Lost | ✓

Chapter 27. Bullying

🎶 Hum Tum - Ali Zafar

Published on 25.07.2022

| AUTHOR'S POV |

The knock on the door startles Ayansh and he walks towards it to open it. A cheerful Sarya with a tray holding two mugs of coffee greets him.

"May I enter?" She raises the tray.

"You don't need to ask." Ayansh chuckles and steps aside to let her in.

Inaaya pulls at the sleeves of his hoodie that she has been wearing and gives Sarya an uneasy smile which she returns with an extra friendly one. She mouths a 'thank you' when Sarya hands her the mug and then goes over to Ayansh.

"I'm really sorry Inaaya because I know this pretty face wouldn't have asked you anything." Sarya says, slapping the back of Ayansh's head playfully and he grimaces at the realisation.

"It's alright. We actually had snacks, didn't we?" Inaaya looks at Ayansh and arches a brow at him.

"Yeah?" He turns his face at Sarya and nods. "Yeah. We— we had nachos. Really crispy." He fake grins, his emotions still scattered all over the place.

Sarya's gaze switches between them sceptically. "Okay then. I'll leave you two. Ayansh," she addresses him, "we'll leave for the party in half an hour." She shoots a last smile at Inaaya and strolls away.

Inaaya sits on the couch with the mug in her hand. "Don't want to be anywhere near you. What if I end up spilling the coffee again?" She says playfully, eyes wide and looking at him adorably before a smile breaks on her face.

Ayansh's lips curved the slightest but he didn't say anything. He simply stared at her because if his thoughts right now were the raging waves then she was the shore they were trying to reach. He watched her blowing softly over the beverage, both her hands holding the mug, her eyes narrowed into slits, her legs crossed and she looked so tiny in that oversized hoodie engulfing her. He knew she felt her stare when her hands flexed and she stilled for a miniscule moment but she didn't rebuke or say anything to him. She continued her movement and he continued his staring.

"If there's something, anything that you want to say, you can." She tells him when the silence in the room starts bothering her yet her voice was somehow comforting amidst the tangible tension.

"And you'll listen to me?" He asks, his voice coming out as somewhat condescending which confuses Inaaya.

Inaaya looks up and instead, smiles. "I would love to listen to you. But it's fine if you don't want to say. And it's fine if you want."

She goes back to her coffee, leaving him in a dilemma. What did he even want to say? He didn't know. He didn't know how should he word out the thoughts that made his heart pound in his chest, the feelings that frightened him, threatened him. He didn't understand them. But she was here to listen to him, to anything he said. It was strangely inviting, tempting. Because he never had anyone who would simply be there to listen to him, ask him if there's something he needs to talk about and moreover someone who gives him the choice, the freedom where he can actually think about himself, put himself above anyone else. She would be there if he wanted to say something, she would be there if he didn't. The bottom point was she would be there and he didn't know how much he needed that until he got exactly that.

A brief memory flashes in his brain, making him remember the innumerable lonesome moments when he had no one. An elder brother who he couldn't count on, parents who always found him at fault and friends, well, he never had any friends to begin with until he met Neha, Kabir and Dhruv.