A LOVE STORY OR NOT PART 2

#18

(Might not be able to give a chapter tomorrow, toh aaj hi de ri hun)

Sidharth woke up first and saw a beautifully curled up Shehnaaz who was lying half on top of him.

She looked beautiful. Shehnaaz had a small smile on her lips and it relaxed Sidharth.

Now he knew that yesterday night was not a dream and that Shehnaaz actually showed her emotions while crying.

Since Sidharth had been holding on to his emmtions for so long, now that Shehnaaz was finally okay, his eyes welled up too.

He had promised himself that until and unless he finds Shehnaaz, he wouldn't  fall weak.

When he found her, she was too vulnerable and so he still couldn't let it all go.

But now he could allow himself to cry in Shehnaaz's embrace. Now, he had all the right to just pull apart his strong demeanour.

His eyes welled up even before he could think about anything else.

He had gone from being angry, to being guilty, to being heart broken and then finally relieved, in just a matter of 20 hours.

But even after going through all of it, he didn't get his old Shehnaaz. Instead, he got a stone cold girl.

Her being kidnapped hadn't scared him more than her being still and not speaking to anybody.

Shehnaaz being scared had scared him more. She is one of the most  strongest women he had ever seen.

And when he saw her like that, all scared, quite and vulnerable, it was as if somebody had stomped his heart.

He sniffled and hearing him Shehnaaz woke up. She still hadn't spoken anything. Last night, she had just cried and then slept in his embrace.

As soon as she woke up and saw that Sidharth's eyes were watery and his eyes were red, she immediately got alarmed.

She woke up from his embrace and he kept on lying on the bed. Shehnaaz sat in front of his lying body, near his chest.

Her face was showing confusion and fear for him. She couldn't understand why was he crying.

It didn't even take a moment for her to lean close to him and cup his face with both of her hands.

"Sidharth...", she spoke and Sidharth instantly looked at her.

Did she just speak? She definitely did, he heard her calling out his name.

Sidharth's mind immediately went towards 2 days ago, when he had found her.

That time as well, Shehnaaz had just taken his name and then fainted. After 2 days, she was speaking again and the first word out of her mouth was his name.

He was so overwhelmed that his sniffles turned into full blown sobs. He completely broke down as his face remained held by Shehnaaz's little hands.

The relief that he felt, the fear that he had gone through, the scary though of not seeing her again, the way she just talked and the way she opened up last night, all of this added to the overwhelming feeling he felt.

All these emotions together triggered him into completely breaking down.

"Sidharth...kya hua? Tu kyun ro ra hai? Bol na, mujhe darr lag ra hai!", Shehnaaz asked in worry and concern.

She was speaking. He wasn't hallucinating. He had been dying to hear her speak. He wanted to hear her complaining and whining.

He wanted to hear her laugh and giggle on the silliest things possible. He just wanted her to say something and now she was.