Holding on and Letting go [Complete]

6)Everybody's fighting their own battle.

AsSalamuAlaikum! Beautiful people and ATTENTION. I uploaded this chapter yesterday but there was some glitch so I had to delete it. It's a pretty long chapter of 6239 words so enjoy:)

The next three weeks had gone by unceremoniously. Neha was too chagrined to see eye to eye with Ayat since the day she had tasted the piece of her wrath. Ahid, however, being an egoistic brat he was kept pulling his signature smirks and glares at her anytime he would get a chance but she wouldn't pay them any heed and let them go astray rather than shooting up straight into her head. Besides she already had so much in her plate with back to back quizzes and assingments almost every other day which were insurmountable. Let alone thinking about him. Perhaps he was right about her brain capacity.

The stress of her studies had come like a blessing in disguise. Straining every ounce of every second of every day in her studies, she didn't have much time to brood over the dark cloud that had been looming deep down inside her. It was still there but now she had learned the art to suppress it. Studies were her escape and prayer mat was her sanctuary like always.

Sabeen had tried to interrogate Ayat many times the night she came home crying but in vain. Ayat tried assuring her that it was just because she was missing her parents which was actually true. That day she missed them immensely and had seen them in her dream too. Both were talking to her, assuring her that everything would turn out to be just fine. Sometimes they would seem too real to be just in her head but she had accepted it long ago that they could never come back and were in a better place.

The bubble of melanacholy was still there deep in her soul but the figments of her parents had brimmed it with light.

*****

It was an aesthetically exquisite day today with sun sprinkling its hue everywhere, bathing everyone with a deep yellow and orange spark light, coaxing every shattered soul and fixing every wound.

Her hazel eyes sparkled under the dazzling rays with hints of brown specks swirling in them which perfectly complimented the cream colored kurti she had donned. It was emblazoned with streaks of lavender flowers going all the way from the neckline to the sleeves. She buttoned the collar and adjusted the lavender colored hijab that was delicately draped around her head. On top she was wearing a black leather jacket that Irha had gifted her on her birthday which was just a few days back on new year's eve.

It was a small event and nothing much exaggerated. Irha's sister Huda and brother in law Adam were in Pakistan those days so they had all arranged a surprise party for her. She had predicted that there was something cooking between Sabeen and Irha but couldn't fathom what it was. Her birthdays were only time of the year when she'd be extremely excited and elevated and would actually sart planning about it in her head. She remembered the night of her birthday as a tedious smile emerged on her plumped and crimson lips.

She was cozily curled up into a ball in the cocoon of her blanket when her phone rang. Her one hand was under the warming pillow and the other one was wrapped around it tightly like a baby. She peered at her phone from her bed thinking of whether or not to take the risk of touching that cold as ice gadget. She laid there waiting for it to go back to sleep so she could too. When it kept screaming like that for three minutes and didn't stop, she finally gave in and picked it up. Her stomach churned on seeing Sabeen's number and she instantly shot up straight in the bed.

She slid the screen to answer.

"Yes, khala. What is it?"; her heart was pattering against its cage.

A dim light was twirling in her room peeking through the stray blinds.

"Could you please go and lock the door of the back lawn? I'm so exhausted to get up."; she said in a sleepy voice.