Seventeen

Chapter 9

(Suhana's)

Three days had passed and Adithi still had not woken up. Somewhere in the middle of the third day, her vitals had dropped drastically again, and all the doctors had to run in and give her some more injections, and give her cardiac shocks etc... Finally, she was stable again.

It felt really really weird actually. Because even when I was in the stomach, Adithi was always there with me. We were twins. But now the fact that maybe she won't be there anymore felt really unreal. She and I were twins. But now, if she was not there, I will no longer be a twin and this feels really bizarre...

I watched her through the ICU's door. Mom was beside her rubbing her hand. I turned to look at Ishan. He was still sitting on the bench.

I saw Arjun walking toward us. Arjun, Farhan and Jiggy come to visit in rounds...

"Hey," Arjun greeted me. I felt a bit better after seeing him. I wanted to lean on something, get comforted.

Arjun held out a paper cover to Ishan. "Here. Your clothes." He said. "Aunty sent,"

Ishan took the cover from Arjun. They still were not really talking. They avoided each other.

"Did you eat dinner?" Arjun asked me.

I nodded. I made Ishan eat something as well though he had refused.

"Can we just walk a bit?" Arjun asked.

I nodded. I felt I needed a bit of a break as well.

We walked for a while, and went up to the canteen, and got a cup of coffee each. The canteen was on the top floor. And there was an open area outside the canteen to sit and relax. We walked there... The wind was cold, but that was soothing.

"You are okay, right??" Arjun asked me.

I nodded, holding back tears.

Arjun stepped closer and took my hand in his. "She will be okay,"

"She is not waking up..." I said. "It feels really strange... To not her chatters."

"Hm.." Arjun said, "It feels really quiet in a wrong way." I saw that he was really sad as well. Tears came to my eyes. Arjun looked at me and slowly took me to a hug. I broke into tears. "Today, her vitals dropped... and all the doctors rushed in and... I thought she was dying. I was really scared." I cried.

He patted my head.

"She will be okay," he said. "She will wake up."

I sobbed into his shirt.

After a while, I calmed down and stepped away from Arjun. He waded off a strand of my hair to the back of my ears. "Do you feel better?" he asked in a loving voice. I nodded. I walked to the edge of the balcony and stood looking at the city lights.

"I am worried for Ishan," I said. "He is not even eating properly."

Arjun did not reply.

"About that..." I turned to him, "You two are still not talking to each other. Even in this situation. Don't you think you should talk to him?"

Arjun looked a bit unsure.

"What?" I asked.

"I don't think he wants to talk to me..."

"Just apologize to him and..."

"I am not going to apologize," Arjun said, firmly.

"What?" I asked.

"For what I did...that day. I don't feel it was wrong and I need to apologize. I feel sorry that because of it people missed noticing that Adithi was missing. I feel really bad about that. But...about telling Ishan to get his hands off you, I don't feel a need to be sorry for that. Because if we are in the same situation again, I will do the same again."

"Arjun?" I called. But he seemed pretty serious about that. I did not know what to feel about that. It was sort of thrilling that he hates any other guy touching me. And I could relate to it. I would hate if any other girl touches him or like him, and behave like Ishan and Jiggy behave to me. I would really hate that. But...I still wonder if Arjun was a bit too harsh in how he presented his disapproval of the situation. He literally just pushed away Ishan and Jiggy cruelly, and proclaimed his authority, even though we were all friends. And because of that, I was worried if Ishan, Jiggy and Arjun could ever be friends again.

"You are worried?" Arjun asked.

"Yeah. I think if this is not solved, our group could break..."

"Maybe it's already broken." Arjun sighed.

"Don't you care if it's broken?" I asked, angrily, "All you want is me? Is that it? You don't care if you lose your friends to get me?"

He looked indifferent.

"Arjun?" I called strictly.

"I know that things all got complicated." He said. "But...even if I had not spoken up, things would have got complicated with all three of us liking you."

"We could have handled it in a better way," I said.

"Sorry. I just could not stand it anymore." He said.

I closed and opened my eyes in frustration.

"So how are you going to fix the situation?" I asked him.

"I don't know. And I don't really want to worry over that right now. When some time pass, when things settle a bit... And honestly, in this situation, we can't decide anything. Because if..." He didn't complete it. But I understood what he wanted to say. Because if something happens to Adithi, if she dies, then our group can never reunite. If Adithi dies, I was sure Ishan was never going to see Arjun again. If Adithi dies, I was sure Arjun was going to have trouble facing Ishan or me again. If Adithi dies, even I was not sure if I can forgive Arjun who created the scene or Ishan who did not realize she was missing. If Adithi dies, our friendship and love or whatever that was left between all of us was going to shatter...

So right now... it was not the time to fix the problem between Ishan and Arjun.

We walked back, and Arjun left me in front of the ICU. He left after some minutes. I went and sat by Ishan.

"You go to the room and take a rest," I told him. "I will stay here tonight."

"No." He said. "I will stay here. You go sleep."

He was sitting here straight for three days. He was at his limits too.

"No. Go sleep." I insisted. "It's me asking you." If I can make you of my power over the boys in this situation it would be good. "Hey, you always do whatever I ask you. So this time too...Listen to me, okay."

He did not budge.

"Ishan... Please." I insisted.

No reaction.

"She is not going to wake up just because you are sitting here like this," I said. "You need rest and sleep as well. Go." I said. "Please..."

He looked at me.

"Please," I said again.

He reluctantly got up and left for the room. Good....