NAZIA HASN'T SLEPT A WINK. Last night felt like torture to her, exaggerating with each turn she takes to a missing bed. The entire day was spent crying in her bed, watching Bollywood movies where everyone dies in the end, and spoiling herself with chocolate. In the morning she finally arose from bed, she turned her diet around and ate a single carrot for breakfast.

That was only because she spent the a few minutes puking and leaning over a toilet before realizing that a horrible diet isn't a good idea.

The door bell rings frantically and Nazia's eyes widen. Is it Kabir? Has he finally come back? She practically skids across the floor, opening the door in a rush. Instead of Kabir, her eyes meet Abeer's.

"Oh," she comments, her eyes looking him up and down in distaste. Abeer chuckles, smiling at her as he takes in her pajamas. They're definitely not meant for this winter; with its short shorts and the large white shirt with the word 'koolbai' on it. A certain distaste runs over his mouth when he realizes it could be Kabir's.

When he walks in the room and Nazia slams the door shut behind him, he realizes it is. That scent is unmistakable after the day he spent hours searching for that exact cologne. It's a tad pathetic that Nazia is still wearing his shirt two days after their breakup.

"Is Kabir home?" Abeer asks, his fingers tapping on his wrist. "I wanted to ask him if he wanted to plan Megha's surpirse birthday party with me - even though he probably doesn't."

Nazia's voice gets stuck in her throat. She's unable to breath for a second at the reminder of his name. Kabir isn't here and he won't be for a long time. The very thought of explaining Kabir isn't here is enough to make her miserable once again.

Abeer watches Nazia carefully, shifting his black bag pack slightly as he wonders if she's jut as sad as she was when he left her. "He's at Harnaam's for a few days," she says, waving her hands as if it's nothing big or unusual. Her engagement ring flashes in the light. "He'll be back soon."

"Sure," Abeer states, nodding. He swings over his bag, quickly grabbing a small envelope and he hands it to Nazia. "I wanted to give this to you in person. There's this large gallery opening soon and it's got some of the best artists on the market right now. There's an opening for a local artist or artists that aren't extremely popular.

I want your work to be there too. It'll be great coverage for you. All the artists at our building have gotten a letter," he carries on. Nazia looks down at the envelope, her eyes scanning the golden writing that loops and twirls like a poem. Exquisite. Even the name sounds beautiful and mouth watering.

She flips over the brown envelope, ripping it open quickly. The writing on the white sheet is all in gold, and the text shimmers under light. Abeer smiles at Nazia, taking in her raised eyebrow as she read through the letter. It informs her about some of the big names at the gallery and at the end, there's a subition email where Nazia has to send some of her best works.

"I decided to give this to you in person because I wanted to apologize too," Abeer says, awkwardly straching his shoulder as Nazia looks up with a frown. Abeer never apologizes. His 'apologies' victimize himself and dehumanizes the other. They avoid the word sorry and replace it with puppy eyes, smooth compliments and promises to get better.

Promises that never come true; a lesson Nazia learnt in a horrid way.

Abeer shifts his weight to his other foot and drops his arm from his shoulder as he takes a step closer to Nazia. "Look, what I've down is horrible. I've only realized how horrible cheating is now when Megha told me she's been seeing someone else . . . It really opened my eyes to your pain. What a hypocrite I am; I've been crying over Megha but I never realized that I did the exact same thing to you. I'm so sorry and I hope that one day we can become who we used to be and if not that, at least friends."

Nazia's first thought was 'good, he deserves it' and then it switches to the fact Megha's name was spoken from his tongue. Megha cheated on him?! Nazia doesn't believe it. Megha is the sweetest girl she knows despite the fact she has the tendency of being slightly selfcentered and rebellious.

Breaking someone's heart is something that Megha would never do. It's too difficult for the sweet girl who speaks words of sugar dashed with spice. Despite her rough exterior, her constant glare, and black clothes, she has the heart of gold.

"Did Megha really cheat on you?" Nazia suspiciously asks as Abeer looks to the floor. There's tears pooling in his eyes and he quickly wipes them away before looking up again. A quick nod later confirms her quiry.

"She broke it off as well; it wasn't me. She decided that whoever she was cheating on me with was better than me . . . which is exactly what I did with you," Abeer says. "It took me months to realize Sahiba is nothing compared to you."

Sahibha. The name gives Nazia a pang in heart as she reminisces about the beautiful lady that Nazia had no chance against. She had high cheekbones, a stunning laugh, long silky brown hair and blues eyes. On top of all of that, she spoke captivating words -- from what Nazia could see. She's never seen Sahibha in real life but however, she has been through Abeer's texts by accident once and had her heart broken at the sight of her words.

