Becoming Sweethearts [✓]

Part Twenty Four

Gauri sat up from her sleep, startled at the sound of the phone ringing in the morning. It took her a moment to come to terms that it was Omkara’s phone that was making noise, while the man himself was fast asleep. She looked at him to see him frowning in his sleep as he patted the space around to find his phone. With his eyes still closed, he answered the call. “Mmmm” he croaked sleepily as he held the phone to his ear. Gauri smiled to herself when he heard him snore back to sleep while the other person continued to talk.

“Om!” she heard through the phone the man on the other end almost shriek. Bade Bhaiyya, she grinned as she took the phone out of a dead-asleep Omkara. “Om, where the fuck are you? Talk to me, please!” She heard the older brother’s worried sick voice. “Bade Bhaiyya, Gauri here,” she said, and after a second’s pause, heard an immediate sigh of relief on the other end. “He’s with Gauri,” Shivaay said, and she assumed he was conveying the same to Rudra and Annika. “Chalo, shukar hai!” she heard Annika’s voice in the background and smiled. Omkara may have had dysfunctional parents, but on other hand, he had siblings who would do anything for him.

“Gauri, I’ve been dropping messages since last night to him. He was quite upset when he left from here, but since he didn’t reply to any of them, I thought he needed some time to cool off! We got worried when he didn’t answer his doorbell. He didn’t even inform us he was staying at your place!” Shivaay complained out of worry.

“You’re at the apartment?” she asked, and he said, “Yes, we are standing outside his flat. He… he had us really worried about him!” Gauri felt slightly guilty that they had totally forgotten to inform Shivaay or Rudra about Omkara’s sleepover at her home. It was only natural for them to get worried about Omkara, especially after he had told her about his troublesome past. Gauri could guess what worried them all.

Clearing her throat, she said, “Bhaiyya, I’m sorry we didn’t inform you. Aage se aisa nahi hoga. Usually, he informs you, but last night he was slightly upset with whatever happened at the mansion, it must have completely slipped his mind. Aur mere dimaag mein bhi ye nahi aaya ke aapko ya Rudra ko inform karein. We’re sorry,” she said in a contrite tone, apologizing on behalf of Omkara too. In response, she heard a small chuckle, as he said, “It’s okay, bachche,” and then pausing for a moment, he asked in a softer concerned tone, “How is he? Is he… is he okay?”

Gauri smiled, looking at Omkara sleeping next to her, and absently ran her fingers over his soft hair that fell on his forehead. He was fast asleep, lightly snoring with his mouth slightly open. Smoothing his hair away from his forehead, she tucked it away behind his ear as she said, “He’s fine. He’s sleeping like a log!”

“I gathered as much; he literally snored as soon as he picked the phone!” Shivaay replied, amused. “We slept quite late, Bhaiyya. He must be still exhausted,” Gauri said, as she recalled their last night’s conversation where he told her every single painful episode about his past.

Rudra stared at the phone in Shivaay’s hand, which was on speaker mode, and then looked at his older brother and sister-in-law who looked equally shocked. “Ermm, you ‘both’ slept late?” Shivaay asked while Rudra added, “He was exhausted? Doing what?” Annika slapped Shivaay’s arm as she whispered as softly as possible, “Chodiye na Shivaay, aap dono ko kya? Yeh unn dono ke beech ki baat hai!” But Shivaay only shook his head at her, asking her to not interrupt so he could find out in detail about what exactly his brother was up to.

“Haan,” came the casual reply from Gauri, as she smiled at Omkara who was frowning in his sleep as she tickled his ear to wake him up. Omkara huffed, absently pushing her hand away in his sleep. “We were talking till late night, and then we slept really late,” she said with a grin at Omkara’s sleepy pout. “Ohh,” Shivaay and Rudra chorused as they cheekily said looking at each other, “You were talking!”