Meme creds: Pranju22

"You never told me it was DEVRAT DIXIT!"

"Nisha. Calm down."

"I thought it was someone from the writing department or someone else from the cast."

"Nishaaa"

"It's Dev Dixit, Sonakshi"

"Nisha..."

"Itne handsome ladke se kaun naraz hota hai?"

Sonakshi shot an angry glare and Nisha shoved the spoon full of cereal in her own mouth, afraid of Sona's outburst. Angry explosions of Sonakshi Bose had become a ritual from the day she met Dev at Khushi. He had forced himself inside the cab that had to take the girls home and then had forced himself as a subject to Nisha's hospitality.

"He is staying in our living room for four days now!" Nisha said impatienly.

"Oh? Is he? I didn't notice a third person here!" She said as Dev sat on the breakfast table and helped himself with the food.

"I think the house is ghosted." Sonakshi added.

"I think she has gone mad." Dev pointed his spoon to Sonakshi.

Sonakshi took the box of Chocos and added some of it in her bowl of milk. Dev looked at her twitched lips hoping for another explosion of the Bose girl but she refused to take any notice of his presence.

On Dev's first day at Nisha's, he couldn't control his big mouth -

"Itna silently dinner ho raha hai! Bollywood tells me all two single girls staying together do is get draped in towels singing Piya Piya. Sad that only happens in movies."

The immediate reward his big mouth gave him was a decree from Sonakshi which ordered him to stay bed-less in the house. It was planned that Sonakshi would sleep in Nisha's room while Dev could have the guest room all to himself. The plan was cancelled after his attempt of the third class humour at dinner.

Sonakshi was brimming with anger since then. She had refused to listen to Dev or his pleas regarding her return to Mumbai. She treated him as a massive object or even a ghost which was hardly leaving room for her to walk straight.

Then Dev tried to peep into Sonali (Sonakshi's diary) but Nisha caught him and told him it was better to stay away from Sona's personal stuff. Dev recognized it to be the same diary from which the girls were reading to the kids. Was Sonakshi writing her own children's stories then?

His attempt to poke his nose in her diary didn't went unnoticed by her. She spent the rest of the days blasting at anyone she could and the first human target of her incorrect channel of anger had been Nisha Kaduskar herself. Nisha had had turned an ignorant ear to her mostly because a different idea was popping in and out of her.

"Sonakshi?" Nisha had cornered Sonakshi in the guest room on the third afternoon of Dev's stay but when she tried to talk to Sonakshi it had been more difficult than she had expected.

Sona had been immersed in a book she had borrowed from the library. On the second day of his stay, Dev had followed her up to the Mall Road and disturbed her me time. So, she had decided to borrow the book and read it at her house.

"Umm... What are you reading?"

"Himalayan Tales by Ruskin Bond."

"Oh!"

Nisha had slipped out of the room.

Today, seemed to be the best oppurtunity that she could grab. She had to talk to Sonakshi - who over the days had turned into a human bomb. One wrong touch, one attempt to join the wrong wires and she would explode.

Dev finished his breakfast and walked out of the house.
Where?
Sonakshi's anger made it suffocating for people to be close to her. So after breakfast he would roam around on his own and would turn up by the time Nisha walked back from work.

"Sonakshi! Pass me the ... K-ketchup?" Nisha stammered.

"There's no ketchup." Sonakshi said.

"Yaa ... Yeah ... I'm sorry." Nisha added an apology for no reason and then picking as much courage as she could she held Sonakshi's hand.

"Ohkkaayy?" Sonakshi asked with suspecting eyes.

"Are there any more secrets? About your departure? From Mumbai?"

"No. Now you know everything." Sonakshi seemed ready to get up. She had finished her breakfast.

"Sonakshi...." Nisha took a deep breath. "I think you need to get back to Mumbai. That too asap."

"I'm sorry. What?" Sonakshi hoped that she hadn't heard it right.

"I... I think you need to go back where you belong." Nisha tried to keep her words as sincere as possible.

