Yes me has uploaded another chapter. Yes me knows, me is late but...
Okay, okay, me is going. Enjoy!
CHAPTER 7
The storm had passed and all they were left with now was echoing silence.
It was weird how everything and everyone was zapped out of energy. Kunj slumped heavily down on the mattress that was now in Wayne's room. He notices Yuvi's mattress was thrown out of Twinkle's room as well.
Three hours had passed since Twinkle had thrown their mattress and belongings out of her room and shut herself in. Three hours since that tingling slap on his face and three hours since his piercing words. Three hours and yet the effects of the storm hadn't worn out.
"Woh mujhe kabhi maaf nahi karegi." Kunj laments, his eyes hid behind his hands.
"Karegi. Aaj nahi, but eventually." Yuvi reassures him.
"Pakka?"
"She loves us too much not to." Yuvi places himself next to his best friend. "She loves you too much not to."
Kunj was just about to further lament on his stupidity when the door to Wayne's room slams open and an angry Candice barges in. "How dare you?" she screams walking right up to an already guilty Kunj. "How dare you yell at Twinkle like that?"
"Candy, I am really sorry. I didn't-"
"That is just it. People never really mean anything until it hurts them back!" Her eyes are fire and Kunj for once is glad for it. Fire was good, anger was good. Anger meant hurt and hurt could be balmed over. He wants to burn, he wants to hurt.
Candice's anger was good. It was so much better than the disappointment in Twinkle's eyes. Twinkle wasn't angry on him, she was disappointed in him. And somehow that was worse.
I thought you were different. I thought you understood' her words still echoed in his mind. It was replayed relentlessly.
His name being yelled from Yuvi's mouth brings him out of his trance. "Sorry kya?"
Candice grabs both the boys by their collar and drags them out of the room. She brings them to a stop in front of the purple doored room. Now Kunj would be lying if he said that, that particular room didn't intrigue him. It was only room that Twinkle hadn't showed him or even talked about. And now standing in front of the room, he wished Twinkle was the one to show him in.
The door opens silently but the dark still maintained the mystery. He feels Candice reach for the light switch and flicker it on. The lights blind him, burning his eyes. But slowly his vision return and his thoughts leave him.
It's beautiful. It's unexpected and it's their life. Life in pictures and likes in Lego structures. The center of the room hold a Foozball table, completed with a green rug to represent grass. The wall to the right hold shelves upon shelves. And each shelf held Lego masterpieces. There was an entire Lego city, a complete Iron Man structure, the Taj Mahal, Dragons, McDonalds, and the Mona Lisa. Yuvi takes tiny, hesitant steps towards their art, completely mesmerized. Kunj remains rooted to his spot. He instead, walks up to the center wall, the one Candice was calling him to. And there, a life captured in glossy film.
The first picture was on the top left corner of the wall-the one with Twinkle in a hospital, with a casted leg. His eyes scan over the subsequent photos, the one where they were painting their rooms, Wayne and Marnold crying at Lion King, Candice and Twinkle at a party.
Then there were one's that brought back the guilt in Kunj in waves. Twinkle wining some award at her college. Her fallen asleep doing homework. Her at her first job. Her volunteering at the Animal Shelter.
"Did you even achieve an ounce of what she did?" She asks lowly.
This time shame tags along with the guilt.
"Main apni zimmedariyo se nahi bhaag rahi." It's Twinkle this time. "Main apne khushiyo ke taraf bhaag rahi hoon. There is a difference. And if you think that makes me a coward, then I will happily be one."
Kunj turns towards her. He crosses the little distance between them in three large strides and does what was so ingrained in him, holding her in his arms. "Twinkle I am so sorry. Please mujhe maaf karde." His eyes speak volumes. A sincere apology verging on a plea.
Twinkle sighs, her shoulders that were tensed so far slumping down. "I deserve happiness Kunj."
"I know. I know that now." He tells her shaking his head. How could he ever be so dumb?
"I know I owe them-my parents and the society-a lot, but I am not obliged to them."
"I am sorry."
She gives him a small smile that has his stomach twisting in heavy knots. She hadn't forgiven him yet. And she is retreating back, just like that.
