Tale of Silent Longing

22| The Unsaid Feelings

After some time, the flight started to take off and the journey began. Sitting so close to Jahaan was giving all sorts of butterflies to tanya 's stomach. It was one of her best nights so far. She fished her phone out and very strategically clicked a photo of herself with Jahaan in the background without anyone getting to know about it.

Jordan and Illahi also started clicking pictures and Tanya got busy with them. Jahaan was leaving no chance of peeking from his seat and taking quick glances at Tanya .
Everyone was busy in their own world and it was a fun journey. Jahaan got tired of sitting for so long so he started stretching his arms. The dinner was about to come. He headed to the loo and found that there were another group of friends who were going to San Diego. All of them looked older and were in a complete party mood.

They seemed to be enjoying themselves. Looking at them for a while, Jahaan  headed to the loo and came back. Jordan  got up from his seat and sat next to Illahi . They started talking. Meanwhile, Reeva  on noticing the seat empty next to Jahaan  quickly got up and sat there. Jahaan 's seat was right next to the window.
"I always plan to have a seat next to the window so that I could look out and see the beautiful sky, but unfortunately every time I end up having a seat in the middle of the aisle," Reeva  expressed.

"Well you can do that now," Jahaan  replied.

"Well, high altitude gives me anxiety as well so maybe if you place your arm over the window, I will feel safer," Reeva  said while getting closer to Jahaan . He placed his arm over the window and started looking outside. They were sitting very close to each other and Reeva  was pretending to get scared and holding his arm.

Just then, the dinner arrived and everyone opened their tray table. Mrs. Mehta  asked everyone to eat properly.

"Where is Reeva ?" she asked .

"I think she went to the loo". Tanya  replied.

However, when she looked around, she saw Jahaan  and Reeva  sitting close to each other. Jahaan  on noticing Tanya  looking at them panicked and immediately removed his arm from the window.

"That's not your seat Reeva , and Mrs. Mehta  is asking for you," Tanya  called out in a low voice. Seeing them so close was making her blood boil. She was not happy at all.

"Yeah, I will go back to my seat. You mind your business," Reeva  replied arrogantly .

"Aah I am very hungry," Jahaan said, moving away from Reeva . Tanya did not wait to hear them out and turned back to her seat. Jordan too came back to his seat.

"See, I told you, Jahaan belongs to me. Sooner or later, we are going to be together," Reeva thought with a smirk.

While having dinner, Jahaan kept looking at Tanya from the gap between the seat. It was as if he knew Tanya was hurt by seeing them so close to each other. He tried to talk to her a couple of times but she kept ignoring him.

"Why is she ignoring me? What did I do?" Jahaan thought to himself.

"But why do I care? Let it be" he told himself.
After finishing his dinner, he reclined his seat and tried to rest for a while. But he continued to steal glances at Tanya .

After some time, there was complete silence on the flight and everyone was asleep. It was 2 at night. Suddenly, Jahaan woke up with a jerk and saw Tanya wide awake in her seat. He glanced at his phone and wondered, "It's 2 am. Why is she not sleeping? What's wrong with this girl?" He peeped again to check what Illahi was up to.

"Even Illahi is asleep then what is keeping her up so late?" he wondered.

He looked around and found some of the guys from the other group awake and chattering too. He felt a little weird. He looked back at Tanya , he found her looking at her phone and giggling. Seeing her giggle made him feel relieved, He peeped into her phone and found her watching a kids' show. He got up and placed his hand on her shoulder. She got startled and looked behind.

She found Jahaan looking at her with worry in his eyes. " Jahaan , why aren't you asleep?
Why do you look so scared?" she whispered.
She got up from her seat and walked into the aisle.

Suddenly, she was about to slip when Jahaan got up and held her by her waist, and pulled her towards him.

On doing so, he lost his balance and both of them fell hard on the aisle. To stop her head from banging the floor, Jahaan immediately placed his palm below her head. She lay flat on the ground and on her lay Jahaan . His left arm was around her waist while his right hand was under her head.

Tanya was so scared that she buried her face in his chest. She closed her eyes shut. After a few seconds, he got up and made her sit. "I hope you didn't hurt yourself," Tanya asked Jahaan .
"No, I am alright. Are you okay?" Jahaan replied.

However, instead of answering his question, Tanya grabbed his hand and started looking at the back of it. Because of the fall, Jahaan had got some scratches on the back of his hand.

"Hey, you have got hurt" Tanya spoke in a worried tone.

"These are just scratches, not wounds. First, you tell me, why do you keep falling? And it's so late in the night. Why are you up? We still have an hour to land," Jahaan questioned.

"Well, I could not fall asleep. Those guys have been talking very loudly, disturbing my sleep. The noises woke me up. And now, I just can't sleep. So, I started watching videos on my phone,"Tanya answered.

Both of them were standing on the aisle and talking. "But what are you doing? Were you looking out for me? Were you worried about me?" Tanya teased.

"Worried? duh... Not at all. I just woke up and was looking around," Jahaan responded.

"Oh, I thought when you found me awake, you got all worried and started looking at me," Tanya chuckled softly.

"Let's go back to our seats or we will disturb others. And anyway, I have zero faith in you. You keep falling over. What if you fall again and get badly injured? I don't want to ruin our trip," Jahaan exclaimed.

Tanya looked at him and replied, "Don't worry.
I have left all my problems in California. There would be no issues in San Diego."

After this conversation, both of them headed back to their respective seats. "Now try to sleep and do not move at all. You may fall again and I would not be there to save you," Jahaan whispered.

He spoke very softly so as to not wake anybody up. After some time, Jahaan raised his neck to see if Tanya had slept. He found her still wide awake. "I wonder how do these people sleep so soundly in a plane," Tanya thought.

She kept looking outside the window when suddenly Jahaan raised his hand at her and gave her an eye mask and earplugs. "Here, take these and try to sleep, or else you will end up getting a bad headache in San Diego. You need to sleep now," he instructed.

Tanya put on the earplugs and eye mask and fell asleep in no time. Gradually, Jahaan had started expressing his feelings towards her.

He and Tanya had become good friends but it was Jahaan 's introverted nature that was stopping him from opening up to her. He used to often think that ever since he had met tany , she had always been in some of the other problems. Yet, she never gave up and always proved her worth. He also knew that Tanya liked him a lot and now, he enjoyed being around Tanya all the time. He was getting used to her presence.

However, till now, Tanya had not been able to convey what she felt for him. When she did try to tell him, everything got messed up because of a misunderstanding. Basically, Jahaan had developed a soft corner for Tanya in his heart about which he himself was unaware or was not ready to accept.

Word count - 1400

A/n
I have been going thorough a very hectic schedule that's why the updates are late . I will make sure to not leave you hanging in suspense
Also , I have exams in the next two month so the updates would be late , your patience in highly appreciated !!

Target - 35 likes , 40 comments (emojis not counted ) 🪻