Kabir's POV

After having the cake, I decided to leave as it was very late.

'We will leave then,' I told everybody and picked Raj in my arms.

'Okay. I will meet you tomorrow,' Princess said making me smile.

'I will wait for you, princess,' I said as I bid good bye to everybody.

'Come back one more time before leaving,' Ti said.

'No. I will take all of you to a restaurant before leaving,' I said and she came and kissed my forehead.

'Thank you for everything, Kabir,' she said and I just gave her a small smile as I didn't know what to say. Then she kissed Raj's cheeks and went towards Kavya.

I looked at Kavya and felt that something is going inside her but I don't know why. She never shouts but she shouted that she likes chocolate cake. I didn't knew that she likes chocolate cake.

I will keep that in mind. Ti hugged her tightly and Kavya hugged her back.

'Next time, when Kabir will come here, I want you here with him,' she said after breaking their hug.

'I don't know by that time we will be still together or not,' she said making me frown.

Ti looked at me with confusion on her face but she didn't say anything.

'I am sure you will be together.' Ti said and she just smiled.

What has happened to her? Did she felt uncomfortable among new people? She is like me so I know that she gets uncomfortable among new faces but I thought she will be happy here.

We walked towards the car and I placed Raj in the backseat and Kavya sat in the front seat.

'So, let's meet tomorrow,' I said to princess.

'I am so excited for tomorrow. After so many years we will be spending time together,' she said and I smiled.

She is right. It had been years since we last met.

'Bye, Kavya. Let's meet tomorrow,' she said and Kavya gave her a small smile.

What has happened to her?

Again we bid everybody goodbye and I started the car.

I passed by my house and Kavya looked at me. 'What happened? Why didn't you stop the car?' she asked.

'The weather is lovely. Let's go for a ride,' I said and looked at Raj through the rearview mirror.

'Raj, do you want to go for a long ride?' I asked him.

'Yes, Bhai. We have not gone for long ride for so many months,' he said and I smiled.

Times like this are rare when Raj says something freely without hesitating.

And, he is right. It had been so long since we had gone on a long ride at night.

'Did something happened at Anand's house?' I asked Kavya.

'No,' she answered.

'I feel like you are behaving differently,' I said and she looked at me.

'I am sorry for shouting that I love chocolate cake,' she apologized.

'I am not asking you that, Kavya. I am asking you that why your mood seems low? Did something happened at Anand's house?' I asked again.

'No, nothing happened. I was just not feeling well,' she said and didn't say anything further.

'Okay. Relax and enjoy the long ride.'

'Tanisha is very close to you, right?' she asked after few seconds.

'Yes. I first met her when I came here in the summer vacation, she was just eleven years old and she had become a princess in the annual function of her school. She looked at me and first word that came out of her mouth was 'handsome'. When she called me 'handsome' I called her 'princess' and from that day we are calling each other like that. She wanted to play with me, study with me and slowly made a place in my heart. Even though, her parents died, she turned into a beautiful lady. I am so proud of her,' I said and I looked at Kavya who was just staring at me and then she gave me a small smile and looked outside making me frown.

What is wrong with her?

I stopped the car at the side. 'Kavya, look at me,' I ordered and she looked at me and tears rolled down her cheeks.

'What happened? Why are you crying?' I asked.

'I don't know why I am crying,' she said and she started crying more loudly.

'Shhh... calm down,' I said and pulled her into a hug and she wrapped her hands around my neck and her crying increased.

What has happened to her?

I started rubbing her back to calm her down.

'Did something happened there which reminded you of Sohum?' I asked and she mumbled a 'no.'

I have hugged her a few times but this felt different. This time she was hugging me tightly as if she was scared to let me go.

I broke our hug and tucked strands of hair behind her back and wiped her tears.

'I understand, sometimes, our emotions are all over the place and we don't know why we are upset. Let's have chocolate cake,' I said and she smiled lightly.

'Madam, are you okay?' Raj asked.

'Yes, Raj. Now I am fine,' she said and I started the car and after few minutes, I stopped in front of a cake shop, got out and bought three chocolate pastry.

'Bhai, I just had a cake,' Raj said as I sat in the car and gave them their pastries.

'On some days, we can have two cake. Enjoy it, Raj,' I said and we started eating the cake.

