Part 10: A tethered Fall
She had an irrepressible urge to have someone hear her out. It was second nature for her to call her mom at situations like these. However she struggled to restrain from being an open book when it came to the men in her life.
The habit had bled into her veins from days before high school and as years passed, her mom had gathered the act of dispelling her fears and seeking an opinion as her weakness. With time her mom - in all her sheltered affection - began taking all decisions of her life and Abhinav was one such aftermath ever since her complete surrender.
It felt like a real long time had gone by since she was cornered with so much freedom in her hands, yet bound by unknown fears for the kind of memory her time in the train would mold itself into. She envisioned herself walking away into a mist spread morning in a valley that supplied the world with all of the green that was needed. Only she was grimly aware of the ledge that was somewhere ahead of her and would make her free fall into another realm that she wasn't entirely sure could be another home if she ever survived the damages.
Her hand covered her eyes with an uncalled for pressure, as if she was trying to suppress the fight that was raging there. Pausing for a moment, her fingers rose up to push the strands of curls that dipped into her face, past her temples and tucked them behind her ears.
Before she knew, she'd grabbed her belongings and coffee cup to make her way to the sleeper coach, which is where she made him to be. Enroute, she couldn't help thoughts of retreating back to her seat, when the conductor stopped her and she was forced to get into a long winded explanation for a coach passenger to be wandering off in the direction of sleeper coaches. When he finally let her go, after verifying Maan's name against his seating chart, she halted leaning back onto a seat suddenly feeling a heaviness in her feet to make another move. Once she closed her eyes and vaguely tried to empty her mind of her fitful doubts, she began walking again unexpectedly. Her eyes flickered open as she hit her little finger against the steel door and opened to cross over - which came across as nothing short of stepping past her own barriers.
Taking in a sharp intake of breath and seeking support of a non-existent anger, she knocked on his door.
"Yes..." His voice sounded distant, confined in that small space.
She pushed the folding door over to one side and found him carelessly seated with his feet up, elbows resting on his knees, playing a game on his cell phone that had a funny sounding background tune.
He didn't look up and it irritated her.
"I..." Her words felt stuck in her throat, "I came back for my mobile" She managed, slightly shaking her head having given up on her own self to muster anything witty or something that didn't sound remotely lame.
He stopped playing the game and the winding tune that followed clearly showed that he'd just lost the game from having shifted his attention to her.
"It's there..." His finger gestured downwards and his voice denoted nonchalance. Her eyes followed his finger and found her phone in the same two pieces from having dropped it hours ago.
Her eyes narrowed and almost in the verge of throwing a tantrum, she gave out a low grunt, before she bent down to pick up the pieces off the floor. As if it was best for her to seek out a solitary room like the ones in mental asylums that keep patients from harming other people around, she stormed out from his room.
Just as if she expected him to be counting on her to make an appearance, she swiveled on her feet and showed up at his door again within having taken only a few steps ahead.
"I can't believe you didn't bother to pick up my phone" She chewed out her words. It was disbelieving at best that the fact that he didn't pay attention to her phone was more troubling to her than the matters at hand. If she caught onto the 'Duh!' look in his eyes, she did not give away her comprehension.
"I didn't want to disturb the crime scene. It was my only proof you were any bit affected"
She rolled her eyes at that, throwing her head back with dismay at his intentions to rub off the very subject she intended to avoid. Her back slid off the door, fully turning to rest against the hallway and she momentarily hid from him, attempting to collect herself. As much as it pained to speak the words she'd intended to, upon reaching his roomette, it felt like she was bottling a buoyant effervescence inside her, unable to arrest it from slipping down her lips.
Another draw of breath; another minute of searching; another moment of yearning to be anywhere but here.
"I'm not sleeping with you...if that is what you make this to be"
And it was too late before she realized she had a helplessness lace her softened features; a silly pout on her lips that she couldn't withdraw in time.
Strangely, his silence didn't bother her in the least for she was somehow assured deep down that it wasn't all physical intimacy he was edging towards as it had originally come across.
He put his phone on the seat and studied her with one brow of his drawn slightly upwards to show his contemplation. Leaning forward, he reached for her hand that lay limp on her side. She didn't pull back or react to his touch this time and as he registered her dedition, he tugged her wrist gently making her step forward. A second later, he tugged her again. Her body that had gone loose in response dragged itself reluctantly close to him and jerked to a stop, right when he turned her in that same swift motion to have her pulled into his hold.
"I'm not sitting down...at least" She hesitated before adding, "not between your legs"
He smiled. Her head titled on its own accord appraising his gauging smile that was sly to her at so many levels, as if she'd just put the thought in his head and that it hadn't been an idea he'd entertained a second before she'd said them.
And then everything happened in a flash too fast for her to react or recede from his succumbing grip. He moved back into the seat and before she knew, she was tightly being held between the length of his legs, his feet pressing down on hers to keep her in place, his arms going around her to wrap them against her.
As her eyes scrunched down from the pressure of landing against his body, she heard him speak in a strained whisper, "Just let go...I'm holding you..."
Her sob rose in her chest in that undoing moment and she found herself gripping his hands, anchoring her to him like the sinking treasure she was. The knowledge that she could hold onto something before she could let go mildly surprised her; it wasn't a free fall after all.
Edited by 6thElement - 13 years ago
Cricket
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