Nazia still remembers the day she had her heart broken when she found out Abeer had another long term girlfriend. Sahibha had called Abeer's phone when Abeer was busy getting popcorn for Nazia. When Nazia picked up the phone, she was surpirsed to hear a 'hey babe,' in a seductive voice. Nazia had quickly hung up and scrolled through the messages, to only find out that Abeer had been cheating on her.

"To be frank, I doubt Sahiba is the shitty person here. You're the one who is," Nazia remarks. Her eyes widen for a second as the memories of the blue eyed beauty ran through her head. It sounded oddly familiar to that girl on Kabir's phone . . . And the breakup with Kabir was within the next day.

Did Sahiba have anything to with the breakup? What if she's convinced Kabir that she's the better choice . . . What if Kabir got drunk and cheated on Nazia with her? It's unlikely, but then again she remembers nothing from that night. It'll explain why Kabir was rambling on about cheating the next morning, although that felt like a blur to her as well. She can barely recall his words for some odd reason, eventhough she's trying her best to remember.

Maybe Sahibha is the reason for her second major heartbreak. She took Abeer away from her, she convinced Abeer to leave Nazia just for her blue eyes and long legs. What if she did the exact same to Kabir? What if Kabir had been cheating on her for months? And it was only today he realized that Sahibha was better than Nazia?

"It was," Abeer sighs. "It just took me a long time to admit it. By the way, I think you should know that Kabir is cheating on you - I saw him at a club with Sahiba. I'm so sorry."

Nazia's eyes widen and she takes a step back. Her throat runs dry. It took Kabir an entire day to get over her? To get over two years worth of memories? Did she mean that little to him? "If you don't believe me, you'd believe these photos," Abeer says, his hand grabbing for his pocket and revealing a sleek iPhone.

A few taps later, he hands the phone to Nazia who hesitantly looks at the touchscreen. The photo reveals holding Kabir against a wall with his arms around Sahibha's waist. He's smiling at her, the types of smiles that Kabir used to only give to Nazia. The type of smiles he would throw around when he's making terrible jokes and awful puns that somehow make Nazia giggle. Nazia's heart sinks, breaking at the way he holds Sahibha just like how he did to her a few days ago.

In the next photo, he's kissing her in the dim hues of purple and pink. It's not friendly kisses. It's kneebending kisses, the type of kisses you'd give for lust and love and to someone you knew; not a stranger. Kisses that always lead to something else.

At least he's smiling again. The light in his eyes had completely disappeared the day before their breakup. Somewhere, deep inside her heart, Nazia is glad that Sahibha has restored that light. But on the surface of reassurance of Kabir's smile, Nazia's heart wishes that it was her instead of Sahibha.

It's safe to say Nazia's heart breaks. She drops the phone, taking a step away if she'll be safe from her broken heart like that. Abeer licks his lips and leans down to grab his phone. He dusts it off on his jeans as if nothing had just happened.

"That - that can't be Kabir," Nazia says, her hand flying to her face to wipe away tears that have already started to fall. Her voice breaks in the middle of the sentence as a sob emerges from her chest. She kneels to the ground, her eyes firmly set on the ground as she lets her tears fall freely across her cheeks.

Abeer kneels down besides her, his eyes widening in fear and worry. Normally, he hates tears but this is Nazia. He'll love anything about her including that dreaded excess of eyeliner and her tears. His fingers gracefully pull away the tears from her cheeks, drawing Nazia's large eyes to him.

There's so much love swelling up in Abeer's eyes for her. His eyes are soft, they're forgiving, and warm. It's everything she needs right now and if she closes her eyes, she can imagine it to be Kabr's hand that caresses her cheek. So she closes her eyes as her eyelashes clump together, and relishes the way his fingers graced her cheeks.

And when his arms wrap around hers, she wraps her own around his back. That's how they stayed for a few moments, with their breathes in synch until Nazia's heartbeat slowed down to her normal pace. She gulps and leans back, away from his warm touch.

Nazia wipes away her tears, grateful that she didn't wear eyeliner this morning. "Thanks for the letter," Nazia awkwardly says, trying to make a weak smile in gratitude. "And as for the photos, I'll . . . I'll try to say something."

"You mean you will. I don't want you to be with someone who gives you half of the love you deserve again," Abeer answers, taking her hands in his. He watches her eyes carefully. "Promise me you'll talk to him."

