You and I

CHAPTER 43

MANIK

I was going through a file when a knock disturbed me.

"Yes? Come in."

The door opened and I found Abhi and Cabir there.

"You guys here?" I walked over to them and hugged them.

"Manik what is going on?" Abhi asked coming straight to the point.

I averted my eyes from him. "What are you talking about?"

"You toh are a fool but why are you making us one?" Cabir said making me glare at him. "I'm not a fool."

"Manik what is happening? You're barely at home. All the time you're in office. You're not going home. You're not eating properly. Nandini is worried sick for you, and so are we. What's up Manik? And don't give me the bullshit reason that it's the project."

I sighed and walked over to the couch, gesturing them to take a seat.

"It's not that simple. My house haunts me now. With no one there. Mom is not gonna come back. She texted 2 days back that now she has shifted permanently with Nani. She won't come to Mumbai back, ever. And about me? She said that I'm big enough to manage myself, but she can't look at my face since it reminds her of Dad. She wants to get away from the memories.

"I don't feel like going there. That place though it holds so many good memories, but it also hold the worst ones. Dad getting sick, him going out the house for the last time, it's all there. And it suffocates me being there without Mom. That how can Mom just leave me? Was it that easy? And here, at least, here I feel Dad's presence. This was his work, his building. This place has seen only his powerful aura. Plus the project was important for Dad. I don't want to fuck this up."

"Manik each one of us is dealing with some kind of shit right now. But we gotta stick together. We weren't a family by blood, but a family by choice, at least the three of us. Right?" Cabir said.

"Yes we are, but hold on. Shit? What happened? Did anyone do something?"

"And the protector Manik is back," Abhi piped in. I glared at him.

"Are you guys gonna tell me?"

"I've decided to leave Mom Dad's place. I don't want to live with them. I just can't now. Ranbir gets away with everything he does, since he's the bigger brother. But what about me? They literally treat me as if I've been adopted or something. And I doubt that I am adopted. You guys know that they haven't been the most supportive ones. But I guess my tolerance level has crossed now."

"Did something happen Cabir?" I asked. Something major must have happened that he's thinking about this. I looked over at Abhi and his expressions were mirroring mine. Cabir was the one who even though didn't like the way his parents treated him, didn't think about such a step until now.

"You know Navya right? Her parents and mine are friends. No shit. Both of them are very similar to each other. So Navya was staying with us when she had come to Mumbai last week. Ranbir tried to misbehave with her when he came home drunk on Saturday."

"What the fuck?" we both shouted together.

"Yeah. Navya had given him a punch in self defence. He was so out of it that he passed out on the floor. She's okay now. She's a fighter. She said that nothing had happened and all was good. But I could sense that her confidence had shaken up a bit. I don't even know if she has shared this with Nandini and Sid or not? Navya means something to me guys. She's important for me. This was an eye opening thing for me. And I just can't live with them anymore. When next day, after dropping Navya back to Pune, I told them, they laughed over it that it happens. That Ranbir is a young guy. Like what the fuck? So I moved out of that place. They were making me feel sick."