|| With You || A MaNan Collection Of Short Stories

|| In Plain Sight (4) ||

Dedicated to MahiKSaha16
I hope you like the surprise 😉

“

So I just wanted to ask if maybe you too have started feeling the same about me, in the past few months…”,

The climax of my story may have arrived now but it didn't start here. It started way back in school, when a certain brown curly headed, almost petite framed girl walked in my house claiming to be my sister's new best friend.

Lavi had had many girls coming over, and I had to receive many of those and entertain them for sometime but this one was different. She knocked my breath out the minute I saw her.

Is there something called love at first sight? I don't know. But if I had to name what happened to me, I'll use this exact phrase. Love at first sight.

She said her name was Nandini Murthy and since then, every time that name is taken, my heart picks up pace. Even if it was not love at first sight, I grew up to love that little confident smart minx.

But guess what, every time she opened her mouth to talk to me an irritating almost choking suffice followed. The name ‘Manik’ rolled off her tongue covered in velvet while that ‘Bhai’ that followed made me want to hang myself.

My insides screamed at me everytime I responded to her calling me that. I don't want to be her bhaiya. I tried for a few months after that, trying to get her to look at me as something more than Lavi's elder brother, but she was a stubborn girl.
It was always bhaiya this bhaiya that.

The very first time she came to me with a ‘un-bhaiya’ like request was when I was in class 12th and she in 9th, almost a year after I met her. One jerk was troubling her and that was an incentive enough to unleash my protective side.

I had to restrain myself from beating that jerk up in front of Nandini. I didn't want her to know me as a physically violent fellow, so I let him go with a warning. But he was taken care of after Nandini was out of sight. Let's just say he knew who not to mess up with.

Since then, I've made sure every asshole stays miles away from her for the rest of the three years she was in school. Above that, Lavi still relayed all the information, and it was through her that I came to know something was wrong.

I was just bringing Lavi her dinner when I heard her say “Oh Nandu baby ofcourse you have hope. You look beautiful”, and like I said when someone says her name my alert mode switches on.

As much as I hated spying on my little sister, I can't deny it provided me useful information. Some ‘asshole’ has done something and I was just waiting to find out that name and be his Devil in disguise tomorrow.

“Besides if that jerk troubles you anymore, or that bitch, we can get Manik Bhai to scare them off”, You should have seen the smile on my face when I realised Nandini still remembered what I did for her. And it was 4 years ago.

“Dudeeee tere saamne saiyyan ji hai aur tune unhe bhaiya banake rakha hai”, it won't be an exaggeration to say that my heart jumped right out. Could it finally be happening? At this point of time, I just want Nandini to at least look at me with a gaze other than that of inspiration and brotherhood.

If this was a ray of hope what happened after it was a major turn off. Lavi and Kishi did their best to convince Nandini and she countered every statement. And denial after denial finally came the acceptance. “Okay I admit. He does make my heart go beep beep...sometimes”.

I was on cloud nine and nothing could bring me back to Earth. I've been going around her like a fool for years thinking she doesn't reciprocate my feelings, and here she was admitting I make her heart beat faster.