Somewhere Only We Go

Chapter 25

Kabir

The past 24 hours had felt like an eternity. Our first few days on this trip were like a vacation but ever since this whole happy family charade started on Thursday, things have been bad. And within 48 hours it had only gotten worse. I kept thinking what if I was a little late, what if Rishabh wasn't right outside when he heard my scream? What if I wouldn't have been able to sa-

No, not going there now. After Disha left, Avi looked like he was ready to pass out so I helped him in bed. I couldn't sleep not with how restless I felt but I stayed in bed because Avi was holding me tightly. When he woke up it was almost dinner time and I could see his shoulder tense at the idea of going out and facing everyone. And after the day he had, I wasn't going to let anything make him more uncomfortable for the night. However before I could come up with an excuse there was a knock at the door and when I opened it, Rishabh and Disha were standing at the door with enough pizza boxes to feed all four of us twice. When I gave them a what the hell look they replied "We didn't know which toppings either of you preferred". They had bought every single type of Pizza the café offered.

We spent hours in my and Avi's room eating pizzas, talking about stupid shit, Rishabh told me a few embarrassing stories about Avi even though he was glaring at him the whole time. But when I started laughing his eyes softened a little and glaring shortened to only the times Rishabh started a new story. Disha had nothing to add, she just sat there soaking it in like me, occasionally sneaking glances at Avi like me. As if we both needed assurance that he was fine every 5 seconds. What I did notice was all three of them avoided mentioning Ishan.

Ishan Mehrotra who once was every teenager's crush, and every mother's son in Delhi/NCR was a forbidden topic in his own home. And I had slowly begun to realize Avi's mom, Rashmi Mehrotra might be the sole reason for that and her husband was her biggest enabler when he didn't try to stop her from breaking the whole family. I hated her for all of it. But I hated her the most for treating my boyfriend the way she did. She was the reason he had nightmares, she did all of this and Avi carried that guilt on his shoulder when it was her burden.

Saturday morning started slow for us because we didn't leave the room until late in the afternoon, but there were people all around getting the villa ready for the big party tomorrow. As much as I wanted to take Avi away from there I was kind of sad that this trip was almost over. Going back to Delhi was going to have its challenges the biggest one being our sleeping situation. I am kinda used to of sleeping in his arms but we can't talk about living in this soon. But I threw that problem at the back of my mind because I had something else to take care of. It was the day I met his father when he left my side to go and talk to his father, the day of his panic attack, I noticed something on the wall by the stairs, and there were a lot of photos. I got excited about baby pics of Avi only I didn't find any. A wall full of pictures but not even a single photo of him. I wanted to ask him about it but first I needed to be sure, maybe that was just a memorial wall for Ishan. This is why I was navigating through the corridors of that huge villa all by myself checking for any other photo, painting, heck even a fucking sketch. I was so occupied with my thoughts which were bordering on anger that I didn't realize when I came face to face with Ashok Mehrotra, Avi's father.

He had a particular look on his face, one that said, you are beneath us. I couldn't believe Avi absolved this sorry excuse of a man who failed to protect his son, the one he wanted to control so badly. My relationship with my father might be dead now, but he gave me a good secure childhood. My parents are the reason I had it in me to stand on my legs and even though that made me feel guilty some days for causing them pain, standing there I was only grateful.

"My son will get bored of you soon." Even if those words pinched me I couldn't let that man standing in front of me know that.

"Sure, you know your son the best." There is no way he could have missed the sarcasm in my tone. The way he clenched his jaw seconds later was all the proof I needed. That also proved that he is the lesser of the two evils, at least he knows he fucked up. Or maybe that makes him the worst, the jury is still out.