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c h a p t e r s e v e n t e e n
Manik munched on the croissant and she stared at him intently. Her head was filled with questions but she didn't know whether or not he would answer them. He had never answered them before so she wasn't expecting any answers now, but she knew that she needed them so desperately.
Annoyed with his silence, she finally spoke, "Are you ever going to tell me?"
He looked up, a little startled and confused, as he asked, "Tell you what?"
"Everything," she simply said. "Firstly, I want to know what happened to the old house."
Manik gulped; he knew this was coming sooner or later. He didn't know why he was scared to tell her. He just didn't want her to get angry again, but why did her anger affect him that much? He knew why but he just didn't want to admit it. He liked it when she was normal with him but he wanted to deny it. He knew his feelings were deeper than he considered them to be and that would be problematic for him.
"Why don't you finish that first?" he tried to change the topic, pointing to her half-eaten caramel pudding. "I'll tell you after you-"
"Don't," she cut him off, her tone incredibly strict and Manik knew then and there that his attempts weren't going to work. "I have the right to know, Manik, and I will find out."
Manik paused then. He braced himself for her anger and, slowly, he started explaining with the tiniest bit of fear in him, "That day, after I dropped you off and returned home... well, something happened, obviously. Nyonika wasn't pleased when I told her that we were married so that is why she... kicked us out."
It took Nandini a while to register his words and when she finally did, she sputtered in absolute disbelief, "What?"
"That's the truth."
"So she kicked you out of the house and sent you to live in another house?" she wanted to clarify.
Manik bit his lip, "Yeah... about that. Well, she didn't exactly do that. She kind of thinks that... we're living on the streets..."
Nandini's eyes widened in shock as the realization sunk in. "Are you telling me we're trespassing in someone's house? That's illegal!"
"It's our family beach house, okay?" Manik tried to calm her. "We're not exactly trespassing. Well, I suppose we're not. It's just temporary, don't worry about it. Cab- Um, I mean I am looking for a house where we can live on rent. Then it'll all be fine."
"Where exactly are you going to get the money from?" Nandini enquired further. She had a dozen questions and she wanted them answered. She just wanted to make sure they wouldn't be getting in any trouble. She had had enough of that in her life lately.
"I think I'll look for a job," Manik assured her. "I'm making do with my credit card for now but I'm sure they'll cut me off soon. I'll have a job by then, don't worry."
"How are you so sure? What if no one hires you? And geez, do you even go to college, ever?"
"Why don't you calm down first?" he suggested, pushing the large glass of iced lemon tea towards her. She didn't want to calm down, but she knew she had to. That was why Nandini, although hesitantly, grabbed the glass and took a long sip. As she gulped down the cold liquid, it helped soothe her and also contributed in allowing her mind to relax. She closed her eyes, letting the after effects occur.
"You don't need to worry about me," he told her. "I'll be just fine."
That sentence ignited the fire in her yet again and she clenched her fist, trying to deny it desperately, "I'm not worried about you; I'm worrying about us, mainly myself. I just don't want to be an accomplice to your crimes because this is completely and utterly illegal. Seriously, Manik, if anyone finds out, we're in big trouble."
"You think I don't know that?" Manik finally snapped, catching her by surprise. "I really don't want to do stuff that is so risky but I have to. Look, I can easily ask one of my friends to allow me to crash at their place but what about you? Will you like it? No, right? That is why I decided upon the beach house, and it's temporary anyway. You may not worry about me but I worry about you and that's why I'm doing all of this, so why don't you stop complaining for once?"
His rant caused Nandini to sit there in a frozen state for a while. She definitely wasn't expecting him to lash out and now that he did, it somewhat scared her. That fear was soon replaced by frustration and anger as Manik tried to take deep breaths to calm himself.
"I didn't ask for this, you know," she spat out and Manik knew what was coming. "I didn't want to be married to you and I didn't want you to worry about me. You made that decision for me, remember? If I'm such a bother, why are you still with me?"
"Because you're not... a bother," he softly said.
"Yeah, sure," she scoffed instead.
"You know what? I don't want to fight anymore, okay? We're trying to be friends, right? Friends give each other chances and try to understand each other. That's what I want to do. I want to understand you and I want you to give me a chance. So can we please just... give this a shot? Let's be civil from now on; no more fighting. Please, Nandini?"
The way he said her name still gave her chills, but she hated that even more now. For some odd reason, she liked those chills and she really, really didn't want to like it. "Fine," she agreed, not entirely convinced but he didn't mind. He was just happy to get her consent and perhaps that was why he smiled then. "Let's just go now," she said while getting up and grabbing her bag, not caring much about the unfinished food.
"Yeah, let's," he simply said, the smile not leaving his face.
