𝕊𝕥𝕒𝕣𝕤 𝔸𝕣𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕 𝕊𝕔𝕒𝕣𝕤

°CHAPTER 29

Strong
>>>>———— ✨ ————<<<<

Tara knows that she is strong.

She hadn't been eating properly, sleeping well or talking normally but still she wakes herself up at the morning and pulls herself to the designing to work on her sketches.

Since, it was the only thing that has been keeping her going or Tara would have crumbled down to pieces.

At times, it takes true strength to look after oneself too; if to choose yourself would leave you unable to care for those you hold most dear, a change to care for the self is brave and right.

Therefore, she had to do it.

Tara had to choose herself over Vikram's misconceptions. She could not bring herself to beg for someone who wasn't even ready to try, at least to accept his feelings.

Nee yedhutha mudhivu correct dhana Tara?

Pragi asks in concern,

Yen?

Tara asks not looking up from her sketches,

Illa, maybe you should try talking to Vikram? Innum ore oru thadava?

Pragi wasn't ready yet to believe that Vikram had said he'd never developed feelings for Tara—That's all Tara told her.

But it was obvious, very obvious,very pure and intense. Everyone around could see it, clearly of how he looks at Tara like nothing else matters to him.

Could he not?

Tara sighs heavily and looks up at Pragi, with a sad smile that didn't reach her tired eyes,

Apdhi kenju'na dhan enaku love kedaikuma?

Pragi's eyes softens at Tara's words,

Apdi lam illa, Tara

Tara looks away refraining her tears.

She hates being so tired, mentally and physically.

She hates begging for love,
From a father that abandoned her,
From a mother that chose suicide over her,
From relatives that accused her luck for her faith,
From parents she felt indebted and had to listen to everything they said,
From the person she thought was the one for her, the one she finally wouldn't have to beg for.

However life has other plans, her hopes have been shattered when she realized it again, that she can never be loved without asking for it, yearning for it.

Pragi hugs Tara as she rubs Tara's back for sooth,

Nee venumna paaru, Vikram kandipa purinji paaru.

Holding back her tears, Tara stays silent,

Just give him some time.

Vidu Pragi, Vikram was never mine.

Even when her lips utter such painful words, not even a single drop of tear rolls down her eyes.

Just as it's said, Tara is strong and strong people never cry.

But strong people were also once innocent and naive. So much that Tara didn't know how she had started slipping into numbness.

>>>>———— ✨ ————<<<<

Strong isn't being free of fear, quite the opposite. Strong is feeling the anxiety in full measure, acknowledging the fear, and still making the right choices.

Vikram assumed himself to be strong, until he had to see a broken Tara.

His definition of Strong has been redefined. It's her that made him strong now and it's also her that could shatter him to pieces.

She came back into his life and filled the blankness, the void with her presence. She rekindled the feelings he thought he could never feel again and now, after shutting that sunshine away Vikram felt everything at once.

He felt the pain in her eyes,
He felt the anger at himself,
He felt the longing to run to Tara,
He felt the craving to cry to her, to let go of years and years of sorrows,
He felt the urge to take her little hands in his and slap himself with it.

Vikram sits in the darkness of his room with his fingers tangled in his hair and his elbows on his knee.

Just a few more weeks, this competition will be done and Tara will go home. She'll see her parents, start her own life and eventually she'll forget him.

She had much more in her life and Vikram will be nothing but a vague memory in it.

Instead of that, He didn't want her to be stuck with him. A miserable loser like him and be pulled down.

She deserves someone who would make her happy, not someone she needs to make happy.

All these thoughts, these insecurities, this feeling of worthlessness due to his depression that has started to show it's signs again made him frustrated.

Vikram scavanges through his luggage and finally finds his pill strips. He humourlessly chuckles at how he had forgotten it's existence for a while until he felt the need now.

Vikram pops out as much as pills he could, antidepressants, selective serotonin and more. He chugs them in a go and gulps down an entire bottle of water.

Vikram drops on the bed, facing the ceiling he sighs heavily.

After all, he's still unable to sleep because exactly two rooms away from him, he knows Tara is struggling as much as him, because of him.

>>>>———— ✨ ————<<<<

Short update written with important elements about the main characters. So please bare with this.

Many things to clarify here,

* Vikram, from the first chapter itself was revealed to be someone with critical depression. He needs medicines to even sleep or think normally. And it isn't easy thing for someone like that to love or be loved. They blame themselves for everything in their life which leads them to make more mistakes sometimes.

It takes them time to recover and realize.

* Tara is said to be someone who puts her ambition in front of everything thus she decides to cope up with her heartbreak just with that. And to be strong she thinks she should never cry and without realizing that she is slowly slipping into numbness.

I'm just afraid that you guys might get confused so I had to clarify some things from my side 😅

Do comments your views. Thank you