3. Nobody compares to you

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"Do you know what my problem is?" Aryaman laughed, looking at her. "You are so stubborn, stupid and yet I like you." He said, making her steps freeze.

"You like me?"

"How can I not like you?" His voice softened. She had been supporting him while Manik had gone to bring the car and he had totally been leaning on her but still every now and then he had been stumbling.

The drink that Aryaman had offered to her, he drank it himself. He just couldn't do that to her.

"Then why are you trying to push me away?" She asked.

"Because-" He smiled painfully. "I am toxic."

His statement only made her insides squeeze. He left her shoulder and walked ahead of her, smiling painfully.

"Nandini I love you-" Right then he stumbled forward and grabbed a lamppost for support. "even when I know I shouldn't." He said as he clung there, and slumped over.

"Aryaman." She reached him and kneeled down to his level. He let out a painful chuckle.

"I love you Nandini." He confessed before gently touching her cheek. And before she could even register anything he passed out completely.

Minutes later Manik drove out from the parking lot. They both somehow managed to get him in the back seat of the car before they themself got in the car.

Manik started the engine while she still had been pondering over Aryaman's words.

"You seem lost." Manik's voice broke her trance. She looked at him and then again at Aryaman before shifting her gaze out of the window, sighing.

"I just have a lot of things going in my mind. Don't mind me." She said and for a moment he looked at her before again shifting his gaze ahead.

"Well you know I too have a lot going in my mind." He paused to see her reaction but she just stayed quiet which was so unlike her. "Nandini! Is something bothering you? A-Are his thoughts filling your mind?" He asked directly as he stopped the car in the red signal and looked at her.

"Manik you know right we have been friends for the past nine years now."

"I know that." He wasn't sure where the conversation was heading to.

"Did you ever fall-" She stopped mid sentence and shook her head lightly. "No. Never mind. This isn't possible."

"Complete your sentence Nandini." He said. He couldn't help but think if she was about to ask whether or not he had ever fallen in love with her.

"No. Leave it." She said as she looked ahead."The lights are about to turn green."

He looked ahead and right then the light turned green. He hit the gas and tried focusing on driving but he couldn't. His mind was still stuck in her incomplete sentence.

He dropped Aryaman home and with much difficulty both of them managed to take him up to his room.

His room was filled with his family and childhood pictures. They both smiled melancholy and they could feel a cold feeling engulf their heart when their eyes fell on the picture of the them smiling. "Those days were so carefree and great." Nandini spoke out, scanning through the pictures.

"We three used to get along quite well." He added."When did we start to change?"

"When I and Aryaman got engaged." She said sadly."He started pushing us away. You both used to bicker over me quite a lot but those days they were just childish bickerings and now-" She couldn't speak any further. Her heart felt heavier and thinking about those precious old days made her want to cry but she didn't.

"Nandini you aren't the reason for us not getting along." Manik contradicted. Although she was one of the reason for them not getting along but she wasn't the only reason.

"Then what is?" She questioned, looking at him, trying hard not to break down.

"It's between us. I don't want to drag you in between." He looked away from her.

"That's what I am saying. Whatever is happening in between me and Aryaman shouldn't affect your relationship with him. Manik I am your friend and so is he."

"Nandini.. Aryaman might wake up so let's go."

"Manik promise me you are going to make up with him." She said, determined. He looked at her and from the look on her face, he knew she wasn't going to back down, not this time. "He is your friend just like I am. And I don't want to come in between you two."

He hesistated. He could't possibly say that he loved her and that he didn't consider her as just friend. "Nandini you aren't the reason." He lied. "So just let us be."

"Manik it's too suffocating. Okay if I am not the reason then what is?"

"I'll tell you when the time's right."

"And when will that right time come? Never??" She stepped closer to him and gently held his hand. "Please Manik let's sort this differences now. I am really tired."

He intently stared at her face for a moment or few. "I too am tired Nandini. But if I voice out everything, what's the guarantee that the things will be sorted and not complicated?"

"But it's always worth a try." She said hopefully.

Silence filled the environment for a while as they both intently stared at each other before he finally broke the silence,"You said it's always worth a try but will you be able to handle it?"

She slightly waggled her head indicating 'Yes'. Right then he gently pulled her towards him and engulfed her in his warm embrace before slowly letting the words that he had been holding back for so long slip out of his lips.

"I love you Nandini. I have always loved you and only you."

With every word he spoke he could feel his heart thumping faster and faster. He felt a whole lot of emotion all at once in those few seconds.

"I-I-I- you I mean-" She didn't know how to respond.

Hearing those words from him made her heart flutter and strangely she felt at ease in his arms but she was confused. She thought she loved Aryaman but now she wasn't sure anymore.

"You don't need to respond back to my feelings. I don't need an answer from you and I will never pressurize you with my feelings." He gently let her go. "My feelings are my feelings and I'll take care of them but still at least for once I wanted you to know that you are more than friends to me."

"Manik-"She bit her lower lips,confused. She just didn't know what to say.

"I am really happy just to be by your side even if it's as a friend. So don't mind me."

"Umm so I really am the reason for you two-"

"No you aren't." He cut her in middle. "We drifted apart because of our messed up feelings and not you. So don't you dare blame yourself."

"But I can't help it. I keep on thinking that it's my fault and it is."

*****

Though I said it's a three shot but it just became impossible for me to wrap it in three chapters. So there'll be two more chapter of this.

So I don't know how the chapter was. Hope it was worth reading.

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