'Are you happy now?' I asked Kavya and she gave me a big smile.

'I am very happy. Thank you so much,' she said as she took another bite.

Seeing her happy made me happy. After we finished our cake, I started the car and drove off.

'Okay then, I will go to my room,' she said.

'You will sleep on the bed, right?' I asked and she frowned.

'I mean, usually, you slept on the floor in my room, right? I explained and realization dawned on her face.

'I don't have any thick mat here so you have to sleep on the bed,' I told her before she can say anything.

'Don't worry. I will sleep on the bed.'

'There's a new duvet in the right side of the wardrobe,' I told her and my eyes went on her mangalsutra.

I messaged Anand to tell Ti, to not ask anything about her mangalsutra and sindoor and I am glad that they listened to me and didn't ask her anything about that and thank god, that they even told it to Tanisha.

'Kabir,' her voice pulled me into the reality.

'Yes?'

'I asked you something,' she said.

'What?'

'Bhai, madam asked, who used to stay in the room she is staying right now and I told her that mom used to stay there. You told me mom used to stay there, right?' Raj asked and the word 'mom' bought all the bad memories but I tried to wipe it off my brain.

'Yes.' I answered and she looked at me. Maybe she was thinking, I will continue further, but I don't want to talk about it.

'Good night,' she greeted us and she walked towards her room and I took Raj in the washroom to get him freshen up.

*****

Next day, I woke up and went downstairs to see Anand making breakfast. He has a key to the house and whenever we are here he comes by 8.00 to make breakfast for us.

'Good morning, sir,' he greeted me.

'Good Morning. Kavya has not woken up, right?' I asked.

'I have not see her. By the way breakfast is ready long time back. I will warm it up whenever you want,' he said and I nodded my head and went towards Raj's room and saw that he is sleeping peacefully. I caressed his head and looked at the time to see that it was 11 a.m.

Sh!t! It's 11 a.m. I have not slept for so long in so many years. I went upstairs to wake up Kavya for breakfast.

I reached in front of her room, and went to knock on the door only to realize that the door was open. I went inside to see that she was sleeping peacefully with a duvet on her and her back was towards me. My legs walked towards her as if they have a mind of their own. I went and sat on the bed and looked around the room. It had been years since I last came into this room. Last time, I stayed in this house, I had not came here as this room reminds me of all the phone conversations of mom I used to hear secretly.

Whenever we came here, she was here physically but she was never here. All the time she used to close the door and talk on the phone about how she wants to go back and be in his arms and how much she misses him and how much she hates my dad for bringing her here on the vacation even though dad's only intention of bringing us here was to make us feel relaxed but dad never relaxed. He used to work from here also which I hated the most. His work was his life and he never took out time for me or his wife but his wife never needed him but I needed him to spend time with me but he never did it. He thought that by bringing us here after my final exams he is fulfilling his duty as a dad but he never gave me five minutes from his busy schedule.

A soft whimper pulled me out of my head and I saw that she had turned towards me in her sleep and I looked at her sleeping peacefully. Now, whenever I will come to this room, I will have memories of Kavya. Now bad memories of mom will never haunt me but this peaceful face will be in my mind whenever I will come into this room.

Few days ago, Raj asked me, whose name I wrote in the essay of 'My favorite person in the world' and I ignored the question. I was glad that he wrote my name in it but when I remembered whose name I used to write in those essays, it ruins my mood.

That time, my mom was my favorite person in the world but as I grew up she became the person I never wanted to see.

Once again I looked at her to see that she was mumbling something in her sleep and pushed her duvet down making me chuckle.

Slowly, I pushed the duvet till her chin which made me realize that I came to wake her up but here I am, sitting and looking at her while she is sleeping without any tension.

She would have not slept so carefreely in her house because of the fear of getting robbed again. I am glad that I bought her here.

A knock on the door startled me and I run towards the door to see Anand standing outside.

'What?' I asked angrily and looked at Kavya to see that she has pulled the duvet up to her head making me smile.

'Your phone is ringing continuously.' he gave me my phone and left. I came out of the room and closed the door. I saw that princess was calling me. I called her back and she picked the phone quickly.

'Were you still sleeping?" she asked without even greeting me.

