Reconciliation

Nitya spoke up, indignant at first, "What do you mean by justifying your actions by saying that 'you can be a little jealous sometimes' and that 'you can't share me with anyone'? I am your sister, I am a person, Siddhant- not a toy or an object that you have to share or hide from everyone else!" She then let out an exasperated sigh and continued "I have feelings of my own, for God's sake, why don't you understand this once and for all? Natasha is also your sister, isn't she? We aren't even related by blood; and even though Natasha is your own sister- unlike me, you give her the space she needs, right? I also want my space, I also have friends and family apart from you; and they all love me as well." Nitya completed her piece, keeping her voice as calm as she could, as if explaining things to a toddler.

Siddhant was getting angrier with every word of hers, but he knew that he couldn't win her over by displaying his anger. 'He knew better than to do that- he was well aware that her only weakness was love; she was not afraid of anything, but you could make her do whatever you want to, just using the language of love.'

Thinking thus, he stepped forward and tried to hug her once again, but she stepped back and refused him very quickly, saying "Please maintain distance while you talk to me." This made him even more angry, as he had already seen her hugging Veer before anybody else had noticed that they had arrived at the scene. He taunted her, with a smirk on his face and a fake look of dawning realisation after glancing dramatically at Veer, "Of course you won't be hugging me. Afterall, you have a much more handsome person to embrace now!"

Nitya ran out of patience and responded to him before Veer could get a chance to overhear and understand, she knew he wouldn't have let them leave without knocking at least four of Siddhant's teeth out. "Siddhant! Shut up, just shut up! Tell me whatever you wanted to say so desperately that you sent Natasha to negotiate on your behalf. And then I just want you to disappear from here after you are done!"

"No! No one loves you like I do, no one can love you like that- you are just like my own daughter to me, and I won't be sharing you with anyone-"

"What if I got married?"

"I won't let it happen and you don't want to get married in the first place! But even if you chose someone to marry, I will look them up first; and only if they are eligible for you in my eyes, then I will allow it to happen. Otherwise, I will simply keep you with me forever."

"Excuse me! First of all, the things you are saying are not cute at all, in fact, they sound rather scary. And secondly, I am not obliged to follow whatever commands you issue; so you don't have to stress yourself about me! I am not your responsibility, and if I-"

"You are my responsibility," Siddhant cut her off in the middle of her sentence with an air of finality, as if no further discussion on the topic was warranted.

"What? Who told you that?"

"Me! I am the one who can decide this, so sit back down and do as I ask you to do."

"Are you out of your mind? You do still remember that I am human, don't you? And what do you think of yourself? If you hadn't done the things that you did, then I might have ended up trying to see things from your perspective and maybe I would even have gone along with your whims and orders. I put myself through all that because I used to respect you and did care for your feelings- but that is something I used to do! That means it is all in the past, I am not going to do the same things anymore. So I am requesting you: can we at least behave like civilised humans and normal classmates? There are many people in our friend group who still share bonds with both of us, and I want to avoid the scenario where they would have to choose either one. We were best friends back then- in fact, more like siblings than best friends. The least we can do to honor that is to be classmates to each other, without any hate or anger! It will be good for both of us."

"What do you mean, 'good for both of us'? As if you didn't want me to forgive you! And if that was the case, then why had you been bothering me and begging for my attention? Your potential for drama, my God! Trust me, you are such an amazing actress that almost everybody had believed that you were sick; but you know what? You can't fool me anymore! The veil in front of my eyes was lifted the day I read your chats with everyone else, in which you had mentioned that you were fine! I know you were only repeating this spouting this narrative of you being unwell to people who were there with us. I can't imagine how an innocent face can cheat people so easily-"

Nitya broke out into tears, but she still interrupted his hurtful rant; all of his words felt like arrows, and every single one hit the mark. Even though her voice was shaky, she cried out in reply "What do you want to imply? Don't you know that I am always going to say that I am fine to people I am not close to, or people I know will end up taking stress if I replied truthfully?! The reason I had been calling you to take me to the hospital was that I was severely ill; and I was in so much pain that for the first time in my life, I was willing to accept the fact that I needed to go to the doctor and asked you for help! And what did you do at that point- you blocked me! You blocked my number from your phone after denying my calls; so why do you want this friendship to resume when I am the one who had been begging you then? I promised myself that day that I will not beg or bother you; consider me dead to yourself!"

Nitya completed the sentence in a bout of anger, leaving Veer and Meisha super uneasy with her statements as they were unable to say something or even find a suitable reaction for them. Everyone siting there was expecting more of a rough response from Siddhant, but to shock everyone further, he started crying like a baby.

Trying to wipe his own tears away with his sleeve, he croaked out "I'm sorry, but please don't say that! I know you need attention, I was at fault for not giving you that attention, but I was a little jealous because you were spending more time with your brothers than with me. So I might have gotten a little angry over this at the time; and you know when I am in anger, I can't control my reaction- I never meant to block you, but I was not myself at that point. Please don't do this to me.."

Somewhere deep inside, a voice within Nitya's brain was trying to shout at its highest pitch that Siddhant was doing the same thing which he had done many times before, but her heart had melted once again. She had trusted this person once, just like her own brother and treated him as her own family, so she couldn't really just jerked away the feelings in one stroke. She also needed some time to move on to a place when his tears wouldn't bother her again, but Natasha had inserted him back in her life before she could have gotten there. So for now, she had to forgive him- everybody deserves a second chance, after all.

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