Friendship, Love and Passion (Chapter 10 Part 3)

Heyy guys!!
I AM FINALLY BACK TO UPDATE REGULARLY!!!
Link to the spoiler: Here
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“No, no, no, mickey mouse is the best,” Tananya chided while Tanya groaned at this never ending argument.

Anirudh sat comfily in the couch, even after Tanya’s persistent pressure on him to leave the house and her life in peace. At the moment, he was chucking down a glass of juice while watching Tanya and the kids argue about which character is better. Tanya was on one side while all the kids were against her, Anirudh rolled his eyes with disbelief. This girl hasn’t changed one bit, ever since she was little her goal of life was to win every single argument.

“What? No, minnie mouse is better,” Tanya insisted stubbornly as she pouted while all the kids gave her angry glares.

And that started the war, where all the kids were randomly yelling out why mickey mouse was better while Tanya kept blabbering on why minnie mouse was better. Who knew such a massive argument would take place just for deciding for a character that most of the people there don’t even watch anymore. Anirudh thought for a quick second to actually go ahead and stop the fight but resisted, who would miss the opportunity to see this hilarious argument. A teenager with a bunch of kids who were less than 10 years.

At the middle of all this loud chaos, a young boy decided to stand up on the table with foods and scream out in vain, “I like goofy,”

This made, everyone, including Anirudh snap their heads to this boy who was wobbling over the food counter and thus made room for the most expected disaster. He cautiously tried to get down, but slipped and ended up on the floor, spilling a bunch of glasses, tissues, and plastic plates all over him. Luckily, there was no food on that table.

“Oh my god,” Tanya exclaimed tiredly as she eyed the mess of plastic items which were scattered all over the floor.

Anirudh grinned at the mess while Tanya scowled at him hastily, “Don’t just stand there, help me,”

“What is the magic word?” Anirudh mocked as he stood up with a smirk cracking on his face.

“You know what, just sit there,” Tanya snapped hotly with extreme annoyance as she went on in hyper mode and started to set all the things back on the table while Anirudh watched her with royal pleasure beaming through his eyes.

He heard Tanya mumble a curse at him which made his smirk grow, wider and darker when he heard the door fling open, revealing a few joyful adults who exclaimed, “Tanya, we are back,”

Tanya’s posture stiffened as she shut her eyes to see if it vanishes of like a nightmare, but no as soon as she heard a ruffling sounds near the door, she knew all the parents came back. “Shit,”

“That’s a bad word,” Stuti, her cousins managed to say which caused all the others to glare at her with open eyes.

“Shhh. Clean this thing up while I try to manage them,” she ordered them as she put them to work and faced Anirudh who was busy grinning at her cunningly. He sat on the couch like he owned the damn house, how egoistic.

“What did they think when they trusted you with like 50 children,” he passed a sneer comment with an evil smirk.

“Shut up and come with me,” she ordered as she shot him some death glares. Now were the times when she wished glares could kill. Why was life so unfair?

Anirudh followed her quitely towards the front foyer to see bundles of adults coming in, one after the other, he knew most of them due to their constant visits from the childhood. The aroma of cinnamon and sugar filled the air, which instantly rose his spirits, he loved the homely smell he gets in their house. He saw a fairly tall women, a warm smile, sharp nose with the same eyes and hair like Tanya turn around.

It was her mother after all, as soon as she saw Anirudh she turned on her panic mood, “Is everything alright? Where is Rohan, we didn’t see- who is this?”

Anirudh saw Tanya’s face leech out color at that very question, she stood there motionless before hesitantly answering in a bitter tone, “Umm, mom everything is fine, Rohan is gone to an emergency practice and this is uh..Anirudh,”

“What?” her mother exclaimed with joy. Her dad was just a few steps away before taking a long glance at Anirudh who had a wide smile on his face.

The couple smiled warmly and amused at Anirudh while Tanya muttered unhappily,“Nikhil uncle’s one and only son,”

“Oh my gosh, you have grown so big. How are you? Do you even remember us?” Tanya’s mom ranted on chirpily as she gave him a quick hug, followed by his dad.

“How can I forget my fav aunty! I missed you guys so much,” Anirudh said jovially, grinning brightly as he remembered his childhood.

Tanya’s parents were the best, her dad was extremely laid back and cool while her mom would pamper Anirudh to the core. He remembered how he used to run to her mom first before telling his mom, Tanya was always the apple of his mom’s eyes along with his Akka, so the only person he would go around to talk to was Tanya’s mom.

