~ Always Besides You ~

28. Friend or Foe?

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"GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME, ELSE!"

"Else, what?" Sanskar roared agitated.

"You better spill out things!" Laksh warned further tightening his hold making Madhu close his eyes to control his rising anger. The air around them was getting thicker.

"Look, whoever you're..." Sanskar's words trailed off as they were interrupted with a different ringtone. "Somebody's phone is ringing."

And it didn't take time for Madhu to push Laksh away from him and fetch a smart phone from his pocket in addition to the phone he already had in his hands; which made Sanskar furious and the brothers charged on.

"The bl**dy hell!" Madhu yelled as the phone broke into mere pieces and he was pushed onto the wall again.

"Laksh! Sanskar!" Swara rushed towards them as the commotion grabbed the attention of the sisters; others except them were off to temple.

"Laksh, what are you even doing? Leave Madhu!" She tried to pull apart them horrified at the sight ahead her. But the brothers were too strong to be budged by her. "I SAID JUST LEAVE HIM!" She shrieked in anger. "ELSE IT WON'T END ON A GOOD NOTE, MIND IT!"

And the brothers froze! "You know him?" They couldn't help but voice their thoughts together.

•~•×✿ו~•

"You gotta be kidding us, right!" Laksh asked exasperated while Sanskar waited for the silence to end.

Swara was standing in RagSan's room leaning the wall with her head hung while Ragini was sitting on their bed with legs crossed, a pillow on her lap on which she rested her elbows, her fingers crossing each other between her nose and lips; her red eyes blinking constantly as various expressions flashed across her face showing evidently the thousands of calculations running inside her mind.

Madhu occupied another corner, not far from the couples, his fake moustache taken off giving the clear view of the fellow in mid-twenties.

"Swara, will you just open your mouth for God's sake?" Laksh was literally losing his patience seeing a lip-zipped Swara and Madhu. "We had enough of your silence!"

Ragini closed her eyes in irritation, her face grim, as she felt the start of a splitting headache. She fisted her left palm, pressing her forehead lightly which turned into slight bangs on her forehead.

"Ragz/Ragu/Ragini..." But she raised her right palm stopping everyone at their places and drew the hand to massage her forehead.

"THIS IS NOT REALLY HAPPENING, RIGHT!" Swara flinched at Ragini's tone as her eyes teared up. "SERIOUSLY!!!"

"Exactly! Care to explain, Swara? Don't tell me that you had your share of 'villaingiri' along with this, Madhu or God-knows-who. We had been holding on to our insanity not expecting this and now; are fed up with being clowns here! How much more will you keep us in dark?"

"IN DARK?" Ragini couldn't lessen her outrage as she spat to Laksh cutting him between. "IT WOULD BE BETTER IF WE TALK OUT THIS A LITTLE LATER, LAKSH MAHESWARI OR ELSE, I MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO CENSOR THE WORDS I WOULD SAY; AND TRUST ME, YOU WON'T FEEL HAPPY LISTENING TO ME."

It would be an understatement to say that Laksh was surprised; he was bewildered at Ragini's outrage towards him! Wasn't he also trying to get a clue about the things? He didn't intend to burden anyone with accusations but the silence was making him go crazy, as usual.

Swara's revelation that she knew Madhu hadn't gone well with Ragini. In fact, two vases and glass were broken; Swara was restricted from uttering a syllable from the past half an hour, and Ragini's wrath was clearly evident in her face and glares.