My brother's best friend

Chapter 27

There was a "rainy" wind blowing that morning. Not that scientists have discovered something like that, but that's what Preeti liked to call it, and she didn't exactly expect others to argue with her regarding that. It was one of those cool moist ones that come down through the mountain passes and "oiled" your hair and made your nerves jump and your skin itch. Anything can happen.

Anyway, so Preeti was extra careful that morning. She braided her long hair carefully, moisturizered her skin like she was about to peel it off, and refused to let her mother call her irresponsible for getting wet because she wasn't carring an umbrella. Everything was set.

Well, everything except her beloved her sister.

No, she wasn't talking about Pooja didi. For as many years as she had known her elder sister- which unfortunately could be summed up as her whole life- she had known with certainty that Pooja was suffering from an incurable disease still unknown to the mankind. So as loving sister as she knew she already was, Preeti had gladly given up on her. No point working for a lost cause.

What interested and worried her at the same time was her sister Naina, who- Preeti was sure- was suffering from heartbreak. Too bad she won't share the name of that person, because Preeti was actually quite eager to gauge out his eyes with a knife, or puncture his heart with a blade or slowly and painfully strangle him with her bare hands. Whatever is convenient. She wasn't that choosy.

The bastard absolutely deserved it for doing something so horrible to Naina, that her beloved sister won't get over it. She had looked... like hell. Worse than any other time, and Preeti had thought those times had been pretty damn bad. Like when she had broken her arm, or when Taiji had thrashed her for breaking her arm.

Simply put, she looked like a person who'd been on the run for way too long. That wasn't what was most disturbing, however. It was the pallor of her beautiful face. It was her hunched shoulders like it hurt too much to stand up straight. Even her voice had sounded wrong, hoarse and a deeper timbre than normal, a mere shadow of its customary soothness. It was the tension in the lines of her body, the pain and grief in her eyes and the bags beneath them, the unguarded anguish. Every part of her seemed raw, like a pulsing nerve, like an angry, bleeding vein.

Preeti couldn't get over it. Just seeing her sister like that, reduced to that, to a state she'd supposed Naina had somehow silently feared, but never really thought could happen.

"Hi Preeti," she turned around to see the source of the voice, only to see Rohan running towards her with a book in his hand.

She smiled heartily at him, her mood immediately brightening by a few degrees. The third year then stood in front of her, trying to get rid of his breathlessness.

"Tum apne ghar se yahaan tak bhaagkar toh nahi aaye na?" Preeti teased him, and giggled softly when he rolled his eyes.

"Nahi. Lekin main soch raha thi ki tum shayad college ka address bhool gayi ho. Kaafi dinon se aa nahi rahi thi na." Preeti smiled uncomfortably at him, and Rohan did have an inkling as to why.

"Woh bas Naina ki thodi tabiyat kharaab thi. Matlab kaafi kharaab thi. Lekin ab theek hai. Woh aayi thi ek din beech mein, but phir usse medical room jaana padd gaya. Ab thode din shayad araam karegi." Preeti lied "smoothly" but Rohan just nodded knowingly.

"Preeti kisi ne tumhein bataya hai ki tum bahut buri liar ho? Tumhari aakhen na saare raaz khol deti hai." Rohan said and grinned like Diwali had come early. But instead of blushing off like she was expected to, Preeti answered him confidently,

"Itna kya interest hai meri aakhon mein Somani ji? Dhyaan se kahi aap doob na jaaye" Rohan immediately found himself turning redder by each passing second.