Ardent Lovers

We'll Be The Parents We Didn't Get - 2

Disclaimer : This might get a little sad!

In Abir-Mishti's room

Absent-mindedly, Abir entered his room and walked towards the wardrobe to take his clothes. He had to calm his nerves down before he faced Mishti. If he didn't, it wouldn't take her a second to sense the turbulence looming in his mind. Preoccupied with awful thoughts, he hadn't realized that Mishti wasn't in the room and entered the bathroom for a shower.

When Mishti reached their room, it was empty. She was about to call Abir out but she heard the noise of the shower running in the bathroom. A million irrational thoughts clouded her mind, all thanks to Abir's weird behaviour. Still ruminating over them, she sat on the bed, right across the bathroom door and anxiously waited for Abir to come out. 

The scalding hot water touched Abir's skin. Standing under the shower with his eyes squeezed shut, his mind drifted back to the moment that was responsible for his disheveled state.

 *Flashback*

Abir was leaving from the NGO when he overheard a conversation between two of the NGO didis. 

"Woh jo mere baaju mei rehti hai na, uska pati usse aur uske hone wale bache ko chodkar chala gaya. Arey, maine toh yeh bhi suna hai ki uska baap bhi aise hi uski maa ko chodkar chala gaya tha, jab woh pet se thi," one of the didi's revealed. 

"Yeh toh wahi baat hogayi na. Aakhir khoon ke rishtey ne apna rang dikha hi dia," the other didi propounded. 

Abir's joy of meeting Mishti after staying away from her for the entire day, vanished into thin air as soon as those words fell on his ears. All the deeds of the one man he adored until that man's reality shattered his bubble, flashed in front of his eyes. Not wanting to stay there for another second, Abir hurriedly left. But was it so easy for him to forget once the thought had already entered his mind? Of course not. The entire ride home, the thought spinned circles in his mind. 

*Flashback ends*

Mehul Kapadia. The man that Abir had complete faith on, for his entire life. The man who was supposed to be Abir's guardian angel but only acted to be one, due to his selfish motives. The man Abir looked up to only to find that he was everything Abir never wanted to be. The day he was acquainted with his Baba's reality, was the day the walls of his heart had been brutally punctured. The conversation that he heard today was like salt to his wounds. 

"What if he would turn out to be just like his father?" Even the thought went shudders down his spine. Shaking his head, he turned the shower off and hoped that Mishti would have been asleep. He really didn't want to meet her right now. She was finally happy after so many days and Abir didn't want to worry her with his baggage. 

Mishti's patience was wearing out. It had been 15 minutes since Abir was in the shower. Her anxiety would shoot off the roof if Abir didn't come out in the next 2 minutes. As if Abir had listened to her silent plea, Mishti heard the lock of the bathroom door click. Abir walked out, dressed in his night suit with a towel in his hand. As soon as Abir's eyes caught Mishti's, his body stiffened. Encountering Mishti was the last thing he wanted right now. If Mishti questioned him, he wouldn't be able to lie. And even if he did manage to lie, she would know it within a fraction of a second. Freeing his minds of all the thoughts, he donned a fake smile and walked up to Mishti.

"Tum ab tak soyi nahi?" Abir asked nonchalantly. But Mishti looked back at him with questioning eyes. "Woh mujhe bahut late hogaya so I thought tum so gayi hogi," he explained. 

Mishti kept staring into his eyes, trying to find a reason behind his strange behaviour. And she found it. His eyes were the windows to his soul and there was no way they would ever lie to her. She understood that he was putting up an act in front of her. But why? She didn't know. Something was bothering Abir and he was clearly trying to hide it from her.