(Manik)
“He has come again,” she said cryingly. I was shocked as to how did he manage to run? She was broken, hurt, scared, trembling, lost. I wanted to free her from this pain and it almost started but that bastard had to come in between and ruin it all. She was crying in front of me and all I could do was stare at her, not knowing what to say. She stared at the showpiece while crying, music still playing in it.
“Listen don’t worry, I m here nothing will happen to you, where did he got you?,” I finally asked after a short time. “I went to have some fresh air and I met my brother he took me to my house and scolded them, then when I was returning, he saw me and pulled me in his car and took me to temple but thank God, my brother came there and saved me,” she said between her sobs. “Oh so this happened,” I said thinking how to calm her down and finally I got it. I wiped her tears. “You know what Nandini? I don’t know why girls cry so much, every girl is so beautiful specially you and you have to ruin your face by crying? Don’t cry, kick the bad people out of your life,” I said and she smiled a little then stopped. “OK come with me,” I said and took her.
We walked out of my room downstairs and three rooms away came the room I wanted to take her inside. I opened it and took her in. It was the room where I come in whenever I m angry or I have to work out. There was a punching bag inside hanging down. There was a punching toy too. I took her in front of that toy. “Look at it, my papa gifted me this toy when I was 10 years old, I used to be really angry and he said to punch on it imagining it as the person on who you are angry, so I m telling you the same thing, imagine it as Trilok, and punch it, take your frustration out,” I said.
She looked at me and I nodded in yes and smiled.
She looked at the toy and punched it hard and sighed. She punched it again and smiled. She kept doing so until she was calm. She felt a relief and smiled. She came near me and hugged me. “Thank you so much, I m glad to have a friend like you,” she said and I could feel her smile. I hugged her back.
I will give him to police again and he will be tortured, I promise.
(Nandini)
The moment I hugged him, I felt so good. I know I shouldn’t trust someone so soon but firstly he’s my friend and then he is my doctor. I am grateful that he’s with me. I hugged him for God knows how much time and finally parted away still having a smile on my face.”You should eat something, I m sorry I didn’t let you do anything and directly told about my matter”, I said looking down. “Oh no no it’s not your mistake, no sorry and no thank you in friendship, I will eat only on one condition if you too eat with me”, he said with a cute smile.
How could I disagree? I agreed and went with him, we ate and then went to his room. We both were sitting on the lower bed because I didn’t let him go up so he sat with me, or should I say we were in half laying position beside each other. “Manik”, I said. “Hmm?”, he said slowly. “When I was forced to take music lessons from sir, I wanted to tell them I don’t want to have it, his touch made me feel eww, I wanted their happiness I did so much for them, I told sir I can’t love him and he took such a big revenge from me, he ruined me, I m so scared that now no one is there to support me, no one will marry me, if the coming day, you marry, then who will be with me? I will be alone all over again”, I said letting my worry out and sharing my pain with him. I was unsure of his emotions.
“Bhagwan doesn’t leaves anyone alone, and you will also get someone, who knows if that someone is me myself?”, he said and I looked at him trying to read his expressions, he had a serious look on his face. “Or someone else, good happens with good people and look you are so good, you will get anyone”, he said giving me a hope. When he said that person can be him too, I felt an unknown feeling, don’t know what was it. “You will feel I am joking about what I m going to say right now, but m serious, if we both don’t get anyone else, we’ll marry each other”, he said raising his eyebrows and suddenly I bursted into laughter. “Oh God Mani you are so cute, how do you always manage to make me laugh?”, I asked while laughing. “I m serious, its my promise to you, but what did you call me?,” he asked. “Mani, I used to call my childhood friend Manik also by this name and you remind me of him,” I told him. “Even I had a friend Nandini who had a tattoo just like yours,” he told me. “Wait,” he said and went to his cupboard and took out an album and sat with me again. “Look, these are the photos,” he said flipping the card pages again and again. “These are the same pics I have,” I said. “I got you,” we both said in unison and hugged each other. “Now should we sleep?”, he asked yawningly and I nodded in positive still laughing. He was about to climb the upper bed. “I will sleep there, you sleep here, you are really sleepy, you will fall,” I said and he slept on the lower bed. He’s really cute, I climbed the upper bed and I too slept with a smile on my face.