In His Custody ✎ (MaNan)

✰ 27 - a flame of forgiveness

Even if one reader has made it this far, huge thank you for having faith in me <3 

Your support means a lot, trust me. 

⭒

Manik

On the brink of the patio just beside the sliding door, each band member had a glass in our hands, and Abhi joined as we stood in a semi-circle with crossed arms, having bombarded him with several questions. Cabir was at the centre of it, sitting with a leg criss-crossed and another knee upright. His arm lazily hung on it while a hand gripped a cold glass lightly coated with liquor at the base.

"It's nothing like that, you guys..." He masked all his emotions behind a chuckle and rested his head on the wall.

Abhimanyu, having brought his bike and hence was not drinking with us, borrowed my glass. For a second I thought he was going to swing the alcohol in our friend's face, but he merely took a small sip and replaced the cup in my hand.

Behind Cabir's plastered smile, I saw a flicker of devastation that mirrored mine. Only in much larger of a magnitude, as if sucking the will out of his entire existence. A subdued fire in me reignited from an instinctive blazing fear. I could no longer protect him from the cause of his sorrow, for its all-consuming power had claimed me too... on some levels.

I placed the icy glass over my temple, the coolness of it soothing my racing thoughts to some degree. He and I had similar backstories, and despite Cabir being a lot more jovial than me, at the heart of it, he and I aligned on a lot of opinions. And to see him in such despair felt like a wake-up call. I had to see her.

Mukti tapped her foot, her voice drawing me back to the current happenings, "I shouldn't be saying this but Harshad is right, music has been so important to all of us... without a reason, there's nothing that could take it away from us, tell us what the matter is." She prompted, and my throat constricted at the tone as if addressed to me. Cabir made space for someone in his life, that was for sure, but to what extent... and how much had it destroyed him?

Cabir twitched his lips, eyeing the girls who had an arm around each other. "Trust me, it's nothing... kuch nahi hai... we're in that zone na, of composing romantic music, toh I can't help but think about how single I am!" He passed a fleeting look to the rest of us and looked at the nearly empty glass in his hands as if he wasn't even convinced by his own answer.

Where could Nandini be if I had gone looking for her? Had she perhaps still been in the basement with the rest of her group? Smiling? Laughing? Did being around them make her... happy?

"Bro, look around... Alia, Dhruv, I, Manik... who isn't single?" From the corner of my eye, I noticed Mukti seeking my direction but I had been too lost to catch it. Mindlessly, I turned towards the sliding door and gazed through the glass into the distance. "We'll do one thing, let's all chill for a little bit, and then you guys can get back to practice, how does that sound?"

The girls' voices snapped my attention to the group. Dhruv grabbed Cabir's glass and said, "I'll bring more." As Dhruv disappeared through the door, I couldn't help but look again in that direction after which Abhimanyu's arm linked around my shoulder. I gulped and gave him a soft guilty smile.

"You want to see Navya, right? Go... go, I'll take care of it," He urged as I was about to retort, and decided it was not the right time to begin explaining anything. I needed to see Nandini.