Back In Time

~sixteen~

A/N:

Really sorry for the delay in the update. I had a presentation in college that needed prepping up and just couldn't give enough time to edit the chapters for publishing.

Anyhoo, here we go with the next two chapters!

Happy Reading. :)

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Meera had always prided herself for her complete grip over her emotions. In her early teens, she had had serious anger management issues, but being with Kanan had surprisingly changed her a lot. Changed her in a good way, she liked to think. So much so, that she never quite realized the precise moment when she became an acute peace lover.

But today was different.

Today, she was feeling the need to let every ounce of her anger for Rishi out, once and for all.

"If you needed money, why didn't you ask me for it? What pushed you to steal from your very own house?"

Rishi let out a loud, exasperated sigh as he got back up from his seat. For a second there, Meera thought he would leave the room out of anger and frustration. It seemed quite unjust to her to be honest. He was the one who was here apologizing, not her. What right did he have to be angry?

But he surprised her, as he didn't head for the door. Instead, he looked her way,

"Because it wasn't two or three hundred bucks I needed. I needed money yes. I needed a lot of it."

She stared at him agape, wondering how to react. Head tilting to one side she questioned, "How much?"

"What?"

"How much money did you steal tha-" she paused, realizing how horrible it sounded and corrected instantly, "How much money did you need?"

Rishi now began pacing the span of the room anxiously, obviously needing to let out something so very huge he'd carried within himself for years.

"Fifteen...." He didn't complete. Rather, couldn't complete.

"...hundred?" she whispered softly, a part of her subconscious certain that that wasn't the answer. Rishi's gaze dropped to the floor. "THOUSAND?" her voice came out much harsher than she intended, and she honestly felt surprised at her outburst.

"Please don't ask me for what it was Meera. I...I've tried so hard to recall what it was that could've been worth stealing from my parents. But I just can't remember-"

"-Why?"

He looked baffled, but didn't respond.

Meera pressed her eyes shut tightly, and controlled the urge to say something she'd regret. Instead, she rephrased and repeated, "Why don't you remember Rishi?"

Rishi took a deep breath in, and then let it out at last. "Do you remember Jyotin from college?"

Meera nodded doubtfully, "The skinny guy with the wobbly adam's apple."

Despite the tension in the air, Rishi found himself smile at hearing Meera's witty remarks return. "Yeah. He uh...."

When he hesitated, she found necessary to cut, "Rishi I didn't bring this discussion up. You did. If you still don't want to open up about thi-"

"-Jyotin introduced me to weed!"

Meera stared at him for a couple of seconds, visibly shocked. How many more surprises was he going to throw her way in one goddamned day?