The friends...well he wasn't sure he could call them friends anymore, were lost and still reeling under shock.
No one had made a move, except Manik who dashed upstairs and shut the door behind him with a thud so loud, it literally shook Ranbir up and for a while he feared, the door might just come off the wall and break into a pile of ragged planks. The scene around him, was uncannily similar. The friendship, he had grown up hearing stories of, was lying in ruins like an open wound, bloodied and stinking.
Was this the end of FAB5, he wondered because it pretty much seemed like it. For the first and perhaps the last time ever, Ranbir wished to see Nyonika or Neel or any such scheming scum bug. He was willing to welcome any external threat if it had the potential to disrupt the deafening silence between them. Only that, there was none.
A few minutes later, Alya walked out .Whatever little he had seen of her, she had always been sprightly but today she moved in slow, unsteady steps. Dhruv, he knew would follow through, though unlike other times, Alya didn't dragged him along today. Mukti was slumped on the couch, looking blankly at God knew what, tears streaming down her face.
Ranbir had to think straight and it helped because he was, as Alya had coldly remarked, an OUTSIDER. He was hurt, but not paralyzed like Cabir would have been if he were to witness this. He went out for a while and made a quick call to Nandini. Heck, it was almost 9 and he didn't want to disturb her but this was an emergency and emergency situations called for desperate measures.
The first reaction Nandini had was of utter disbelief. This hadn't happened. Ranbir must be playing a prank on her. 'Bitch'...'wh**e', no no this couldn't be true. Those two girls had always watched each other's back, despite having their own personal issues, had always looked out for one another. How could it come to this. And what about Manik? She shuddered with fear imagining the emotional wreck that he must be now. She hurriedly went up to chachi.
"Chachi, Navya ki tabiyat thik nahi hai, can I please spend the night at her place?"
"Kya hua Navya ko? Wo thik to hai? ja Nandu, and kisi cheez ki zarurat ho to phone karna."
Nandini turned to leave, relieved, but she couldn't go far. She stopped and turned around.
"Kya baat hai Nandu?" Chachi noticed the hesitation in her eyes, wondering why she had suddenly stopped.
"Wo...maine jhoot kaha..." She uttered with difficulty, each word weighing heavy on her tongue. "Its not Navya.." She was looking down, unable to speak further.
"Manik??" chachi asked.
She couldn't make herself look up, and meet Chachi's eyes. She had lied innumerable times to her family earlier, and she could have as well done that today. In fact she almost had. But having cared for small kids herself, she now knew it hurt when they lied, because it made her feel unworthy of their trust. Chachi had done everything or perhaps more than what her own mother would have done for her, and if she didn't deserve Nandini's trust, no one else did.
"Manik ka bohot bara jhagra hua hai uske doston ke sath, wo akela hai. Use...meri zaroorat hai chachi.Wo ... Main..." She felt a gentle pat on her shoulder.
"Acha laga tune bataya. Tu ja, I will manage. But apna khayal rakhna, kafi raat ho gayi hai. Agar Manik ne drop kiya to hi raat ko aana, warna subah ko lautna. Mujhe teri fikar rahegi aur pohonch ke ek phone kar dena." Relieved beyond words, She pulled chachi in a crushing hug and ran out.
**********
Ranbir was waiting for Nandini to turn up. And when she did, tensed and short of breath from the run between the main gate and the door, he sighed in relief.
By then even Dhruv had left. Ranbir wanted to speak to Manik, to hug him and tell him that it was going to be ok, that's exactly what his brother would have done, but then there was no point in waiting for Manik to open the door, for he wasn't going to. He still didn't have the right to force Manik into doing something. He fully understood & respected his boundaries.The bond Manik had with Cabir had taken years to build, Ranbir couldn't possibly replicate or replace it in weeks.
Right now, only Nandini had that access, to knock off the wall and walk right through the debris, only she could handle him. They exchanged helpless glances between them, Ranbir and Nandini. Nandini understood his silent plea, and assured him with a blink.
She wasn't sure if Manik would open up to her about his friends, because he never did, it was one territory that he kept beyond her reach. But she was sure to watch his back, to hold his hand and just be there for him, like always.
Ranbir left, holding Mukti by her shoulder. The poor girl had been knocked off her senses.
Nandini gently banged on Manik's door. At first there came no reply, but when she persisted, Manik shouted "Ranbir, I need some time please." his voice was abnormally normal, as if he had put on a mask to hide the storm brewing inside him.
"They have left Manik, its me, open the door."
"Who the hell called you here. Go away!" The moment he heard her voice, he let out a scream. Nandini, though scared, was actually relieved to sense the anger in his words. Good that he wasn't trying to hide behind a faade anymore.
"Take your time, I am waiting outside" She said casually, as if sitting outside his bedroom door at 9.30 in the night was the most natural thing for her to do.
"Go back home, I don't need you now. I have had enough drama for a week." He was still shouting.
"Chachi said I should return only if you drop me."
"What the hell Nandini, don't you see I am not in a mood for your stupid silly jokes." This time he opened the door and confronted her directly. Her lame replies were pissing him off.
"I am not lying ok, you wanna ask chachi?" She said with a serious face and started dialing chachi's number.
"Stop ok? Who asked you to come here?" By now Nandini had pushed the door open and smartly stepped inside.
"Ranbir" She climbed on the bed and lied down, pulling the duvet over her while Manik stood at the door wondering what the hell was happening.
"O hello, what do you think you are doing here in my room & on my bed?" He was completely livid. Had all people on earth chosen this very day to act lunatic.
