CRASH

CHAPTER ELEVEN(1)

CHAPTER ELEVEN(1)

❝ Maybe I should have backed away. ❞

C H A P T E R      E L E V E N

T H R E E   D A Y S  L A T E R

ADHIRA COULDN'T STOP laughing. Dr. Kapoor's shift had ended a few hours ago and being the ever so good-natured man, he had decided to tell Adhira the worst jokes possible. He sat beside her bed, in his clean scrubs- slightly ruffled hair. Adhira wasn't laughing because his jokes were funny, she was laughing because Dr. Kapoor thought his jokes were out of the world.

He made an extravagant gesture- stretching his arms far to his sides as he pulled in the air for the next terrible joke. Adhira shook her head- he was hopeless.

The operation had been successful. Dr. Chen and his team had treated Adhira back to health. She sat in her room, the curtains parted- letting in the early morning sunlight. There was a rosy flush in her cheeks. She couldn't remember the last time had laughed this hard. For a moment, it felt good to forget all her worries and troubles.

Just for this moment.

Outside her room, Rudra leaned against the doorway, hidden from her sight- watching Raj make his ex-girlfriend laugh. He had forgotten how to make laugh her like that- that freely, that lively. She looked beautiful as long strands hair bounced off her shoulders, her lips lifted in a bright smile.

No longer in his scrubs, Rudra wore some black trousers and a fitted black tunic. He had been visiting Adhira every day- watching her from afar. Never daring to set foot near in her room. He wasn't allowed to. After the way Adhira had reacted to his presence, Dr. Chen had advised him to stay away from her- for her own mental health. Dr. Chen didn't want any kind of emotional pressure affecting her recovery.

Suddenly, Adhira started coughing- half in tears, half still laughing. "I'm okay..." She spoke in between laugh and coughs.

Rudra was about to run to her- but he didn't need to. Raj was already patting her back and handing her a glass of water.

"Maybe you should rest for the day," Raj responded when her coughing fit ceased. "It's not good to exert yourself so much, so soon."

Rudra watched as Raj set the empty glass on the bedside table. He was ready to leave her- if it hadn't been for Adhira's hand holding onto his. She carefully entwined her fingers with Raj's, smiling brightly at him. "No, Dr. Kapoor- you should stay."

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[ S I X    Y E A R S Prior]

RUDRA SCREAMED. HE COULDN'T disappoint his parents. He screamed on top of his lungs. The empty apartment stared helplessly back at him. He hadn't spoken to her in three days and he was beginning to lose his mind. What kind of love was this- where he couldn't spend a minute without thinking about her? What kind of love was this where his mind was enchanted by her breath-halting smile?

What kind of love was this where his heart was screaming at the thought of her crying?

He pushed the glass center table in the living room- the glass shattered into million pieces across the lavish living room. The disappointed eyes of his parents filled his vision. He could already imagine what they would say- the conversation was clear as day in his mind.

"Rudra...." His mother's gentle eyes filled his vision- they were tired and exhausted from the day's work. "We slaved half our lives away so you could have an education, a future. And you do this"

"A Punjabi girl out of all the people." His father would say. "Do you know how uncultured those people are?

His mother would bring out her phone and scroll through the Facebook newsfeed. "See." She would dangle the phone-screen in front of his face. "New Jersey is filled with beautiful Gujarati girls. Why couldn't you have a picked some other nice chokri(girl)?"

But how was Rudra supposed to explain? That no-one made his heartbeat like she did. He couldn't sit still when she walked into the room- his breaths started racing away, his eyes saw red- she was light.

And the best part of it all was that this light also loved him. Rudra had never felt so lucky in his life. So incredibly lucky. The way she knew what he was feeling without words, the way she could pick the hidden meaning behind his smile, the way she laughed at his lame jokes.

Rudra couldn't explain any of it.

Sorry for the short snippet of chapter eleven. Dedicated to cutealisha599  Because she's a great human being and you guys should totally check her out. 

I wasn't planning on updating so soon but HOLY, CRASH is #168 in Romance. <3