The grey canvas

📌Chapter 21- Promise

Dev:

"....now you're telling me this?" Kshitiz grumped, his eyes bulging with his shock.

"We didn't mean to stress you." Adit confessed.

"As if I am less stressed now!" He huffed and rolled his eyes. "By the way, why was she hospitalized?"

Adit looked at me. I was already staring at him by then. Both of us were searching the answer to this question in each other's eyes!

"Anything wrong?" Kshitiz poked.

"Umm...no... nothing. It was just..... period cramps?" Adit made the excuse. But the way he stamnered, did put Kshitiz in a fix.

"Period cramps? Are you sure??" He eyed Adit suspiciously and then looked at me. "Dev, you lived with her right? Did you see or experience anything like this before??" He asked.

-"Well... Priyanka said that its a case of... of... dysmmenoraghea." And hell! I stammered too!

"Recent?" Kshitiz enquired.

-"Yeah. What else?"

"Why this stammering then.. both of you?"

Kshitiz's next bouncer left us dumbfounded and Adit and me had to look into each other again to resolve this issue. Kshitiz, however, didn't like this eye contact game at all.

"Guys??" He pinged, irritated.

"Focus on the steering, Dev." Adit patted my back slowly and cooked up a fluid story for Kshitiz- "...bro, don't take this stammerings seriously. Its just that we were worried about Nitzy! She is not well and is now out of contact! Tension toh hota hai na!!" He spoke.

Kshitiz nodded in reply, thus marking an end to this not_so_professional viva. Adit heaved a sigh of relief and so did I while I turned the steering for a less populated road.

We were heading for Greater Kailash. Raima had called Kshitiz and me over there, Adit accompanied us on his own. We were supposed to meet at a cafe nearby and discuss about our progress or the new strategies to find Tara.
It was 11:30 at night and Tara was still missing!

"Are you sure you people checked everywhere?" Raima interrogated once four of us met at our preplanned spot.

"We did, that too individually.... trust me, she is nowhere!!" Kshitiz muttered helplessly. The cringes on Raima's forehead increased listening to him.

"So what next? Inform the police?" She asked after a good deal of thinking. Her baffled tone didn't match her idea though.

"Police?!!" Adit exclaimed immediately. His jaws were partially hanging and his eyes were bewildered. Expected much.

"Yeah, police.. we need to take their help now....already have wasted enough time only if you realise!" Raima curtly replied and wiped the corner of her eyes. She didn't let the tear drop spill.

-"I think she is right. Its high time to file a missing report... we are only four now, but with the police force, we'll be more. Finding Tara would get easier then." I said and looked at others. Kshitiz nodded half heartedly while Adit was still confused. Raima welcomed my thought with a smile. I smiled back.

But then a point stuck me out of nowhere and I turned towards Raima to ask if Tara was really absent from Saiyaraan or not. Ofcourse she kept sticking to her point, but my mind sang something else. Hard to disbelieve what it was saying, I asked Raima if we could recheck Saiyaraan for once atleast. Raima was adamant at first, but gave up later. She said that if checking her workplace made me satisfied then she was willing to give it a chance. I couldn't thank her more for this huge favour, just pulled her for a momentary sidewise hugs and ran to grab the driver's seat of my car.