Heartless (#2 in Malhotra series)

6. Gone

Ayaan was the first one to wake up and saw Alara hugging him tightly. It was 3 in the morning and he unlocked his phone and logged into his Instagram. Even though it was maintained by Vihaan, Ayaan would occasionally check for any updates.

The first thing he noticed was the picture that Alara had shown in his feed. He went to the comment section and saw that every 9 out of 10 comments were hate messages and what was worse was they called her with names.

Yes, he is angry that she gets everything without trying but that didn't mean he wanted her to get bullied.

Alara surprisingly woke up and clutched her head immediately. She felt her eyes burning and head throbbing. Her body was still leaning against Ayaan and he cleared his throat making her aware of his presence.

"Shit I'm sorry." She murmured not looking at him and was bothered by her headache. Ayaan got up and groaned in pain from sitting in a terrible posture. Alara didn't notice that. He didn't show his pain outside and went towards the kitchen and made her soup for her hangover.

She felt better after having the soup and looked at Ayaan who was waiting to get answers from her. She unlocked her phone and saw 37 missed calls from Dev and 12 from her parents.

The moment she opened her phone, her eyes widened seeing Vansh's bday pictures all over the internet. It all made sense to her, why vansh wanted them to come and kept asking if she remembered the day. She felt so bad that she had missed his 24th bday.

"Your brother called me last night."

Alara turned to him wide eyed. "Why didn't you tell me? Oh god."

"Just think if you were even in a position to listen or not?" He challenged her.

That's when it struck her. The events of last night came to her mind and she felt really embarrassed. She had let someone in her vulnerable moment, especially him.

"He asked why we hadn't attended Vansh's bday. I said you weren't feeling well." He shrugged.

"I forgot it was his b'day." Ayaan looked at her in confusion and shock.

"A lot was in my mind and it just totally slipped."

"Dude he is your brother for god sake. How could- " He knew it was no use asking her.

Alara immediately made arrangements to gift him and just moved on from it pretty quickly. Ayaan hated how she never cared about people who cared about her.

__________________

Both Alara and Ayaan decided to resume their respective works. Ayaan was working on his new album and Alara was trying to reach Mehek.

"So what do you think?" Mehek raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms across her chest.

"Okay fine yes I can't handle these shits without you. Now tell me what's my schedule." Alara sighed.

"You need to shoot for Victoria's Secret but given your reputation, I'm contemplating on it." Mehek said looking at her tab.

"It has been my dream to shoot for Victoria's Secret! Are you kidding me!" She exclaimed.

"I know Alara, but" Mehek hesitated "Fine yeah just do this" She sighed finally.

"Thank you so much!!" Alara got excited for her upcoming shoot.

"Shit so your shoot is tomorrow." Mehek looked at Alara thinking she'll refuse but she was very sure she wouldn't miss it no matter what and immediately agreed.

"Let me just keep Ayaan posted too." Alara stopped smiling at Mehek's words. "Wait why would you involve him in this again?" Alara was mad at Mehek.

"You know how things are bad at your level, so I'm sure new controversies might arise after the shoot. I have a plan in case things go downhill." Alara trusted Mehek's words and hesitantly nodded.