Lone Girl

Chapter 16

Anu's p.o.v:

I need answers very badly. So I stood there waiting for Karan to return. When he was on top of the stairs I crossed my hands in front of me and stood in his way.

"What's your problem?" , he said.

"I think I should be the one who should be worried. what were you and your friend doing with my sister?"

"In that case, you should have returned home soon, so the little girl who had fear of lightning shouldn't have been alone. My friend wouldn't be hurting his leg running for your crying sister and I wouldn't be here to carry her upstairs." 

It was then I remembered that when I was enjoying my time with Dev, Swetha was alone in her room. I ran to her room and saw her sleeping on her bed.

"Sorry Swetha, I totally forgot about you", l kissed her on the forehead. Tears started to fill my eyes but l stopped from letting them out.

I went to Jay's room. He was lying on his bed looking at the ceiling. I know he noticed me. As I know he won't speak to me, I spoke.

"Thank you for taking care of Swetha".

Jay looked at me, disgust filled in his eyes. After a few seconds he again looked back at the ceiling. I stood there for a moment and then left to my room.

I felt so much alone. I picked my phone and called Dev.

"Hey, what's the matter?"

I told him everything that happened. "I was always there for her. I never left her like this. I don't know how  I forgot about Swetha."

"Anu, calm down. It's not your fault. Don't blame yourself for this. Everything is going to be fine. Swetha will understand why you couldn’t be there for her."

Next day Swetha told me everything and I felt bad as I was not there for her. I wish she could forgive me. 

Jay's p.o.v:

After Anu left, I slept thinking of how much worse Swetha would have been if I was not at home. I thanked God that I could be there when she needed me the most.

Next morning I woke up to a soft knock on my door.

"The door is open".

Swetha came opening the door and she stood at the end of my bed.

"How's your leg?", her eyes were glued to my bad leg.

"The pain is there but I don't think it will be a problem. Anyway our team doctor will be coming here today to check on me."

"Sorry and thank you".

"What?"

"Sorry about your leg and thank you for being there for me". Her eyes were still glued to my leg.

"It's not your fault Swetha. It's me who was clumsy".

"Well, I still can't feel less guilty. Is there something I can do to help you?"

"Look kid, there is nothing you should feel guilty about and there is nothing YOU can do to help ME."

She looked for a moment as if she was thinking and then she spoke, “well there is something I can do to help. I will be back." With that she stormed out of my room.

She looks so cute. 'How someone can actually stop themselves from loving this kid?' I was smiling thinking of the time we spent together 10years back. 

After sometime she appeared again on my door with a tray containing food. "Wow".

"Told you, I can help you."

"Thank you kid, I'm starving. But how did you understand I am hungry"

She let a laugh out and said, "When your stomach is growling, it is so easy to understand that you are hungry". With that she burst into laugh.

She looked so adorable and I couldn't stop myself from joining her in the laugh. She was there when the doctor arrived. She enquired about everything related to my sprain.

"The doctor says you need to take rest for a week. So till then I am in-charge here and you are not leaving your room." She said in a stern and serious tone.

I just nodded as I knew I hurt my leg very badly. The whole weekend we spent most of our time together. She cared for me like a mother and told me so many stories of her childhood and of Anu's. She spoke very less about Trisha and I understood that she never bonded with her. Trisha never cared about her sisters. I wondered how much did Anu go through as she had a sister like Trisha who never cared about her. I'm glad that Swetha had a sister like Anu.

Everyone from my childhood said that Anu was a loving and caring person. Swetha also said so many things good about Anu. But lately i didn't see that caring from Anu. Not even for Swetha.

'How could she have forgotten about her little sister? What occupied her so much that she couldn't find time for her sister? What or a Who?'