"Some people have lives; some people have music."

— (John Green).

I want to change Diyah's name to Inaaya especially now that I am rewriting it but I'm unsure how my readers would take it :P

Rewritten: 27 February 2024

⭒

Diyah

"I just got his text, he will be here any time now!"

My best friend's head shook incessantly as she eyed the tiny trophy that I bought for him as a present for finally shaking on his first album deal, a first for the both of us and our relationship too. "Are you sure about this?" Her blonde straightened hair flicked from one side to the other, as I searched for a smoky outfit.

I turned around, cocking my head slightly to the side, a little tired of explaining my stance to her. "Nobody says no to me, Jessica, you know that!" Laying my lacy hot pink night suit on the bed, I straightened the material and kept it flat while she placed the little bouquet she bought for my boyfriend on my behalf on the vase by my dresser.

The flowers smelled like fresh meadows that dazzled with lavender blooms, probably the last of the lot that marked the onset of summer in the vibrant yet laid-back part of Manchester. Mystical.

I didn't know how to properly thank her. Friends generally are the best people to get advice from. They like to keep shit real, know every detail about the things you emotionally pour into and still see them from a more neutral perspective than the ones. No wonder they are the best resorts when dealing with crises. It's another story altogether that many don't listen to their friends for the same reasons – they're too objective. They want you to be happy but won't flinch from pointing out any red flags.

She kept an eye out for me in just the same manner. "He's not the typical man!" In her handful of interactions with Manik, she reported him to be snobby and curt in his responses with her. In the initial months of our relationship when I would shower him with unique heartfelt presents for every monthiversary, all of which would be met with a monotonous 'thank you', a small smile and a hug, she concluded that he was not fully capable of understanding emotional sentiments and did not deserve my time.

But she didn't see what I saw. The happy chats, the fun-filled evenings and several hundred dates when we were nothing but smiles, giggles, hugs and kisses around each other. Gifts were not his love language so it was wrong of my friend to jump to conclusions on him regarding it, while discrediting the physical affection he showered on me which was his way of showing me how much I meant to him.   

"Yes, but he's my everything." I promptly responded after briefly rolling my eyes.

Every teenage girl dreams of a fairytale romance, but I never thought miracles were real until I met him; like a cool breeze over a tropical island, he swished into my life and leashed me in. I couldn't get out even if I wanted to, and I... I didn't desire to.

"Which one out of these would make him want to nail me?" Jessica flicked her hair off her neck before scanning through my closet like her own.

"I approve of the pink you selected!"

I heard the doorbell ring. Shoving the little cup and anything minutely related to the surprise into hiding, I checked one more time that the rest of the room was welcoming enough to seduce him in. Just to tip the scales in my favour, I sprayed on my favourite perfume–the one he loved as well.

When we, Jessica and I, went to receive him, I dejectedly noted that he was not wearing the tuxedo I was expecting to sneak a glance of. He had known how much I desired to see him in it, but oh well, he was still handsomely dressed in camel coloured pants, paired with a dark dotted shirt tucked out, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and, of course, shades over his eyes.

"Maanik, oh, hello there!" My best friend beamed.

"Hey! Wassup?!" The Ferrari Logic3's that he bought for himself last Christmas slipped around his neck, and he grinned with crow legs in his eye corners–the most beautiful smile in the world.

I pushed her out of the porch politely. "I'll see you, Jess!" As her car beeped open, I wheezed a 'hi' to my boyfriend, who by then was quite distracted on his phone. He smiled, just a tad bit and requested a moment to draft a quick message as he made his way in.

Once his phone was locked and stashed away, I quickly latched onto his lips while pulling the crisply ironed collar. My breathing was uncontrollably rushed, which it always was around him. In less than a second, my waist was grabbed on and my core ground against his.

Almost tripping over his Superstars–his iconic trainers–when my body succumbed to the heat of the moment, a hand clutched my long curls, giving me the strength to hold on to, as his warm calloused tongue delved into the nooks of my mouth, sparking tingles in my chest where a heartbeat resided.

Out of sheer helplessness, I let out a subdued cry as his hands grazed my curves unabashedly. I was actively participating in the act, but lost control of myself at some point and succumbed to his pleasant administrations on my body. There came a moment when I physically couldn't move a muscle against his fiercely passionate embrace. I was tied down by need, by lust, that coiling my arms around his neckline was the only way to keep myself sane. He parted to heave over my lips in a breathless whisper, "I'm so hot for you right now..."

His hand slid from the back of my head to my throat, his fingers long enough to conveniently wrap around my survival pipes, making my heart sprint at the familiar gesture – one of my kinks. A threat never sounded hotter. I exhaled over his lips then, eyeing them and then his eyes alternately and squeezed my thighs together as the deadly look on his face only made me need him more.

I wanted to be on my knees, worshipping him but in sinful ways that the Almighty would disapprove. It was hard to study his next move when his expressions gave away nothing. My thighs locked right at his hip in a split-second of his touch... so responsive. I giggled a little nervously, holding onto his shoulders and neck.

"Aha, in quite a mood today, I see!" He teased with a cheeky smirk and a tongue drawing circles in his cheek. I couldn't stop staring at those long eyelashes that, despite having no makeup, were enticing like no woman's ever could. "Good, because you're going to fuck me until I forget I exist." A mesmerised sigh was all I could manage, my core soaking for a flicker of his touch.

⭒⭒⭒

Manik

Her warm breath around my length beseeched me to give in to the moment. Ideally, all that should have been on my mind was getting some action; I had gone down on her twice already, unravelling her at my mercy and after some prodding from her end, we mutually decided it was then my turn. Yet, even in such a heated moment bewitched with lust, I was vaguely aware that sex would not solve my dilemmas that afternoon.

