Now and Forever

15. Overdose

Nandini had been barely hanging in the presence of Manik with the help of her substitute tablets but now that all her tablets had been confiscated she didn't know what to do. She had been so used to relying on her high dose tablets that the normal doses seemed to have no effect on her, not even when she had chugged down three tablets in one glass of water which wasn't exactly considered a good thing to do and now she had been regretting it as the tablets effect had started kicking in. Her head felt heavy and she couldn't get a grasp of what was going around. She felt as though the world was spinning and she was spinning along with it.

"Nanz!" Someone's hazy voice reached Nandini's ears and that made her a bit alert. "Nanz! Nandini! Are you okay?" The voice sounded more clear and the feeling of being lightly patted on her cheeks slowly started kicking into her system. Simultaneously her blurry vision cleared too. She noticed three things in quick succession as soon as she got back to her senses. One, her head still hurt. Two, she vaguely remembered how she had teleported to her apartment before the office time was even over and three, her flat mate concern filled gaze which were piercing holes into her head. "Aisha. Wh-What are you doing here? I thought you weren't coming back today?" Nandini pressed her head lightly as she slightly pushed Aisha away to create some distance.

"Yeah that was the plan but the flight got cancelled because of the heavy rainfall."

"Rainfall!" Nandini cut a glance towards the window and indeed it had been raining heavily. "When did it start raining?"

"Approximately three hours ago. Seriously, Nandini are you okay?" she simultaneously touched Nandini's forehead and cheeks. "It's not fever. Are you hurt? Do you feel nauseous? Do you-"

"I am fine." Nandini interjected, placing a hand on either side of Aisha's shoulder. "I am really fine. I was just sleeping."

"Were you?"

"Yes." Nandini assured. "You should go change. You'll catch cold otherwise."

"Urghh, yeah I should." Aisha got up from the floor as she loosened her scarf and took off her blazer. "The weather forecast sucks mahn. Today should have been a sunny day according to the weather forecast but it just suddenly started raining so heavily. On top of that-" she placed her wet blazer into the washing basket. "there was an accident. Someone rammed their car into an electric pole and the whole road was blocked."

"In short it's been a shitty day." Nandini added.

"Exactly." Aisha slowly pulled off the bobby pins from her hair as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. "But the good thing is that the rain started pouring down an hour ahead from the boarding time. Seriously if the flight had boarded then it would have been a hassle for me to calm down all the passengers. By the way-" she shifted her gaze from her reflection to Nandini who had been sitting on the carpeted floor with her head leaned on the couch. "did something happen?"

"What?!"

"When I came in you seemed lost."

"I-" Nandini started only to be interrupted by Aisha.

"Don't lie to me. You were definitely not sleeping. You didn't even realize my presence and that's so unlike you. You know it's me even before I step into the apartment. Is something wrong?"

"No. I am really okay." Nandini paused before adding, "Okay I might have a slight headache and work was tiring."

"Really?"

Nandini nodded. "I am really okay. It's just a bit work pressure."

"Fine if you say so. But now that I remember-" Aisha joined Nandini on the floor. "we haven't talked about your new workplace at all."