MaNan FF: Falling For The Detached One

Chapter 6: The first proper conversation.

"Tum? What're you doing here?" He kept marching towards me and I kept flinching. At a particular point, I couldn't go behind thanks to the wall and I was stuck. His slow steps seemed to keep reducing the gap between the two of us and his breath was literally falling on my face.

My heart beats accelerated. He had managed to create some kind of a different bond with my hormones and each time in his presence they would start behaving differently.

"Why did you cry?" He asked.

"None of your business." I said, trying to avoid eye contact with him..

"Woah ! That was pretty impressive given the fact that I looked out for you , leaving my band back at the music room."

I cringed. Ek toh I wanted to avoid this person and all he did was came back to me for god knows what ? I didn't invite him here. He came on his own to the washroom, LADIES WASHROOM !

"One minute !" I exclaimed. "What're you doing inside the ladies washroom?"

Manik sighed as if it was the dumbest question I had asked and moved a little backwards. I seized the opportunity and ran upto the door for unbolting it. Too bad. It was way too high.

"Nandini !" His deep voice made me shiver and I anxiously looked at him. But, he took my name. For the first time he took my name and all of a sudden I felt that my name hadn't sounded better before. Just like....

"You still haven't answered my question."

"I already said that its none of your business !" Somehow I didn't like the fact that he came back all the way to check on me and know why I was in tears. He shouldn't have been a person to care about that anyhow and in my opinion he still deserved empathy .No one had asked him to come to me this way, so impulsively. He seemed to be super preoccupied since the time I had met him so he should have focused towards that and not my issues in the first place !

"Wait. So you're telling me that me making a complete stranger cry is none of my business ?" He asked me , in a way answering his own questioning.

But wait I'm no stranger ! I didn't quite like it when he said that. I was atleast an acquaintance.

I glared at him.

Manik:

I was contradicting myself. She was right. She had been a complete stranger to me, and I had nothing to do with her so called important reason to be in tears. She could cry, laugh, wail , sing , dance and I couldn't care less. It shouldn't have been any of my concern.

But she cried after talking to you ! My mind yelled.

He doesn't care ! My ego burst in. Of course I didn't, but I still didn't like it when I saw her cry. She deserved a sorry at least.

No. My ego stopped me. You cant say sorry to someone you barely know. You DON'T SAY SORRY TO ANYONE .

In between this tug of war that was going on inside my head, I failed to notice that she was scrutinising me, or at least trying to. I narrowed my eyes at her, and that's when she was taken aback. Her eyes were so pretty, I don't know why she always used them to glare at me. They looked prettier otherwise. Chocolate brown, doe shaped eyes having a little kajal smudged over at the ends. Her face more or less had some traces of water and I gauged that she had actually washed her face with cold water. Okay, wait. What was I thinking ? No Manik. Stop. I reminded myself.

"I can't sing on the stage in front of everyone." She said a few seconds after an awkward silence filled the washroom. "It pinches me hard."

"Why?" I involuntarily asked.

"Some memories.. They just..come running back to me...." I saw her face growing a little pale. Where was that intrigued Nandini face which looked confused always ? This pale face didn't suit her. The corner of her eyes was still a pretty unclean and I couldn't hold myself back. Ego curled itself up in a corner and I found myself taking slow steps towards her.

When I touched her face, a myriad of emotions crossed me. A wave of something different altogether. Her skin was so soft, and in turn pretty delicate and then there was her face which was little cold due to the water. I took care not to hurt her eyes with my fingers and brushed my thumb as gently as I could on the area which had her smudged kajal over. I followed the same suit with her other eye and she didn't budge. She seemed as intrigued as ever, but didn't protest. Perhaps she was as involved as I was but then from somewhere my ego jumped in and asked me to stop this. I still didn't know her but within a matter of few seconds something had compelled me to restore the beauty of her face back. The smudged kajal wasn't made for her perfect face, just like those tears and that confusion. But now, with little involvement from my side, it looked perfect.

"I'm sorry." I muttered helplessly. Sorry for both. I didn't know what memories she was talking about previously and for the thing I had done a couple of seconds back. I had literally entered into the pool of embarrassment. But then I realized the seriousness of the situation and it took me a moment to come back to reality that I hardly said sorry to anyone.

I shouldn't have said that.

No.

Manik Malhotra doesn't apologize to random strangers.

What was wrong with me ?

This girl was absolutely no one to me.

My brain chided me real bad. And she ? She looked at me as if I had asked her something personal . No, this was embarrassing. I quickly walked over towards her and unbolted the washroom door from inside, and before she could question me, I walked out from the place. I wasn't answerable to anyone, let alone her for my deeds.

My friends were going to question me. I owed them an explanation, but I myself didn't know what I was going to say. Argh. I felt messed up.