You, Me & the Alter(cations) - Farmeed AU

34.

"Aur wahan par marble designs hotay hain and it's just beautiful." Asif noticed her phone ringing for the second time and glanced down at it. "Aap answer kar lien." Umeed gulped, feeling the heat take over her.

Farjaad would not stop calling, this was his third call, and Umeed wanted to dig herself under the ground with embarrassment and rage. She had muted her phone but it would still light up, she was hating him at that moment for making everything so difficult for her. Every time his name lit up her screen it was instinctive to swipe and answer, but Umeed had to refrain, gulp and continue trying to focus on what she was doing.

Part of her was a little hesitant, wondering that maybe it was something important. What if something had happened? What if something went wrong? The fear of withdrawal made her contemplate on answering him, but she knew it was going to go in circles. This time she cut the call.

"It's nothing important." She shook her head and attempted to put her focus back onto her present. "Um, kya bol rahe thay?"

Farjaad on the other side was taken aback. Sitting outside Saveira's house, he tried letting it all sink in, the unexpected news and the pain that came along with it. In addition to that, he experiences her doing something different. Usually the line would keep on ringing until the call was left unanswered. For the first time, Umeed cut it. She cut the call. Three calls and instead of listening, she gave a clear signal.

Farjaad felt a lump in his throat and reached for his hair, setting it back, sighing before he walked to Saveria's house, not looking forward to the awaiting news. Everything was crumbling.

"Interior waali jaga ki baat kar raha tha, but that can be saved for later. Aap batayein, kab se chal raha hai ye kaam?" Asif changed the subject, sensing some discomfort on Umeed's end. He didn't know if it had any correlation with the call but didn't find it appropriate to comment or ask at that moment.

"I always had a taste for it, ye to mujhe pehle se hi pata tha, but I started two years ago, jese hi Lahore move kiya. Mein khud Karachi se hoon." Umeed nodded, aware that even Asif could see the visible change in her body language. She was trying her best to be professional, normal, show professionalism, but the calls haunted her.

Only she knew, only she knew how difficult it was to not pick it up and press it against her ear just to hear him once more, just to hear him say her name, to talk to her. Umeed wished she did not have the ability to reminisce over him by her side, her in his hold, his voice against her skin. She hated how easily those things were not only remembered but also felt. She wanted to forget him.

"That's nice. Karachi mein demand kaafi hai. Magar Lahore has it's people as well." Asif nodded, a slight glance to see her gripping onto her phone, something was off. The comfortable first conversation took a sour turn, it was awkward all of a sudden. Umeed was drowning in sadness and consecutive embarrassment while Asif tried working around the minor interaction he just observed between her and whoever was on the phone, an interaction he did not even get to hear but it was intriguing to see someone jolted from seeing a name pop up onto the screen

-

Yusuf and Saveira sat in silence, deathly silence as Farjaad went to sit down on the chair after sharing the whole situation from start to the end, the degree of the miscommunications and the situations he had been trampled with. From the regret to the guilt to the hint of disappointment and Umeed's irrational exit, Farjaad gave them all the details from what happened. And now, now they were sat in a sulking silence.

Saveria let the gravity of the situation sink in. She was picturing everything with now all the pieces of the puzzle given to her. How small miscommunications and the their fate led them to where they were, how one heavy conversation could have had Umeed be with them at that moment. She was angry, of course she was, because Umeed was not there anymore. But she was also understanding of Farjaad. No matter how much she wanted to vent out at him, she couldn't.