After all this time

Chapter 17

Amaya had never thought that a day would come when she gets scared of her phone. The amount of notifications and missed calls came through when she turned it on, it was scary.

' Your story... it went viral Ammu...' Mithila sounded worried and it made her heart jump into her throat.
She couldn't even comprehend that her scribble was worth some attention. Viral? How would such a thing happen even? She wondered.

Then it dawned on her....her story wasn't just her story.
It had elements and characters from Adhi's book series....she had used them as her own characters even though she had written a completely different story using those characters and his books were international best sellers. It was huge....and all were waiting for the last  book in the series and she might have just revealed and spoiled everything . unintentionally...? Yes the story was different but there were so many things she had borrowed from those chapters and characters.

Her heart raced as the realisation hit her fully.

' Ammu are you still there?' Mithila was worried...really.
If her always cheerful friend could remotely sound like the way she did now, it only means that Amaya had messed up...big time.

' Yes' she croaked.

' Ammu...were you able to tell Adhi about the story you were writing?'

A simple question, just threw her off right away.
She was going to tell him but she never got a chance to tell him about it.
Or was she trying to avoid that deliberately considering that her story wasn't important, which in fact ,was not, until this point.

' No' Amaya whispered.

She was embarrassed to admit that she was unable to tell him about the story she had created despite spending a significant amount of time with him .

Amaya froze....
What was she going to do? How to manage this?
What had happened to her?
How bad it is?
Why did she write the story in the first place?
Where did that confidence to post them without Adhi's permission, came?
She gulped nervously.

She couldn't figure out what to do?
How was she supposed to know about all these things? She was clueless.

' Mithu...What should I do?
How to stop this ? I don't know what to do?'
she covered her mouth as the panic literally shoot through her nerves.

' Call Adhi first .'  She suggested.
Amaya knew that's what she should do first but her body was freezing. The air was becoming heavier and Amaya knew what was coming.

'Calm down okay? He will understand....'
Mithila added tentatively...like she could actually picture the panicked Amaya in front of her own eyes.

' But you have to talk to him... okay? Take some deep breaths....and get your phone and call him.... that's important...okay? '
Amaya murmured a yes.

' Now , take some deep breaths with me and once you feel a bit calmer, call him.' Mithila was talking to her like she was a four year old kid who needed those directions to get things done.
The understanding and patience in her made Amaya appreciate her lovely friend even more.

Mithila had been kind to her by actually telling her what to do.

Amaya had followed those instructions, step by step and managed to switch on her phone but the number of notifications that had lit up her screen, her hand shook...There were sixteen missed calls from Adhi and four from some unknown number and a countless number of notifications from her Instagram account...which shocked her again .
Those things made it so real ....the magnitude of things and the seriousness of the situation, it scared her.