Reality Ever After

Part 20. This Ain't a Fairy Tale

So I was going to write the next chapter over the weekend. But all the comments showered in the previous chapter were very overwhelming and so, that motivated me to start writing the next chapter and once I started, I couldn't stop till I finished this.

And I am very impressed on how none of you were spewing hate on Mr. Malhotra. I'm glad that you all didn't think he was a villain.

Also, this one, by far, is my favourite chapter. Let me know what you guys think.

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Manik was fuming when he was walking back to his room. He was furious with the discussion he had with his Dad. Just because he wanted Manik to pursue business and he didn't want it, he was blaming Nandini for it. Where did Nandini even come into the picture? She didn't even know that his Dad wanted him to choose business as a career option. Why was she getting blamed for things she was nowhere related to? And why did everyone have a problem with his relationship with Nandini. Was it so rare for people to be in love nowadays? Everyone just kept talking about how it's not possible to find your forever at such a young age and life is hard and all that crap. Everyone thought that his and Nandini's relationship was a bed of roses and a teenage romance and kept waiting for them to break up but only Nandini and he knew how much the two of them had to endure to just be together. Why couldn't they mind their own business. He hated when others butted their nose in things related to Nandini and him. It was their personal life, their relationship and they knew it more than anyone else. What was troubling him more was how everyone kept telling him that Nandini will drift away from his life. And that unnerved a lot of his feelings of insecurity. He had nearly lost Nandini one too many times in the past. But now, when they were so deeply in love, he knew it was impossible for him to breathe without her. And when everyone kept telling him that his relationship with Nandini won't last or when people tried breaking them time and again, it triggered those feelings of helplessness that he felt when Soha was about to murder her or when the Pandit had kidnapped her. He had this constant fear in his mind about losing her and the various possibilities of what could've happened had he not reached on time during both these incidents. And it became difficult for him to breathe when he thought about it.

He barged into his room distracted with all these thoughts and absolutely forgot that Nandini must be fast asleep. He banged the door shut in his anger and walked straight into the walk-in closet to look for a pair of clothes to change into. Everything was a mess of course because he had dumped everything earlier and he was getting all the more irritated finding something. Finally, he did manage to find a pair of shorts and he decided to give up on finding a T-shirt.

Nandini's sleep broke with all the noise that Manik was making. First, the closing of the door and then Manik making some noise in his new walk-in closet.

Nandini - Manik...

She didn't get any response and so she called out a little louder.

Nandini - Manik...

She switched on the bedside lamp and was about to get off the bed to check on him when she saw Manik coming out of the walk-in closet. He looked disheveled, his hair messed, his eyes blood red and he was also sweating and breathing a little heavily too.

Nandini - What happened to you? Come here.

She called out to him stretching her arms and he came running to her and hugged her tight. He hid himself in her neck and Nandini put her arms around his head hugging him close. He just stayed there for a few minutes without saying or doing anything but just kept hugging her and she kept kissing him on his head from time to time giving him the time and space to tell her what was wrong. She knew that his conversation with his Dad had triggered this behavior of his. She was well aware that he had a complicated relationship with his parents and certain encounters with either of them brought out the lost little boy who was left alone by his parents back. However, she also knew she shouldn't push him and let him open up on his own. Until then, she'd continue to give him the security he needs.