Story 16: The first fight

Part 1

Abir knew he should have told Mishti about Kunal running away on his wedding day. He had wanted to, in fact, but somehow, he could never pick up the courage to tell her that Kunal lay the blame on Mishti for that as well. He had known how hurt she would be and so he had kept putting it off until yesterday, when they had found out in the worst possible way.

He sighed deeply, his hands running through his unruly mess of hair for the millionth time as he wondered what to make out of it all. The discovery that his trusted confidant Nanu had lied outright to him, Baba's dramatic return, his ill health, Kunal's devastating revelation, the divorce and the fact that his baby brother had LIED to his face all this time- it was all too much to take in all at once. And the worst was that Mishti was furious with him and she believed he had lied to her.

He wanted to talk to her, explain why he had hidden it from her. Her words "I was wrong to blindly trust you" hit deep and hurt deep too. He yearned to have her trust back, to make her see that he had not lied; he had really believed that Kunal loved Kuhu..

He NEEDED to talk to her, lean on her, draw strength from her, feel secure and cared for at this time when he was not quite sure if he could trust anyone at all in his family. His Nanko! How could he lie to him?? How easily he had decided to opt for divorce! Abir could still not even fully comprehend what had happened and as the night wore on, he sat on the parapet wall, sightless eyes gazing away into the darkness, trying to figure out where to start unravelling the mess he found himself in right until the sun made an appearance in the horizon.

Mishti, please talk to me. Shout at me, yell at me, rant, scream, anything. Don't shut me out. I can't do this alone, Mishti. Please! Don't shut me out!- he begged her mentally as he leaned back against the pillar, eyes closed, weary in mind, body and soul.

Back home after the horrible events of the evening had unfolded, Mishti had managed to fall asleep after a long time but her sleep had been plagued by nightmares. The last nightmare had been particularly and chillingly vivid. In it, she had told Abir she wanted him to accept his brother's fault and until he did so, NOT to try to talk to her, hoping that he would see the truth. But when she turned back, she saw him slowly being enveloped by a misty cloud until she could barely make out his outline. She had called out his name in a panic and run towards the cloud only to find that Abir was no longer there; she had lost him. It might have been a nightmare but the terror was real and it had woken her up instantly.

The first thing she had done was check her phone. She had told Abir that she did not wish to talk to him but the truth was that she missed him dreadfully and needed him to reassure her that it would all be okay, that they would find a solution to this mess too. Having caught a few hours of sleep now, her mind no longer numbed by the shock of Kunal's duplicity, Mishti could think more clearly today.

Kunal had lied to everyone and that included Abir too. Abir would never have let the marriage go through if he had known Kunal did not love Kuhu. Kunal HAD gone through the marriage, like Abir had pointed out. Why had he done that if he had not loved Kuhu?? No one had suspected anything was wrong because he had gone through all rituals without a word of protest. Why??

Mishti sighed. The one person who could answer that was Kunal himself. She couldn't ask him so the next best thing was to ask Abir. The thought of Abir made her stomach clench. She was still upset with him. VERY upset. It had hurt that he had kept Kunal's running away from her. It still hurt badly to know someone she trusted so much had hidden something this big from her.

A moment later she went back over what she had just been thinking. Abir trusted Kunal with his life and his brother had hidden something huge from him too. That must have hurt too. Really bad. And coming on the heels of everything else that had happened this week, this must have been a really bad blow for Abir as well.

Mishti's eyes welled up as she recalled Abir's pleading eyes when he had begged her to listen to him the previous night. His broken "Please, Mishti" rang in her ears. Deeply hurt and furious as she had been, she had not seen that he had been at his most vulnerable last night, that he had needed her desperately. The initial shock had worn off now and she could see that NOT letting him talk was not going to help. No matter how upset she was, no matter what he had done, distancing herself from him was the worst punishment she could deal out to him. And for what?? Trusting his beloved brother blindly??

If SHE was having such a hard time dealing with Kunal's deceit, how much worse would Abir be after knowing that his Nanko had deceived him? A fierce need to check on Abir immediately propelled Mishti towards her phone and before she knew it, she had called his phone and was anxiously waiting for him to pick up.

After a several rings, it was Jugnu who picked it up with a "Mishti didi?", sounding quite hassled.

"Jugnu Bhaiya, Abir ghar par nahi hai kya? Usne phone kyun nahi uthaya?"

"Haan??? Woh... Mishti Didi, shayad hospital jaate waqt bhool gaye honge...." he said distractedly.

Mishti's heart stopped at the word 'hospital'.

"Kya?? Abir hospital me hai? Kyun? Kya hua?? Hospital kyun??" she shot out the questions at Jugnu, panic stricken.

"... Arre nahi, wahan table par rakh do ...." Jugnu seemed to be talking to someone else in the house and he came back to the call briefly "Nahi Didi, abhi wapis aaye hain bhaiyya. Lekin who chot itni gehri thi na, taake lagane pade tho isliye...". Mishti only heard this far before she dropped the phone and raced out of the house, heart in her mouth.

At the other end, Jugnu went on, unaware that Mishti was no longer listening to him "tho isiliye Abir Bhaiyya Hariya ko hospital le gaye the..Shayad jaldi me phone bhool gaye. Main unhe bula doon??? Hello, Mishti Didi?? Mishti Didi?" he called out, finally realizing that he was talking to thin air.

Meenakshi's authoritative voice boomed out for him as she left the house for office and Jugnu promptly dropped the phone and ran to the courtyard to hand her the lunch boxes as she and Kunal got into the car.

At Maheswari House, Mishti raced out, commandeered one of the cars in the driveway, not wanting to waste extra few previous minutes cycling. What had happened to Abir??? Hospital?? Jugnu had spoken about stitches?? How had he gotten hurt? How bad was it? Why hadn't she checked on him earlier? Why hadn't she just stayed with him last night when he had been so upset?

Her stomach clenched in fear as the nightmare from last night flooded back into her memory and an irrational fear of losing Abir settled in her heart. NO! Jugnu Bhaiyya said Abir is home. He can't be hurt bad. He is fine- she told herself over and over again as she raced across the road at a pace that would impress a Formula 1 racer. In minutes she was at Rajvansh Sadan and she parked haphazardly before running inside and hurtling straight up the stairs to Abir's room, not even thinking that someone might see her.