Nandini didn't wait for him as she hurried to walk out of the place. She didn't like the proximity with him. It made her feel... different. She knew she hated him, she knew she really wanted to hate him. She didn't want to feel anything else for him. Still, when he told her he worried for her and that she wasn't a bother for him sometime back, she liked it. She liked his words and the fact that he cared, and she knew most certainly that she didn't want that feeling. It was just too risky and Nandini could not afford that, at all.
As she walked in through the doors of the Malhotra mansion, Alya felt nervous. It had been so many days since she'd last met Manik and now she was sure something was wrong. Manik didn't care much about college so he wouldn't attend it a lot, but he'd never missed it for so many days on a row. She had grown incredibly worried for him and she wanted to find out just what was wrong.
As she came upon a servant and he greeted her, she immediately asked him, "Can you tell me where is Manik sir?"
"Manik Baba is not at home," he replied, but what shocked her was the response that came after, "kuch dino se."
What the hell did he mean by that? "Then where is he?" she hastily asked.
"Humko nahin pata," he said, hanging his head in shame and Alya grew even more worried. Muttering a small apology, the servant left and by now, Alya was fighting a battle with her mind.
With each passing second, she grew more and more worried for Manik. They had been friends since school and although he didn't trust anyone too much except for Cabir, she genuinely cared for him. He knew that, but she knew that he could never believe in it completely. After all, in his whole life, many people who were important to him had left him and she didn't want to admit that once, she did too.
But right now, she didn't care about that. All she wanted was her friend to be safe and sound.
"Alya, is it?" Nyonika's voice caught her attention as she looked up to find the woman descending down the stairs. "I wasn't expecting to find you here."
"Hello, ma'am," she greeted her a little nervously. "I was actually here to meet Manik. I haven't seen him for a long time so I was just really worried."
"He's left this house," Nyonika coldly answered and that shocked Alya to the core.
"What do you mean?" she asked in utter disbelief.
"Do you want to know why?" Nyonika asked her instead and Alya nodded her head almost immediately. "He thought his wife was more important."
"Wife?" Alya was now incredibly confused. "What wife? Manik doesn't have a wife."
"You're his girlfriend, right?" Nyonika asked but she didn't really want an answer.
"Girlfriend? Oh, no, ma'am, you're misunderstanding something here," Alya tried to clarify. "We're just frie-"
"You should know this," the woman cut her off instead. Clearly, she wasn't in the mood for any explanations. "Manik ran away with a girl and they got married. You should know her; she's Cabir Dhawan's sister. When I found out, I was furious, and I asked Manik to choose as I didn't want such a disgrace in my house. He chose her and they left. I do not have a clue as to where he is now and frankly, I don't care."
Alya stood there with her eyes wide for a long, long time. It was hard for her to process all of this. She didn't even know Cabir had a sister! It all seemed too overwhelming and unbelievable to her and she knew what she had to do if she wanted clarifications. She would meet Manik and get the answers out of him. Hopefully, that would fix everything.
"Why are we here?" Nandini asked him as the car stopped. Manik simply got off and opened the door on her side and held it for a while. Cautiously and suspiciously, Nandini stepped out into the sand.
"I remember you told me you like the beach that day," he told her. "So I thought maybe you'd like it if we came here."
He had started walking and she didn't know why she followed him. This was all too different and she didn't like it. It was feeling a lot like a date and she knew that she most certainly didn't want to go on a date with him.
"Why are you doing all of this?" she asked him after sometime to which he just turned to look at her with a confused expression on his face.
"Doing what?" he innocently asked.
"Pretending to care for me," Nandini explained.
"I'm not pretending," he earnestly told her, "I really do care for you."
"Of course you do," Nandini sarcastically said, hoping that her sarcasm would cover up her feelings. Deep inside, she felt somewhat happy and giddy at his words, but she had to get rid of those feelings quickly. She just knew that she had to.
Manik, on the other hand, was also happy, but he didn't want to cover it up much. He was happy they were starting to be friends and walking on the beach with her gave him a lot of joy. He had suspected the reason behind it and he knew he wasn't ready to feel too many things for her yet. Perhaps that was why he really wanted to be friends first.
"Look, all of this isn't helping," Nandini tried to say. "You can't be all sweet and nice and expect me to forget everything that you did." For some reason, her tone wasn't of hatred or disgust and he liked that, very much.
"So technically you're saying that you find me sweet?" he asked her, slightly teasing.
She didn't respond after that. Instead, she had a slight blush on her cheeks and he almost felt his heart stop. That was enough response for him.
Nandini didn't want to like what he did or what he said, but she had just started to do exactly that. She knew she shouldn't have after all that he did to her, but she couldn't help it. She really, really tried to, but it just wouldn't happen. Perhaps she had started to accept him in her life but she knew she didn't want to. Not yet, at least.
Manik already knew, however, that he would always cherish this time of theirs on the beach together. It was the first time she blushed because of him and probably the first time she started to feel something for him, too. He knew in his heart that if she even felt a quarter of what he felt for her, he would be content.
Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai
Geet - Hui Sabse Parayee
Mangal Lakshmi
