FORNEVER | ✓

CHAPTER 27 - CLOSER

HIM

"Here," I said, handing Rudra a cup of coffee as he straightened himself in his bed. He nodded, which seemed to have become our signature way of saying thanks to one another.

"Get up and get ready. We are going home." I said, taking a sip from my mug.

"But I can't stay there." He circled his shoulders and cracked his neck.

"Hm. Point." I said now wondering what we do with him.

"Don't worry about me. I have an ongoing project so I'll work on it from here," he said, getting out of the bed.

"Would you be able to manage? Alone?" I asked, leaning against the door frame.

"I actually could use some alone time. If I were being honest." He unplugged his phone and put it on his ear.

"Where do these brother-sisters get their coping mechanisms from?" I wondered as I almost spit out my coffee listening to a familiar name.

"Arjun, tell her I am on my way if she decides to act like a child. And frankly, I don't have the time or energy...oh hi...no...no I didn't mean it...I am sorry...I take that back...accha listen..." he walked out the room, shutting the glass doors of the balcony behind him. I stood there contemplating who this Arjun could be before getting startled by Aditya's hand on my shoulder.

"It's not good manners to try to listen in on people's conversations..." He whispered in my ear, making me glare from the corner of my eye.

"I am not trying to listen in," I said.

"Then why are you looking at him like he could be the answer to all your problems?" He placed his hands on his waist and I turned to leave the room.

"Maybe because he could be, I mean I just heard him talking to some Arjun," I answered, shrugging my shoulders.

"Suhaana's Arjun?" Aditya bit his tongue as soon as the words escaped his mouth, making me ball my fist at him and hit him right across his face.

"Oh, I am sorry...Ow! I said I am sorry." He requested of me to leave him as I pushed him away, making me hit the door frame instead.

***

I unlocked the door expecting everyone to be up and ready for their day, which wasn't really the case as I stepped into the hall, taking glances across the unusually messy hall, and a curled-up Suhaana passed out on the couch, hugging her laptop. I smiled listening to her soft snores as I looked around for traces of my sisters.

"Shit..." I said taking a hold of the couch as my foot rolled across a glass bottle.

"Interesting," I mumbled, realizing it was an empty wine bottle.

"Looks like these people have bonded really well over the last night."

"Hmm...they have." I looked to my left as she rubbed her eyes like a little child, who had been awakened.

"I didn't expect you to be listening in." I shifted my weight as I eyed her jokingly.

"I wouldn't have, but you said it out loud, on the top of my head." She murmured, hovering the blanket over her before covering herself with it from head to toe.

"Is Anna not going to be here?" She asked, settling in before looking around for her laptop.

"No. He said he wants some time alone." She opened her laptop without answering me as if she had expected just that from him.