ShivOmRu SS ~ Cross Connections

Chapter 4

Somz sat there, impatiently biting his nails, he had called Anika some twenty times in the last half an hour, but her phone wasn't reachable. He sat there panicking, and grumbled to himself, "However, flirtatious, Anne will remain a silly fool! Why couldn't she tell me she wanted to come with us?" huffed Somz impatiently. As he sat there waiting, he got a call from Shivay, he sighed in relief hoping that his bhai must have found Anne. But on receiving the call, he was even more agitated to know that even though Shivay had reached the club, and he had checked inside out, Anika wasn't anywhere around.

"Bhai, call up Tia and check, maybe she has gone for a sleepover with her sister?" asked Somz hopefully.

"No, I dropped Mallika and Tia myself, she wasn't around" Shivay's voice was thick with tension, "But don't worry, let me drive along the area and see if she is anywhere around okay? I will keep you posted." He finished and hung up abruptly, the more he spoke with Soumya about it, the faster he was losing his cool.

Shivay drove along all the nearby lanes and even the highway, there was no trace of Anika anywhere, the longer it took, the more, an unknown fear was plaguing him. He drove around like a maniac in the middle of the night for another half an hour when Soumya called. He picked up her call hopefully.

"Bhai, she is here, she reached home safely" finished Soumya breathlessly and Shivay sighed in relief. Then an unknown fury engulfed him, how irresponsible was this Anika? Where the hell was she all along? Couldn't she just make sure she was reachable on phone? Couldn't she inform him that she was left behind? With all these thoughts in mind, he asked through gritted teeth, "Somu, can you pass on the phone to her?"

He heard Somu unnecessarily clear her throat once and responded, "Maybe this is not a good time to talk bhai, and she is quite shaken"

"What do you mean?" he asked, not being able to mask his concern.

"Well, she is not really acting like herself - for the first time, she didn't reply to my questions. She just walked straight into her room and shut the door behind her." Confessed Somz uncomfortably.

If Shivay was angry at her callousness a few moments back, hearing that she was shaken by the night's event and that she wasn't talking, made him forget his fury completely. He had softened again, but he knew better, maybe she needed some lone time to get over the shock - so without much ado, he hung up. He decided to check on her the next day.

Anika sat on her bed, finally inside the security of her room. She was still for some time and then the enormity of the situation was crashing down on her, and she started shaking vehemently as tears rolled down her eyes. What would have happened if Daksh hadn't found her there by chance? Would she still be stuck out there? She felt wounded by her friends and their behaviour towards her - maybe it was time, to realize that they weren't really her friends - if they were, wouldn't they have realized that she was missing? As she sat there, there was a text message on her phone.

3:15a.m. [Hey Anika, hope you are feeling okay now? Please get some sleep. We have a big day tomorrow : D]

3:17a.m. [Thank-You so much Daksh. I don't know where I would be, if you didn't find me today. And all the best for tomorrow, Mallika is in for a very big surprise. Goodnight!]

Anika smiled imagining Mallika's expression when she saw Daksh tomorrow. Anika and Mallika's father and Daksh's father were best of friends, and it was in their childhood, when Daksh's mother had jokingly told their mother that they would take home Mallika as their daughter-in-law when she grew up. Everybody had laughed at the suggestion, other than the two children who sat there in awe - the two children about whom this was said - they were about nine years old - since then it was somehow ingrained in Daksh and Mallika's head that they were soul-mates, they were meant to be. Over the years, everybody had forgotten about that remark - only Mallika and Daksh remembered it. Hence it was a big surprise when, in the teen years, Mallika grew up to be this beautiful and attractive girl and Daksh became this overtly discipline, rigid, old fashioned uncle like figure with horrific sense of dressing - Anika thought Mallika would soon be over this obsession once she met new boys in her friends circle - but she was wrong of course - however weird, unfitting, silly or boring Daksh was, Mallika looked at him like he was her prince charming. Soon, the families realized the depth of their bond, and before Daksh left for the UK for his MBA, they took a mutual decision to get them engaged once Daksh was back and Mallika's graduation was over - everyone was happy. Anika sighed, her sister was soon about to get her fairytale lovestory - that's what Daksh had told her tonight. He was back in India and he had chosen to finish his MBA's last semester of exchange programme in a college in India - in this city, so that he could get to know Mallika better, her likes, dislikes and who she really was - he felt they really needed to understand each other before Mallika finished graduation and they got engaged. Daksh was perfect for Mallika, thought Anika lovingly, as sleep took over.