My Confidate

Chapter 9

"It was never intended to be like this..
The sleepless night and restless days.
Your presence still comforts me,
Our brief eye contact engulfing me.
I cant escape.
You're everywhere I look
And always on my mind."

"Bhai?! Di bula rahi hai" Aditya shot out at us, waving the both of us to follow up through where they'd gone. Shehnaaz looks up at me for just a mere second before turning away and walking inside, joining in with the hollering of Adityas. I'd gotten from their screams that whatever they were looking at was a consensual favourite. I smile as I approach the 3 of them, having a hard time wiping it away as Neetu strolled back over. It felt odd, almost too foreign to be real. I hadn't let my face stretch like so in long enough to having forgotten I didn't need an exact reason to do so. The restlessness I was constantly filled with seemed to have left, the will to keep moving and not stand still, uplifted and thrown out of the way of embracing the stillness of life. Embracing moments like such. Moments that I knew I only had for a timed amount of days. The timer would go off one morning and everything would go back to being how it was. The daily that had now become an always.

"Maa ko bohut pasand aayega yeh" Neetu cooed, putting her arms around me tighter than I'd felt them for a long period of time. I hug her back, giving her hair a soft ruffle as she pulled away. As much as we fought she was one of the closest people I had to me. Preeti Di following up close. Preeti Di however was more of a motherly figure, one I went to when I had no intention of being told I was wrong and needed to buck up. I went to her for comfort. On the other hand Neetu was the one to put me in place, argue and make my own perspective widen before she went and sat down with her own bundle of things to go through. I look back up at the pictures hung up along with the rows of flowers and lights, the stage looking just how I'd imagined it would in the dark of the night.

I sit down against it as Di moves down the aisle on call, not noticing when Shehnaaz settles down beside me. "You'll do fine" she whispered, lightly letting her hand brush against my own. I look at her expectantly, finding the same blink and smile I always had when she was reassuring me about myself. I continue staring as her eyes dart back up to the moon. Still a selenophile. I wondered how she'd managed to still read the look on my face. How she'd managed to depict the fact that I was overwhelmed with how happy Neetu had just been and felt the need to make sure I didn't let that happiness sink away. "Shehnaaz?" I rasp, looking up in the same direction as her. She hummed, not giving me a glance. "Can we-"

A - "Bhai 2 minute idhar aa na please"

I huff letting the hanging conversation fall, shaking my head as I walked up to him, fixing up the little twitch he'd found in the light.

The house seemed oddly quiet as I headed down the next morning. Considering the chaos we'd went to sleep on, I'd expected at least the chatter to continue. Di, Aditiya and now even Shehnaaz had been semi getting along quite well. Today, that would only be further intensified considering the fact that my elder sister and her family were to return. Sighing I made my way further down the noticeably empty halls, peering through the doors left ajar.

"Yeh sab kaha gye?" I question, finding mom sitting in her room, fixing up one of the many dresses currently laying against her bed. "Shehnaaz Aditiya k saath gyi hai aur Neetu Airport. Abhi kuch time pehle hi Nikle hai." She reverted eyeing as I brushed away the clothes and made myself a seat. I give her a stoic nod, leaning back against the headboard, watching her put away all of what she had scattered. Perhaps this was how it would be until she left. She'd rightfully ignore my entire presence, much like what I'd done to escape the from any sort of questioning or mention of why I'd gotten up and left the morning after all of that. I'd then been a coward and I was now being... well quite the same. The way she kept brushing me off with her replies made my insides clench. This wasn't the Shehnaaz I knew how to talk to, neither was I the Sidharth that knew how to work his way around that.

"Sidharth?!" Maa uttered shaking me out of my train of thoughts. I hum at her, soon enough hearing the constant ringing of the doorbell I'd earlier not even acknowledged. I get up, stretching as I head down the hall. I could practically hear an overjoyed Aditya behind the door, along with a set of giggles that wouldn't take me a second take to guess who they came from. Letting open the door, I step back with it, eyeing their current outfits. It looked as if they'd returned from the gym, the assumption making me sick in the stomach. That wasn't his place to take her knowing quite well how other men can sometimes be. We weren't exactly back home where she could roam out alone or with someone she barely knew like that. Her outfit made my jaw clench further. The significantly loose top of hers was practical mesh, allowing the outline of her curves to show from beneath. "Adi? 2 minute upar aa." I state, a distant finality lurking in my tone. Shehnaaz stopped herself mid sentence, passing me a look of confusion whilst biting against the inside of her cheek. Aditiya on the other hand gave me a nod, stepping up behind me as I let the door close. The joy of his face not once detouring as he bid away Shehnaaz.

"Where the fuck did you take her?" I intrigue, closing the door behind me. Aditya looked back at me with an amused smile laying across his lips. He dropped the bag he had slung around his shoulder against the floor taking a seat without gifting me a response. "The gym" he answered, shrugging as he settled into the seat. I furrow my brows, he'd either gone completely mad or had forgotten the last few of his own encounters there. "She wanted to go, I'm no one to deny" He utters, leaning with his arms spread across the back of the chair. "And neither are you" he continued, scoffing as he gave me another amused stare. "Aditya this isn't funny" I state, a little too loudly to notice the door creaking open behind me.

"Not.A. Single. Change" Shehnaaz muttered, appearing before me after throwing Aditya what seemed like his own bottle of water. "I'm old and capable enough to make me own decisions and handle consequences Sidharth." She chuckled, the look on the both of their faces too casual for my liking. "You don't know anything around here" I state, crossing my arms across my chest to stop fiddling with my fingers. "Aditya does. He even showed me around some places on the drive there" she retorted, matter of factly. I watched as her eyes met his again, the look of mischief and conversation in silence leaving me in both displeasure and doubt. I eyed Aditya again, looking through the bundle of keys he'd managed to put against the table. "What gym did he take you to?" I question holding my arms tighter across my chest, letting the amusement mirror on my own face.

"You don't need to know" she retorted walking over to Aditya who was currently beaming about some pictures. I follow up with her, watching his screen over her shoulder. The thought of them perhaps cooking this up leaving my head instantly as I spot our usual gym logo right behind the both of them. She steps away, quickly giving up her number for him to send those as her phone began to ring, the name leaving me with a bigger headache than what I'd had earlier.