Ishq | (complete)

25 | anaa

❝Ishq Ka Apna Garoor, Husn Ki Apni Anaa
Ussey Aaya Na Gaya, Hum Se Bulaya Na Gaya❞

Laila stared at the ceiling of her new room, missing the penguin poster that usually calmed her. She'd have to remember to stick it back up. The weekend grazed by painfully slow as Inaaya's words left her perplexed. Shehryar Ali. She closed her eyes as his face flashed across her thoughts. She placed her hand on her chest, feeling the racing heart. He had somehow broken through the cage, finding the heart she so firmly hid away. He was important to her, maybe not as much as Malka or Inaaya, but she cared for him. She cared way beyond the so-called relationship of "assistant and boss." But could she trust him with her heart? No.

She turned on her side, curling up to console herself. The fact was that Laila could never trust anyone with her heart. All her life she had been so defensive about surviving that she forgot she had a heart who could maybe fall in love, and one day when she bothered to even feel, it split in half. That man tore it apart so brutally that she didn't even care to heal it. So, the question wasn't that what Ali Sir meant to her? No, they both were far too torn apart to even fit together. He was still broken. She had hardly ever learned to trust in love. The question was how could two broken people heal each other when they haven't even learned to heal themselves? And a broken person could never love another because all the heart ever remembered was the scars of the past, each broken piece could only hurt the other.

Toote dil kaanch ki churiyon ki tarhan hote hai. Ek dafa toot jaye to sirf bikharte hai. Aur agar koi tukre samaitne bhi aaye to haath mein siwaye zakhm aur tukron ke kuch nahi aata. Aur Ek dafa agar churi toot jaye to phir kisi aur ke haath mein nahi daali jaati. Dono ke dilon ke tukre usi tarhan bikhre padhe the. Laila ne apne tukron ko samith kar kahin door phenk dia tha, aur Ali Sir ke dil ke tukre aaj tak waise he the, roz uske zakhm ko taza karte, kyun ke aaj bhi us tukron per Asmara ka khoon tha. Agar Laila usko mitane gayi to uske apne haath sirf khoon mein rang jayen ge. Aur woh yeh qeemat ada karne ko tayyar nahi thi.

Laila blinked in the dark as something buzzed around her until she realized it was her cellphone. Zain. The phone flashed his name as she found it under her pillow. She looked at the time and it was three in the morning. Her heart jumped to her throat, what if something happened to Ali Sir.

"Zain-"

"Mujhe pyaar hogaya, Lily." Lily? Since when he called her Lily. "Mujh ko pyaar hogaya tum-"

"KYA!" She shrieked sitting in her bed, pushing the blanket away. Yeh sab namoone Ali khandaan mein he paida kyun huwe hai. Aunty ne kya khaya tha pata nahi? "Tameez mein raho, Zain."

"Arre yaar yahan koi puri baat kyun nahi sunta. Sab adha adhoora sun ke dimagh mein pata nahi kya paka lete hai." He huffed on the other side of the phone. "Mujh ko pyaar hogaya TUMHARI scalpel mafia wali Maharani se. Mein apni zindagi qurbaan karne ke liye tayyar hoon."

"Aaram se baitho Devdas pehle mujhe pura qissa sunao aur phir jaa ke doob marne ka plan banao."

"I fell in love with her in all this. I swear every time I see her, it's only her and the smile on her lips. That's all that matters. Mein kya karoun?" Laila almost wanted to break into a fit of laughter, but poor boy was already panicking.

"What about her? Did you tell her?" She flopped back as her thoughts went to Inaaya. Zain and Inaaya. She liked the ring to that. Zain's calm personality was stark against Inaaya's impulsive and strong nature, but maybe that's exactly what her friend needed.

"Huh! You think I'd be in one piece if I confessed to her." Zain sighed. Gosh, she could just imagine the sad puppy eyes.

"Ab kya puri zindagi nakaam ashiq ki tarhan guzaarni hai. Kya chahte ho?" She teased him, knowing too well that he was asking for her help.