Anirudh heard Tanya mumble something along the lines of ‘such a nice lie’.

They looked at him for a second before excitedly asking, “Do you live here too?”

“Yeah, just a few streets down,” Anirudh answered instantly as he greeted all of Tanya’s aunts and uncles.

As all of them proceeded to the living room, he heard Tanya’s dad say, “We need to meet up with your parent one day then,”

“They will be just as eager,” Anirudh replied with a smirk while Tanya shuddered at the thought.

“Uncle, I need to talk to you about something if it is okay,” Anirudh realized the true reason he came for.

“Anything champ,” her dad said with a pleasing smile, calling him by his nickname.

They walked over to the study along the other side of the hallway as he asked, “What’s up?”

Anirudh opened out with any hesitation, “I was just wondering if it okay that if Tanya comes on a dance trip with us,”

“Tanya never mentioned about it,”

“Ever since she figured out that I was Anirudh, she took time off dance, so I wanted to ask you before telling her,”

“Of course, she can go if she wants. You know that I don’t force her and will not do so even now,”

“Thanks uncle,”

“Now, let’s go and plan a surprise for your parents,” he said back as they both walked back into the living room.

Anirudh decided to stay back and talk to Tanya’s mom and catch up on all the things he missed in the past years. He noticed Tanya’s extreme discomfort, but that didn’t stop him from staying. He was in no mood to leave without having a proper chat with them, clearing out all the issues if they had anything against their family.
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Anirudh got down from his car and walked over to his house, tired and extremely exhausted after school. Life was so tiring.

As he began to go on, his phone vibrated a little too loudly in his pocket, “Hello,”

“Anirudh dear, do you know where Tanya is?” Anirudh heard Tanya’s mother ask him with desperation.

“Umnn..no. Is anything wrong?” he asked with concern.

“She has been missing since the morning and she is not with any of her friends,” her mother said with extreme worry.

“What happened, is she okay?” he blurted out nonchalantly as a weird type of concern and eagerness to see her fine filled inside him.

“It is her Nani’s death anniversary so she was a little emotional, that’s all,” her mother gave him the details while his heart sank with the news. Of course, tanya was extremely close to her Nani.

“Did you check at the temple?” he asked with hope that she would be somewhere there.

“We checked in the main temple and even at all the cemeteries, but she is nowhere to be found,” she replied tensely.

He let his thoughts free and his eyes sparked with a place, “I think I might know where she will be,”

“Really? Where?” she asked him with the instant boom in her voice.

“Aunty, don’t worry, I will bring her back home in a few hours and I will call you if I find her or not,” he told her with assurance as he walked back into his car.

“Thanks a lot dear. I knew I could trust you,” she gently said to him which made something drop in his stomach.

Trust, was the only thing he was not worthy off. He put on a determined face to go and solve all the problems with Tanya once and for good as he drove away to find not Tanya, but his long lost childhood friend.

Within minutes, he was standing at an open cliff, around an hour out of the city. The winds were blowing harshly towards him, while the rugged ground below him cracked every time he moved. He skimmed around quickly to spot a girl sitting at the far edge of the rock, he breathed a sigh of relief as he raked his feet in her direction.

“Hey,”he mumbled as he took a seat before her and faced the wide range of mountains in front of them, the breeze was at it’s peak, while the atmosphere was nothing but serenely peaceful.

She jerked at that moment and quickly spinned her head towards him as she snapped back hotly, “You?! What the hell are you doing here?”

“Are you okay?” he asked her as he saw that her eyes were red and puffy, her face dark bags of dark circles all over, her hair was in a complete mess while she looked extremely exhausted, as though she had been crying her heart out till no tears escaped.

“Go away, I don’t need your sympathy,” she spat out sourly as she averted eye contact.

“Trust me, I know better people to give my sympathy too,” he said back curtly, unable to put on this nice act anymore. When will this girl ever get some sense?

“Anirudh, just shut up and LEAVE,” she roared with immense and terrifying anger as her eyes flamed with fire and face grew in a wild expression.

“Not gonna happen, engrave that fact into your brain,” he said back coolly, keeping his anger in check.

She gave him a few death glares before shaking her head with disbelief and turning it back to face the mountains before them. As she calmed down a bit, he slyly enquired, “You miss her don’t you?”

“How do you know?” she asked him more softly this time with her eyebrows raised.

“Sources darling, I have my sources,” Anirudh flaunted with pride while Tanya rolled her eyes.

“When?” he asked her as she continued to stare at nothing at particular, wandering her mind through the memories of her nani.

