Lot Like Love: A Bengal Romance ✔

Chapter 15

Lights glitter everywhere just like stars dropping to the earth, huge and small buildings collided in a mixture of shadow and geometry, vehicles rushing along with tangled lines of streets creating twisting threads of light - they all intertwined together in a magnificent mess of dream. It's almost midnight yet the city is still alive.

I glance at Agni beside me on the passenger seat. Her face is twisted in pain and she's taking deep breathes while I move the steering, hurrying to the hospital through the crowd of vehicles. A few honks blare from behind as if they are in a hurry to meet the president. I look at my speedometer and I'm at my highest limit. Thus, I motion them to go fourth as I don't want to engage in an accident and of course don't want myself paying the fine.

I glance at her again as she bites her lips. I can feel her pain sipping out of her body and reaching my skin yet, not a single drop of tears have left her eyes. She's enduring it for one hour as we are again stuck in the traffic and I curse mentally. I should have taken the long route as we could have reached faster than this.

"Is it hurting that much?" I ask.

"Yeah."

"It will hurt more when they'll do the plaster."

She looks at me with wide eyes, "How'd you know?"

"This happened to me a few months back on my right ankle."

"It's exactly the same ankle I think, I broke." She adds, "How'd you broke you ankle?"

I look at her, suppressing the grin as it's not a great experience. "I was drunk and jumped."

She chuckles, "From where?"

I bite my lips, "From bed."

A wide gape forms on her mouth then it turn to a shock, "What?"

I chuckle while my eyes are on the roads, "I jumped from my bed and landed on a trey that had cups."

She laughs and I accompany her as it's surely one of the best embarrassing moments of my guinness-book-of-embarrassing-moments and I didn't want to disclose this to anyone, however, she is laughing hard and for just a few minutes, she has forgotten about her pain.

Finally, taking the hospital route and leaving behind the jams of Kolkata, we arrive at the hospital gate. I park my car across the ambulances which are lined up beside the wide entrance. Quickly, I open door for her while supporting her with my shoulder, "Should I carry you?"

"No! I can walk!" she says breathlessly.

"Of course you do."

After she confirms that she broke her ankle which is unfortunately by me, the whole family was in a compromising situation. As she's our guest and we were supposed to take care of her, we failed. I failed.

She has told everyone that it was her fault as she didn't see the stairs and fell. She didn't mention anything about colliding with me and it made my guilty hundred times worse.

"I'm the reason your whole celebration is messed up," I mumble as we cross the hospital entrance, her small body leaning against me as I support her. The hallway has as much personality as the rest of the hospital. The floor is slate grey and the walls dove and the air has an undertone of bleach. Above the ceiling is made from those polystyrene squares laid on a grid-like frame. The light is too bright for my eyes after the darkening gloom outside.

"No! Accident happens, Aditya. It's not your fault. However, I still have to go to New York and," she looks at me, "I have to give back the bike to my friend, tomorrow."