"Twinkle-"
"Not today." It was as bad as the slap.
Marnold announces breakfast being served. Twinkle doesn't join them. He sees her shrugging her coat on, and moving out the front door.
His day is spend in a tensed manner, despite Yuvi's best attempts to cheer him up. He doesn't realize when he falls asleep in a restless slumber on the couch.
.
.
.
He feels a soft, feather light touch on his shoulder. And he thinks he was dreaming. But then it's her voice uttering his name that brings him out of his sleep. There is a small smile playing on her lips, not the Twinkle smile, but he will take what he gets.
"Chalo."
"Kaha?"
"Bas aise hi walk par."
He looks outside their balcony. The sun had long since set, the day had passed. The darkness outside gives him no clue about the timing, but the harrowing silence in the apartment has him assuming that it was somewhere close to midnight. He checks his watch just to be sure.
It was midnight on the dot. Just exactly when Twinkle got weird ideas, like vandalizing her father's house with spray paint. She wouldn't be Twinkle if she didn't do that.
She is still wearing the coat she left with in the morning and there is still a sprinkling of snow on her shoulders. "Tu abhi lauti?"
She nods her head in a yes. It worries him, makes him wonder where she had been all this while. "Kaha se?"
"Har jaga."
They walk aimlessly on the not so silent streets of New York. The city is not as magical as Kunj once thought, it was dream-like, yes, but not magical. There was so much he wanted to say, his apology on the forefront of his mind, but the silence was a security blanket that he did not want to break either. The longer things were quite, the longer he can pretend that things were alright between them.
"Mera favourite pizza parlour." She states, pointing towards a small dingy establishment run by a Punjabi couple. They made Butter chicken pizza too, she let him know.
The walk, punctuated by honking cars and passing strangers, was full of disjoint statements thrown by Twinkle. She showed him her favorite, ice cream place, her usual route to the university and to work. The little shop she likes to shop from, the big shop she likes to shop from and every average sized shop she likes to shop from. He notices that the crowd got thicker and thicker as they progressed further in to their walk.
In a matter of minutes they were standing in the middle of Times Square. The place was abuzz even in the middle of the night. She stops smack in the middle of the crowd. She was pushed and pulled a bit with the flow of the crowd but apart from that no one bothered to care about the girl in the middle.
"Dekha?"
"Kya?" He doesn't understand.
"No one bothers you. No one judged." He still doesn't understand.
"Agar main aise hi Amritsar mein khadi ho ti, toh ab tak 4 aunties ne mere kapde par already comment kiya hoga, Papa already dusro ke baato mein aakar mujhe par shak kiya hoga hoga. Aur main abhi ro rahi hoti."
He looks at her, trying to get her words.
"I like being invisible. I like being not judged."
He understands now. Not just her words but her reason for not returning. And he couldn't argue with that. Because this time he does understand.
It wasn't just an aimless walk was it? This was her showing him her life, unrestrained. This was what life could be like for him outside Amritsar, away from critical eyes and pre-planned parental paved paths. This was living life on their own accord. Learning, making mistakes, making memories, making a masterpiece.
She was living life!
They walk back to the apartment, again in complete silence. He is in too much awe to form coherent words, and she had just laid herself bare, almost.
She retreats to her room. He hears the click of the lock and he goes to Wayne's room. He manages to sleep despite Wayne's orchestrated snores and dreams of a life in a certain pent house on the 19th floor of a posh plaza in New York.
Waking up felt like a punishment because his dream was rudely shattered by the cacophony raging outside the room.
"Wayne you do not need thirteen Bow Ties! You don't even need one Bow Tie, for God sake!" Candy's voice yells.
"I need them! They are my lucky ones!"
"Firstly that is stupid and superstitious at best, and secondly THIRTEEN and lucky?"
"Marnold! Back me up here man!" Wayne whines. Kunj peeks around the corner and finds them, in the living room surrounded by mess. Yuvi was sitting on the couch, eating cereal and watching the drama unfold. It was too comical and too early in the morning for any of this to be happening.
"Yo, man. You don't need 13 ties man. Maybe just pack one."
Kunj rubs the remaining sleep from the corner of his eyes before making his presence known. "Good morning guys." But they are too busy to notice or reply to him.
