MaNan OS: Shattered Stone
"Mission Nandini Moorthy, accomplished." He told her, smirking as much as he could, which was not much. Manik Malhotra, who was found with a smirk on his face at almost any given time, was finding it hard to smirk properly. He was messed up, that was for sure. As he said the words, he struggled to look away from her. There she was, dressed to perfection, and he had to make sure that he finished whatever it was between them, and he was sure he wouldn't be able to do it if he took even one look at her face for he had an inkling of doubt about what her expressions would convey. He couldn't give in. He wouldn't.
It wasn't as simple either. Being Manik Malhotra never was. He still had to go on stage in a few minutes for his performance, and he had to sing with a smile on his face. Smiling was never this hard but today, when his heart was breaking into pieces, it seemed like it would kill him to smile for even a few seconds, much less through the performance. However hard it was, he had to do it, for himself, for his music and above all, for Fab 5.
He heard NH3 being called onto the stage for the performance and he heard Nandini move from behind him, her heels banging against the floor. As he no longer heard her heels clicking, he turned around and headed towards where his friends were standing, which happened to be right next to the stage where NH3 were performing. Manik tried to leave when he felt someone's hand on his arm. He turned to see Cabir pulling him, so reluctantly, he walked back to them.
"Wow, Nandini Moorthy is crying, whoever did this to her should be awarded." Cabir told him, smirking at the stage.
Unable to stop himself, Manik looked at her face to see her look broken, her face mirroring the expressions he had seen when Rishabh had an attack. His eyes flickered towards Dhruv who was looking at Nandini with a worried expression and he looked towards the stage again, his eyes now locking with Nandini's. He saw that she had stopped singing and Navya was filling in for her. He wanted to run onto the stage to comfort her, but one glance at Cabir and Dhruv was all he needed to stop moving forward.
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As he uttered those words, it took all of her not to collapse right there. The way he was smirking nonchalantly made her want to pull his hair and shout and scream at him, and ask him why he did this to her. After all those moments together, the way he helped her with Rishabh, the way he took care of her drunk self and above all, him. She had trusted him and now, she found out it was a game, right when she was on the verge of confessing her feelings. She couldn't believe that there were no feelings on his part; she didn't want to believe it; but the way he said it left no room for doubt. Manik Malhotra had broken her heart, and the best part, he didn't care a bit.
As she was about to walk up to him, she heard the announcer call out her band's name and she sighed, knowing she would have to face the music first, but the song selection wasn't making it easy for her.
She met up with her band mates, smiling as big as she could but as the song began, the waterworks broke. She didn't know what triggered it. Maybe it was that Manik wasn't watching the performance, the song, or it was because of her own stupidity. After all, if believing Manik is not a monster was not stupidity at its best, she didn't know what was.
Looking around while performing, she suddenly spotted Manik looking at Dhruv with a broken look on his face and then he turned towards her. She expected a smirk or a sneer but she was faced with a Manik who looked like he had already lost Musicana. Her throat went dry looking at him and she was thankful that Navya continued. She forcefully looked away from Manik because she knew this was not the time to think that he was actually starting to be apologetic. She would take care of it later.
With difficulty, Nandini finished her song and ran away from the stage as soon as the curtains came down, not wanting to be interrogated by her fellow band mates. And she knew exactly where she had to go.
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In a few minutes, she found herself in the staircase where she and Manik usually met and she was right, he was there, and he was leaning against the wall. This was when she realized it was time for Nandini Moorthy to come back.
"Why did you do it?" Nandini asked him slowly, not wanting to explain what she meant. She knew he would understand what she meant, at least this time he would.
Manik looked up, shocked. The one person he didn't want to face had to come and stand in front of him and this time, he didn't have an answer to give her. So he tried his best to glare at her and shrug her question off, but it looked like she wouldn't take no for an answer, that's what it looked like as she glared at him.
"You know what Nandini, your fault was thinking that I would give up so easily. Manik Malhotra never forgets a punch, nor does he forgive it. We are Fab 5 for a reason, we live for revenge Nandini Moorthy, and the best way to get stupid girls down, is to make them believe that they are special enough for Manik Malhotra but you, you are definitely not special. Like every other girl, you fell for the lies of Monster Manik', and my work is done. Good luck nursing your broken heart Nandu." He said, and turned away when he felt her hold his hand from behind. He pulled away as harshly as he could and walked away from there, tears already starting to form in his eyes.
Nandini looked at his retreating back and it hurt her more than his harsh words. After everything, he did not give a damn about her, it was all a game and she was so easy to be played with. He didn't even care enough to look at her. Coming here had only broken her more and she had to give him credit, he was a damn good actor, acting like he cared. He'd done a pretty good job of shattering her, seeing that only a shell of her was left behind. She didn't know how long she sat there, and she didn't care. Caring didn't do her good earlier; it wouldn't do her any good later either.
Little did she know, that in the time she turned to stone, Manik Malhotra was turning into one as well, only for completely different reasons.
I honestly don't know about the end. 😆 Maybe it's good, maybe it's bad. Probably bad but eh. xD Anyway, I might continue it. But we'll get to that later. :P
Love,
Ananya
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