She was sitting on the parapet watching the decorator guys wrapping the whole Abdullah mansion in her favourite fairy-lights and Zain's favourite orchids, which were specially brought from Singapore.
Who doesnot know Zain Abdullah? This is the man for whom every spinstar went gaga over. 5'10 inch tall, wheatish complexion, sharp chiseled features, prefect V shapped physic and to top it all, his intelligence and attitude made him the man to die for.
Shipping her morning coffee he remember her childhood days with him.
~FLASHBACK~
"Dadi! Dadi! Where is Jaan?"
Dadi, pulled her chubby checks and pressed her finger on Aaliyah's checks "Jaan nahi beta, Zain...Z.A.I.N".
"J.A.A.N"
She was very small when she was brought in the Abdullah mansion. Zain's mother after a pathetic miscarriage of a girl child in her 5 month of pregnancy wished to have a girl but who knew what their destiny held for them. All the top doctors declared that she wont be able to conceive any more.
Disheartened she, started visiting orphan age and one day she met a very beautiful and cute girl named Aaliyah. After that she started smiling after a long time.
Aaliyah was an orphan; her mother left her in the orphan age when she was a newborn baby.
Just like Zain's molther, Aaliyah too loved spending time with her.
Everything was fine and Mr. and Mrs. Abdullah was planning to bring her to Abdullah mantion when an ugly incident happened and everything was ruined.
Aaliyah aa to gai abdullah mansion mein but her life was no fairytale. It was even worse than the life she was spending in the orphanage.
"DADI, batayien na Zain kahan hai?" she pouted and peeped towards his room craning her neck.
Dadi, let put a low chukle and caressed Aaliyah's soft cheeks which were touching her cheeks as she was hugging dadi from behind and said "Woh abhi abhi aya hai, tum tang mat karo ussey, uska mood off hai lag raha hai".
"I know Dadi".
"achha, kuch huya hai kya school mein?"
Aaliyah excitedly came and sat on dadi's lap and snaked her arms around her neck and kissed her cheeks, widening her eyes cutely, bitting her lower lips giving a naughty yet innocent look towards dadi she said, "ya dadi, I kissed him in front of the whole school".
Dadi was awe struck hearing such an innocent confession from this pretty cute girl of 8 years. No wonder why Zain looked pissed and grumpy.
Before dadi could stop Aaliyah she ran upstairs straight towards Zain's room.
Zain was arranging his playstation when aaliyah berged inside his room.
"Jaan" she gave her wide smile.
Aaliyah had always been very fond of Zain since childhood. After all he was the only person along with dadi whom she was staying. And Zain being 6 years elder to her, it was obvious that some amount of fondness and getting used to each other will always be there.
Zain on the other hand always avoided Aaliyah, for the fact that he always blamed her for his pathetic past. And yes kahin na kahin she was responsible for that but not fully. He tried not to be rude to her, but her fondness and closeness and clinging to him grew more and more. And today she crossed all her limits. Out of no where she came to his class during lunch time to borrow a pencil sharpener from him, after taking it from him she kissed him on his cheeks in front of the whole classroom and saying the most embarrassing words "I love you Jaan".
Ek to uska har dost ussey Jaan ka naam se chidata hai and upar se they got another topic to bug him more.
Aaliyah jumped on his bed and hugged him from behind.
He closed his eyes in anger and tried to remove her hands, which was practically chocking him.
Aaliyah rocked herself with him still carrying her school bag on her back.
"Tu mujse naraz hai?" (are you angry with me?)
Zain grabbed her wrist and forcefully released him from her grip.
In the process he held her hand so tightly that she winced in pain and started crying badly.
"aah! Jaan! It hurts".
She rubbed her wrist while sobbing badly.
"I told you not to enter my room and what is this? What are you doing on my bed? And who has given you the permission to behave like that in front of my friends? Don't you get it when I say that don't come near me in the school. I don't like you".
Aaliyah was still crying totally avoiding what Zain has just said, or rather barked.
Zain looked at the sobbing Aaliyah and crawled towards her to check whether it was too hard on her or not.
"Let me see" he tried to grab her hand but she snatched her arms from his grip.
He gritted his teeth and pulled her hand once again towards him.
