Hustle For Love |COMPLETE| MaNan Fiction

16. The One Where She Shone Like A Star

A/N : Okay, amidst a lot of real life hardships,  figured my only bit of solace lies in writing, hence after almost deciding to take a break, I decided to go ahead with the story anyway. 

Hope you enjoy this!

Happy Reading,

A.

***

S.P.A.C.E. Academy, New York circa 2012

(Nandini's accommodation, S.P.A.C.E. Residency)

Manik Malhotra

I stirred in my sleep, I hadn't slept so deeply in a long time. There was something familiar about the fragrance on my pillow, I liked it. It soothed my senses, I clutched it tighter as I went back to sleeping some more.

I was woken again, this time by hushed whispers. A girl and a guy. Wait, both sound familiar. The guy was definitely Cabir, and the girl? Sh*t, it was Nandu. Aah the fragrance on my pillow, it was Nandini's perfume. Wait what the f*ck, where was I? I slowly opened my eyes, I wasn't sure I wanted either of them to know I am awake yet. I wanted to hear their conversation. I was miraculously in Nandu's dorm bedroom! In fact I was on her bed! Were we? Ahem. Sh*t my head felt heavy. I was so hungover. I remember drinking all day with Cabir. Damn you, Cabira!

"Cabir, you didn't need to explain all this. I don't care. Just take him with you" Nandini sounded exasperated. It pinched me, even though I had no context to their conversation.

"Really Nandini, you didn't care? Why'd you keep him with you all night?" I heard Cabir giving it back to her. That's my boy. Wait, Nandini wanted me to be with her all night? A goofy smile was about to spread up my lips, I hurriedly controlled it. I was pretending to be sleeping! Focus, Manik!

"Cabir Dhawan, not that I owe you an answer, but I was afraid if I let both Arya and Manik out of my sight last night, one would eventually kill the other - and I hate violence." she replied back in vexation.

Liar. I hate violence. You should see her binging on GoT episodes back to back with a strange, creepy maniacal smile on her face! Although she still managed to look cute, but well, creepy too!

"Fair point. But you could have called me last night to take him back, I would have ensured they both are alive!" Cabir pointed out again. That dude was on fire. Cabira, I owe you one, big time!

"Again, not that I owe you any explanation, but to make sure you don't stay in any illusion; I was going to call you last night, but his phone had died. I charged his phone at night and in the morning, used Manik's thumb imprint to unlock it and call you. Before you ask why I didn't call you after the phone had enough charge to be switched on, last night itself - well Cabir, I had dozed off by then" she finished coldly.

Wow, Nandu had really prepped up for this little speech, I gulped down another laugh. Only one small glitch. I have two phones, and Nandu knows it, oh and she knows my pass key too! She wanted me here. Period. I wasn't going to let any excuse of hers dampen my happy spirit now!

"Fine, if you've done so much already, do us one last favour Nandini, keep him till he's asleep. Let me go home and clean up his place - I will come back in a couple of hours to get him. Don't let him wander out alone - the cut looks bad, you don't want AK barging on him again, right?" Cabir said this with a nonchalant voice, but I could easily picture the mischievous twinkle in his eyes. Cabira, you are my soul-mate. I owe you my everything! Thank you for giving me some awake & alone Nandu time!

"Ugh. Fine" she said after a while.

I lay there for a while, contemplating what my next action would be. Judge me, all you want, but I just wanted to elongate our time together by whatever margin I could. Cabir was due in a couple of hours, I couldn't pretend to sleep all the while; had to make our time count, right? Would waking up right now seem to fake? Well maybe in another half an hour? Yeah, that seemed like a good plan.