Manik Nandini TS - Tera Saara Main
Before Navya could stop her Nandini left the NH3 makeup room. The rest of her band members were having a pity-fest and shit-talking the judges for making the Fab Five the winners of Musicana, but quite frankly she didn't care. She had joined the band for Navya and worked hard but in all honesty, a part of her felt that all thanks to Harshad, perhaps NH3 really didn't deserve victory. Initially, she had thought that he was one of those few hard-to-find guys who may come from a rich family but were still respectful and down-to-earth. Hell, she had hated the Fab Five so much that anyone who hated them was automatically in her good books.
Had hated? There it was again, that annoying inner voice in her head, returning to irritate her.
Err..correction...still hate!
No, you don't. Well at least not ALL of Fab Five.
Yea you're right...I don't hate Dhruv.
Tssskk tssk...you and I both know that Dhruv wasn't the first face that came to your mind...
Okay enough!
No way was she going to give her mind any more liberty to think about that Monster. It never did her any good anyways. For the past few days, she felt like something about the equation between them had changed. And she didn't know how to react. She could handle his extreme temper and heartlessness but she found herself completely bereft of words or actions any time she caught him staring at her for a prolonged time with a certain ...fondness? She had considered the possibility that they could perhaps try to be more civil with each other, even be friends maybe? But of course she knew him better than that. Those looks were more likely to be a figment of her twisted imagination than reality and besides, it wasn't like he didn't find a stupid reason to yell at her five minutes after he was done staring at her.
Anyways, so where was she? Oh yeah...So despite the fact that Harshad had appeared like an angel sent from the heavens above a couple months ago, it had not been long until his mask had started slipping. The day he told them all to spy on Fab Five to try to sabotage their performance, she had realized that he was dangerously blind to everything except his personal vendettas. And after poor Cabir's video revealing his homosexuality, mysteriously played after the judges announced Fab Five the winners, she had a feeling that Harshad was somehow involved. Her suspicions made her lose respect for him even more.
Nandini sighed. If only her naive friend Navya would see that coward for what he was, as well... She was lost in thoughts of how dangerously dependent her best friend had become on Harshad, when a sight shook her to the core.
Was that an injured person kneeling against a car!?
Without a second thought she ran across the parking lot until she reached the car. As the outline of the man slumped on the ground became clearer, Nandini gasped.
"Cabir!?"
It had been hard to recognize his face at first as someone had rubbed black grease all over it. He was howling with pain, holding a bleeding arm that looked like it had definitely been fractured if not broken. Gasping for air, Cabir looked up at her. It all happened in seconds...
"Nandini ... go away from here." He choked out.
"Cabir, are you mad? I can't leave you like this! Who did this-"
THUD!
Before she could finish her sentence, she felt excruciating pain on the side of her forehead, as if someone had just swung a bat with all their force and knocked her over. Within seconds, the pain transformed into a thick fog, making her lose all awareness of her surroundings very quickly. She was falling, falling, falling through a bottomless pit...
***
Her eyelids felt heavy as stone, but with much difficulty, Nandini Moorthy finally managed to open her eyes. She squinted as the sunlight reflected off the plain white walls of the room and the light hurt her eyes at first. Alongside with her sight, sound also slowly registered in her ears and she heard the over-joyed voice of her Chachi.
"Nandini, tumhe hosh a gaya beta!" Her face was beaming with a smile of utmost relief and Nandini smiled back, albeit weakly.
"Shukhar hai bhagwaan ka! Mai abhi pooja karke aati hoon!" Her Chachi stroked her head one last time, then scurried out of the room, finally giving Nandini the chance to take in her surroundings.
Still lying on the bed, her face scanned the room and she quickly realized that she was in the hospital. All of a sudden, the memories flooded back to her.
Musicana night, a blackened, beaten up Cabir, getting hit on her forehead...
She could feel the bandages wrapped tightly around her wound. It wasn't unbearable, but a slight pain was still there.
However her attention was soon diverted from the throbbing in her head and to a certain person, who unaware to her, had walked into the room and was now standing at the foot of her bed.
Manik!? No, it couldn't be. She wondered if the person who had attacked her had hit her a little too hard on the head and she had started hallucinating. Or maybe it was the effects of strong medication...
"No, I am not your imagination," He said calmy, as though he could read her thoughts.
For someone who had just woken up from a long fainting spell, her heart was pumping blood rather quickly. She opened her mouth to say something, but then realized she didn't know what she was planning on saying.
So she just finished it off with, "Oh," and then closed her mouth.
A long silence ensued and Nandini had half a mind to ask him what the hell he was doing there, but she really didn't feel energetic enough. Besides, for some reason there was something oddly reassuring about his presence...it made her feel all warm and tingly inside. When really she should be feeling cold and slimy like one ought to feel in the presence of a monster.
She studied his face for a few seconds, when she thought he wasn't looking. He definitely didn't look like he just dropped in to say hi and was planning on leaving. (Yayyy! A corner of her brain secretly rejoiced.) Instead, he seemed to be in some sort of argument with himself. Weird,she thought.
"So how are you feeling now? After eight hours of losing consciousness?" He asked, finally breaking the silence.
Nandini's mouth dropped open.
"Eight hours!? I was unconscious for that long?"
Manik simply nodded in reply.
She didn't know what prompted her but she couldn't help but innocently asking him, "Does that mean you've been waiting for me to get up since 8 hours?" She smiled expectantly.
For a couple seconds, Manik looked taken aback from the directness of her question. But his recovery was swift.
"Actually...I was here for Cabir."
Nandini's face fell.
"Oh." She said dejectedly.
Then it hit her.
"Cabir! How's Cabir!?"
Even as he reassured her that Cabir was fine and that he had regained consciousness 3 hours ago, Nandini felt disturbed as images flooded in her head of the state she had found him in. Her eyes fell on Manik's blood-stained shirt and she gasped.
"Your shirt! That's Cabir's blood on it, isn't it? Aiyappa, he must have been through so much pain!"
Manik cleared his throat, "Actually...that's your blood," he told her without making any eye contact. He had come and sat on the edge of her bed near her torso, however he wasn't facing her.
"Oh." Nandini replied for the third time that day.
"Hmm...so I lost that much blood? Really?" Nandini though out loud and then absent-mindedly tapped on her wound.
"Oww!" She yelped as she felt sharp pain travel through her head.
In a flash, Manik had turned around and held her hand.
"Are you crazy!?" He yelled, his sudden loud voice making Nandini cringe. Realizing his mistake, he spoke in a softer tone.
"I'm sorry... but just, be careful with this," and with that Manik stroked the hair above her wound ever so lightly.
It hit her that one of his hands was still holding hers and another was seemingly busy trying to fix her hairstyle or something.
All of a sudden, the whole situation seemed humorous to her and that feeling of uncontrollable joy travelled from the pit of her stomach to her throat and Nandini erupted into uncontrollable giggles. The guy had definitely hit her head too hard. Or she was high on drugs.
"What's so funny?" Manik asked curiously. She had finally stopped laughing, but she was still smiling that sweet smile of hers.
"Manik, are you sure you are not my imagination?" She asked and to her surprise, she saw a full-blown smile make its way on his face too.
***
Will post last part to this soon, if you guys are interested in reading on. :) So do let me know how you found it!
Mannat Har Khushi Paane Ki
