His Favourite Book

Chapter 40 - Important Day

[Morning, 5:30 am]

Birds in the area had successfully sensed the arrival of dawn. While most of the locality was still asleep, a blue tint spread across the atmosphere, carrying the fresh cool breezes alongside chirps.

In a forgotten alley right beside a soon-to-be busy footpath, lay two tired bodies, sleeping their exhaustion away. Last night, Muskan had given her shoulder to Abhimanyu for him to get a good rest. However, the morning scene saw Abhimanyu's shoulder giving a comfy space to Muskan's head.

A sudden cool sensation and a little movement by Abhimanyu's arm brought Muskan into light consciousness. With squinted eyes, she scanned her surroundings and when the realisation hit, she quickly detached herself from the warm body she had been holding all night.

"Abhimanyu! Abhimanyu, wake up!" She called out while shaking his shoulder slightly. Because she had just woken up, her hands could not transmit as much energy as her brain wanted and her voice came out rather hoarse and barely audible to a third person, if any, there.

After a good five to ten minutes encompassing failed attempts, Abhimanyu finally opened his eyes and raised his eyebrows trying to take in his vision and comprehend the realm he was in. He straightened his back and rubbed his eyes while Muskan did the same. She looked at him as the scenes from the previous night flashed in her mind, making her look away with a jolt. Abhimanyu was confused at her reaction. "Why am I... Why are we... Why are you... here? What-"

"You were drunk last night."

"Oh," He remembered going out for dinner. "Right. So you-"

"Anyway. You... gotta go to the university, right?" Muskan said, breaking through the air. "It's an important day... your college round. Better not be late..."

Abhimanyu nodded and got up. He picked up his coat from the ground and before taking any step, signalled Muskan to start walking. They left the alley to go to the parking area of the restaurant where Abhimanyu had been last night.

They could barely see their way clearly because of the flourishing blue light all around. Abhimanyu remembered something when he took out his phone to contact his driver. He was going to ask the driver about his sudden disappearance when he saw the inbox already popping an unread message. It said that the driver had to leave early because of some family emergency at his home.

Just as he kept his phone back in his pants pocket, Muskan spoke up, "How are you now? I mean, like, can you go there by yourself?"

Abhimanyu was clearly confused by her question. He finally recalled their conversation from the previous night. His jaw started threatening to leave for the underground world, split the earth and leave to float in the infinity of the universe. He looked away, half in embarrassment, half in sorrow.

"Can you?" Muskan moved her head trying to be in his sight and repeated her question.

"Yea- Yeah. I can. Thanks... for-"

"Cool then, I'll leave for my hostel from here. Take care!"

Muskan started going her way while Abhimanyu couldn't help but notice her leaving without any further things to talk about. He wanted to stop her. "Mus-" He coughed. "Muskan!"

She turned around, "Hmm?"

"I'll- I'll drop you. At- your hostel... If you don't mind... that is."

"Uhm..." Muskan thought for a few seconds as she walked back closer to him. "I think I should leave alone. I was out all night with no notice. If my warden sees me with a guy, she'll plan some extreme crimes to get me-"

"Please. I'll drop you. Come." Abhimanyu gathered the courage to hold her hand and bring her with him.

As they reached the restaurant's parking area, they saw a luxury car parked right behind Abhimanyu's, blocking his way. He left Muskan's hand and walked up to the other car. Knocking at the driver's window, he signalled them to pull the window down. It revealed a man in his late twenties, a few years older than Abhimanyu and Muskan.

"I need to take my car out. You can park somewhere else." Abhimanyu said swiftly.

The man didn't seem to be interested in Abhimanyu's words. He stopped chewing whatever was in his mouth and replied, "My wife will be coming in sometime. I'll leave then."

"So? Are we supposed to wait till then? Use your brain and move your car!"

"Stop using such a tone with me, you mannerless idiot!"

That was when Muskan had to intervene. "Oh, Hello! You are the wrong one here! Better stop cussing!"

The man came out of his car and stepped forward. "Oh, so a nobody's mere girlfriend will teach me manners?" He made a fist and hastily walked towards Muskan, anger overflowing from his expression.

Before he could take any more steps, his hand was held by Abhimanyu. Grabbing his fist and pushing him back, Abhimanyu snorted, "Woah there, I thought we could resolve this politely but you now think that you can touch her when I'm here?" He turned to Muskan. "Please click some pictures of his number plate and his car clearly being parked at the worst of places, causing inconvenience to the people who were trying to be respectful."

Muskan did as she was told. By the time, a lady was seen coming their way from the backside of the restaurant. She saw a commotion and came running towards her husband. "What's happening here?" She asked.

"These idiots don't know how to talk to others." Her husband replied.

She glanced at both of them. Abhimanyu was in a white shirt, that was dirty from sleeping in the alley. Muskan was wearing her casual clothes while returning to her hostel. "Why to argue with such illiterate losers? Let's leave." The wife said and made her husband sit back in the car.

Abhimanyu couldn't take those insults like that and made a fist. "Whom are you calling illiter-" Words stopped right before they could leave his tongue, as he felt a gentle hold of Muskan on his arm. "Leave them." She said.

As the car left the restaurant's premises, Abhimanyu and Muskan settled in his car. Muskan seemed to be a little uncomfortable sitting in an imported, luxury car, that belonged to a person who used to hate her till the previous night. Shrugging off the thoughts, she turned to Abhimanyu. "Are you sober now? Can you drive?"

"I drank last night. So yeah." He replied, not being able to maintain eye contact.

"Yeah but, will you be fine, though?"

"I'm not in my room so I guess yes." He said and started taking the car out of the slot. He had a longer answer to her question 'Also, I'm with someone. No, you. So yes.' He thought.

For some time there was an awkward silence in the car. Abhimanyu was embarrassed about spilling his personal life in front of Muskan, but undeniably, he was feeling a bit lighter, too. Someone had listened to him after a long time. Muskan, on the other hand, had assumed the same reasons for his awkwardness.

As her gaze fell on the screen in front of her, she asked him, "Can I play the radio?"

"Sure."

"They play beautiful songs early morning!" She clicked on the play button. The music between the two stanzas was going on, or so it seemed. She immediately recognised the song and extended her hand to change it, but instead, she changed her mind and decided to let the song play. Curling her fingers, she took her hand back and turned her gaze to the outside of the window.

A few more beats were what it took for the next stanza to start playing.

Jo mujh se bhi chhupaaoge, to phir kise bataaoge...

Main koi gair to nahin, dilaaun kis tarah yakeen...

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A/N: I like this song, hehe.

See you in the next chapter! Until then, Happy Reading! <3