Anand held Naina's hand tightly as they struggled to swim through Mumbai's crowd. The sea of people seemed to push them apart further.
"Naina, mera haath kaskar pakde rakho. Nahin toh hum kho jaenge" Anand
said to his niece, as the latter was astounded to see the crowd, and suddenly felt like a frog out of the well.
As they came out of the station, their luggage in tow, Anand went ahead to search for an auto, while Naina kept standing at a distance with their luggage.
Suddenly a huge trolley bag came from behind, disturbing her stacked luggage, due to which the upper ones fell on the dirt road.

"Arre oye, andhe ho kya! Saara saaman gira diya" Naina turned to give a piece of her mind to the stranger, who had disturbed her luggage.

"Dikh nahi raha hai itna bada trolley aa raha tha? Saaman side bhi toh kar sakti thi na"

Sameer who had just alighted from the train, felt irritation from the huge crowd and the heat, was not in a mood to fight with annoying strangers today.

Naina took in the appearance of the stranger. He looked real good, with aviators on and a brown jacket, which seemed expensive. His hairstyle reminded her of her favourite actor. She would have drooled some more but his attitude irked her at once-

"Apne ye chashme utaroge toh poori duniya dikhegi na"

"Jitni dehki hai na, wohi mere liye kaafi hai-"

Sameer muttered inaudible as the bitterness of the cruel world started coming back to him.

"Gaaliyan de rahe ho mujhe?" Naina said, looking at him angrily now, hearing him mutter under his breath

"Nahi, mantra jaap kar raha tha, taaki tum yahan se gayab ho jao. Tumhe mere chashmo se kya problem hai? Saaman hi gira hai na, utha lo. No big deal. Ab mera rasta chodo" Sameer was irritated with this girl now and diverted his luggage to move away.

"Baat karne ki tameez tak nahi hai aaj kal. Yahan ke log kaise hai.." Naina said while picking up her things.

Suddenly, a hand came and snatched the bags from her and stacked it neatly as it was before. Naina looked up to see Sameer putting all her things like the way it was earlier before their crash.

"Ab khush"

"Koi zaroorat nahi thi" Naina was stupefied with his mood swings.

"Waise tumhare Mummy Papa kahan hai? Dhoond rahe honge tumhe. Kho toh nahi gayi ho?" he said looking at her up and down-

"Main koi choti bacchi dikhti hun kya?"

"Pooch hi rahi ho toh-"

Suddenly Anand came there and said-

"Naina, kabse bula raha hoon. Aa jao auto mil gaya"
Sameer raised his eyebrow and mouthed-

"Chalo lagta hai papa aa gaye" and went his way.

"Kaisa Ajeeb ladka tha yeh"- Naina wondered as she put her luggage into the auto

"Chote bacchon Ko aise akela nahi chodna chaiye unke parents ko" Sameer chuckled to himself as he went towards his destination.

Two autos parallelly parked beside each other as Naina and her Chachaji went towards the Women's Hostel and Sameer went towards his rented accommodation, opposite to the hostel.

"Oh ho, ab yeh pados mein rahega kya! Kyun mere saath hi aisa hota hai?" Naina was the only one who saw Sameer going to the gate on the opposite side of her hostel. Although she was complaining, a little part of her heart danced in joy as she would be able to see him again.

Shaking herself of her wayward thoughts, she said to herself-

"Naina ki bacchi, yaahan tu bas kaam karne aayi hai aur kuch nahi" and went behind her uncle, embarking on a new phase of her life.
_____________________________________________

Sameer coughed as he opened the dusty windows of his tiny apartment.

"Reh loonga main. Koi bhi cheez ab kamzor nahi kar sakti mujhe" he said as he determinedly looked outside shaking away all memories which he left behind.

I hope you liked my update. Please tell in comments if you have. It'll give me encouragement to write the next part.Sorry for the delay. I tried to give a longer update this time 😅