"I belong? I belong here." Sonakshi said and got up. She began collecting the plates.

"You... You don't." Nisha's voice was barely a whisper.

Sonakshi had heard the same statement from her conscience every day. She had buried all the voices that took her back to Mumbai. She had tried to abandon all those weak moments which made her crawl upto her phone and tempted her to hear her father's voice. A father who hadn't been white in character but who deserved so much more. To say the least, he deserved the daughter whom he gave to his wife, so that she could prize her life achievements by considering them to be a consequence of her upbringing. He gave Sonakshi as a trophy to Asha to make her feel worthy of something.

Her head and heart were torn between reason and love. Reason that told her that he could still make a contact with her in all those years and the heart that pumped in her rib cage screaming to be set free from the constant yearning of fatherly love and protection.

Then there were questions. If he loved her mother why did he get closer to Ishwari? How did a teacher became a character artist? If he sticked with Asha all through these days then why did he just leave her at the prospect of not having a second child?

A part of her defended her father from herself and another part turned deaf ears to all the defenses.

Then there was another, more piercing issue. Even after hearing Dev insult her behind her back she could not hate him. She tried with so much force everyday to produce even the slightest of hate and dislike but the love she had for him did not diminish. It was as stubborn as she was.

She had flipped through her diary and entry by entry as she turned the pages she realised that it had been her love for him all along. There was no reason for her to hate him. He used to joke with her but then don't friends do that? He had tried to tell her about another girl whom he had found hot and then, only once, he had turned a little flirtish with her. It was she, who had thought that Dev Dixit was falling for her. She desperately wanted to put the blame on him for misleading her into loving him but she couldn't! It was she all along. He was never a part of their relationship.

His only mistake was the gossip session he had with Jatin about her where he had questioned her work ethics and maturity.

Sonakshi's own love for Dev stood like a fire wall between her and him, which didn't let her own thoughts attack him.

She had known all along that she should go back to Mumbai, where she belonged but the freedom that Shimla offered was enough to keep her in the town. Her back had turned to her responsibilities and she had turned reckless in mending herself.

Hearing the thoughts that she wanted to get rid of from Nisha's mouth seemed to enrage the dragon inside her. The devilish feeling to hurt the person in her immediate vicinity grew stronger. Rather than being defensive, she had decided to attack. She was not going to leave the warm nest Shimla had been to her.

"I'll pay." Sonakshi said and before Nisha could realise what it meant, Sonakshi took the plates and went inside the kitchen.

Nisha followed her inside.

"Pay? Pay what?" Nisha said.

"I'm using your resources. I'll pay for whatever I use. What's the rent?" Sonakshi crossed her arms and looked at her friend.

Nisha's eyes widened with shock.

"Sonakshi, you are taking this in a different direction. I don't need your money. What are you talking about?" Nisha felt tears pooling in her eyes.

"I am saying, Dr. Nisha Kaduskar, I'll pay for whatever services you are giving me." Sonakshi's voice was cold.

"Oh! So you'll pay! Obviously, you used to earn more than I do, so you can pay." Nisha had difficulty in keeping herself together. "By the way, what price will you put on my friendship?"

Sonakshi looked away. She knew whatever she was saying wasn't right but her anger didn't let her apologize.

"Sonakshi..." Nisha's voice was hoarse. A lump had formed in her throat. "You need to understand. Your mother met with an accident and you left her. You abandoned her. You were never a child she wanted, still she loved you. She never abandoned you."

When Sonakshi didn't speak for a while, Nisha continued -

"This was the time Sonakshi, this was the time you could talk to your father and mend your relationship with him."

"I am not asking for your advice! Baba should have not told me their secrets in the way he did! A child needn't know that."

"I am NOT denying that but your parents are not God, they are humans like you and me. They made mistakes, they are flawed. Forgive them Sonakshi. I agree that if your mom would have told you everything about this matter earlier you could have handled it better." Nisha stopped for a while. "You'll HAVE to go back."

