Teri Meri Kahani

23. The sleepover

MANSI's POV:

Today was surprisingly not too bad. It was great to be honest. Arrival of Siddharth was something I expected the least, but now, if not most, I do cherish his presence. And coming from a person like me who doesn't believe in too much socialization, he's a great guy to spend time with. Well I don't know much about the emotional aspect about how much I could depend on him emotionally, but did his presence lessen the pain I was carrying within myself from so many weeks? hell yess!

He was the reason why I returned back home smiling like a fool. The last time I had such a smile on my face was when things were normal between me and Shantanu. It doesn't mean that I am replacing him, don't get me wrong. But when efforts are one sided, the spark eventually dies irrespective of whether your relationship consists of love in a romantic way or love in a friendly way. And the spark between me and Shantanu is on the verge of death. Flickering, trying to protect itself from the harsh wind of miscommunication, or more like, lack of communication.

And even though I've promised that he won't be replaced or I won't stop being friends with him, it doesn't mean that I'll be putting efforts constantly when all I get from the other end is negligence. My efforts are nearing to zero and it must be hella visible. And you know what? I don't care anymore. And today's experience proved that I could be happy, even though less, I would still be able to spend day without emptiness and my face could learn to smile again and my heart could feel lively again.

All thanks to a certain newly entered person in my life.

A smile plastered on my face as I used the key to open the door to my house.

I could listen to a lot of chaos going on inside our house and that led me to be completely surprised. Because, as long as I remember, only dadu and dadi were supposed to be in the house right now and maa and dad were supposed to be present at their workplace. Could there be a burglar? A shiver ran down my spine as I picked up a rock from the small garden maa has grown around our house and got ready to attack whoever was inside and was causing a problem to my fam.

Oh god please help me!

I recited my prayers and slowly twisted the key with the rock held tightly in my hand which was hidden behind my back. I opened the door completely and raised my hand up in the air with my eyes closed due to fear.

Silence.

That was all I could hear around me, therefore, being suspicious, I opened my one eye to see what's going and what I saw brought an immediate smile on my face.

MANSI: dad!!

I ran inside and engulfed my dad in a tight hug, because, come on ya'll! I was a total daddy's girl! I mean who wouldn't be!

I released myself from the hug and looked at everyone's faces which were in total shock and a little bit of fear in their eyes as they were looking at something. When I turned my gaze towards where their sight had landed, I found the rock to still be held in my hand and understood why they all were in shock. I lowered my head due to embarrassment and ran towards the outside to throw away the rock and returned back to where I was.

MANSI.: I thought it was a burglar hehe.

They all released a sigh of relief and nodded in understanding while I turned towards dad with the corners of my lips tipped up to form a huge smile on my face. He responded to me with a similar smile and kissed my forehead, but I could sense that he was tensed and that led me to be tensed as well.

MAYUR: Hi princess! I have something to deal with. I'll talk to you later.

I was a little hurt but then dad never puts me above anything, so, if he was telling that he had to deal with something important, then it truly must be something important. I looked at dadu and dadi who were trying to control their laughs and that led me to be utterly confused. Hence, I walked towards them and secured a seat beside Dadu. I hit my shoulder slightly to his, trying to gain his attention, in which, I was successful.