Forget-Me-Not : Bound by Secrets

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

With a pounding heart, Ananya rushed into the lobby of the Lilavati hospital, logging in her name as a visitor and barely waiting for the nurse to give her directions-Dia was already waiting near the lift for her. As soon as she saw her friend, she broke into a worried frown.

"What the hell happened?" Ananya demanded, "Is she going to be okay?"

"Easy there," Dia muttered. She looked haggard-Ananya had no idea why that was so. "Apparently, our dear little friend hadn't been eating properly. It seems like she went without food for days. She got dehydrated, and ended up weak and almost fainting on her couch, when I rang the doorbell at her place. Luckily, she managed to open the door before she passed out, or she would have been in her living room, undiscovered for god knows how long."

There was frustration and concern in her friend's voice, and Ananya immediately felt the same way.

"Oh god," she breathed, still unable to recover from the fact that Geet was hospitalized. "The idiot. Where is she? Is she conscious now?"

"Yes, she's conscious. Vidhi is sitting with her. I came to get you. I thought maybe you'd be busy, but I had to call. And..." she stopped suddenly when her eyes fell behind her shoulder, and she spotted Abhay walking towards them with what looked like a genuinely serious expression.

"What is he doing here?" Dia hissed immediately through clenched teeth. It wasn't hard for Ananya to guess how much she was angry then. She let out a long breath, willing herself to be patient.

"I want to see Geet. Now," Ananya said, cutting her off and leaving no room for further discussion. Dia glowered at Abhay, ignoring him almost rudely, and pressed the button for the lift. As she turned her back, Ananya turned to Abhay to fill him in.

When she'd told him what had happened, she saw how he expressed his emotions. And they were anything but fake. Abhay seemed genuinely concerned about what was going on. And even though they didn't know each other much, even though he wasn't even her friend, he declined the offer to leave, and said he'd wait outside until they all saw Geet and made sure she was fine. Ananya found herself smiling, for once, grateful. She murmured a low thanks, which he acknowledged with a nod.

During the exchange, Dia stood behind the two of them, sulking, and wondered if there was any way she could prevent Abhay from entering their lives. From the moment she'd met him, he'd been causing trouble. Sure, Geet's dehydration was none of his fault, but she couldn't help feeling defensive every time he was around. She didn't like outsiders getting to know about their personal stuff-especially stuff that was between the four of them. And the fact that Geet was weak after her erratic dieting was the last thing she wanted Abhay to know. She didn't trust him. She didn't trust anyone at the first time, but with Abhay she was sure it was a permanent thing.

When they reached the second floor, they got out. Geet's room was in the far left corner-a medium sized cubicle with minimum furniture and the typical hospital atmosphere that surrounded any room in there. Vidhi was sitting beside her bed on a stool-they could see her from the small glass window. Dia and Ananya exchanged glances, and nodded at each other. There were questions that Ananya wanted to ask, but they could wait. Right now, she just wanted to make sure that her friend was okay.

Abhay lingered behind while they went in, and Vidhi and Geet looked up when the door closed after them.

For a moment, everyone was silent.

Then Ananya put on her haughtiest expression and said, "If you were trying to kill yourself, you should at least have chosen a method that would have given you immediate results, Geet."