"I WILL NOT AND YOU WILL NOT TELL ME WHAT TO DO." Sonakshi was shouting.

"I WILL BECAUSE I AM YOUR FRIEND. I WILL TELL YOU WHAT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO EVEN IF YOU HATE ME AFTER THAT. I WILL ALWAYS ENSURE THAT YOU DON'T STRAY OFF FROM THE RIGHT PATH."

"If you were my friend you would stand by me." Sonakshi said.

"I am with you but I will not let you run away from your responsibilities. It's been a month Sonakshi!" Nisha said.

"I am doing fine here. I have you, the kids and I am working on a book ..."

"... Which you say you'll not publish." Nisha added.

"I..." Sonakshi lost track of her arguement. "I am emotional. You won't understand."

"I do understand. I understand that you are a coward." Nisha said.

"I am a coward? Don't you know what happened to me?" Sona said.

"I do and I know that it's easy to live life by an excuse. It's very easy to live in the shadow of your past but it's tough to accept that what happened in the past is dead now and you'll have to rise someday. Sonakshi, this is not your world. The kids in the orphanage will be adopted one after the other. They'll leave. I am 31. My parent's want me to settle down now. I don't know where I'll be in a year's time! You CANNOT rely on me and the kids. This life you are living is a MIRAGE!"

"When you decide to settle down won't you resign from this job? What was wrong in me resigning?" Sonakshi asked.

"If I get to stay in Shimla, then I won't but if I'll have to stop working at the hospital it will be a well thought out decision. It will include my higher authorities. I will not leave them hanging in mid air without a doctor to replace me. You did the exact opposite of that Sonakshi and after all this if someone mocks your work ethics you can't blame them a lot, can you?" Nisha said.

"You're on Dev's side." Sonakshi was the epitome of being stubborn. The one statement became the conclusion of the entire fight.

Nisha rolled her eyes and left for work. The entire day she was disturbed. Every second which she spent without work were immersed in thoughts about her morning confrontation.

Sonakshi had come a long way from a fragile hare to the charging leopard she was at that very moment but then if Nisha wanted Sonakshi's welfare she had to push her on a tough road to climb. Come to think of it, Nisha was a mother, sister and friend all rolled up in one package.

September was approaching, the clouds had stopped casting their dark shadows on the sky. Autumn was round the corner. The breeze and the scent of fallen leaves and twigs created a mesmerising aura.

Nisha was walking back home when she spotted Dev returning from his daily trip from the other side of the hill. Nisha caught up with him and fell into step beside him. He noticed her to his left, she smiled and he returned the gesture.

As they entered Nisha's garden, Nisha slowed her pace and let Dev reach the door. He pressed the door bell and Sonakshi opened it, chewing a pen in her mouth.

That was the precise moment Nisha needed.

"Aah! Aah! Mera pair." Nisha was on the floor wincing in pain, holding her foot.

"Nisha!" Sonakshi ran out of the house and Dev followed her.

"Kya hua? Are you okay?" Sonakshi helped Nisha to get up.

"Chala nahi jaa raha." Nisha limped for a few steps.

From the corner of her eyes, she saw Dev and Sonakshi a step behind her, the door was around 10 steps ahead of her. There was a risk but then she had always liked moutain dew (dar ke aage jeet hai)

1..2..3.. And Nisha ran towards the door.

In hardly 5 seconds she was inside the house and had locked the door behind her.

Sonakshi kept banging the door.

"Talk." Nisha shouted from inside and then only loud music was audible from inside the house.

"Ya right! And people bash me!" Dev said.

"You are not allowed to speak a word against her." Sonakshi made it clear.

She settled herself on a swing in the garden. Twilight was approaching. She had no money with her so there was no point in going for a Shimla tour. The only thing left to do was sit and wait.

"I've got some money with me. Wanna go out for dinner?" Dev said.

"Thanks but I'm not hungry." Sonakshi was still looking at the sky.

