Cordially, Yours!

-61-

It was seven in the morning. The sun rays peeped in cozily and giggled Nandini until she woke up. She stretched out of the bed and bundled her hazel strands loosely while making her way to freshen up. 

They had reached back home and snuggled into their beds by 5 AM. Ms. Gonasalvez, being the kind soul she was, had made a light snack ready for them to gouger on and the beds were ready for Fab 5 and the three super tired friends to crash on.

Nandini soon tipped down quietly all ready to go to school. It had a been a long, lovely trip though with a hits and misses but, that's life and now, she was ready to freshen up to look at those lovely innocent faces that reflected an old version of her, the long forgotten her. She reached the hallway and grabbed a soft plump slice of bread when Ms. Gonsalvez hummed from behind and wished her a lovely morning. The greeting went brief and soon, Nandini departed off to school. 

As the door shut and her jolly voice faded away, Aryaman sneaked out of  his room and casually greeted Ms. Gonsalvez. While everyone had slept off lazily, sleep was far away from Aryaman's eyes. He wanted to be up, he awaited their attention, a moment when Nandini would go.

The clock ticked away, the sun rose up and up. Slowly, Abhimanyu gathered himself together for the day when Fab 5 collected on the kitchen table for breakfast. Ms. Gonsalvez had gone to run her errands, Fab 5 catered themselves while Aryaman, he hawked over them with a deadly stare. They were conscious but chose not to speak.  

"What do you have to do with her?" his voice rumbled in the empty house. Fab 5 shivered at the suddenness and Abhimanyu peeked out of the room. 

"Speak up! I'm done with this silence!"

"Aryaman, relax. We can talk this through, rationally!" Abhimanyu barged on him and held him back as Aryaman unintentionally  walked up threateningly close to Manik. Something in him made Aryman sniff out the problems bloomed out from him. 

"No, Abhi. I'm done with them and their secrets. I am done seeing her gloomy.  They all fail to see it. They all fail to see, Abhi. Fail to see that she hurts for them and because of them!" 

Abhimanyu's hold let loose the beast. Somewhere he had the same questions, he too was tired of seeing her crying herself to sleep, he too wanted to know the reason behind the paining cltuch that night. And if she held back the truth, it didn't mean that she held him back  from digging it out too. 

"Hum. We were old friends, Aryaman." Dhruv let mystery unfold and looked at the floor as if it had their history written in stone. It was time for their full introduction,and to spell the reason why they have hung around longer than intended. Aryaman's eyes didn't tear away from Manik, he knew somewhere, it would end at him. 

"Back in Space, Mumbai" Dhruv completed. "We all bumped into her and Navya one day, mid-summer, mid-semester. We bullied them long and hard. It so happened that Navya messed more with us while Manik and Nandini's paths crossed eachother more. We were on opposite sides, it was the new- thing in our college- Fab 5 vs. Nandini and Navya. It wasn't that we hated them because they were weaklings or anything,  their honesty pricked us. They were too good and may be, we were too vulnerable to goodness. This fight and bullying was as a cliche as any other college ganging, but things got murky when Nyonika and Harshad came in. Not the villains of the story, not the destroyers but, as Nandini would describe them: the-ones-who-held-a-different-perspective-for-life." Dhruv laughed at the memory and Fab 5 too giggled slightly only to be soon pinned by Aryaman's strong gaze. They settled down and Aliya continued on the saga. 

"Nandini and Navya were the purest souls but also the most-daring to stand up against us. But, this made them vulnerable, vulnerable to the convulsed, devious mind-games of Nyonika and Harshad. These two were two easy targets through which they could target us. And that is where, we had to break through the walls that we had created against them for them. Manik  and Cabir had early on caught on to the underlying plotting of Harshad and Nyonika and the two had promised themselves to protect Nandini and Navya from their glitches. Cabir had set forth for Navya since the two talked on the same wavelength and had secretly found a friend in eachother, while Manik, he and Nandini were.."