Ishqana Dil

Part 8

She bit on her lower lip to stop herself from smiling at best. On the inside, she wanted to laugh. Mantu was fuming next to her, as he sat on his chaarpaayi and furiously went on repairing the computer parts. Uma stood right across the room from her, giving her the death glare. But Amaya was in her own bubble of happiness. She kept her eyes lowered on the shirt she was ironing but her mind was busier replaying what had just happened a few minutes ago...

The front door burst open without any knocking and she knew at once that it could only be Uma. Mantu did not react. He was probably used to it. She shook her head and continued with her work while Uma marched in, chattering already about her day. But she stopped abruptly, and Amaya looked at her. There was blind rage on her face.

"What are you doing?" she screamed.

Amaya flinched and looked down. Chiklu's shirt was unharmed on the table. "What?"

"You cannot iron the- You cannot touch anything in this house!" Uma screeched. "You don't have a right on anything here, do you understand? I do things here, you get the hell out of here!"

"Uma!" Amaya turned to Mantu in alarm. Mahadev, she had not expected a scene like this to crop up... Mantu had stood up, before her, as if to shield her from Uma. "Calm down, Uma, she's just ironing a few shirts!"

The girl made a little attempt to be politer with her childhood friend but it did not lower the volume of her piercing voice. "No, she cannot do that, Mantu! That's my right only, she cannot do this!"

Mantu sighed with exasperation. He had not at all expected what Uma did next, but Amaya instinctively been waiting for an attack. Which did not fail to come. Uma strode over to her, carefully avoiding Mantu, and tried to snatch the iron. Mantu was quick to react, but not before Uma had managed to burn Amaya's palm a bit. Apart from a hiss, Amaya forced herself not to react. Mantu gripped Uma's wrist until she let go of the iron and dragged her to the other side of the room.

"Stop it, Uma! Don't cross your limits! You are just becoming more and more rude, you need to learn how to behave yourself. And this is my house, I gave Amaya the right to do whatever she wants, okay? She is a guest, so be nice to her!"

Uma glared at him as he went back to work then turned her eyes on Amaya...

He had given her the right. Amaya felt like laughing and dancing, but for the moment, she had to make do with her heart bounding blissfully in her chest. And what was the burn she had received from Uma against this prize Mantu had given her? She would walk on fire if he asked. This minor scorch could not do anything to harm her happiness. She did not look at Uma again but she felt her leave, and somewhere, she did feel a little sorry for her...

"Amaya-"

"Say sorry, and I will leave. Right now." She looked at Mantu and he looked so terribly guilty, she wanted to go and hug him. Instead she just dropped her hands at her sides. "Mantu... I am sorry... I should have known Uma would react like that... She already hates me and... But I wanted to help you, I didn't want you to get into a fight like that with her because of me."

His scowl deepened. "No, Amaya, don't be sorry. I know that you never had any wrong intentions. It's Uma... I don't know what had gotten into her. Pehle aisi nahin thi voh..."

She smiled at him. "She really hates me, doesn't she?" He looked even more miserable, so she flapped her hands around dismissively. "That doesn't matter! At least you don't hate me, do you?"

"No!" The briskness and rapidity with which he shouted the answer at her stunned her. His ears turned pink. "I mean..."

He looked away uncomfortably. Her heart pounded wildly against her ribcage. She swallowed. "I should finish this."