Authors Note:I don't even know why I wrote this. I never write. But I have never done weed either. Doesn't mean I shouldn't. Didn't proofe read this so it's prolly full of typos. Oh well mujhe kaunsa Pulitzer jeetna hai 😆😆
________________________
Nandini waited for Manik to show up at their usual spot for almost an hour. Naa toh Manik aya naa uska koi call. Now she was getting antsy. LEGIT pareshaan. SO not like Manik to play Ding Dong Ditch. He was the one who Whatsapped her late last night "Aye Madam ... Music wing , an hour before college ... pileeej ?
P.S: Don't forget the you-know-whats 😳😳😳"
Cute emojis et al.
She decided another five minutes and then that's it. Aaj toh Manik Malhotra ki SUTAI hogi 😡. She stayed up till 3:00 am to for his you-know-whats and then he's a no show?! She fiddled with the lid of the box in her hand and her chubby cheeks puffed up in indignations even as her lips took on the tiniest of pouts.
All this while, unbeknownst to her ... a pair of sad, vacant eyes were watching her. First they zeroed in on the box in her hand. And then moved on to the hands that were holding it. And then fixated on the girl those hands belonged to. Just as Nandu lifted her head to look up from the box, the lone shadow heaved a sigh and turned on his heels to leave.
She finally got up to leave when she thought she caught a flash of floral ZARA before it disappeared at the turn of the corridor. HAIN ?
Only MANIK would wear something so loud to college. And only Manik would know she'd be there behind the music wing around that time. So Manik was actually there ... all this time and didn't ... show himself ? HAIN ?
Now she was thoroughly confused.
She went past the empty corridor and into the college atrium and made her way through the hustle and bustle of students, her eyes looking for the gaudiest of flowery jackets. Nope. Zip. Zilch. Nada. All she saw were pedestrian graphic tees and denims. At most a few conservative suedes. No meray-baap-ka-college-hai outrageous botanicals.
She sighed and stuffed the box of brownies she didn't realized she was holding all this while into her bag. The idiot had an incurable sweet tooth and would constantly nag her about baking him something or the other. She thought back to the time when she made a batch of 24 cupcakes for Rishab's 15th birthday, and the retard ate them ALL , ek e kar ke ... wohi kitchen mein khade khade. And then licked the batter off the spatula -___- And when she came at him with the belan, he grinned like a fool and had his driver bring in a huge ass guitar shaped cake for the bday boy to make up for it. Most of which he ate too, ofcourse. With Chachi shooting fond looks his way and doing the nazar utaaroing gesture every 30 seconds and Chacha / Rishab cheering him on like he was competing in the Olympics, he scarfed down 90% of the 6 pound dark chocolate monstrosity. Nandu had to whack him with a fly swatter to make him stop eating. She smiled fondly at the memory. But soon the smile vanished as her lips tightened into a thin tense line. Yeh Manik HAI kahaan ?! And who was it that she saw behind the music wing ? This is the first time in 18 months since they got back after the Dhruv fiasco that Manik has stood her up like this.
Meanwhile, in the college auditorium, a certain man-boy was taking out apne maa ke maut ka badla on his poor guitar. RIP Guitar. At least that's what it looked like. Strumming like a mad-man, fat tears streaming down his face , bloodshot eyes, scruffy hair and five o' clock shadow at 8:00 am in the morning ... he was the picture of ... let's put it this way, even when he was sobbing buckets like a geriatric duck that just lost its tail, Manik Malhotra was George Clooney on a sexy-scale of 1 to George Clooney. Yeah k k thanks F*L -____-
The mad strumming continued for another good five minutes when he broke out into a song.
Hai zindagi, khaa jaaooo ..
Brownieee khaaao naa.
Nandu laaao naaa,
Ab toh lay bhi aao.
Naa sham naa savera,
Hai bhuk yeh tagda ,
Naa shaam na savera,
Hai bhoookh yeh tagda ...
Hai payt pujaa ka yeh baseraaa "
All that PAIN in his voice, there was no mistaking it.