When I exited Q Label, it was not on the best note; that I was certain of by Rohit's final expression. That hopeful man had felt something close to betrayal at my abrupt departure for what had seemed like the final domino to set their plans in motion. Then again, how? How could I ever give up Fab 5's throne to a bunch of strangers I barely knew the names of? True, Cabir and I had no connection anymore whatsoever. He was just an incarnation of the evil eye who happened to study with me, graduate with me and ended up choosing to pursue his passion, which aligned with mine.

Those dangerous melancholic thoughts of a time when friendship defined me were inevitable the more I isolated and alienated myself and so I had decided I did not want to be alone that day and had planned to visit my girlfriend. I did not necessarily want sex, although it indeed would be a good bonus, I thought, wouldn't ever say no to that.

She pumped and gripped, sucked and swirled, working me up in her favour. A deep breath did little to subside the fire inside me that all of a sudden took precedence, as I noticed her on my knees, bowing to me. She wore, on her middle finger, a crystal studded band that acutely stimulated me. Its texture and the temperature difference pushed me to the edge. So, I let it happen until I wanted the raw feeling to propagate through more out of pure carnal desire.

She didn't budge. Her pace instead quickened, earning a groan from me. Deep down, there was a sense of bliss within, that I was so gravely desired.

A chain of thoughts tying back to the events from earlier in the day tugged on some secluded parts of my brain that were hiding from the sexual tension in the room but consciously shelving them, my back hit the bed underneath, and her skinny figure retreated to hover over until it was flipped around under me. Her trembling hands lifted my jawline to eye her. "Manik..." She murmured without breaking eye-contact.

"We don't have time for this," I huffed, unwilling to torment myself in the home run. Parting her core with my slick fingers, I delved into her previously adequately prepped nether until I found the bloated spot. Her drug-like eyes scrolled closed with each stroke. She sprung up by a centimetre every time plummeting into a pool of harmony as the tension slowly built within her. She was a shaking mess.

Wrapping myself with the translucent sheath, she took a deep lungful as I positioned myself for a thrust. She helplessly clung onto my neck with both hands, gasping and moaning unfiltered which elevated the buzz of our inscrutable union.

Pulling her lower lip between my teeth, I bit softly and suckled on it as I pumped steadily without losing momentum, letting my hands wander wherever they desired for her gratification. While nobody apart from my friends was permitted anywhere close to the tender confines of my heart, an undeniable fact was that repeated physical acts of that nature between partners transgressed intimacy to a level I was not prepared for. 

Her tender muscles clenched around me, holding me in place. Her fingers slipped into my dense black strands, as she anchored herself with all her might–to the point of oblivion where she could no longer contain herself. And I watched her, every twitch of her muscles, with intent.

What followed was an accustomed sensation as my climax approached. A wave of numbness emerged from where our bodies joined. My brain ceased to act sanely under those extreme sensual circumstances. Irredeemable decisions were usually taken during that period, as my hormones escalated to my limbs, spreading over my chest, my neck, and then jolted in my head.

"Manik..." She chanted, as if I was her prayer, amidst the sin we were committing that He was a witness to.

Only for those few moments my world–where everything was about me–collided with reality; that self-centredness made me cynical in my own eyes, for I was as hollow as a dark pit as my euphoria crashed down, encountering the most gruesome personalities buried under its depths. Nobody else would dare to touch that part of me.

Nothing really validates me.

Her fingers ran through my hair, affectionately, over and over again. "I love you." She muttered at my dead-ass sweaty face, kissing me softly on my forehead. Something about that warmth: that feeling of being cared for, of being loved even if the person she saw was merely a fraction of the bigger darker picture of my true self, it made me feel tingly in my chest. A series of feelings I yearned for as long as I could remember.

Cherishing the short-lived moment, I turned over and took a deep breath into the crevice of her neck that was covered with her silky tresses – long like I liked them. Sometimes, a heart doesn't turn cold on its own: it's the conditions surrounding it that changes it. Even the strongest plant would succumb to death if the only season it saw was the biting winter.

"I love you too," I muttered as I raked her hair, dismissing the mocking tone that suggested I had only blurted those words out of convenience. We stayed wrapped in each other's arms in that manner for some odd minutes.

"Manik baby..." She murmured in my ear while fondling the other one. The front of my body was pressed against hers as she rolled over me, massaging my shoulders to relieve me of some stress.

I wasn't asleep, but I was in a world of my own, for critical decisions had to be made, paying little attention to what was happening around me.

"Hmm?"

"I have a surprise for you."

"Really?" I asked, the least interested in anything 'surprising'–I had my share of those: enough to last me a lifetime.

"Come on, I'll show you." Pulling my shirt over her head, as she always did after we shared the bed together, she got off of me and hopped over to the other side of the room where she had set her 'surprise' up. My eyes darted to the direction she was headed off.

Before I could realise how the pieces of the puzzle fit together, the dresser on the other side of the room held a little trophy cup that I hadn't managed to notice that entire time. For a man who was generally aware of his surroundings, and had his guard up consistently to defend himself from people's nasty games, it didn't catch my attention even once. It said something, with grey metallic paint on it, and my whole frame froze as I read each word to myself – signing an album deal had be a far easier decision to make in comparison.

Will you marry me?

⭒

I'm certain this is debatable, since none of us can see a Manik without his Nandini (or with another girl for that matter) but have faith in your girl... for it goes a long way :") <3

What did you think of this part?

So much love for all the support so far <3 Bless you angels :3