heyy guys!!
Link to the previous update: Chapter 10 Part 1
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“You know what, I have moved on and your silence tells me you have moved on too. So, let’s start all over again. I am the Tanya Singhania,” she said arrogantly as she walked forward and forwarded her hand in front of him with a tender face.
Anirudh walked back a step and dazed her with blank emotions swirling throughout his body and titled his head in scanning Tanya`s hand. He clenched his jaw firmly and left the place without another word.
“What more can I expect from you anyways?” Tanya mumbled to herself as she dropped her hand and sighed deeply. Something in her went completely missing, a part of her remained incomplete.
“Rohan, can you come pick me up? I need to go home,” Tanya demanded with anger as she called Rohan.
“What? You didn’t leave yet? We are having a children’s night,” Rohan asked her confused.
“I had some work,” Tanya stated sternly while she slowly stifled a sob. Wrong move, every wrong.
“Why do you sound like you cried?” Rohan questioned her with immense concern.
“Come and pick me up,” Tanya ordered in a firm tone, completely diverting the topic.
“Yes Ma’am,” Rohan snickered playfully at her and hung up.
Tanya walked out silently outside to wait for Rohan as she rubbed her eyes to make sure they weren’t red and plastered a fake smile on her face to pretend like nothing happened. In the next 10 minutes, she saw Rohan`s black car pull over by the parking. She flung open the car with speed and warm smile on her face.
“You have puffy eyes and running nose,” was the first thing Rohan commented as she sat down beside him.
“Thanks for the information,” Tanya said sarcastically rolling her eyes and averting eye contact.
“Tanya, you have been crying, what is wrong?” Rohan enquired once more with concern.
“I hate sympathy,” Tanya stated as she roamed her eyes through the glass window, admiring the scenery as if she never saw it before.
“Tanya, what is wrong?” Rohan asked her and shook her shoulder vividly for her attention.
“Forget it, everybody is waiting for us, let’s move it,” Tanya firmly said as she rolled her eyes at him.
“No we are not until you tell me exactly what is wrong,” Rohan said stubbornly as he pulled the keys out of his car.
Tanya pouted at him but he payed no heed to her and his eyes showed no sign of compromising. She took a deep breath in, she needed to get this over with. “Anirudh is back,”
“What?” He asked her with shock and confusion at the same time.
“Anirudh is Anirudh Ross, he is our childhood friend,” she told him in a mere whisper, not revealing a ton of information yet a lot.
“Oh my gosh,” he mumbled to himself as she saw his face stiffen and turn into horror.
“I didn’t believe it either until I found a photo of all the 3 of us in his locker and I was shocked to death,” she explained him in more detail as she played with the ring on her hand.
“Crap,” Rohan muttered with dismay.
Suddenly just as Rohan was about to ask something, his phone rang from the pocket. “Yes mom, now? Are you sure?”
“What happened?” She asked him as he sighed with frustration and started the car.
“We will talk about this later, I need to go for a last minute practice, I’ll drop you home till then,” he told her and speeded the car to their house.
She reluctantly nodded and strolled her gaze back at the window as if there was something important to miss if she didn’t. She sighed at her fate of life, so many twists, so many shocks, this was indeed killing her.
“Tanya DIIIIII,” she heard a crowd of childhood run up to her as she got out of the car.
An involuntarily smile blew up her lips while her mood lit up brightly, and she enthusiastically greeted “Hey kids, ready for our small party?”
All of them nodded vigorously and her little cousin Meera asked, “Where is Rohan bhaiya going?”
“He will come back in a few minutes, now let’s go inside,” she ordered them and let them all inside with her bag over her shoulder and tightly bolted the door. Her maasi let out a small smile and a nod at her and left the mansion through the back door to join the rest of the adults by a family get together barbeque.
“What are we going to do first?” Tanya asked the kids as they all finally sat down quietly in the carpet while she sagged back into the couch without a second thought.
“How about all of you go play arcade games in the game room for a few minutes?” Tanya suggested hesitantly.
“Yesss,” they all cheered and stood up with satisfaction.
“I am hungry,” Tanaya announced while the other agreed to her.
“What do you want to eat then?” Tanya asked him.
“Pizza, pasta, chips, ice cream, candy,”came out the various replies.
“I’ll order some pizza and after we can have a mini ice cream treat, sounds good?” She told them and shooed them all of to go and play. “Okay, now go play,”
She quickly placed an order for the pizza and laid back down on the couch. She shut her eyes to quickly take in all the happenings of her life, weariness took over her body with pain crawling in her heart. Why was it always her? She needs a break, a long one before she broke apart once again. The phone buzzed in her pocket breaking her from her chain of thoughts.