After 5 more minutes of butchering what is perhaps the greatest rock number of 2014, Manik Malhotra started croaking. No not that kind of croaking, Allah maaf kare. Like literally croaking. His voice, now hoarse and his throat parched , refused to let him continue with the sacrilege any longer and forced him to stop with one last guttural scream. With no song to channel his grief through, Manik just lost it. He bashed his guitar into the nearest wall and gave it one last venomous look before discarding it unceremoniously in a disgraced heap. He plopped down in a disheveled mess next to his former guitar , hugged his knees and rocked back and forth a la Salman from Tere Naam. Just last night, he was rolling about on his bed in glee, dreaming of devouring the delectable brownies made by his Nandu , and once done with the brownies, he'd turn his attention to the baker of the aforementioned delectable brownies. And hopefully get some. More brownies of course. What were you thinking, sheesh. And now here he was , all by himself ... never to see his dear Nandu again. All because of that little discovery early this morning. He let cracked a wry smile, thinking of how unfair life was. After ALL the Dhruv wala drama, he FINALLY managed to get back with Nandu and now life throws THIS at him? His life was about to change forever and once again, as fate would have it, Nandu could no longer be a part of it. He wouldn't allow it. He loved her too much for it.
Nandini was passing by the auditorium when she thought she heard someone ... sounding very much like they were in labour. To be specific, like a horse in labor, about to give birth to its najayaz aulad conceived with an elephant. That is If people could sound like lascivious horses engaging in inter-species hanky panky. And then it hit her. There was only one person who she knew was capable of sounding like that. She tiptoed into the dark auditorium and surreptitiously shut the door behind her. Before she ventured further into the deranged man's personal batcave at college, she looked up at the ceiling one last time, hoping Aiyappa could hear her through all that sound proofing and prayed hard for him to give her strength ... to deal with whatever the batshit crazy man inside the room was upto now.
He was still rocking back and forth like a lunatic when Nandini came up to him. He was in such a TRANCE he didn't even notice her tiny but prominent form scoot up close and plop right next to him. Still unsuccessful in drawing his attention, she placed a warm tiny hand on his arm. His head shot up, axe murderer like eyes partially covered with his hair, face streaked with ugly lines the tears left in their wake. The George Clooney seskyness was long gone and was now replaced by the empty, hollow look on the face of a man on death row. *AAACCKKK* Nandini jerked her hand away even as heart leapt to her throat when he saw his face. She started chanting the Hanuman chalissa instinctively.
He continued to eye her with the same dead-fish look and let out raspy "Saath laayi ho ?"
She shuddered at the sound of his voice before finally registering what he just said. Nodding fervently, she handed him the box and then carefully put an arms length distance between the two of them. She relaxed when he smiled, opened the box and started eating. But soon her relief was replaced by pure horror. She watched him in shocked silence as he crammed one brownie after another into his face, like a bear that's come out of hibernation after 9 long months. This scene, RIGHT out of National Geographic, continued for another three minutes when he suddenly started to choke without any warning. Manik struggled with his breathing, gagged and sputtered out the brownies as his gora chitta face turned blue. Nandu who could no longer stand and watch, forgot all about her personal safety at that moment, rushed forward and started to thump his back hard for the choking to subside. When that didn't help, she went behind him and hugged him in a straitjacket form and tightened her hold as hard as she could. And that right there my friends, pocket-sized Nandu attempting to Heimlich her towering oaf of a man, was the picture of true love.☺️
She mustered all her strength and gave one last squeeze, when Manik coughed out the offending glob of chewed up brownie that was blocking his airways and his breathing returned to normal. Nandu heaved a sigh of relief and let her arms drop in complete exhaustion. She then looked up at the guy and stared in disbelief. HOW on earth does he get himself into such situations ? Just HOW ? She took in his crazed form when a thought struck her. Was he ... intentionally trying to ... KILL himself ? Was suicide by stuffing one's face with brownies even a THING ? But then this was Manik Malhotra you never know -____- She just let her shoulders drop in resignation and sat down beside him again. She smiled and touched his face tenderly, but before she could ask him what's going on, he gave her another crazy look , jerked her hands away and fled the room. She was too bewildered by his action to react ... so she just sat there, dazed. And then her eyes fell on his jacket. Floral, ZARA. So Manik WAS there this morning. And the state she just saw him now confirmed her suspicions. Something was definitely going on with this boy and she was going to find out. GOD help Manik Malhotra if he was planning on breaking up with her over something ridiculous thing again.
Nandu knew there was no point trying to corner Manik in college, it'd only draw unnecessary attention. So she waited for college to be over , and then hitched a ride with Cabir to his place. One which Cabir was all too glad to offer. Normal Manik, if there was ever such a thing, was a handful as such and when he was off on one of his psychotic breaks, he was a freaking TSUNAMI of crazy. Aise mein only Nandu was capable of handling him and Cabir knew that all too well. So he dropped Nandu off at Manik, wished her luck and left. Ab sab Nandu ke bharose, he thought as he drove off.
