When Stars Descend

Noor

"yes ma, everything is fine here" noor told his mum while picking out an outfit for his meeting with aarohi today. "eat properly okay and do not forget to get me a souvenir from there" she said . "okay i gotta go now, remember the meeting with the client?" he felt very guilty lying to his mum but he could not tell her he was going to meet a suspicious stranger from the internet. Aarohi was basically a stranger to him even though he felt like he knew her from her very core but something seemed off about her. There had been a hint of tiredness and helplessness when he had looked into those soft brown eyes and the angry bodyguard had raised his suspicion even more. what was she hiding? was she in some danger? noor could not stop the questions overwhelming in his mind. Well he decided to do what he always did when he was confused. Research. Aarohi tiwari was just one google search away. His heart was racing when he clicked enter on his laptop. Many Aarohi tiwaris came up but none of them were the one he was looking for. He dug deeper, researching every social media she could. And finally he found it. An article about " Aarohi tiwari's provoking book draft" there was aarohi hiding herself from the paparazzi while they chased her. He read the whole article, it was about a provocative draft Aarohi tiwari had written and it had never been published, rumours were that she had been blackmailed into not publishing it. But what was provocative about it? this was getting weirder every second. He remembered aarohi wanted to be a writer when she grew up, a famous one. Her eyes have been like a dreamy promise, when she talked about writing. Her book draft as it said on the article was about the harassment-murder case of Ruhi Chauhan. Why did aarohi write about this? the article further stated how the case had been handled carelessly and the accused had been bailed out in a month. He had no clue why Aarohi had been involved in this case, and he was not helping his confused brain by these unanswered questions. He shut the laptop and rubbed his fingers over his face. His head was forming another headache. Something in his head was saying Aarohi is bad news whom he should not mingle with but he shut it down. He got up and did not bother with his clothes anymore. He just needed answers, honest ones, if he would allow her in his life.

She texted him the address saying she could not pick him up due to work. "Work" again sounded like a lie to noor. He was waiting at a table near the window ,thinking how he will get all the answers out of her tonight. And all his thoughts drifted like a cloud when he saw her stumbling in rain, the bag over her head was not helping in keeping her head dry. She was wearing a sunflower summer dress but her sports shoes claimed she had ran 20 blocks to get here. He could see her smiling as she entered the restaurant, sighing with relief. He did not do anything but gawk at her until she noticed him. "Hi, shit i am so sorry" she said sliding into the seat in front of him. "It was just the traffic and the rain and-" she stopped talking, looking at him fully now. "I should stop with the excuses" she laughed and it was the the cutest childish laugh, he could sense she had not laughed in a very long time. "Yeah you should" he smiled. "okay so i was thinking brownie walnut?" she said looking up from the menu. "huh?" he had lost the track of the conversation. All the worry in his head were disappearing now that she was here. It must have been some silly news. media always spiced things up, Aarohi must have been a victim of it. he thought. the time has lost his sense, he wanted to believe this version of aarohi. The one in front of him. "noor? where are you?" she said. " yeah, no, i am sorry, i just-, order whatever you like the best for me too" he said, embarrassed . "okay" she said. " so when am i visiting your art gallery?" she said with her hands propped on her chin. " Art gallery? you remember?" he asked slightly amused. "obviously! that was the big plan right?" she asked curiously. "um no actually i am a businessman now" "oh." she scrunched her nose. " that sounds boring as hell". "it is so not, i really enjoy it." he did not. " passions do not put food on the table right?" he said slightly disappointed. "Spoken like a true uncle" she said drinking water from her mug. "That is so mean!" he said chuckling. "okay enough about me tell me about you now" he asked. He still wanted to know why did she write about Ruhi Chauhan. He could see the shine in her eyes dimmed a bit." what are you doing ?" he knew he was pushing it, her face had turned pale now. "i am-, um-, writing something" she said stuttering . "it is about the-, um-, education of girls in rural India !" he knew she had just made that up." i though you always wanted to write a thriller book" he said with slight amusement. He always enjoyed it when the lying person struggled to come up with more lies " yeah it changed, it has been such a long time now, i was a child back then" she said and he could swear he saw a flicker of sadness in her voice. Noor was feeling bad about it, about pushing too far, he could not bear to look at the sadness that had replaced the happy smile. To save him from the guilt, their ice cream arrived just in time. "ah fuck it, let's eat" he said, digging his spoon in his ice cream. She was still toying with hers." i have many things to tell you, noor." she sighed. " i am not the person i was 10 years back, so if you expect that bubbly teen who cared about nothing in life, you can leave. I won't mind" she was looking at him, eyes filled with sorrow and it was as though life was still telling him to run away from this mysterious person, he did not even know, to not get involved with her, but his mouth chose the words coming from his heart. " Don't be ridiculous Aarohi" he liked how her name sounded when he said it. " I am your friend okay? i am here, we can talk about anything and you can trust me." but could he trust her? he saw a small smile forming on her lips." and you can trust me" she said looking at him with relief. That's when he heard the first gunshot.