Chaand Tara

Shoot if you know the technique.

Siddharth walked into Aarvi's house, tension hanging thick in the air. He hadn't been able to stop thinking about their conversation earlier. He had tried to rehearse what to say, how to approach this without letting his frustration get the better of him, but now that he was here, face-to-face with her, all those rehearsals vanished. 

Their family chose not to interfere. Not now at least.

Aarvi stood by the door of her room, arms wrapped around herself, clearly just as uneasy. The moment their eyes met; the weight of unspoken words settled between them.

 He let out a slow breath.

 "Aarvi, we need to talk. I can't—" He paused, choosing his words carefully. 

"I can't keep going like this, not knowing what's going on with you."

I nodded but didn't move an inch. My silence was thick with guilt.

"Aarvi..." He called out softly. 

"Why didn't you tell me?"

I looked at him and stared at the ground. I moved away from the door into my room as he followed. I sat on the bean bag with my legs close to my chest as he closed the door behind him.

"Minnie... please... "

I looked up at him with tears in my eyes. They were burning with guilt, and pain.

"Hey, hey, hey.... Tara please-" He wrapped his hands around me and secured them tightly. Slightly he kissed my head and looked at me with nothing but concern in his eyes. And here I behaved like a total asshole.

I sniffed as my nose turned slightly pink and my face heated up because of my tears.

"Shshshsh" He wiped my tears with his palm and cupped my face forcing me to look at him.

"Tara look at me" 

As soon as our eyes met, everything started to flood. I am ashamed of myself. I did not have the strength to look into his eyes. I immediately shut them tight as tears kept trickling down. 

I could feel warm breaths on my face. The next moment I felt his lips on my eyelids. 

Very delicately I planted kisses on her eyes. The eyes that always shine was crying today, I blame myself for it. But I have to stay strong.

My heart crumbled inside me seeing her like this, she doesn't deserve this shit. I hugged her crumbled figure with utmost care and patted her head till her breathing was normal.

Slowly her heavy breaths calmed down.

"Princess?"

She lifted her face and looked at me. Her hair messed up; tears left their trail on her pearl-like face. Eyes still were red.

"Can you talk now?" I asked, still holding on to her.

She silently nodded.

I waited for her to talk.

He held me till I could collect myself. I felt very warm. All the storm halted for some time.

I decided to speak.  Gathering all my left-over courage and took a deep breath.

 "Because Sid..." I stopped. He took my hand in his and kissed it. 

"All ears Marshmallow."

My heart melted at his softness.

 I didn't want you to see me as weak."

My heart sank. Weak? That wasn't even remotely what I thought of her, but before I could speak, she continued.