She peeped out of the duvet. Though the situation was so dreadfully serious, she was having a hard time keeping a straight face, as she saw him standing helplessly, with his hands sitting firmly on his waist. "Are, you only said you need time, so I am sleeping. U take your time and wake me up when you are ready. And please don't tell me ki yahan sone ke liye I need your permission. So Goodnight for now." She turned around & pulled the duvet back over her.
She started counting silently and before she could count 20 she heard his voice. "Nandini, enough ok..can you stop the drama so that we can talk?"
"Itni jaldi Manik, wow that was superfast." She crawled out of the duvet, with a smile on her face. If he thought she was being comic because she didn't understand the depth of his pain, then he was wrong. She was being jovial despite it.
He sat next to her on the bed. "You know what, I don't want to discuss my friends with you Nandini." He didn't sound angry, but sad. "I don't want to mix these two relationships"
"If you had said this 3 years ago, main chup chap chali jati yahan se, giving you the space you are asking for, but this time Manik, I am your friend too. I hope, you haven't forgotten your promise. I don't want to intrude between you and your friends, but I do have the right to ask you to speak to me. That's our friendship zone and you ought to respect that as well." He had never heard her speak with so much of ownership. She had always been wise and understanding but today she spoke with an authority that he found impossible to shrug off. She was right. He had to respect their friendship too, as much as he respected his bond with FAB5.
"Agar Ranbir ne tumhe bulaya to he must have already told you kya hua." He spoke out
"Hmm"
"How could they, Nandini, how could they? After all these years, yahi bacha hai... even enemies are better than these. You don't pick up the deepest secret of your best friend and throw it back at them like this."
"People vent out of pain Manik, no one swears for pleasure."
"I can't believe that you are trying to justify their actions, they even dragged you into this without any fault of yours." He threw his hands up in the air as his brows creased in a frown.
"I am not justifying their actions. I am just telling you to try and understand that there is a lot of hurt behind those words."
"Seriously? What would you have done, if you were in my place and if your friends did that to you. You would have still kept calm and tried to UNDERSTAND?"
"No I wouldn't have. I would have lost my mind and shouted at the top of my voice. I would have perhaps even severed all ties. But that's because I am not Manik Malhotra who can go to any extent for his friends. I am not as selfless as you. My heart is not as big as yours & I can't take even half as much pain as you have smilingly undergone for your friends. That is why I am asking you to give it a chance, because that's what even your heart is telling you." her words felt like the first drops of rain on a parched earth, like a cube of ice on burnt skin. He had lived his entire life hearing from people, how big a monster he was. Even his friends had time and again blamed him of being selfish, of shadowing them, of leaving them alone in distress. How and why Nandini saw a different person in him? May be what you see has more to do with you than the object itself. Despite a million other short comings, she could only see the goodness in him because she herself was so pure.
Seeing him tongue tied, she continued "Alya didn't have a normal childhood, just like you. Fab5 was the only place she ever belonged to, and I think she was overly dependent on you. 7 years, Manik is a long time for any relationship. You grew out of it, may be she couldn't. And God knows, I am not blaming you. You are the best thing to have happened to me, but if I place myself in her shoes, maybe I would be bitter too. She didn't react then, she took it all very gracefully, but the sadness never left her. May be things would have been better if it had worked out with Dhruv, but it didn't. if at all it only got worse."
"You mean, all her anger is for me and she vented it out at Mukti?"
"May be not even for you, may be she is upset with herself, and this is like a cycle, every time she misbehaves, her anger only ever increases and causes her to misbehave again. Its not that she doesn't understand that her relationship with you wasn't meant to be, because if it were, it wouldn't have broken in the first place. She understands it but I donno Manik, I guess she needs someone to just listen...she has accumulating too much crap inside her. " Manik was surprised, & not just at her maturity. How could she talk so objectively about his ex. How could she be so impartial. This only proved how secure she was with him. She trusted him to a point where she could fearlessly discuss his past without getting worked up. Manik knew for sure that he couldn't do the same, he was extremely possessive about Nandini and he had no clue how he would have handled her ex, if she happened to have one. How violently had he reacted on reading her diary about Neel when he was only and only a nasty pervert.
He had a lot to learn from this girl.
He took a deep breath. "You have actually managed to calm me miss Murthy. How do you do that?"
"Top secret, cant share. Sorry" She made a funny face and he smiled.
"Waise wo jhoot tha na, chachi wali baat?"
"No"
"You mean you told chachi, you are coming here this late?"
"Yes"
"And she let you?"
"Yes"
He took another deep breath. "ok chalo, I will drop you home."
She was perplexed. "But I have the permission to stay till morning, I swear."
"But I want to drop you home."
"But why?" She asked, irritated at his suggestion. She didn't want to return yet.
"Because, when someone trusts you, you should respect that. You came here for me and I am fine now. Do you realize it's a big thing for her to have let you come? so you should return and I will drop you, ok?"
She was indeed disappointed for having to leave but she was happy too, happy to have found a guy like Manik, who valued every single relationship in his life, even those that seemed apparently distant. She pulled him close to give him a surprise peck on his cheek.
"Wooowww!!! ye kiske liye tha?" He rolled his eyes animatedly.
"In advance because you are going to get me some ice-cream on the way."
"Matlab tum larkiyan, bina matlab ka kuch bhi nahi de sakti.. Hai na"
She nodded her head in agreement.
"Ok, chalo"
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A/N: I might be able to put up only two updates in the coming week because i have lots of backlog course to complete. Enjoy. Keep liking and commenting :) But I will next post a reply thread for all your lovely messages. love you
CID
