SAHIBHA DOUBTS THEY CAN EVER OUTSMART ABEER, or figure out anything about him. He's always stated that he trusts Sahibha with his life yet he's told her nothing. The deepest she's ever gotten is a converstation where Abeer admitted he had an awful childhood.

Spending hours googling his dad's name was fruitless. She was just about to text Kabir about her lack of progress and ask if he could find anything when the doorbell rung. That's odd. Kabir is at his apartment, and Nazia is with Abeer. The only other people who know where she lives is neighbors, her dad and . . . Abeer.

She gets out of her chair, slapping the laptop lid shut. Her arms wrap the knitted shawl tighter around her shoulder and she sneaks a peak at her outfit in the mirror as she walks pass. The pink of the shawl complimented the white jeans well. She found herself asking why she thinks it even matters though. Abeer doesn't care about her, her outfits or anything she does. It's Nazia he wants.

With a deep breath, she opens the door. Instead of forcing a smile like she planned to, her eyes look up and down at a drunken Abeer. His hair is messy, windblown and has tufts of snow fallen about in the black strands. From head to toe, his clothes seem to be more shabby than attractive and his eyes are red. An odor of beer wafts to Sahibha's nose.

"Abeer?" she finds herself questioning aloud. This can't be Abeer. The Abeer she knows drinks within his control. The most he has ever drunken was five glasses of alcohol at a party, and even then he was restricting himself from drinking too much. The Abeer she knows always keeps his looks sharp and crisp, and his eyes wide alert.

She doubts it could be aware despite being fully aware those dark eyes and lips could only belong to the devil himself. This isn't the Abeer she's started to familiarize herself with. The Abeer she currently knows is cold and doesn't care for anything. He approaches everything with dark eyes, rarely laughs at anything beside morbid humor and makes Sahibha wonder if he has any emotions at all.

The Abeer at her doorstep has red eyes and looks so tired. For once in his life, Abeer in hunching over so he seems smaller than he really is. The sight makes Sahibha want to cry - and she doesn't know what's about it that makes her upset. It feels as if she's viewing the end of something powerful, like a large building toppling over. He seems vunerable without his usual aroma of power on his skin.

"Come in," she mutters. She opens the door slightly more, inviting the devil himself into her living room. He walks in slowly, lacking his usual confidence. As soon as he walks inside, Sahibha slams the door shut and stares at him. "Why are you here?"

Abeer opens his mouth to speak but no words come out. He looks at her and then his eyes trail upwards, and he's suddenly pacing around the room. He refuses to look at anything but the roof the apartment. Sahibha is too well familiar with these actions. Whenever Abeer used to be emotional or upset, he would pace the room to avoid crying or saying something personal. Sahibha always told him that he was safe to be vulnerable with her and that she loved him, but he always ended up pacing around the room and staring at rooftops instead into her blue eyes.

"I'm not a monster," he finally whispers. The words are only for his own ears only; he only spoke the words aloud to reassure his jittery heart. He's so worried. On his five minute walk to this place and blue eyes, he recited the words he was going to say to Sahibha over and over. He kept in reassuring himself this was the only way to prevent becoming a monster. He didn't want to turn into his father and the only way to start this journey is to talk to Sahibha.

Sahibha doesn't hear his words. She walks closer to him just so she could hear his words, but he starts to pace around the room again with his hands in his hair.

The words Megha said to him ring inside his mind. It was all he could think about for the last thirty minutes, even after he cleaned up his apartment, finished his shower and drinking a beer or two. He did everything to get her words out of his mind but nothing worked out, and now he thinks that the only way to cure himself is to solve the problem.

"Abeer, what did you say?" she asks. He finally stops moving. His heart is trapped in his throat and he looks at Sahibha. His eyes are vulnerable; soft and sad. He looks at her, and suddenly everything that they've been through hits him all at once. He suddenly remembers kissing her on a baloney, parks, cars and movie cinemas. He suddenly remembers her laughter, the softness of her hands and how she always understood. She just knew him inside and out, and she always knew how to get rid of this pain. With her, it felt like no one else mattered beside her. The world seems so small and shallow compared to her eyes and laughter. He stopped caring for the world with her lips on his.

The moment passes in a flash when Abeer remembers what he's here for. "Veer," Abeer says. "I want to see my son."

His statement takes Sahibha by surprise. Her eyes flicker to his, and she wonders what game this may be. "Why?" she finally asks. There has to be a reason why Abeer suddenly cares about his son after so long. "Why do you want to see him?"

The truth is that he doesn't want to be a monster. He wants to be capable of love. He doesn't want another son to grow up feeling hated. He doesn't want to be a monster; to become his father.

