Crush

Mehul looked at Nitya, as if scrutinizing her to find out what was wrong or what was hurting her. Not knowing what had made her wake up like this from her sound sleep, and now her stunned silence was making him more anxious by the minute. He asked, "Nikku, was it a bad dream again kiddo?" Meanwhile, Ruchi was examining her temperature to see if it was normal or if they needed to call the doctor again. But thankfully the temperature was normal, even though Mehul was alarmed and was picking up her appendages at random, as if trying to verify that they were still attached to her and functioning well. After noting down her temperature and pulse rate, and checking for dilation or redness in the eyes, Ruchi asked "Nitya! What happened, are you alright? Or if you are not feeling well, should I call the doctor?"

Nitya came back from the zone of her dreams to reality as she heard Ruchi's voice, and replied "I am totally okay ma'am, sorry if I have bothered you both so late at night. I am already feeling bad that you guys are unable to sleep comfortably because of me." Nitya completed her sentence with a sad look in her eyes, when Mehul spoke again, full of anger "Ami tomake ek kara marbo, yadi tui aei boli chaliye yana!" ("I will slap you hard, if you continue to say this!")

Nitya flinched for a second, everything was getting too much for her to endure. She was breaking day-by-day, constantly thinking that she was not lovable at all and everybody was carrying her along as a burden just because they couldn't leave her behind on a barren land. 'How could so many people be wrong about the same thing; and if she was not a burden, then why had every friend of hers apart from Surbhi left her after their goals were fulfilled? Even Siddhant and Natasha, who she had shared these fears with, had also left her after stating that she was merely an attention seeker; if not, then how did she always end up in the center of everything? She could barely console herself and was trying to move on from the pain of broken friendships and trust again; then these dreams had come out of nowhere: and who on God's green earth was this guy who kept showing up? And in those dreams, how was she not even trying to push him away from her, as she usually did? How could she feel something weird in the pit of her stomach, even in her dreams whenever he was around her? Even after waking up, those thoughts were hard to dispel- she didn't even know if that guy was a real person, or her conscience had just come up with an evil plan to make her suffer more, as she had been becoming better at hiding her emotions day-by-day. But what Mehul had just said had almost made her break out in tears; not once in twenty-two years had he thought of hitting his sister, least of all with anger.'

Another drop was about to fall from Nitya's eyes, that was when Ruchi raised her voice at him, "Mehul! Really? I never expected this clownery from you, how can you think of such horrid things when she is already sick?"

Mehul was already feeling guilty about what he had just said; as he had vented out all his anger about not knowing what had been going on in his sister's life on the same person! He already sensed that he was wrong but Ruchi pointing out his mistake further was making him feel even worse; he knew that Ruchi never singled out his mistakes since their college days, and even went so far as to conceal them! The fact that she was highlighting it in front of someone younger only meant that his statement had really crossed a line in her eyes.

He wanted to apologize to his sister, but he knew that if he spoke a word again, it would only make her cry. She was already suffering through a high fever and he couldn't afford to make her cry at this moment, as it would result in raising her temperature further; but he needed to say something, otherwise his sister might end up believing everything he had said as the truth. He was trying to find the appropriate words, when he heard his sister's voice.

"Professor, do you know Bangla? If I am not wrong, Dada just used Bangla to yell at me, no?"

At this, Ruchi replied with a smile "I know that you and your Dada share this secret code of conversing with each other in different languages whenever you guys are in public; but he always inevitably forgets that I am a bengali as well!"

Nitya had raised this question to take away attention from her brother's statement, and to make her Dada feel less guilty as she knew was not worth all the love and care she was getting. She also knew that her Dada must already be trying to find the words to apologize at the moment. But Nitya's innocuous question had ended up getting a reply she had never imagined; she had always known that her brother was the crush of many girls from his college, but there was only one bengali whom he liked to some extent. Although she didn't want to spill the truth, but she accidentally spat everything out as the surprise was too much for her to handle at a moment when she was already dealing with plenty of her own emotions.

Her mouth was fully open with surprise, and eyes widened to the size of saucers. "So you are the only bengali girl whom Dada has a cr-" Before she could have completed the sentence, Mehul closed her mouth with his palm, interrupting her loudly "Enough! Now you need to go to sleep again, before you wake your brain up even more by talking too much. Or tell me if you are getting some kind of nightmares," saying this, he winked at her to signal her to refrain from spilling anything. His gaze held the silent promise of him repaying her afterwards if she just kept quiet!

Ruchi looked at the brother-sister duo , taken aback with confusion at what they were doing. From what she had seen, Nitya had been saying something about her being the "only bengali girl" before Mehul had clamped her mouth shut. 'As far as she knew Nitya, she would never have something derogatory to say about someone based on where they hailed from. Moreover, Mehul knew that Ruchi wouldn't get offended by mention of her religion or culture, so why was he forcing Nitya to shut up?'

She spoke out, partially out of confusion and partially out of curiosity at what Nitya had been trying to say. "Let her speak at least, and after that she will be able to sleep peacefully too."

"No, it's really late and she needs to sleep right away! Lie down again Nikku, I will narrate to you, your favorite story of the moon and the little child!"

Nitya knew that if her Dada got his way, she would not get another chance to speak everything out loud. But now that she knew who that bengali girl was, she just had to wait for Mukul to return and then they would have what was pretty much the biggest weapon to blackmail their elder brother with. Thinking this and making plans about what a fun extortion it would be, she drifted off to dreamland again. Forgetting her pain, she let the drowsiness engulf her; knowing that somebody was there by her side, at least for now, and she won't be alone after waking up.

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