𝙊𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 (MaNan OS) ✅

On the flight

"Shut the fuck up, Cabir.", the other end laughed hilariously. "I didn't select this profession to impress girls or attract them towards myself, okay. I have a lot of other important things in life to do. Unlike guys like you. Who sleeps like a log, parties like an animal, throws unimportant demands all the time, and changes girlfriends in a rocket speed. You-"

"Bhai!! They aren't my girlfriends okay. They can't just ignore my attractive personality, you know. And also, I'm just a student... what do you even expect from me? To become the new Scientist Newton? Entrepreneur Steve Jobs? Writer Shakespeare? Poet Napoleon? Or-"

"Napoleon was an Emperor.", Manik corrected him in a bored voice.

"Ya, ya whatever. You got my vibe right?", Cabir coolly tried changing the topic not to insult himself further.

"Yeah sure. I understood your 'vibe', Jobless Malhotra."

"Bhai, don't call me that. Or else- or else I'd start calling you G-A-Y."

"And you think I even care what stupid-ass name you call me with?" and again, for the second time, Manik succeeded in shutting his mouth in the last 4.5 minutes of talk. "And now, if you're done talking nonsense, can you kindly pass the phone to Mom? I've a flight to catch and I'm running late. I don't have time."

"Bruh, just like 'A Queen is never late', a pilot is also never late for his flight.", Cabir aid as a matter of fact and Manik huffed in frustration. He could clearly visualize Manik's reaction right now. Lips tightly closed, teeth greeted, hand balled in a fist, and eyes rolling. He burst out laughing.

"Cabir.", he warned.

"Okay, here she is. Mom your ladla is on call.", he giggled forwarding the phone to Nyonika.

"Hey, love. How're you doing?", Manik asked enthusiastically.

"Tera flight hai na ab?", Asked his mother with zero percent enthusiasm. Manik expected this reaction anyway.

His father was a pilot too and he died on his 8th flight. Manik was 7 years then and Cabir 4. He had seen his mother struggle for them alone and he wanted to take all the responsibilities on himself as soon as possible. His father was his idol since childhood and he wanted to be like him, a pilot.

From buying him toy planes, playing pilot-pilot to taking him on a real cockpit tour, his father did everything. Both Raj and Nyonika were reluctant about his aim in life, Until she lost her husband in a plane malfunction. She never wanted Manik to become a pilot anymore. But who was she to crash her own son's dreams?

Her heart stops beating from the time Manik calls her before takeoff, to the moment he calls her after landing. Manik was worried about her too. But her reason for tension was very illogical. Not every pilot die in a plane crash. A few unfortunate ones do.

"My dear Mom, why do you worry so much? Aapka BP high ho jayega. Then don't call me up to take you to the hospital.", Manik laughed.

"When are you going to land?", she asked giving no reaction to his statement/joke.

"In 7-8 hours, I'll be right in front of you, Mom.", he replied. "And pleas-", he stopped in the middle as something, or rather someone bumped into him, resulting his phone to fall directly on the tiled floor. "What the?"

"Ouch.", said the girl as she fell down on her knees. "Oh sorry sorry! I'm so sorry!", she said as her eyes fell on his phone landing just beside her. She immediately picked the phone even before Manik could, inserted the battery, closed the cover, and handed him the phone.

"It's fine. Are you okay-", she rushed away even before he could finish.

What was that?, Manik thought.