MaNan FF- Nandini's lifeline( ch17- pg61) - Page 2

Congo for the new story...
nice concept...
interesting start..
do continue soon...

fab start

please update the next chapter soon

hehe good start

Amazing story

Hey..nice story.. Over protective bro cabir.. Screat relation manan.. Nice ..please pm for next updates

Good start
I have heard of the the Book but never read it only the summary

Nice start love the cute little bond between manan... Continue soon

Note before you read chapter 2-

This chapter is not about the teenage Nandini but rather a peek into her past which shall explain as to what place Manik holds in her life. It may seem a little boring because they're all just 10-12 year old but bear with me, this is the brew for the next chapters.

Chapter 2-

8 years ago

Nandini was sitting quietly on the kitchen with her finger on her lips observing her mom fidgeting around the kitchen preparing dinner. Her mother glanced at the clock, muttered something under her breath and then fastened her pace.this happened everyday, at exactly 6:00 her mom would stop being the smiling happy mom and would become a very serious mom who would start cooking and at exactly 7:30 would keep all the dishes on the table and would read the news for exactly 15 minutes before the everyday horror of Nandini's life would begin.

Cabir would usually play till 8:00 but as soon as he would enter the house, he would be silent till he was in his own room. Cabir was now sitting beside her with a worried expression, Nandini wanted to hug him and tell him it was alright. Cabir was her elder brother and as far as elder brothers went, he was the best. He always looked after her and never let anyone pick on her in school. The only one who was allowed to bully her was him and to an extent his best friend who was also their neighbour Manik.

Their mom then made them set the dinner plates, they knew exactly how daddy liked it. Their dad was very particular about things and if anything was even slightly wrong, he would get angry. His anger was the last thing any of them wanted. He would come at exactly 8, the four of them would have dinner and a little conversation about their day, then Nandini and Cabir would be sent off to their rooms to study or play till 9:30, when their mom would come, tuck them in and kiss them goodnight.

Sometimes, their dad would be in a really good mood and would hug and kiss Nandini. Telling her what a special little girl she was, and how much he loved her. That was usually on a Sunday. Her mom and Cabir would go to football practice and she would be left home with her father. Those Sundays were the worst, but she didn't ever tell anyone about those times, or how he touched her and told her how pretty she was. Nandini hated those days, and wished the weekends would never come. She would much rather have it a school day when they would only see him for dinnertime. She definitely preferred it when he looked at her with the angry eyes, than when he looked at her with the soft eyes. She don't like that at all. Thankfully though, today was only Monday so she had almost a week before she would have to worry about that again. A couple of minutes later he walked in. Cabir shot Nandini a look that told her to behave and he held her hand under the table.

"Hello, kids," he said in his loud deep voice. A shudder tickled down Nandini's spine as he spoke.

"Hello, Dad," we both replied at the same time.

Then their mom sat down and the four of them had a quite dinner until Nandini dropped her glass on her floor shattering it. It was not the breaking of the glass that scared her but rather her father's reaction to it.

"Shit! Nandini, you stupid little bitch!" he growled, grabbing the top of her arm and pulling her roughly from the table. Suddenly her back hit the wall, pain shot down her back and she bit her lip to stop from crying. Crying made it worse, he hated crying, he said only weak people cried. She saw him draw back his hand; he was going to hit me. She held her breath waiting for the blow, knowing that there was nothing she could do but take it, the same as always. But she felt no pain, Cabir had jumped in front of her and had taken the blow. His cheek was red.

Without further ado, their mom dragged them out of the dining room and sent them both to their rooms. Nandini was scared until she heard a knock on her door, "Listen, Nandu." Cabir said from the door.

"Lock your door and slep and only open it in the morning. Everything will be alright. You're fine." His voice was comforting. But it was only till he closed the door could Nandini control her tears. She lay down on her bed sobbing for a long time.

Then she heard a knock. She looked at the door but nobody responded, she heard another knock then looked at her window. The neighbour's kid who was Cabir's best friend was looking at her with wide eyes. She went closer to the wondow opened it and asked, "What are you doing here? Go away before someone sees you."

But he didn't respond instead he walked inside though the window. "Manik! GO!" she said insisting this time but he didn't speak instead he came close to her and hugged her. What is he doing? Nandini thought, she tried to push him away but he held her tighter. Slowly she lost her power and again started crying, he shushed her and patted her head solfty. It was easier for him to do so, since she was shorter than him.

She pulled back to look at him. For some reason he looked so sad; he had tears in his eyes as he just continued to hold her. He knew about her father, Cabir had been covered in bruises once and had blurted out the truth to him. Both of us had begged him not to say anything though, and he never has. "What are you doing here, Manik?" She whispered, wiping her face, but the tears continued to fall. He pulled her onto the bed, rocking her gently, just like Cabir always did when she cried. She noticed he was wearing superman shorts and a black tshirt. It was too cold outside to wear just that, then she realised that Manik must have seen in bed when he saw her from his bedroom window which was only a 100 yards away.

"I saw you through the window. I just wanted to come and make sure you were alright," he whispered back, answering my unasked question.

"I'm OK. You need to go." She said and started to untangled him from herself.

He just shook his head. "I'm not leaving until you stop crying," he stated, pulling her down so that they were now laying on her bed, facing each other. He had his arms wrapped around her so tightly that she couldn't even squirm away. She felt safe and warm. She scooted even closer to him, pressing her whole body into his and sobbed on his chest.

She woke in the morning, still tightly wrapped in his arms; she gasped and looked at the clock 6:20 a.m. "Manik!" she whispered, shaking him.

"Ahh, what, Mom?" he asked with his eyes shut.

"Shhh!" Nandini hissed, quickly covering his mouth before he spoke again. She couldn't believe they fell asleep, this is so bad. His eyes snapped open and he looked at her, shocked, then looked around my room. "Oh no, did I fall asleep?" he whispered, sitting up and rubbing his hand through his hair, which was sticking up everywhere but actually looked better than when he has all that yucky gel in it.

"You need to go home, Manik. Quick!" Nandini hissed, pushing him towards the window. He opened it and started to climb out but she grabbed his hand making him stop. He looked up at her a confused expression on his face. "Thanks," She whispered, smiling gratefully at him. Nandini really needed that hug last night, that was probably the nicest thing Manik had ever done for her. He smiled back. "You're welcome, Nandu." he replied, smiling and climbing out.

Next night, Manik again saw Nandini crying on her bed and again sneaked in through her window. This went on for about a week until she stopped thanking him and it become something they did every night. She would leave the window unlocked, he'd come in sometime after his parents were asleep, the two of them would sleep on the same bed and next morning Manik would leave before anyone saw them.

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I was so overwhelmed with the response I got in hardly 12 hours, so I thought why not work a little and present to you guys the next chapter i.e the 2nd one.

let me know your views, comments, creative criticism and please ignore any grammatical errors because I have not proof read this!

Love
Samiyra.

It was unique 😉😛