Dev sensed indifference in her voice but no anger. He found it safe to sit on the same swing. He sat on the other side of the swing leaving two arms distance between them.

They sat in silence. The distant mountain range turned a deeper shade of blue. With time, the stars appeared on the sky. The mountain range vanished into the canopy of darkness. The wind picked momentum.

"It was so easy to sit and talk about weird stuff, laugh on the silliest of jokes. I thought we had a connection. I was wrong." Sonakshi said, her eyes were still on the sky.

Dev turned a little in his position.

"I am sorry." He said.

"For?"

"For whatever I did that hurt you so bad."

Silence followed.

"You were supporting me, in front of my eyes. Behind my back, you were a different person. If you didn't like me as a person, there was no reason for you to come and talk to me in the canteen. On the sets, YOU initiated conversation Dev." There was a cold composure in her voice.

"I..."

Dev could not regret the moments he had shared with her but he could also not provide her solace either.

"I have so much to complain." Sonakshi said "... But I can't blame you Devrat Dixit. Maybe I misunderstood your friendship. My mistake, my heart. I'll manage."

"You know what?" Sonakshi spoke again. Her voice was soft. "Nisha and I had a fight this morning. Even after all of that, Nisha locked me out to talk to you and sort my head. I didn't let you speak a word, an alphabet against her. You and me ... We were friends?"

"Yes. We are friends." Dev found it hard to find his voice.

"Friends ... Hmm"

There was another spell of silence. Sonakshi thought for a while.

"What kind of friend speaks ill of another behind her back? Haa? Dev? Bolo?" Sonakshi looked at him and her tear lined eyes were impossible to look into. Dev averted his gaze.

"You've got nothing to say?" A lone tear escaped Sonakshi's eye. She looked away to wipe it and Dev took the distraction of the moment to clear his eyes too.

"So, we were not friends." Sonakshi's efforts to keep her voice stable was audible from every word she spoke.

"We are not friends. We were people working in different departments on the same project." Sonakshi looked at Dev again. "You have come here to take me back to work, to my responsibilities."

"The Malanis want you back." Dev said.

"So nice of them." Her voice seemed to come from a distant place.

"How do you trust so easily Sonakshi?" There was such desperation in Dev's voice that it startled Sonakshi. "How can you randomly look for good in people, love them, trust them?"

He saw the the shock on her face and then diverted the topic.

"The Malanis are exceptionally passionate for their work. They will do whatever is best for their profession. You needed money in your first interview, that is what they gave you. You needed to care and protection to work beside your father, Jyotsna did that for you... I'm not saying it was fake. For them it's work first. Now to bring you back, they don't mind going around speaking in the media that they were wrong and you'll be the bigger person in returning to the show. It's work first for them."

"I took the responsibilty of Pehla Pehla Pyar's content on my shoulders. If I planned to quit, I should have waited for another shoulder to hold it before running away. I left the support and the show crashed. I should have acted in a more mature way." She seemed to be talking to herself.

"You are coming back to Mumbai?" In hearts of heart Dev wanted her to refuse.

"I'll clear the mess I created. That's what responsible and brave people do." She replied. "I'll miss Shimla."

There was another brief pause.

"Do you still love me Sonakshi?"

"I do."

"Don't."

"I can't help it. Turns out, it is not in my hands."

Dev hated himself after listening to the answer but situations were never in his hands either.

"I'll miss Nisha. I'll miss the kids. I would prefer leaving a day after tomorrow. I need to visit places. Say goodbyes." Sonakshi said.

"Ok."

The door of the house opened. Nisha was standing waiting for them. Sonakshi got up first. She beamed at Nisha and hug her. Dev saw both of them retreat inside.

Dev saw Sonakshi walk away. He clenched the end of his shirt, tears threatning to spill from his eyes but then, when had anybody tried to peep into his life?

Precap - You tell? 🌚 Waise Samaina hug?

Just coz I ranted a lot in the previous chapter: I melted after yesterday's YUDKBH episode. So, yaa I'm hanging on.