"I need my thirteen ties man!"
"No, you don't!" Candice and Marnold yell in unison.
That settled the matter. And then they turn to regard Kunj. "Good morning to you too Kunj!" They all sing. They were silly but they were growing on him. They had already grown on Yuvi. He was even taken up as their little prodigy.
"Wait! Hold up! Where are you guys going?" Kunj asks.
"Well, Kunj we are going on a Vacation!" Candice lets him know. She claps her hands together, excitedly, a habit she had picked up from Twinkle. "It is going to be so much fun!"
"Yea man! It is going to be great!" Marnold agrees.
A few questions pop up in Kunj's and Yuvi's mind at the new information. "And Twinkle is staying here right?" Yuvi asks.
"Well of course not you silly Boy." Wayne laughs. "Twinkle is coming with us too. We are all in this together, High School Musical kind."
"But then what about us?" Kunj asks the next important question. If Twinkle leaves with Wayne, Candy and Marnold, then that means that they would have to leave too. He wasn't ready to leave yet-not with so many things left unsettled between them, so many things left unsaid.
He sees Twinkle approaching from behind him from the windows. He turns to question her directly. He thought last night made things a little bit better between them. "Aur humare kya?"
"Tum dono wapas ghar jaa rahe ho." He watches Yuvraj deflate from his peripheral.
He doesn't know where to start and what to say. All he knows is that he wasn't ready to say goodbye yet. Twinkle extends her hand and there in her palm lies two air tickets to Delhi. And then another Two from Delhi to Amritsar. "You have Transit in Frankfurt. Agar chaho toh waha ki Visa nikal kar ek-do din waha ghum sakte ho." He looks at both him and Yuvi as she speaks.
"Aur tum log kaha jaa rahe ho?" Yuvi's voice is heavy with sadness. And it's evident because Marnold and Wayne and Candy stop their petty argument.
Twinkle gives him a sad smile of her own "Hum log ek din ke liye Frankfurt jaa rahe hai." She looks at Kunj as she speaks the next lines. "Aur phir India. Amritsar to be exact." She hold out her Tickets for them to see. Lo and behold! She has the same date and time and airline as them!
Both Kunj and Yuvraj envelope her in an embrace at the same time.
"Oh group hug! I love group hugs!" Marnold says and joins in, pulling in Candy and Wayne too.
"Toh tum log Frankfurt mein rukh ne wale ho?" Twinkle inquires once the initial surprise had settled.
"Heck ya! Yeh bhi koi poochne wali baat hai?" Yuvraj speaks for the both of them. Kunj smiles and looks on.
.
.
.
They grabbed a lot of attention on the airport a day later. Wayne whined about the ties that they forced him to leave behind. Candy didn't have her coffee and Yuvi, Marnold and Twinkle were watching Monster Inc. on her mobile and laughing a bit too loudly. But the others didn't say anything, some just smiled and shook their head-young blood right?
Kunj was lucky enough to get a window seat, unluckily it was night time and the view would only be black. There was an empty seat next to him. He prayed the seat belonged to Twinkle. Wayne was sitting next to Candy, who was next to Yuvi and they were all in the aisle row.
Kun cranes his head to catch where Twinkle was. There she was, lugging her carry on. Marnold stooped and seated himself in the seat in front of Kunj. Twinkle sits next to Marnold.
It hurt more than it should have.
The flight began its ascend. Kunj wishes it was his hand that she was holding on for dear life instead of Marnold's. And as the flight began its cruise, and the seat belt sign was turned off, he thought the worst had passed-but no! It hadn't.
Marnold and Twinkle started to plat UNO! UNO! And they were having fun too!
He should probably just sleep. He decides to do the same, even pulls out the eyes mask from his bag, when Twinkle turns in her seat to face him. "Kunj?"
He tries to keep the disappointment out of his voice. "Haan?"
"Humare saath Uno khelogey?"
4 words and he feels like his soul was singing in joy. He says yes way too quickly. "Toh chalo, aage aau!" She pats to the empty seat next to him. He is unbuckling his seat belt at the speed of light and there beside Twinkle before she can blink.