“Yes dad,” she said tiredly with a faint smile on her lips.
“Tanya dear, can you please talk to the video game developers and finish the project I assigned you to,” her dad gently said as she could here some chitter chatter talks in the background.
“But I already finished it,” she reasoned with confusion.
“I didn’t get any completed notices on it then,” he said back with shock.
“Fine, I will talk to them,”she assured him with a yawn escaping her lips.
Her dad had assigned her to develop an app that she had in mind for a long time, he even hired a few developers to work under her and help her build this app up.
Anger rose through her body with hints of confusion and she called up the incharge of her team and yelled at him“Why didn’t you send my dad the completed notices,”
“It is not done yet,” he replied sternly while she fumed with anger.
“Yes it is,” she retorted with more stern voice than his.
He grunted at her words and she could hear him mumbled which added more anger to her body. “Look, I am the one who is incharge, so just obey my orders,”
As she heard him say something, she heard the bell ring, she placed the call on hold and opened the door with her face on her phone to look at the time. It must be the pizza guy with the delivery.
“Give me a minute, I’ll get the money,” she told the pizza guy without glancing up twice and rushed back to the living room to get her wallet out of her bag.
“If I want I can get my dad to fire you at this instant for the fight you are putting with me,” she snapped fiercely at the head of developers and ruffled through her wallet for a 20 dollar bill.
“Send him the notice now,” she yelled at him and hung up as she finally found a bill in her wallet.
“Did the pizza cost $20?” She asked the pizza boy as she finally looked back at the boy.
Her body froze and her eyes widened with shock, a faint gasp escaped her lips while she stared at ANIRUDH in front of her, who was looking amused at her.
“Wh..what are you doing here?” She asked him stuttering as she was rooted to the ground solidly.
“I need to talk to uncle,” he said casually like it was no big deal to randomly pop up at her house.
Was it about her? She thought to herself as a perplexed face covered her shocked one.
“Don’t worry, nothing about you,” he answered her unasked question which made Tanya doubt whether he was some mind reader.
“Look-,” she sternly argued when she heard the little ones come back from the gameroom, all buzzing with excitement.
“Is the pizza here?” Tanaya asked her with immense joy.
They all looked at Anirudh who was glaring at them with a pale face and shot a question after a question at him and her. “Who are you?” “Are you Tanya Di’s friend?”
“Why are you here?” Tanaya innocently asked Tanya after everyone else finished their chatter, “Where is our pizza?”
“Tanaya, calm down,” Tanya shushed her down and Tanaya rolled her eyes at her sister and walked over to Anirudh.
“Hey princess,” he said softly with a gently smile on her lips. Tanya froze hearing that, he remembered Tanaya’s nickname too?
“Don’t call her that,” Stuti snapped cutely at Anirudh who was confused at their tantrums.
“Huh?” Anirudh asked with shock as he glared right at Tanya with suspicion while she shrugged back lightly.
“Yeah, only one childhood friend of Tanya calls me that,” Tanaya said calmly with an innocent smile.
Tanya gulped down hard as Anirudh stared right through her eyes, seemed like he was searching for something right down her soul. He cleared his throat and asked causally, “Oh, where he is now?”
“Yeah, where is Anirudh Bhaiya?” Tanaya enquired curiously at Tanya who raised her eyebrow at her sister.
“You even remember that idiot’s name?” Tanya said with shock even while receiving death glares at Anirudh who was standing with his jaw dropped at her indirect reference to him as an idiot.
“Where is he anyways?” Tanaya repeated her question once again with force.
“I haven’t talk to him in 10 years, how would I know?” Tanya lied as she rolled her eyes at Anirudh on purpose who was glaring at her with hate.
“Di, the vase in the gameroom is falling over, help me,” they heard Amit from the playroom shouting at Tanya.
“Shoot, how could you guys leave Amit by himself?” She directed the question to more than 25 kids standing in front of her who all pretended not to hear her.
“There are so many people here, I lost count,” Tanaya said back slowly while Tanya hurried to the gameroom.
“Tanaya, close the door, I will be back,” she called over her shoulder as she ran towards the game room in the basement.
“Help,” she heard Amit say with desperation as she saw him leaning in between a vase and an arcade game, trapping him from either side.
“Come here, how did you get stuck there?” She asked him with irritation as she lifted him off the mess.
“Long story, don’t ask,” he answered like he was an old man with lots of tales for her.
She rolled her eyes at his antics and walked back to the living room to the kids. She saw them all crowded near the TV watching Minions while Tanaya was drinking water in the kitchen. She smiled at her cousins and dimmed the lights a little to create the movie feel and headed to the kitchen to get some popcorn.