Manik's room was, as expected, pitch dark when she entered. But this time she didn't even bother to be stealthy. Jo hoga dekha jayega, bohot ho gaya isska -____-
She found him curled up in a fetal position. UNDER his bed. Yeah the guy has REALLY #LostHiMarbles. She sighed. For the one million six hundred and fiftieth time that day.
"Khuda ne bhi chun chunk ke KAISA namoona mere galey baandhay hai -____-" She thought to herself.
Nandu could no longer take this shit. She lay down on the floor and KICKED him under the bed.
*Owww* "Yeh kyaaa thaa ?! And WHAT are you doing in my room !!!" He barked.
"Aur jo tumne subah kiya WOH kya thaa ?" She too was in no mood to sweet talk him .
And now he was cornered. He crept out from under the bed and sat up. Not meeting her eyes, he started fidgeting with his comforter. Nandu was getting impatient now . She snatched the comforter away from him and forced him to look her straight in the eyes. He looked at her and then looked away, and his shoulders hunched dejectedly. Manik Malhotra was the picture of a defeated man.
"Hua kya hai Manik ... why are you avoiding me ?" Nandu asked, her voice failing to sound as harsh as she meant for it to be. GAH. This loveable idjit. And her feels☺️ 😡.
"I adore you, Nandu. You know that right 😒"
He said , his voice barely a whisper.
She held his hand and squeezed in reassurance. He smiled a sad smile and wrenched his hand free from her grip but Nandu wasn't going to have any of this. She took his hand back in her tiny ones and this time, clasped em tighter.
"Manik I am NOT letting you off the hook until you tell me EXACTLY what is going on with you so you better stop deflecting and tell me RIGHT now. And speaking of hooks, I have been practicing my right hook and trust me, I will NOT hesitate to ..."
She stopped mid sentence when she saw Manik's face. The guy was petrified. Nandu barely stifled a giggle as she continued, in a softer tone.
"Manik you HAVE to tell me what's going on. Please ?"
"Nandini ... woh ... mujhe kuch ho gaya hai aur yeh mujhe khatam kar degi ... and if you come close to me , tumhe bhi ho jayega. And I could NEVER let that happen to you. I'd rather you stay away from me and be safe and healthy than be with me and suffer my fate"
Manik hung his neck in shame and resignation.
Nandini was too shocked to process what she just heard ... and when it sank it her throat tightened and her eyes stung as hot tears welled up. She didn't know whether to be enraged that Manik had cheated on her and contracted an STD ... or be heartbroken that he only had a few days to live.
She slapped him with all the strength she could muster and then broke down into sobs hugging him.
Manik on the other hand, still smarting from the sting of the slap, touched his cheeks gingerly. And before he knew what was happening, Nandu was smothering him in a death grip of a hug and for the second time that day, he was struggling to breather. He tried to wrestle out of her grip but she just hugged him tighter.
Manik then did the only thing he could do in that situation.
He tickled her ... and as she lost control in peals of laughter, he broke free of her grip.
As soon as she recovered though ... she went after him again but this time Manik was prepared ... he shoved a pillow in her extended arms and in one big leap, escaped to the far end of the room. He looked at Nandu like she was crazy. He decided he was better off talking to her from a distance. Hell hath no fury like a (tiny) woman scorned.
"Nandu, I know I have caught it ... but the slap ... How could you?"
"How could I ?! You are the one who caught an STD cheating on me and is now about to die !!!"
"Yeah but how could ... wait WHAT ?! "
"What do you mean what ?! I don't have any STD, and even if I did, you couldn't catch it from me cuz we didn't even ..."
She looked away even as her cheeks took on a very particular shade of crimson☺️.
Manik gave her one last look and LITERALLY started to roll on the floor, his body heaving as bouts of laughter shook him. He stopped almost immediately when he noticed Nandu shooting him death glares.
He somehow managed to composed himself and what he said after than made Nandu charge at him from across the room and punch him square in the jaw. Drawing REAL blood.
And then stalked out of his room without a word. Manik just sat there. Dumbfounded.
20 minutes later ... she returned from the pharmacy, dragged him to the bathroom and despite his muffled protests, held his head under the jet of water in the sink and started scrubbing his hair with a vengeance. With Anti-lice shampoo. And Manik Malhota vowed never to lie or hide something from his girlfriend again, because in the end ... The truth indeed .. will set you free ... the truth in the LICE 🤣
P.S: PUHLEEEZ Do NOT res my topics unless you are going to come back and UnRES. I absolutely DETEST ppl who Res&Run 😳
Tum Se Tum Tak
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Mannat Har Khushi Paane Ki
Vasudha
