Zindagi Kitni Haseen Hai

Part 9

you're always one decision away from a totally different life ~

• • •

Shivaay's Pov

The next day, I was waiting for her. Anika was ten minutes late. It made me overthink a lot because a part of me thought, she wasn't going to come.

I kept looking at the door. I was about the give up when I heard the sound of "click". It was her. She was alone this time.

"Hey", I stood up and smiled at her. She looked a lot better than yesterday and weakly smiled back. It was small but at least she did.

Once she settled down, I made sure she felt comfortable in the room. Therapy rooms aren't often the best. Not because they're badly decorated, just the aura isn't really the best for the people who are here to discuss their issues.

"Anika, do you know what's one of the most difficult questions in the world?", I asked her. She looked at the floor, then at me. Anika nodded her head in denial. Then she went back to looking at the floor.

"How are you?", I asked her. She didn't answer.

"That's a difficult question, isn't it?", I smiled at her. I was dying to hear her voice.

"Do you know the most common answer to it?", this all sounded way too exhausting, but it had to be said.

"I'm fine", she answered and started fiddling with her scarf.

"Why do we lie to others when we clearly aren't feeling fine?", I asked her. She seemed speechless. I was about to answer it when she opened her mouth.

"Because it's the only way to escape all those incoming questions", she said and furrowed her brows.

"If you don't answer the questions then nobody will ever know what you're going through", I told her.

"Even if you answer them, nobody will understand you", Anika started sounding frustrated.

"Have you ever felt like nobody understands you?", like I said, sour medicine.

She nodded. Anika looked like she was fighting a battle inside herself. Like she wanted to tell me something but didn't have the courage.

"Tell me, what are you thinking right now", I looked at her.

"People brush your trauma off. Like it's nothing", she whispered.

"Anika, why have you come here?", I didn't want this to sound rude but she had to know why she was doing all this.

"My father wants me to", Anika replied. I was partly disappointed with her answer but almost nobody goes willingly to therapy.

"The world has good and bad people in it. If the bad ones hurt you, the good people help you get back on your feet. Think of therapy as a healing process", my voice sounded low.

"Okay", she stopped playing with her scarf and looked at me.

"So, you wanna see me again?", I smirked or more like tried to.

She nodded and gave me a half smile.

"When?", I took out my planner and looked at her.

"Isn't that your decision?", she spoke slowly.

"Every decision related to you is only yours to make", I smiled at her. For the first time since we've met, I felt this was the most comforting thing I've said to her. Because she smiled at me brighter than the sun.

"August 10th?", she sounded nervous.

"At 1pm?", I confirmed and she nodded.

• • •

It was Sunday. The whole family had off. Excluding my patents, they were kind if always busy but not like I minded.

I was sitting with Om and Rudra, who were currently planning a party. Everyone was invited. Om's fiance, Rudra's girlfriend and our friends.

"Shivaay, why don't you invite Anika?", Om smiled evilly. I glared at him.

"Yes, please", Rudra pleaded. I just looked at them like they'd grown horns.

"Are you guys mad?", I half-yelled at them. They always had ridiculous ideas and this time, I wasn't going to support them.

I was about to leave, when Rudra grabbed my waist and started tickling me. Om took my phone and ran away. Soon, I had thrown Rudra away. Once I reached Om, he already had a smirk on his face.

"What did you do?", I sounded mad as hell but he didn't care.

"Why don't you look at it yourself?", he asked me and left.

Opening my dm's, I looked under the contact "Petite". My eyes grew wide once I saw that he had texted her.

"Netflix and food?", he knew what this slang meant, yet he dared to do this to me. I was going to kill him.

I was about to put my phone in my pocket when it buzzed. Opening my dm's again, I stared at her reply.

"Only if you have ice cream and pizza"

Maybe I wasn't going to kill him. Like it wasn't that bad because she didn't mind. Oh my god, she was going to hang out with us? I looked like shit.

"Sure", and I sent her my address.

I had to take a shower, didn't want her to see me in such a hideous state. No doubt no girl liked me. Well, I didn't care until now. I still had to learn all that cliché stuff.

Weren't we going back to the old teenage times?
_______________________________________

Amna xx