The Eight hour flight passed with them playing Uno, eating and then sleeping! Kunj doesn't like the way Twinkle's head falls on Marnold's shoulder. She was once upon a time that comfortable with him. What happened?
"You yelled at her." Candice whispers in his ear.
"Holy Co-" Kunj is startled. When did she come that close to him? How did she know what he was thinking!?
"Because you were looking at her like that?"
"Women! How do you know what I am thinking?!"
"Why am I freaking you out?"
"Yes"
"Thank you."
"What?" He is confused. What is happening!? He called her freaky and she is thanking him and what!
She was certainly Twinkle's friend. Weird soul.
Frankfurt was a true bold case of Expectation versus Reality. Expectation: Roam the streets of Frankfurt, get a spa day and get drunk. Reality: Them being holed up in their room, stuffing Bratwursts in their mouths like it was the end of times, trying to translate the black and white German movie and eventually passing out.
It's the second time in a row that Kunj receives a rude awakening. It's Twinkle screaming this time!
"Shit! Guys wake up! We are late! We'll miss our flight!"
Everyone scrambles up and it is flurry of limbs running towards the bathroom. They all end up hogging the bathroom mirror, brushing their teeth. "Guys you do know that we have another room and bathroom booked right?" Twinkle smirks up at them, while tying the straps of her shoes. "Marnold looks at Wayne, who looks at Yuvi who looks at Twinkle. On her count of three they all run out the main door. Candy shrugs her arms and continues brushing indifferently.
They do manage to make it at the airport in time, and its only because the airport was just across the street, Kunj lets them know. "The breakfast in the hotel was worth missing our flight bro." Typical.
This time it's Yuvi besides him in the flight. Candy and Marnold requested and received a seat together, while Twinkle was with Wayne. "I am so happy, yaar. Twinkle finally ghar aa rahi hai!" Yuvi exclaims.
Kunj doesn't say anything. He didn't agree with Yuvi at all. She wasn't returning home. She was on a vacation. "Amritsar isn't home to her anymore Yuvi."
Yuvi stops flipping the magazine in his hands. "Tu kehna kya chahta hai? What do you mean ke India uska ghar nahi hai?" His voice was verging on the defensive.
Yuvi didn't understand, or maybe it didn't want to understand. And Kunj didn't want to be the one to break his heart. "Yuvi ghar wo hota hai, jaha log khush ho bure waqt mein bhi. Aur hum dono jaante hai ki who jagah Twinkle ke liye Amritsar nahi hai."
It depressed them not because Twinkle had found solace in another City but because she didn't find solace in them-her supposed best friends. And the wounds from a year and half ago were bleeding again. They weren't there when she needed them, heck they didn't even know the extent of her misery until she left. And that was also because she had left behind her drawing book for Kunj to find. And Yuvraj knew since they were fifteen that Twinkle was bound to run away one day but he failed to recognize why or when.
Now, watching her live life with another group of people, toyed with their already insecure heart. They didn't want to be replaced. They didn't want her to move so ahead in life that she forgot what she left behind. Irrationality was brewing up too.
"Kya hum uske ache dost bhi the?" Yuvraj asks. The question could be taken in two ways. Did she consider them her besties, or did they perform their duties as a best friend to the best of their ability. Kunj knew which one Yuvi meant.
"We could have been better." Because she was the best.
Thinking about it, Twinkle was always there for them, through thick and thin. Whether it was prepping for the debate competition or talking about Family matter, Twinkle was always there to listen, to advice, to guide, and to help. She always went the extra mile for them.
They never did that. All they did was provide her with an ear to blabber on, a shoulder to cry on and a few bad advices. They should have done her better.
7.30 hours later the cabin crew announces that they were about to begin their descend. Kunj and Yuvi were exhausted by that time-only mentally and emotionally though. But they see Twinkle smiling that Twinkle smile, her sparkling eyes and her excited stance and it makes things slightly better.
The door to the flight opens letting in a burst of the hot humid air of Delhi. Twinkle waits by the door until Yuvi and Kunj reach her. She hold their hands in each of hers. "The three musketeers are back!" she whispers.
The words beautifully echoed thorough out all their hearts.
They hadn't moved on and neither had she. It was a start.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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