Nazia takes a sharp inhale of breath and she nods. "I - I will, for sure," she says, her eyes looking at the painting behind him. She wonders if she could invite herself over to Harnaam's place and talk to him. To ask him how easy it was to get over her?

Abeer gets up, walking away from her. At the last moment, his hand lingers on the door knob and he turns around. "Seriously, Nazia, if you need anything, I'm just a call away," Abeer says. Nazia nods, wrapping her arms around herself as she shoots a small smile to him. "And I don't know, invite Harnaam over. Being alone with a broken heart won't heal anything."

"I think I will," Nazia says, her eyes lost in thought. It's not like Kabir needs her anyways -- he's perfectly happy with Sahibha. Even in Nazia's head, the word Sahibha comes out as a curse rather than a name.

Nazia quickly waves a goodbye to Abeer and she closes the door. Tonight, she'll repeat her 'therapy' with Harnaam. They'll gossip about some celebrity, drink chai while wearing facemasks, order takeaway and watch some low quality Bollywood movie.

It'll be better than staying home alone with a broken heart and wondering why she's not as perfect as Sahibha.

□

FOUR HOURS LATER, Abeer walks quickly with his shoes echoing on the wooden floor. There's a large window on one side that shows a beautiful lake and blissfully beautiful blue skies. On the other side, there's several doors that led to changing rooms and ballet rooms.

Abeer walks right to the end and rests his hand on the door knob before stretching. For half an hour last night, Abeer had stalked all of Bella's social medias until he had a rough idea of her timetable. Then, he had planned a road trip that would take a hour with low traffic and three with high to Kabir's home town.

After stretching his tired limbs, he opens the door to a soft pink room filled with only one dancer. A petite dancer spins in the middle of the room, her eyes only watching herself in the mirror. While her movements are beautiful, her expression isn't. It's so dull and expressionless; something that's the complete opposite of Kabir and leaves Abeer wondering how did they ever date.

"Is your name Bella?" Abeer asks, his voice sounding soft.  She finally looks towards the new arrival in the room, her perfect eyebrow raising to great him.

"I don't do interviews. And if you're a friend of Kabir's, tell him to go to hell - "

"- trust me, I hate Kabir more than you do," Abeer chuckles, rudely interrupting her. Bella moves away from the center of the room and leans against a mirror as she watches him. "I want you to destroy Kabir like he destroyed two years of your life."

"How?" Bella pipes up. Her bun is tightly perched on her head, and she quickly undoes it until pale waves float to her waist. The only reason why Abeer thinks Kabir ever dated her was because of her beauty -- but that feels off as well. Kabir watches Nazia as if she's the definition of beauty. Bella is the complete opposite of Nazia with her blond hair and her impatient blue eyes.

Bella taps her foot impatiently, watching Abeer with an eyebrow that keeps arching higher and higher. She wants to destroy Kabir as much as he destroyed her fantasies of perfection. She had the perfect job, she was the perfect bellarina, she has perfectly symmetrical face and body, and the almost-perfect boyfriend. She just needed to tweak him until he did everything she wanted whenever she wanted.

Bella doesn't accept any flaws - everything has to be perfect.

And on days when everything was messed up, when she couldn't get her moves right or when she got all red lights while driving home, it was Kabir that she took it out on. She took out all her flaws on drinking a bit too much, staying out late and sometimes even cheating on Kabir whenever he used to answer back as a punishment. Perfecting Kabir and making Kabir afraid of her gave her somewhat importance. She had felt so in control.

She knew how he would react once he found out she cheated on him - that's why she used it as a method of punishment. He would be devastated and that is what he became.

Now, Kabir has destroyed everything. Who would hire her when she has a mark on her name, when her name is plastered over several news stories? Bella Brown is an extremely common name if she had to admit it. All she has to do is just move to a new place - such as France - and burn all remains of her old life.

But, she needs to destroy Kabir first. How dare he ruin everything?!

Abeer grins at Bella, knowing that he has her interest and he won't loose it anytime soon. He leans against one of the many mirrors in the room, and smirks widely. "The plan starts tommorow, at twelve PM."

□

How was the chapter?

this chapter had no Kabir yet the entire thing revloved around him. he's probably just crying in his bed can we just leave him alone???

(The answer is no)

anyways, this chapter was mainly Abeer-driven! I hope you enjoyed it and yes, we'll have more insight in Abeer's mind and his past. any guesses on his past? eventhough abeer is the 'villain' of this story, i still love playing around with his character the most. idk I have a weak spot for villains and evil people. who's your favorite character -- and least favorite? it could be for any reason!

also if I did a chapter/scene in kabir's POV, would you guys look forward to that?

Vote?

- Maya.