“Did he go?” She asked Tanaya curiously as she tried to find a bag of popcorn.
“To the washroom, yes,” Tanaya answered as she left the kitchen.
“What?” Tanay snapped at her. He didn’t leave yet? Which washroom was he in?
“He needed to go to the washroom, so I told him to go upstairs,” she told her innocently.
“What? Help me find him,”she cried out with rage as she pulled her sister along with her upstairs.
She cursed the timing under her breath and ran to the washroom to see it was open, “He is not here,”
“But I did tell him to go upstairs, turn right and 3rd door to the right,” Tanaya said innocently with confusion.
“Tananya, that is my room, this is towards the left,” she snapped at her coldly with frustration and nervousness.
Tanaya shrugged apologetically with realization while Tanya brushed her off,“Shoot, go and call Rohan while I go get him,”
“Sorry,” she told her with puppy eyes and left to downstairs.
She took a breath in and walked rapidly to her room, she found it open and Anirudh facing his back towards her and picking up the teddy by her bedside and examining it. She was barefoot, which is why he couldn’t realize she came with the carpet and was busy admiring the teddy. A memory flashed before her as she glanced at the teddy.
Flashback
“I hate you and you know it too,” the little Anirudh yelled at Tanya who was cutely begging him for apologies.
“Come on, I am sorry,” Tanya insisted with her cute dimpled smile as both of them sat together on the bench of the park.
“Whatever,” Anirudh brushed her off while Tanya looked on confused.
“What did I do?” Tanya asked him pouting with fake anger as she got up and stood in front of him.
“You went to a party without telling me,” Anirudh whined while Tanya rolled her eyes.
“It was an all girls party Anirudh,” she told him gently.
“So? You should atleast tell your best friend that,” he complained innocently.
“Fine, I am sorry, please forgive me,” she said politely as she held her ears.
“No, you are not forgiven,” he stubbornly said with anger.
“Look I got you something,” she cheered him as she gave him a bag.
“What is it?” He asked her excited as she took it from her.
“See, this is 2 best friend teddies, one for you and one for me,” she said warmly with a huge grin covering her face.
“What am I supposed to do this with this?” He asked her with confusion as he pulled a orange teddy with a heart saying My Best Friend.
“Whenever you feel sad, keep it by your bedside and think I am with you. It will keep you company even if I got to an all girls company,” Tanya narrated to him with her eyes glowing with happiness while Anirudh nodded at her and accepted her apologies.
Flashback ends
A smile crept on her lips as she remembered the gift, but it faded as soon as he turned to look at her with shock. His cold and brittle eyes showed hatred and brutality for her with his lips curling into a smirk, taunting her for still having that by her beside.
She cleared her throat to ease the awkwardness and the high tension between them.
“Princess, I mean your sister told me that the washroom was here,”he said finally in an icy snappy voice.
“She didn’t get her left-right straight yet,” Tanya firmly said with annoyance. “You can use the washroom in my bedroom,”
“Thanks,” he said flatly and opened the door to her washroom.
Tanya looked at the teddy and noted to remove that from her bedside from today, there was no place for him or his stuff in her life anymore. He came back from the washroom with a blank face and the awkwardness came back in them until Tanaya came up screaming, “Tanya Di, the pizza is here, I need money,”
“Let’s go,” Tanya told her as she hurried downstairs and opened the door. She handed the actual pizza boy the money and took out the pizza.
She ignored Anirudh glancing with anger at her and continued to serve the pizza to the kids in plates while they were extremely occupied with the movie. The whole living room was crowded with them, the big couches, the chairs and the carpet.
She handed out the last plate to the little cousin by the side and walked back to the kitchen to see Anirudh leaning against the wall to the living room with an poker face.
“Umm…Dad will come up later, so you can leave now,” she firmly said to avoid the hesitation in her voice.
He scratched his neck and looked at her for a long minute before Tanaya screaming at him,. “Wait,”
“What now,” Tanya let out a irked grunt.
“Di, why don’t you both join us too,” Stuti said from behind her and gestured them both to come.
“He is leaving, right?” Tanya said sharply as she faced and gave Anirudh, get-the-hell-out-of-here look.
“Umm..I like pizza, so why not,” Anirudh flipped his sides with a smirk and walked into the living room.
“What?” She said as she stood there dumfounded with his sudden twist of events. This was going to be a long evening.
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What do you think Anirudh wants to tell Tanya’s dad?? Why do you think he was at Tanya’s place?? Keep reading to know!! Comment your view if possible, waiting to hear from you and I think I might post like once a week due to assignment issues!!