Bepannaah: Against All Odds || COMPLETED

11. Breakdown

The one bedroom apartment Aditya had rented, was a small place to live, but what made him take it was the spacious balcony attached to the bedroom. It was minimally furnished otherwise, just a sofa in tge drawing room, basic kitchen utensils, the bed and a dressing table in the bedroom. Nothing extravagant that he was used to. It was cosy, little space that was honestly kind of suffocating even for one person but he was finding that too a bit too much for him. Even the limited space felt suffocating to him, and he wanted to close himself in his room and never face the world again. Never ever.

It was raining cats and dogs outside, and even though he had no food inside his system since morning, he didn't feel like cooking. A bitter chuckle escaped him at the thought. Cooking was something he used to enjoy, his safe place and his peace, but even that didn't feel like home any more.

How and where do you find home when you feel like a hippy inside? Home is never a place, it's always a feeling and lately Aditya had only watched all his so called feeling die, a brutal death. Tossing away the three empty beer cans aside, he picked up the fourth one and stumbled to the balcony. It wasn't shaded, so standing there meant getting drenched in the rain that was trying to wash away everything that came into its way.

He watched the rain fall, drop by drop, slowly at first and hurriedly later as the pace grew. Would it wash him away too? The alcohol was playing with his mind now, as he watched Pooja and Yash dance in the rain, smiling to themselves. Or wait? Was it Zoya and Arshad? He rubbed his eyes and stumbled back. Good thing there was a glass door separating his balcony from his room, he got a support at his back that prevented him from falling and also the rain won't mess up the bedroom not that he cared.

He didn't remember what time it was, or how long he continued to stand there, in the rain, drenched. He smiled when he saw Sakshi smiling at him from the distance, frowned when Pooja apologized to him and laughed when he saw Zoya shouting her 'besharam, behaya aur kamzarf' thing at him. His eyes had began to close now, on their now. He Sat down in the gallery itself, letting the rain wash him away and closed his eyes, putting his head on the railing. He was tired, he wanted to sleep and then never wake up again.

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Zoya waved at Arjun who drove away, wanting to give the alleged love birds a little time alone. Somehow managing to dodge the rain by using her handbag to cover her head, Zoya ran inside the apartment complex, breathing heavily once she was inside. Mumbai rains were always unpredictable, and usually pleasant but that night, it was scary. The intensity and the pace of the rain scared her and on days like these, she missed Mussorie.

Walking up the two floors through the stairs, she stopped just outside his apartment. 201, the board said. Taking a deep breath she knocked lightly to find the door open anyway.

"Careless", she muttered to herself and entered in, lashing the door first. It was clean, not too decorated but cosy enough, she noticed. Her feet colided with an empty beer bottle as she walked in, calling out for Aditya. He was supposed to be home, wasn't he?

A sound caught her attention. Unmistakably, it was him laughing. She could never mishear his laugh. It was innocently addictive. She smiled as saw pictured him in her mind ans at the same time rushed inside his bedroom to have a glimpse. It had been days since she had heard him laugh that carelessly. Only the sight inside wasn't what she was hoping it to be.

Because inside lay a vulnerable Aditya, on the floor, beneath the rain in his balcony, laughing at something she didn't think was even there.

"Aditya!!", a guttaral scream left her as she ran forwards, opening the glass door in between to reach out to him.