“2 years after you left,” she replied with a heavy, displeased sigh.

Anirudh flung out his phone from his pocket when it started to vibrate heavily and said with surety while eyeing Tanya who was busy murdering him with glares, “Hello, Aunty, I found her, I am going to get her back in a while,”

“Thank you sooo much Anirudh, I knew I could trust you,” he heard her mom said with delight and relief.

He hung up and smirked as he tugged on her hard to indicate their leave while she scowled, “Anirudh, I think you can see my car back there. I can come by myself, now leave,”

“Tanya, don’t be stupid. People are worried to death for you,” Anirudh reasoned irked.

“And I am confused to death,” she said back nonchalantly as she shut her eyes with frustration.

“What?” he asked her boggled. Why was she confused?

“This is all might be easy for you to digest but I can see my life falling apart again, I don’t have strength to fix my broken heart back. It is not easy, it is not easy at all,” she reasoned and for the first time he saw her in an extremely broken and devastated shape. He did not see the proud and strong girl he once looked upon yet a miserable and broken girl.

His heart ached with pain as he saw her fighting off her tears which were rapidly flowing as if they were meant for, he went up to her and consoled her gently, “Tanya, look at me, what happened?”

She gulped down hard as she brushed away her tears and trialed off, “Nothing,..I just got carried away,”

“What happened?” he asked her with concern as he tilted her head using her chin to make her finally face him. God, she looked soo worried.

“Look can you stop interfering in my personal problems? Stay. Out. Of. It,” she snapped at him and slapped his hand away which ignited the fire in him as he moved closer to her.

“Not when it is related to me,” he spat out in a demanding order.

“Anirudh, I don’t have time for this,” she dryly said.

“Neither do I. So, just spill it, it will be better for both of us,” he ordered her in a dreadly tone.

She sighed looking at his stubborn nature and started her explanation, “I was happy before you came, I actually forget you and all the pain you ever gave me. I stopped dance too, but as soon as you came in, you bought back dance but you also bought back the intense pain of childhood. Now, you are going to be in front of me for the rest of my life, what am I supposed to do? I hate you, why don’t you understand I hate you,”

“There is something more,”

“No, there isn’t,”

“Tanya,”

“Anirudh,”

“Tanya,”

“Ughhh…my parents are hosting a party for our reunion and I don’t want to be there, especially with you,” she spat out with hatred as she weakly pointed a finger at him.

“Wow, you really hate me don’t you?” he snickered sarcastically as he backed off a little, giving her some space to breathe.

“Wow, you are really blind, aren’t you?” she shot back irritated.

“Fiesty Tanya, not gone yet?”

“Will never go either,”

Tanya looked at him with a blistering gaze while he returned the same with pleasure and dryly mocked, “Let’s get you home before we end up murdering each other,”

Tanya watched him take a few steps away from her, put on a sly smirk and tap away on his phone. She looked at him suspicious but shooed off the thought only to hear her singing echoing through the place, “I am funny, energetic, boring, fun and crazy for you. I am crazy for you, what will I ever do without you,”

She flushed a sigh of red, not blush but embarassment as she yelled at him when she saw him have a video of her singing crazily when they were young, “Oh my gosh, turn the damn thing off,”

“You are so cute,” he commented with a smirk.

“Cute my foot, turn the thing off,” she demanded as the worst part where she was going to try to do a somersault but end up on the ground come.

“Increase the volume? Sure,” he mocked as he raised the volume of her screeching voice. Holy crap!

He began to laugh as soon as her failed attempt of a somersault took place, while she angrily snapped, “You are so going to die,”

“No, not that,” he warned her as she pretended to take her high inch spring boots off.

“Yes, that, you should have thought twice before messing with me,” she retorted in a critical tone as she ran towards him while he escaped towards the road.

Anriudh laughed as he saw Tanya charging towards him with her high inched boots as her weapon. Just as he crossed the road to the grassy field on the other side, he saw a car approach Tanya unexpectedly. “Tanya, careful,”

Too late, he noticed in seconds a huge scream before a black car came and hit her again, “Ahhhh…….”

His eyes blurred, his limbs went motionless, his breath literally stopped while his heart ached when he saw Tanya fall back onto the other side as she clutched her leg which was oozing blood like there was no tomorrow. Oh no!
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I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Sorrry for all the delay! I had something tragic happen in my family so I couldn’t come last week as promised! But from next week, expect regular updates from me! I missed you all so much!! Who do you think hit her this time? Why always Tanya? Keep reading to know!! Would love to talk to you all of you, if you are here, so do drop a comment!