Cordially, Yours!

-40-

The shallow clouds moistened her room's windows and the cold air breezed in through her windows making her white curtains dance in the room. The chills had set in and it seemed that the rain would pour anytime. Nandini's alarm jingled on her phone and sleepily, she shut it off with a swipe. She blinked her eyes twice or thrice to wear off the left over sleep in her and observed the wet tree's whiskers and foggy sight out of the window. She rubbed her arms and crossed them to provide her warmth. A loud thud marked the windows shut and she dragged herself to the bathroom to freshen-up.She dolled up in a light pink and wrapped herself in a muffler that Chachi had given her long back. She stared at  her reflection in the mirror for a few minutes soaking in the void in her life. This sudden emptiness was there to stay and unfortunately, as brave as a face she put on, nothing could change it. 

The clattering of dishes from downstairs pulled her out of her sorrows and she exhaled the breath she unintentionally held with in her. She pinned up her hair in a messy bun, open hair weren't an option any more.  She grabbed her bag and descended down to the stairs. 

"Good morning, Chirkut!" Aryaman greeted her in his ever-so-happy voice. 

"Morning!"

"Coffee?" he offered holding her a steaming mug that spread it's aroma in the room. It was lovely for the moistness that filled inside and outside. 

"Never to say to no!" she replied with a assuring smile and sipped on the aesthetic drink,
"This is love, Arya!"

"Anytime, girl! Acha, listen, could I drop you off a bit early I have to be back for a important call fro office, if you don't mind!"

"Never. Let's go, then" she said and made her way into the neat up-do of the living room. "You.." she looked hesitantly at Aryman. 

"Yup, missy. I did the living room." he pride and Nandini stood awestruck at his abilities to put everything in such a classy, yet peppy setting. The blue sofas neatly bordered the pink-green carpet and glass table. The TV was mounted exactly in the center of the table that stood in front of the sofa set. Their pictures hung in a triangle on the wall across. Not only this, but his creativity was creditable. He managed to convert a ragged ladder into a slick wooden structure that held some books and small potted plants against the white wall and the fairy lights swirled around the set-up. His fine-details were never-ending and the more she looked, the more he appreciated his hidden-decors. 

"You have some talent here!" she said while still wandering her gaze around the room. 

"Of course, Murthy! I make a living off of this. I better be good so that I can support your antics." he casually teased her and grabbed his keys and a jacket. "Chale", he called out to her from the door. 

Still soaking in the magic he had done overnight to the room that was estranged with sealed cardboard boxes till yesterday, Nandini hadn't noted Aryman's tease and was still rooted in her spot with a sip less in her filled coffee mug. His call snapped her out of her daze and she hurried to follow his footsteps. 

----

She was half-an-hour early to the school and the big, cathedral-like architectured building stood empty in front. The hustle-bustle of teachers and the rush of excited children meeting each other and creating memories for life were yet to pour in. In the silence in which she stood, Nandini decided to go to the library to check out some books for her class. 

Guiding herself through the hallways, she reached a towering, door that wore a delicate design. She held on the golden handle and pushed the door as it creeked her way in. It welcomed to her a world of its own, a world of books of long tables and dim candle lights and table lamps. The earthy smells of books encaptivated her at her first steps into the library. She walked down the many aisles of the many books from many genres until stopping before her destination- "Fantasy".   

"You lied to me."

"No, I didn't. I just hid a truth."

"Equivalent, Rudra."

"You all are so disgusting. So full of yourself. You don't care about anything, or anyone. Not even me, bas aapni chalani  hi. Your demands, your wishes- everything yours should be fulfilled. What do I want?  Yeh kabhi kisi ne nahi pucha."

She heard muffled, crying voices behind the books. Someone might have feared a ghost at the absurdity to hear children this early morning in a big, lonely library but, the voices and complaints were too real for Nandini to believe her hallucinations or anything otherwise. In slow steps, she followed the voices until they became clear enough to identify themselves as a group of two boys and a girl. From the tears that streamed down the girls face, the guilt ridden look on one boy's face and a ignorant look on the other, she had rightly concluded that history writing itself here for them and repeating itself for her- friendships were at stakes. With gone through it, she didn't wish it for the innocent souls and decided to intervene when they all had rationally poured themselves out. She decided to walk on the path she wished some people had when she was in the same situation a few moths ago. 

"Someone needs to open their eyes here, Ayesha. Things are't always about you."

"Yes. But they aren't even always about you, Rudra."

"Ashar! yaar, explain it to her- if I wasn't there for an evening, it shouldn't be  a big deal."

"It shouldn't, Rudra." Nandini heard the girl counter rather than the guilt-ridden boy, Ashar. "But should when you choose to forget me for someone!"

"God! She was sick I had to be there with her and you could have come home by your own rather than waiting all night on the bench."

"Thank you for acknowledging that! But just to let you know, if it weren't of the forgetful dada that you always laugh about about, I wouldn't have found an empty library to sleep in. You know what Rudra- you are confused as a friend. You are confused if she is wrong and to be cared of even after doing so much to us or if we are right to be cared of with all our support you have gotten." Nandini saw matters worsen, her experiences clouded her eyes and the memories of that fateful day came rushing to her. She saw the girl paralleling what she did in unsaid words and if karma had it, she would also end up like her.  She kept aside her broken pieces for the moment and diffused the heat between the teenagers that reflected Fab 5. 

"This isn't a deal, it's un-giving friendship!" she spoke and appeared from behind the bookcase. The trio looked at her in confusion and knowing that she was teacher here, none of them countered. 

"I know. I am new, don't know anything about the school or you guys or how things are between y'all right now. But, bitterness won't work here. You guys are old enough to understand that the matters of the heart aren't always crystal like fairy tales.  They are murky and complex, even more than these tangled earphones that you carry in your hand", Nandini analogized in her sweetest voice looking at the earphones, she believed, Ashar carried in his hands. "These friendships are too stay and you are the backbone of each other. It can't be based on a thread that only one person is holding on to. Both the sides have an equal share, an equal willingness to hold-on will tie you all together. I'm not in a position to interrupt with what you all should do. But, remember, other's will come and go like those clouds outside. A wind would take them away forever, but only the sun and the stars would be stubborn enough to align till evergreen. Yes, there are solar-eclipses and new-moons but, remember they all come back to their home and there is always summer to be and whole-moon nights to descend."

She left the children in deep thoughts that lingered on her metaphorical sentences. She ran out of the library as if she had gone back to the night she stood in front of Dhruv and Manik's fight.

"Manik, you have to choose between her and us! And that's definite buddy! "

"Manik," she continued and cupped his face in the petite hands, "we know it, now and then. Wish you the best and you know where to find me."

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Hey, 

Just for convenience of understanding and to clearly put it out there, the following chapter are in continuation, i.e. they would be one day. Please, don't hesitate to differentiate them as morning, and evening/night. 

It would have been super long and risky to post and edit all of it as one big chapter. Thus, I split it for the sake of reading ease and prevention from technological mishaps. 

Happy reading! 

Love, 

HF