'Good morning to you too and, no, I was not sleeping,' I said sarcastically.

'Anyways, I called you to ask you that what are your plans for today?' she asked.

'I just want to relax here without any care of the world,' I told her.

'Cool. I am also tired from all the work and just need to relax. After lunch, I will come there and we can relax like old times,' she said excitedly.

'Of course we will do that, princess.'

'Great, I will come after making lunch and having it with aunty. It's been a long time since I had lunch with aunty,' she said and cut the call before I can say something making me smile.

This girl is always on whim. Anyways, today Ti will be really happy.

*****

After I took a bath, I woke Raj up and got him ready and by the time Kavya came downstairs, I was watching a cartoon with Raj. Raj had smile on his face the whole time we were watching cartoon and the reason was me. He loves it when we spend time together.

She had got ready and was looking so beautiful in the red top and the jeans. I am still not used to see her in jeans and top.

'Good Afternoon, madam,' Raj greeted her and went back to watching cartoon.

'Today, I slept like I had no care of this world,' she said as she sat beside me.

She has washed her hair and kept it open so it can get dry and water droplets were falling from her hair making her look so different from the other days and I just wanted to look at her even though I had no right to look at her.

'Should I warm the breakfast?' Anand asked and I am glad for that otherwise I would have not take my eyes off her.

'Yes, Anand.'

'You guys didn't have breakfast?' she asked.

'Raj had it as he had to take medicines after breakfast but I waited to have it with you,' I told her as Anand came with a plate of poha and gave it to us and kept two glasses of water on the table.

'Thank you for waiting for me and thank you for bringing me here,' she said and I just smiled as I took a bite of poha.

'Uncle, did you have breakfast?' she asked, almost shouted so that her voice can reach him in the kitchen.

'Yes, Madam. I had it before coming here,' he replied from the kitchen.

'Can we go to look around today? The weather is beautiful and I wanted to see around a bit,' she said and I love when she talks so freely with me.

'There is a hospital, a medical shop, few other shops and market here but other than that we have to drive an hour if we want to watch movies or go to an hotel. There's mainly houses here,' I told her.

'So how does everybody go to work from here?' she asked.

'There are buses after every half an hour. Bus stand is five minutes away from the house,'

'In the evening, we can go there by car. Princess can also come with us,' I said and I noticed a change in her expression.

'Tanisha?' she asked.

'Yes,. After lunch she is coming so in the evening we all can go,' I told her and she was quiet for few seconds and then she finished her breakfast and told me that she will go to her room.

*****

'Why didn't you join us?' I asked her as I went into her room to see that she was watching something on her mobile. She has not come out since she left after having breakfast.

After princess came we started watching news of the whole year and started discussing about it but Kavya didn't even came to greet princess.

'I heard that there's some news going on and I don't like watching news. I am watching a Korean drama,' she told me.

'Okay, then, in an hour lunch will be ready. Come to have lunch,' I said. I asked Anand to prepare lunch late as we had breakfast in the afternoon.

'After watching this episode, I will leave,' she said.

'Where?' I got confused.

'To explore this place,' she said.

What?

'We will go together in the evening.'

'No. I will go by bus. You told me there's bus in every half an hour, right?' she asked.

'Can't you wait till the evening?' I asked.

I was not able to understand her.

'I am getting bored by sitting here,' she said.

'Then join us. We can watch something you like.'

'No, you don't have to watch something because I like it. I will leave after some time. You enjoy watching news with Tanisha,' she said and went back to watch her drama and I realized that the topic is closed from her side.

'But you are new here. You don't know anything here?'

'I am educated and I can handle on own and if something happens I will call you,' she said and she is right but it's still risky as this place is new to her but before I could say anything further Princess called me and I went downstairs with only question in my mind.

Why is Kavya behaving so differently?

She is the girl who talks with Suraj, Anand and Shalini aunty then how come she didn't even come downstairs for once to greet princess and when I told her that we all will go in the evening then why can't she wait for few hours and go in the car instead of going by bus?

*****

Phew!! Almost 3000 words.

I hope you liked the chapter.

What do you think of this chapter?

What do you think of Kabir?

What do you think of his parents?

Why do you think Kavya is behaving like this?😄😄

Please COMMENT and VOTE if you like it.

*****