Love At Last Sight ✔

Chapter Twenty-Six

Manik Malhotra

This is that one time I can't resist the temptation. 

Leaning against my car in the hospital parking, I hold the joint in between my lips before lighting its other end. Nandini is in operation theater, currently being operated by the McCalls.

A month passed so swiftly I did not even realize. It was like yesterday we were talking about her treatment and today, it is actually happening. I'm happy she recovered well and soon but am I ready to hear a bad news after today's operation?

No. I'm going berserk with the mere thought. What will I do? How will I stay strong for Nandini? I've said to her a thousand times that it won't go wrong but what if? 

"Will you leave me if I don't get better?" She had asked just before the operation was going to begin. Throughout the journey to Barcelona, she had been unusually quiet and I can't blame her, she was probably a lot more stressed than I was.

"No," I had kissed her forehead. "I'm never letting you go, or what we have."

That was the last conservation between us as she was taken into the room where I could not be there to hold her hand. Even though she's going to be unconscious in there, I just want to be near her. But I know, my presence is just going to interrupt the doctors and not to mention, turn out everything for the worse.

"She's going to be okay," I feel a hand on my shoulder. Aryaman stands there with a soft smile. He isn't just my bodyguard but a friend as well. He has been there during my harsh pyro outbursts or when I would just ruin myself.

"She has to be," I whisper, taking another puff. "Because I have no idea what I'm going to do if she doesn't. I can't see her broken anymore. Life's cruel to do this with the only girl I ever truly loved."

"Everything will fall in its place eventually,"

I chuckle humorlessly. "I can't just stand and watch her shatter until it 'eventually' does,"

I tap the cigarette to let the excess ash fall off before holding it to my lips again. Aryaman's voices out quietly a promise I've temporarily seemed to forget. "You had promised her. Throw the damned thing,"

"I just need a calm mind when I face her." Guilt settles but I already have an over brewing ocean of it. "I don't want to go mad if her eyes remained astray. I want to be there for her as her backbone. Just this once,"

He sighs. "Give yourself some credit because you always have been, directly or indirectly."

"Doesn't matter because I know, I'm being such a pussy right now,"

"Better than whipped." He laughs. "I'd never cursed you more when you were. Do you have any idea how hard it was to go down the time lane and contact her first foster parents, who had almost forgot about her?"

"I wasn't back then, but I was beginning to be," I laugh. Indeed, it wasn't so easy. We then found out the orphanage her mother left her at and getting the old hag caretaker to search the files was a pain in the ass. Of course, not mine but Aryaman's because I was just beginning to like her then, although I'd never met her. I had refused to admit it to be but after meeting her, nothing was the same again.

I look up to face the ceiling of the basement. In a specific room above, Nandini is unconscious as the doctors' work will decide her future. I pray for the better. I just want that moment when she'll open her eyes and they'll land on me, not somewhere else.

I sometimes wish to thank Wesley because it is because of him I ever noticed Nandini. If he wouldn't have been dealing with her, I'd have never learned Nandini exists and I would have missed on such a wonderful feeling. I'd have missed feeling complete which I do whenever I'm with her.