"He's my son," Abeer shrugs. He bites his lips and looks downwards. He feels like an idiot, like an exposed dumb idiot who held his heart in his hands. Right now, Sahibha holds all the power because of vulnerable Abeer is right now. If Abeer charged into this room without have having an emotional breakdown ten minute pior, he may have had more impact on Sahibha than this crazy fool with messy hair and chaotic eyes.

"That's not a good enough reason," Sahibha points out. She takes a step closer to him. "You left him and me with a messy note and only return to use his life as blackmail. You've never cared for Veer, so why now?"

"Sahibha," he pleads, his tone soft and mellow. He sounds exhausted. Abeer doesn't know how to say please - all he does is change the way he says her name. "I need to see him."

Sahibha ignores his pleads, unwilling to pity him. He's a disgusting man - he's blackmailing her over his own son's life, he's reintroduced Kabir's abuser into his life and potentially even drugged Nazia. She doesn't trust him one bit. "Why?" she presses on.

He comes closer to her, walking up so he's standing beside her. Abeer is fairly tall so he towers over Sahibha. "I need to see him," Abeer says, trying to scare Sahibha. When she carries on staring at him like he's an idiot, he puffs out his chest and stares at her. "Do you even want me to pay the funds of his surgery, or do you want him to die like your mother?"

Sahibha takes a step back from Abeer. Her heart shatters - it falls apart and she suddenly can't breath. There's tears pooling in her eyes, just appearing from how harmful his words are. The words pour acid into her wounds and she starts to wonder how she ever loved this man. How could he so causally mention that her mother is dead and that her son is dying because of the same disease too?

Sahibha met Abeer when she was in his city. She was vulnerable. Her mother was dying of cancer, and all she could do was sit there and pray for the best. Abeer was like a breath of fresh air for her - he offered her a world of love and riches, away from white hospital rooms. And now, they've come full circle. The same cancer that tore Sahibha's mother away from Sahibha and brought Abeer into her life, is the same cancer that her son has and has brought Abeer back into her life.

Abeer's eyes soften at her pain. He takes a step closer to her in attempt to reconcile her but she flinches. He sighs and realizes that this sudden power switch is useful. He moves back to his full height and stares at Sahibha with a gaze without sympathy. "So, this weekend? This is the life of our son - "

"- my son," Sahibha corrects him. She moves her shoulders back to look him the eye and wipes away her tears. "I'll see you then."

Abeer grins at her. He still has it. Even weakened, Abeer still has power.

□

"A ROAD TRIP WITH ABEER TO SEE YOUR SON?" Nazia repeats, her eyebrows raising. "Are you kidding me?"

Sahibha had tested Kabir her plans, just so she could have someone to confide in. She wasn't sure this was such a good idea. Plus this way if she goes missing someone would know where she went and who took her. Kabir ended up inviting Sahibha over to his and Nazia's place.

Turns out Nazia and Kabir have patched things up. Kabir has moved back into their shared apartment and is going to therapist appointments after work. It's doing him good. His eyebags haven't completely disappeared but they've started to improve. Even his smoking and terrible eating habits are starting to improve.

Despite standing in the kitchen, Kabir says, "I agree!" Kabir is making tea for the three of them. According to Nazia, Kabir's tea is one of the world's best delicacies. It's sweet seeing how both of them admire each other so much, how they shower each other in praise constantly.

"I think this trip is dangerous for you," Nazia claims. She tucks a strand of her brown hair behind her ear and chews onto her lip. 

"But . . . You could find out more about Abeer."

Nazia genuinely cares for Sahibha. It all begun when Sahibha started to come over for lunch and afternoon tea more and more often. It has been precisely two weeks since Sahibha became a regular face to Nazia, and Nazia has realised that Sahibha is just a pink obsessed mother. They've even begun to start threading their eyebrows together and going to afternoon tea at the local cafe without Kabir. Their friendship was extremely unlikely, but Nazia adored Sahibha.

Kabir walks into the room with cups of tea for three. He serves them with biscuits and hands them over to the ladies. He then makes his way to sit beside Nazia and he places an arm in the sofa headboard behind her back. Sahibha leans in to take a sip of the hot tea as she takes in what Nazia just said. "That's true," Sahibha points out. "I could find out why he's doing this."

"He's doing this because he's a nutjob," Kabir claims. He bit into a biscuit. "Simple."

"There has to be more to it," Nazia argues. "None of us are that desperate to take back our ex's -"

"- which is easy to do so when all of them are crazy," Kabir points out. "Bella and Abeer are probably the worst people to date."

Nazia sighs. "Okay okay, so normal people who haven't dated Abeer or Bella aren't so desperate to take back their ex to do all of this. Maybe we're over thinking it and Abeer isn't that bad? Maybe he's innocent. This road trip of Sahibha's can prove many things."

