FF: Mangalpur Madness #1 - Link to #2 on pg 1 - Page 64

Originally posted by: Ankita.M

Amazingly well written story I am so glued. You keep the characters so real, its a pleasure reading this :) 

Originally posted by: braich_gal

THIS IS AWESOME!!!!

sunn raha hain na tu...ro rahi hun main!!!! i want more!!!!!

pls pls pls pls...update soon!!!! i can't stop smiling whenever i'm reading a new chapter!!!!

pls pm me when you update...😃

Originally posted by: waitingforyou

wow
this ff is amazing
 you just got yourself a new fan

Hi guys! Sorry about the delay. I'd have updated this much earlier but it's quite a silly story what happened actually. I got into an accident this Monday! I wasn't hurt too badly so I'm fine now, but you know how adults like to overreact, so I ended up having to stay in my aunt's house the past few days. And to my horror (but to my aunt's delight), my laptop simply refused to connect to the internet there! But despite not having internet, I still had my laptop, my brains and my boredom so I was busy typing out the next part while resting (: And now I'm finally back home (with internet yay!) so I could finally read all of your lovely comments for the last part and reply some of them as well (: And of course now I can post the next part as well, so here you go! (:

Mangalpur Madness: Part 24

Asad had his eyes glued on the road ahead. It'd been about an hour into the drive home. Unlike the ride from home, Zoya had been uncharacteristically quiet. At first Asad could hear the shuffling of the kachori packet and her chewing on them, but after a while that ceased as well. He knew that a lot had been left unsaid between him and Zoya, and he had really expected Zoya to corner him with questions while he was driving. That's why he didn't dare to look in her direction at all. But contrary to his belief, Zoya didn't say a word. Now he couldn't even sense any movement from her and he was getting restless.

"Miss Farooqui?" Asad tried to probe, not sure what he would accomplish from it. He kept his eyes fixed on the road, waiting for her to respond. But she didn't. Frowning, Asad repeated himself, his voice just a notch louder. Still, Zoya didn't reply.

"Zoya??" Asad half-yelled, turning his head towards her this time. Zoya's head had shifted off the headrest, her forehead resting on the window. Her eyes were closed. Asad noticed her arms dangling off the sides of the seat, lifelessly. Lifelessly?! In a fright, Asad swerved the car to the side of the road and jammed the brakes. Asad watched as Zoya simply swayed in the direction that inertia moved her, eyes still closed. Now completely panic-stricken at Zoya's lack of reaction to anything, Asad yanked off his seatbelt and rushed out of the car, running over to the passenger's side. Flashes of the last time he had held a lifeless Zoya in his arms at this very place began running through his mind as he opened Zoya's door and leaned in, snapping open her seatbelt and then immediately grabbing her shoulders.

"Zoya?! Kya hua??" Asad shouted, shaking Zoya's body roughly, before pulling her off her seat and into his embrace, her head resting on his shoulder. In his fear he had failed to notice that Zoya's eyes had already cracked open a tiny bit when he shook her by her shoulders, but before she could fully open them and adjust to the situation, he had already lifted her out of the car and crushed her to his body.

Zoya opened and shut her eyes a few times in a bid to understand what was going on, before finally lifting both her hands and pushing gently against Asad's chest, as she took a few steps back and tried to create some distance between them. Asad let go of her easily when he realized that she was moving again, and then quickly looked away. But Zoya managed to catch a glimpse of his eyes just in time. They were red and puffy... like as though he was crying.

"Kya hua Mr Khan? Aap... ro rahe the?" Zoya asked cautiously, genuinely baffled this time. She reached for him and rested her hand on his shoulder when he didn't answer her, hoping that the physical contact would break his silence. He turned back to face her at her touch, and she noticed that he had wisely used the short span of time to compose himself, his eyes less red and starting to regain that steely quality it always had.

"Maine aapko kitni baar bulaya, aapko sunayi nahi diya? You don't know what kind of thoughts went through my mind when you didn't respond," Asad said gruffly, gritting his teeth. Zoya couldn't help but roll her eyes. Asad had successfully reverted back to his original form in less than a minute: angry young man mode.

"Mr Khan, I was sleeping! How do you expect a sleeping person to hear you? Besides, you know I sleep like a log. Remember the first night I stayed in your house and slept in your bed? I didn't even realize when you'd slipped into bed as well. I only woke up when you ungraciously threw me on the floor!" Zoya recalled, giggling as she thought about in her head. She hoped her little recount of the silly memory would loosen Asad up a bit as well, but his glare didn't seem to have reduced at all.

"It's not funny Miss Farooqui. I was actually worried, and here you are being childish as usual. I can't believe it, I thought..." Asad trailed off, suddenly unsure if he should continue. He realized that his statements had totally silenced Zoya, who was now staring at him in a confused manner. He turned away from Zoya and crossed his arms over his chest.

Zoya stared at Asad's back and tried to wrap her mind around what he was trying to say. He had pulled her out of the car in a panic, and then enveloped her in a bone-crushing hug. And she was positive that he was crying. All this could only mean he had thought something happened to her. Zoya shifted her eyes to the back of Asad's head as realization dawned upon her. Asad had thought she was dead! Zoya stretched out her arm in an attempt to reach for Asad.

"Get back in the car. Let's go home," Asad announced, breaking the moment of silence. He began to step forward when he felt Zoya rest her palm on the biceps of his arm. He stilled, but didn't turn around.

"Why do you enjoy expressing your concern for me in the form of anger? It wouldn't hurt to just show that you care for me without throwing a fit," Zoya said calmly. She knew that Asad would still deny caring about her no matter what she said, but she just wanted him to know what she truly felt. Predictably, Asad brushed off her hand.

"Aisa kuch bhi nahi hai, so stop dreaming. You're my responsibility that's all, I don't want ammi questioning me if something happened to you," Asad explained, his back still facing her. He paused for a minute to see if Zoya had anything to say to that, but it didn't seem like that. He was about to tell Zoya to get into the car again when Zoya finally spoke up.

"Why do you keep lying, both to me and to yourself? You care about me because you want to, not because your ammi told you to. You care about me because you know there is something between us, something unspoken but strong, but you refuse to accept it. And I can't go on like this anymore, so why don't you just admit it too?" Zoya boldly ventured into the unknown. She watched as Asad clenched his fists and closed his eyes, tilting his head towards the sky as if asking for help from above. He opened his eyes again and turned around to face Zoya.

"Fine I accept that there's some kind of attraction between us, happy? But that's it. It doesn't run any deeper than that. It's superficial and stupid. Can we go home now?" Asad said impatiently. He might've turned back towards Zoya, but he simply couldn't look her in the eye. He opted to look somewhere above her head, hoping Zoya wouldn't notice.

When Zoya failed to respond, Asad assumed the discussion was finally over. He walked over the driver's seat and swung open his door, just in time to notice that Zoya was no longer standing next to the car, but she wasn't sitting in it either. Asad's heartbeats began racing almost immediately. Where in the world did she disappear to now?!

XXX

Sorry about the long chunk of words before the update hahaha I just felt like sharing it with you guys. Felt so deprived without the internet! ): Anyway, let's see what Zoya's up to now hehe.