A Coffee at Dawn

Chapter 34 : Tables turned!

Are you sure?' her question kept ringing in my head from the moment I drove back from the restaurant. She was too elated with the night and little was she in fret about her brother coming over to Delhi. It was not the fear that had taken over me, it was the question, the question as to why he hated me.

"Are you okay?" she asked leaning front. I smiled with a nod in reply to it.

"You know something? I am the most luckiest girl in the world," she said as she hugged me tight from behind. I was happy to have seen a smile on her face. Just a while back, she was all upset and now clearly the gloomy cloud had moved, I let out a sigh and moved ahead.

"Are you not staying back?" She asked as I did not get off the bike. I took the helmet off and gave a gentle whip to my head to settle the distorted hair. I ran my fingers to set them and I saw that her eyes were fixated onto that. I kept the helmet on the tank and placed my hands folded on it. She had that weird smile on and a little blush on the face. I snapped my fingers to catch her attention.

"Aah, yes. You should not stay here tonight maybe. You are right," there was a certain tension in her voice as she spoke. I looked into her eyes as I held her hand and pulled her close. She looked intently as she moved close. I held her by her waist and pulled her front; our foreheads collided. I tucked those ever disturbing strands of hair behind as her eyes bent trembling down. I lifted her chin up and as I moved close, she landed a peck on my lips and escaped my grip and rushed to the gate.

"I will see you tomorrow, good night," she said as she moved in hopping around. I waited till she entered the house and shut the door and left putting my helmet on. I reached Dhruv's place almost around twelve. Thankfully he was awake yet. I moved into my room and he followed behind.

"kaise raha din mere bhai" I smiled in return.

"Happiness wrapped in tension. Nice served!" he sat on the bed as he saw me fidgeting with my bag to take my tracks out.

"I have always wondered why does her brother hate me so much!" I sat on the floor as the thoughts in my head finally took the shape through words.

"Which brother would like the guy whom his sister falls for?" Dhruv asked. His question was in perfect tandem to mine.

"That, I agree. But what was the reason behind he punishing his own sister that way? She did not deserve that.

"He is coming over to Delhi tomorrow, he has no clue I am here, no clue that we have got back together. He sees me and the first thing he would do is shoot me down, " I gasped sitting down.

"Things will be fine. All the questions you have, will be answered by him. For now take some rest. You have a long day tomorrow. With a face like this, I doubt you would make any impression on her brother. Trust me!" I raised my brow as he had a sly smile on.

The next morning I had to be at the national school of drama by eleven. I got up late and had no time. I rushed to the place and went directly to the auditorium. There were few mock events given to us to see how we would go about them. With all the thoughts in my head, I barely cleared the round and I sat aside looking at the others taking part.

"Hello," I spoke as I answered an unknown number.

"Mithu" came an alarming voice out of the speakers that forced me to push the phone away from my ears.

"Aarti! Please relax, I wonder if my eardrum is intact," she giggled.

"I think you would shout too, maybe with an octave even higher, if you listen to the news I have," I was nervous, I was only being cynical.

"Don't you want to hear me out?" I could sense her jumping just by hearing her squeaky voice.

"Okay okay. Calm down. Tell me what is it," I sat comforting myself on the chair.