Humesha- An Accidental Love Story

28. Alia's Fear

While Manik was busy ignoring Mukti and Alia, both the girls were trying their hardest to make amends with him. Mukti had somehow understood she was wrong but she was yet to understand her exact mistake and Alia on the other hand still had conflicted thoughts swirling in her head.

After Manik had left the jam room, Alia walked away too with Dhruv following her after signaling Cabir who nodded at him as if they were on some plan which was to begun that very instance. Mukti just sighed and settled herself on the floor, leaning against a wall looking tired who was accompanied by Cabir.

"So want to talk?" Cabir asked, looking at nowhere in particular. Mukti glanced at him once and then sucked in a breath before she started speaking.

"I don't know what is happening Cabir. Fab 5 doesn't seem the same anymore. Manik ek hafte se mujhe aur Alia ko ignore kar raha hai, Dhruv aajkal bohot awkward behave karta hai aur tune bhi apni joker giri band kardi hai" she chuckled dryly at the end, taking a pause and continued.

"Its like hum saath toh hai but it's more of a formality and I don't like it Cabir"

"I understand Mukti but ek baar soch na ki why is Manik behaving like that? Why are we all behaving like that?"

"Maine socha hai Cabir and I know Manik is upset that we hid about that prank we did on Nandini that day due to which she landed in the hospital from fab 5 and broke our no secrets pact and also because it could have landed us as well as Nandini in so much trouble if something might have went wrong. I understand we were at fault Cabir but our intentions never meant harm" Mukti explained helplessly and Cabir nodded. He was slightly happy to know that Mukti had somewhere realised her fault but he wasn't so sure about Alia.

After Alia had walked out of the jamroom, Dhruv had followed her behind. He knew Alia needed someone to talk to and also someone who could possibly make her understand where she went wrong and Dhruv was determined to do that for her.

Alia had walked off to the farthest corner of Space, near the old garden where couples generally hanged out to do their mushy stuff or people visited there to spend some alone time and Alia was there for the latter. She was disturbed, she didn't know if whatever she was doing or had been doing made any sense. Her friends, especially Manik had stopped behaving normally around her, Dhruv always remained confused, it felt like he was forced to choose sides, Cabir was neutral and Mukti was engrossed in her own world and hence Alia had no one to talk to. She was frustrated or maybe just anxious with this sudden change in her life and she didn't know what to do about it. The past week had been very chaotic for her even though she was met with silences from all sides. She sighed to herself when she felt a presence next to her. She looked next to her and rolled her eyes.

"What do you want bhai?" She asked, a little pissed at Harshad's presence.

"Here, I got this for you" Instead of replying to her question, Harshad offered her, her favourite low carb chocolates. Alia rolled her eyes again but anyways accepted them making Harshad smile.

"So what's bothering you this time?" Harshad finally asked after Alia was done eating her first chocolate and was about to open the second one. She still for a moment and then continued opening the chocolate wrapper, avoiding looking at Harshad.

"Its nothing bhai"

"Don't lie to me Alia. I have known you since you were born isliye main janta hu how exactly do you react when you are upset or something is bothering you. Bachpan me bhi tum humesha aise hi ek shaant corner me jaake baith jaati thi away from anyone whence you were disturbed due to something and it has still not changed. Also you eat more sweets, preferably your favourite chocolates when you are stressed which you are doing right now so out with it. I am your brother Alia and you should know I'll always be there to listen to you because I love you"