"aah!" she screamed again.
"stop being so delicate Aaliyah! You are not a princess".
She picked her lashes and looked at him with a cute pout on her face.
Zain immediately concentrated on her bruises; due to too much of pressure Zain's three fingers were imprinted on her milky white skin making it turn purple.
He pressed his finger and tried to make the blood circulation normal. He continued the process for few more minutes like that then took some ointment and started massaging her wrist.
During the whole process aaliyah was all awe! Looking at him cutely. She could make his newly grown stubbles. She did not know why she started admiring his face more and more.
Feeling her gaze on him he looked at her. He thinned his lips and concentrated back on her slim wrist.
Once he was done she quickly sat on his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him once again.
"STOP IT aaliyah!" he said in anger. "Get out of muy room now. I told you many times that don't enter my room. Why don't you get it?"
"Par kyun? Mujhe achha lagta hai tumhara room mein aana".
"Par mujhe achha nahi lagta hai".
She pouted again and silently got up from the bed and walked towards the door.
Suddenly she remembered something and said "why am I not a princess? I stay in such a big house, it is like a palace and if your nickname can be prince why cant mine be princess? Waise bhi mujhe tum bohot pasand ho, isiliye dadi meine kaha hai ki mujhe tumse hi shaadi karni hai aur kisise nahi. And after that I will become your princess". She giggled and clapped twirling herself holding her tunic. (in any case I really adore you and I told grandma that I want to get married to you and you only, so after that I will become your princess)
Zain gritted his teeth and held her from upper arms and dragged her out of his room and then closed the door on her face.
This happened almost everyday, when aaliyah entered his room and after sometimes she was thrown out of his room.
She always felt sad and went to dadi to cry her heart out. She never understood why Zain, whom she considered him to be her best friend behave in such a pathetic way.
She was too young to grow any kind of ego in her, so she almost forget how he behaved with her and used to have her dinner with him at night, pinching his cheeks, eating food from his plate, forcefully feeding him sometimes from her plate.
Though Zian never used to like those gestures but in front of Dadi he did not have any guts to scold her. And Aaliyah always took that as an opertunity when she started understanding things.
Dadi was a person who always supported Aaliyah over Zain. She knew Aaliyah was a girl and she needed all kinds of support, and she also knew Zain and his hatred towards aaliyah very well. She even tried to explain him, but he had has own set of thoughts.
~FLASHBACK ENDS~
She kept the mug on the table and hopped down from the parapit. This has become worse today. She thought that stay away from her, Zain will realize his feelings for her, but it seemed like the distance has become more.
After Zain blurted out the reason towards his hatred towards Aaliyah, Zain arranged to send Aaliyah abroad for perusing higher studies.
Things were still fine once she was back, but the day neighbors stated talking about Zain and a\Aaliyah staying in the same house being adult, Asad fixed aaliyah's marriage with a very renowned man's son Rehaan who is also a good friend of Zain.
Once Aaliyah was back from abroad, Zain used to spend most of his time in the office. During weekends he used to be in his room. Many times Aaliyah wanted to visit him but the reality always made her step back from him with heavy heart.
Since then she started sketching. It was a new found talent of hers. She never knew that she can draw so well. Without any training she started sketching.
In no time her sketchbook was filled with Zain's eyes pictures. She always adored those intense pair.
She did not know what she always found them very mysterious, some raaz hidden inside them, some unknown things, some pain, some sorrow.
She took out the sketch book and ran her fingers on those sketches and smiled.
She flipped her palm to check her mendi, which was done yesterday. There was a heart sign in the middle of her palm inside which there was the letter "R" which did not have a rich colour compared to the rest of her palm. The reason which made it fade was her own tear which dropped seeing Zoya make Zain kiss her mendi.
She held her sketch book with the right had now and flipped her left palm.
The design has come out really well and the colour complimentiong her skin. She gave a close look on the letter "Z" jo woh chupke se kal likkhi thi (which she secretely wrote) sab se chupake running inside her toilet with the mendi cone. She wrote "Z" right at the beginning of her ring finger so that nobody notices. She kissed her ring finger while streams of tears started rolling down her cheeks.
**
Naagin 7