Sahibha dips her biscuit into her tea. "Hate to break it to you but . . . Abeer is blackmailing me over my child's life so I would help him in breaking up you two. Doubt he's got any redeeming qualities."

Kabir nods. "On an unrelated note, we should make Saturday tea a daily thing and call it the 'I hate Abeer club.'"

Nazia rolls her eyes. Despite laughing, she says, "you should be so glad you make good tea to make up for your bad jokes." She take a another sip of her tea before speaking. "Sahibha is right, but there has to be more behind it. Plus, what else can we do? Arrest Abeer over conspiracy theories?"

Nazia takes a bite of her biscuit and sets her tea onto the table. "If Sahibha and I dig deeper into Abeer's life and find out why he's trying so badly to ruin our lives, we could stop him," Nazia excitedly says. "Look, maybe we can dig enough information on him like he has on us and be on some sort of equal grounding as him. Abeer has more power than us because he knows more about us."

"What do you mean he knows more about us?" Kabir asks. He sets his tea down beside Nazia and looks at her with furrow eyebrows. There's this strange fire in her eyes, the same fire she has in her eyes before she sets her heart to complete a painting. There's determination set in her heart and Kabir pities the people who stand in the pathway of this fire of her heart.

"I moved into his apartment after my parents died," Nazia reminds Kabir. "The apartment burnt down my home and parents. All I had left was Abeer and I was so vunerable. Abeer knew everything about my life up to that point - he knew my insecurities and how alone I am."

Sahibha bites onto her lips. "I met Abeer when my mother was going through chemo and I moved to the city to be with her. He knew I was in a bad place."

Nazia grits her teeth. "I think he purposely goes for girls who'll be dependent on him, just to have some sense of power over them."

Sahibha's heart sinks. She knows it's true, but somewhere within her heart, she desperately wished for Abeer and her love to have been pure. She wanted to be loved, even if it was by a man as cruel as Abeer. Now she's realizing that the love she had with Abeer was just a man preying off her vulnerability. He never loved her and god it hurts just to think of it. She doesn't entertain the thought of him within her heart any longer, but her heart aches thinking of a love that may have been empty years ago.

"And he knew about Bella. He knows all our worst fears and insecurities," Kabir points out. "We know none."

Sahibha shakes her head. "That's not entirely true."

Both Kabir and Nazia raise their eyebrows, expecting Sahibha to tell them. She sets her tea onto the table before starting her tale. "Once, Abeer's uncle sent him a family picture of his family," Sahibha states. "It was so bad. He had an emotional breakdown and wouldn't leave the house, and when he finally did, he left in the middle of the night with a note to me."

"What did the note say?" Kabir quizzes.

Sahibha presses her lips together. She shakes her head, her heart filling itself with sorrow. The note hurts to reminisce. It marks the end of an era, an era filled with sun kissed evenings and love. It reminded her of the days she would stare at that torn up piece of paper, waiting for a man who would never come back. "It's personal."

Nazia nods. It's so stupid, but Nazia feels upset that she never knew that Abeer had family problems. Abeer never mentioned his parents and Nazia knew not to pry into his past. Despite knowing him for so long, Nazia knew nothing about his life before he turned eighteen. Like a fool, she had spilled her entire life story to Abeer and knew nothing about him in return.

"So he has daddy issues?" Kabir asks. He picks up his tea again and begins to sip it. "Like severe issues, right? Do you think he's like permanently damaged or something by it?"

Sahibha shrugs. "I think Nazia is right. Through this trip, we could find out so much more about Abeer. I'm planning to go with him next week."

Nazia nods and bites her lips. "I think I could potentially drag him to a nightclub tomorrow. It'll be perfect - I'll get him drunk enough to say some regrettable things, and then next week, you'll go off to find out more."

"Where am I in this plan?" Kabir asks.

"Make some good tea," Sahibha says, causing everyone to laugh. "What? You make some amazing chai!"

□

I wrote this in like October and was bored so i decided to publish it. btw, it's unedited - i barely reread it so i'm not even sure if it makes sense at all. but i hope you guys liked it. there's a few more chapters i had prewritten but never got the chance to publish. how was the chapter?

i doubt that many people are reading this anymore. wattpad has become some kind of wasteland nowadays. happy 31st though! i really hope 2018 was a good year for all of you guys. how was 2018?

if you guys miss me, you can find me rambling on @mayonistan on twitter dot com. i'm still writing - like a lot - but i haven't really been publishing because literally no one is on wattpad anymore LMAO

vote?

- maya 

(it's been so long since i've done this that it's crazy omg)