraces of her band mates, Nandini could not shake off the odd feeling that had nagged her throughout the afternoon; that something, somewhere had gone terribly wrong.

At the further corner of the auditorium sat the members of the infamous Fab5, looking extremely dejected. Under different circumstances, Nandini probably would have felt satisfaction at the sight. However, at that moment, her mind focussed only on the ever so conspicuous absence of her nemesis, Manik Malhotra. It was only last night that he had taunted and admonished her for even thinking about giving up without a fight, and now, he himself had mysteriously disappeared before the performance, and failed to turn up at all.

It was a day of ironies, Nandini thought as she glanced away and took her phone out from the bag. She had come to college that day worrying about Navya, and here she was, at the end of the day, worrying about Monster Manik instead. She had conditioned her mind to accept defeat and humiliation, and instead, here she was, struggling to look happy about her victory while her heart felt otherwise.

Switching on her phone revealed numerous missed calls and a message from the Monster himself. Perhaps the day's surprises weren't quite over yet, was Nandini's thought before she opened the message and the wind was knocked off her sails as she learnt what had kept Manik away.

Nandini cursed herself as she checked the time of the message. It had been sent over an hour back. If only she hadn't been so imprudent and had taken Manik's call, she would have been with Rishabh and calmed him by now. As she ran, Nandini could feel the panic rise inside her like fierce fumes, and it was panting and gasping that she reached the medical room.

The sight that greeted her in the room caught her off guard, not for the first time that day. There lay Rishabh on the bed, sleeping as peacefully as only a baby could, clinging on to Manik's shirt as if holding on to life. Manik's hands encased him like a shield, his eyes closed and forehead creased as if in concern.

Manik Malhotra, the very bane of her existence, had chosen to stay with her ailing brother, while she sang away to glory at Musicana. How could she ever repay this debt?

Nandini felt a pull at her heartstrings as she realised that something had changed forever, in the way she would look at her sworn enemy from that moment on.

Please do leave your comments and criticisms.😳

--Harsha