Hikayat ✔

Chap. 9

~"...Duniya dekhy roop mera,

Koi naa janey bechari main.

Haye tooti hun sari ki saari main..

Tere ishq main hui Awaari

Main..."
..........

~Song Awaari.

__________________________________

With a deep sigh Vania blew on the steam rising from the mug in her hands.

It was 7:00pm in the evening as she sat on the stairs of the porch drinking tea. The night cold and silent, other than the crickets chirping lowly in the garden and the gentle rustling of the winds.

The sky, dressed magnificently in dark black, with glittering stars strewn across the length of it and smoky clouds sailing upon the folds of the fabric. Shyly from behind the cloud cover, peaked the moon, then hid back, abashed by its own beauty.

The night was beautiful.

Leaning her head against the concrete pillar she closed her eyes reminiscing the morning.

Harris's callous words, his cruel voice, his ruthless behavior, she couldn't get it out of her head...

She knew very well she deserved a lot worse. That was all expected; all his hate and all the humiliation.

But knowing doesn't change the fact that it hurt.

It hurt bad.

Tears burned behind her closed lids, leaving an acrid taste in her mouth when she swallowed them back.

Vania wished she was stronger...that she could stop him from affecting her so much...

She also wished he wasn't seated right beside her, wished her throat didn't close up, and her voice didn't die like it did every time he threw a bitter word her way.

More than that.. she wished her body would stop responding to him the way it did!

His intoxicating fragrance, his laid back attitude, his handsome face.

It was torture to be next to him and try to ignore him.

She felt like all of her being was being crushed under his hateful glare. His ignorance, his fake-stranger act.

How could he be so cruel?

That wasn't the Harris she remembered..

Sighing regrettably, she shook her head and slowly raised her left hand to stare at the simple golden band in her finger.

It was artificial, not real gold and no longer beautiful with the paint coming off from the sides and a few missing rhinestones from the ones embedded on top in a straight line.

Even after every thing, she couldn't bring herself to take it off.

She never did, and got so accustomed to its weight around her finger she completely forgot she was still wearing it.

He probably thought she did it on purpose..

But he didn't know that...

She couldn't take it off...