The Forbidden Fruit (MaNan FF)

ii.

"What do you mean by that?" Nandini asked him while he paid no heed to her.

"Your name is Nandini, right?" the boy asked, stepping forward to come and sit on her bed.

"What did you mean by that?" She asked yet again, her tone now solid and firm.

"I'm Cabir, by the way," he introduced himself. "I'm your brother."

"I asked you something," Nandini narrowed her eyes, somewhat annoyed at this behavior. She repeated her question, this time even more loudly and clearly, "What did you mean by that?"

"Do you like the room? It used to be mine, you know," he started narrating, completely ignoring her questions. "I had this room till I turned five, but then I told mom that I-"

"What did you mean by that?" Nandini almost shouted at him as she cut him off, causing him to pause for a while and just take a good look at her. He didn't say anything for a while, but then just sighed and afterwards let out a chuckle.

"You're very persistent, you know? Persistence isn't always good," Cabir told her, but she ignored it as she knew he was going to elaborate now. "Do you like your parents, Nandini?"

"Of course I do," she answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well then, you're going to hate it here," he simply stated.

"Why would I do that?" she softly asked, slightly starting to regret her decision now.

"Maybe because our parents are nothing like the ones who raised you all your life? They barely care about my life, so don't even expect them to care about you at all."

"That can't be right," Nandini argued.

"Trust me, it is. Just ask them anything about my life and just see how they have absolutely no clue about it. I mean, we have dinner together and they take me to their social events, but that's practically it. We have little to no communication and they're probably not even interested in my life!"

After finishing his mini-rant, Cabir started panting and closed his eyes. Nandini didn't say anything, she simply observed him. It was quite obvious that he was really stressed.

"You have it rough, don't you?" Nandini asked him after some time, to which he just let out a bitter laugh.

"You bet, but it's nothing compared to my friend's," he remarked. "I guess I should be somewhat happy that we talk because I have this friend, Manik, whose parents practically ignore him all the time. Like they really don't care about a single thing he does and it sucks because he wants their attention so bad."

"Do all rich kids have messed up lives, then?" Nandini simply asked him.

"Well, certainly not all, but most have it bad. You're very lucky, Nandini, to have had parents whom you liked, and who liked you," Cabir told her, and that was exactly when his phone rang. He picked it up but didn't say anything. Instead, he just frowned after listening to the other person speak, and then hung up, getting up to leave.

"Who was that?" she asked, a little worried. "Is everything alright?"

"Um, yes," he answered as he was leaving, "it's just that... my girlfriend's coming over."

"Oh, well, you don't... you don't like her, then?"

"That's not really something you ask people," he chuckled and she immediately felt bad.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to-"

"But you're right," he cut her off. "She's annoying and I don't like her."