Heartless

38.

Mayank turned to his best friends as he bore the pain of the slap. Ranbir waited another second before questioning him yet again.

Ranbir, fed-up: 'Tell me the fucking truth, Mayank...'
Mayank: 'I already told you the truth...'

Ranbir, angrily: 'No, no you told me half of the truth. I want the second half....'

Mayank: 'I already said it...'

He was about to leave but Ranbir held him back.
Mayank, frustrated: 'I told you: I wanted Prachi and I was jealous of you. That's why I did this.'

Ranbir: 'I agree you said the truth about being jealous of me which I had no clue and about misbehaving with Prachi as well which once again I had no clue... but the stalker thing... no.'

Mayank: 'That's the truth...'

Aryan: 'That's not the truth... we did our research... You are protecting someone.'

Mayank looked at them dumbfounded while Shahana and Prachi exchanged looks. Shahana leaned towards Prachi and whispered: 'Do you have any idea of what's happening.' But the latter only nodded no.

Ranbir: 'Everything points towards you. I checked the camera of the college, well you forgot to delete one at least... the parking one. Your white car which you rarely used was there but as long as I remember, when you went to drop Param with Aryan, you were using your black car. How did you get time to change car in between?'

Mayank avoided his eyes and let the information absorb in.

Aryan: 'Ranbir has redirected all your calls to his... He got all the messages from yesterday night. So, now no more hiding... Someone else is behind this.'

Mayank: 'You guys are being delusional... I am that bad... I am that stalker...'

Prachi came to Ranbir: 'What are you trying to say?'
He began explaining to her: 'He had misbehaved with you before, but yesterday, he wasn't there. It wasn't him.'

Prachi, confused: 'Why did he confess then?'

Ranbir's eyes moved to Mayank who avoided every eye-contact. He has never seen Mayank so nervous and now was certain of everything going on.

Ranbir: 'Because there was someone else at his place...'

Mayank grew shocked on hearing him and soon turned nervous.

Shahana: 'Someone please explain us, because we are confused over here.'

Ranbir: 'There was someone at his place and that's why he said only half truth. Now, I want to know who that person is...'

Mayank relaxed knowing that Ranbir didn't see the person and went on denying everything: 'I was alone and playing video games.'

Aryan: 'A video game that we used to play when we were small. You play those whenever you are feeling helpless or something is wrong. So, say it, Mayank.'
Mayank: 'Please get out, I already said what I had to...'

Ranbir: 'Maybe we would have believed but after seeing this, I don't believe that you are the stalker.'

He took out an envelope and threw it on the table. 'I found it in one of your bedroom drawers earlier.' Ranbir continued.

'You searched my house?' Mayank questioned while Aryan opened the envelope wanting to see what it contained.

Ranbir: 'Yeah... and found out that you had booked one-way tickets to Australia. On the night of the reunion, you were leaving, Mayank... After Prachi put some sense in you, you were actually leaving. And after all of this, you want me to believe that you are the stalker... that you planned all of this... no. I am not going to believe you.'