NOT THE ONLY ONES

27. WAKING UP

Cold feels so good, heavenly even.

I feel something cool pressing down on the side of my head. The effect is numbing but soothing.

I find my eyes and my eyeslids, they feel lighter so I slowly open them.

I open my eyes to a strange looking room, it has light yellow walls, it can't be my room, my walls are lavender.

Where am I?

Ahh, the first aid room.

I blink twice and I see Robert sitting at the edge of the bed with my feet on his lap. What is he doing?

"H.. Hey" I manage to croake out.

I don't feel the soothing cold against my head anymore.

Veer crosses my bed and stomps the way out of the room.

Wait, Veer?

He was here with me when I was unconscious?

"Wh-- what's the matter with him?"

"He's angry with himself" Robert explains.

"With himself! Why?"

"He thinks he was late, if he could have been there earlier you wouldn't be here. Well of course it wasn't his mistake but mine" Robert says.

"No it wasn't your mistake Robert. If it's anybody's fault it's mine. You cannot always watch out for me"

"I swore to protect you and I keep on breaking my promise" Robert says looking at the floor.

"You know what, I'm nothing but a useless piece of shit! I couldn't protect myself from Aryan how on Earth am I going to save the world?"

"No Mallika, it's unrelated, whatever happened between Aryan and you was..." he trails off.

"Robert, I have learnt so much. I know karate and what not, but whenever I'm face to face with Aryan I turn into a weakling"

"That happens ok, and I know you tried defending yourself, Aryan was bound to win over you" Robert says.

"What? No, I'm better trained than him. I have better knowledge about battles and fights, how could he win?"

"He was on drugs and stuff" Robert says.

"How did you know?"

"He lost a lot of blood when Veer beat him, quite a sight that was. If I had been in Veer's place I would have hit Aryan just like that" Robert mutters, but his eyes are somewhere else, maybe he thinking about the possibility of hitting Aryan and enjoying it.

I glare at him when he trails off the subject so he continues, "so we had to take him to the hospital, doctors did some blood tests and told us that he was on drugs"

"Oh! Dear"

"Yeah, I don't know how could he arrange for all these things" Robert says.

"Is he still in the hospital?"

"Umm yes, he suffered some injuries, worst than you I must add, a few broken bones, a mild concussion and blood loss" Robert says.

"OMG! How did it happen? I remember I had kicked and hit him a lot but it had no effect on him, how could my doing inflict such major injuries to him?"

"No, it wasn't your doing, Veer is responsible for Aryan's state, I'm proud of him, If I'd been in his place I would have done the same" Robert says.

"Robert! You must protect Veer. Akshay would try to harm him for what he did to Aryan"

"Don't worry about Veer, Umm well actually, Akshay won't harm him, he also bet up his brother when he knew what Aryan did to you and he's right outside, he wants to see you, apologise to you" Robert says.