The next day, I woke up with a gnawing pain in my abdomen. It felt like I would pass out at any moment. I turned to my side and saw Ash sleeping peacefully. So, I slowly got up and made my way towards the bathroom without making any sound. 

As soon as I entered the bathroom, I rushed to the shower and stood under it.  I stood there clutching my abdomen, wanting the pain to end. Finally, when I felt better than before, I took off my clothes and took a proper shower. After drying my hair, I came out of the bathroom dressed in jeans and a knee-length black shirt with abstract prints on it.

It was just 9 in the morning so I decided to go to the nearby grocery store and buy some stuff. I decided to cook Chinese chicken noodles. Ash just loved Chinese.

From the time I entered the grocery store to the time I reached my house, I felt like some hooded guy followed me. Probably, I was just assuming things.

As I entered my house, I saw Ash sitting on the couch, deeply engrossed in her phone. She looked up at me as I entered the kitchen. 

"CHINESE??" she asked jumping at me and I nodded my head, hitting her.

An hour later, we were sitting on the couch of the living room and watching 'superhuman'. There was a man in that who had a weird special talent of remembering the voices of different frogs.

"Even I have a special ability, you know," Ash said out of nowhere.

"Yeah, and that is to annoy me to such an extent where I lose my mind," I spoke dryly seeing the woman narrow her eyes at me.

"You don't love me." she said munching on her noodles.

"Isn't that obvious?" I said and heard her groan so loudly that I closed her mouth by shoving a spoonful of sauce in her mouth and that made her shut up.

"You're so harsh on me," she said with puppy eyes and a pout that always made my heart melt in happiness.

"But I love you." I said kissing her cheek and she mimicked my words.

***

We were sitting on the round grey mat placed at the center of the living room and playing 'uno' cards.

Ash was looking at her set of cards and thinking which one to throw next when I decided to tell her about the blank message and the gift boxes but she beat me to it by saying, "Ryan wants me to clear things up." and my face heated up by the fact that she was saying it to me so calmly that it's not so important.

"And what was your reply?" I asked her, trying not to get mad.

"Your turn!" she said and I lost it. I slammed my cards on the floor and glared at Ash.

"What. was. your. reply. Ash?" I asked pressing on each word, my voice dangerously calm.

"I need time to think over it." she said with a long sigh.

Frustrated, I spoke in an agitated tone "How much more time do you need? were seven months, not enough?" 

"I spent the whole seven months thinking about him," she said the sentence so slowly that I had to strain my ears to hear it.

"Ash..." I trailed off seeing her eyes glossy and then she burst into tears. Her beautiful face looking so helpless. I put my arms around her and hugged her tightly and she hugged tighter.

"It's okay Rey. I'm okay. It's just that I'm paying for my own mistakes. I deserve it for pushing Ryan away from me. I deserve it for not listening to you. I deserve it for separating you and Ryan who are best childhood friends. I deserve it!" She croaked between her sobs and I cupped her cheeks with my palms, listening to her.

I don't know when I started crying but I felt my cheeks damp and my vision turned blurry. I hastily wiped my tears away and cupped Ash's cheeks again, "Ash no, don't do this. You need him. Don't be this hard on yourself and Ryan. And what nonsense are you blabbering? You don't deserve this. You deserve the best and that best for you is Ryan because you both can not live without each other. You have to mend things at any cost. You get it? You have to." I ended and saw her nodding slowly as if all the energy had drained out of her body.

 I hugged her once again and felt her cold breaths on my neck. I drew circles on her back to soothe her. She slowly stopped crying and silently lay her head on my shoulder and I ran my hand through her hair. She then stood up abruptly and started looking around for something.

"What are you searching for?" I asked her in worry.

"Where's my damn phone? I will call Ryan right now and tell him that I can't live without him," she said with tears in her eyes. After finding her phone that was kept near the T.V stand, she tapped away furiously on the screen.

"I should've done it before," she said looking at me and held her phone in her palm. She had put the call on speaker. After three rings, Ryan picked up and the first thing he uttered was "Ash.." her name was taken with such emotion that would even melt a heart as hard as a stone. It was filled with such passion and sincerity that would kindle new hopes of love in a heart as barren as a desert.

"Ryan, I..." and Ash broke into sobs again. "Ash? Baby are you okay?" came Ryan's hurried and scared voice. Ash nodded, placing her hand on her mouth to stop crying. "Ash?" Said Ryan in the same tone and some shuffling was heard. "Baby, tell me where are you right now? I'll be there in a few seconds." 

"Ryan.." she stopped again and I took her phone from her palm and spoke into the phone. "Don't worry Ryan. She's at my house and she's alright. come over. Maybe?" 

"Yes. I'll be there." with that said the line went dead.

"He's coming!" I exclaimed with excitement lacing my tone, seeing Ash standing there idly and I facepalmed myself looking at her. The unsure look and a pout on her lips made me smile big. I pushed her towards the washroom.

Ryan arrived two minutes later. I asked him to sit on the living room couch and made my way towards the kitchen to make coffee. 

When I entered the living room, Ash and Ryan were standing there looking at each other. Neither of them spoke a word.

"Ash.." right when Ryan took her name, Ash ran to where Ryan was standing and hugged him tightly, tears making their way down her white cheeks that had now turned crimson. I stood near the kitchen and silently watched them not wanting to disturb this long-awaited moment.

Ash broke the hug and looked at Ryan, cupping his cheeks. He smiled despite the tears and placed his hands on Ash's waist. "I love you, Ryan." she kissed his right cheek. "I really love you so much" she kissed his left cheek. "I love you too, Ash," Ryan said with a handsome smile gracing his lips. 

Ryan placed his forehead on Ash's forehead and they both were shedding tears while smiling the biggest. "I missed you so much," said Ash. "I missed us so much." said Ryan.

They both hugged again and I quickly took a picture of them. After having clicked a few pictures, I turned to the kitchen smiling and thinking of them. I re-heated the coffee and placed the coffee mugs on a tray.I took the tray in the living room and both were still in each other's arms.

I cleared my throat to announce my arrival and they quickly jumped back. They looked anywhere but me with awkward faces. 

"Did something happen here?" I asked them with a hint of mischief in my voice, placing the tray on the coffee table. Both of them looked at me with flushed faces and I burst out laughing. Their faces immediately broke into huge grins and then burst out laughing, joining me.

After our laughing had subsided, we sat down on the grey mat and sipped on our coffees. "I thought you guys had cleared up the misunderstandings on the day Ryan returned," I asked looking at them. 

"After you left, Austin had called me and Ash..well you can imagine what happened next." Ryan shrugged, looking at me after he said that.

"Yeah, I can imagine," I said sending weird looks Ash's way and she put her hands up, all defensive. 

"Like she literally threw me out of her home," Ryan spoke in a horrid tone, his eyes widened as if it was the scariest thing happened to him.

"Oh, I can totally imagine. She's cruel like that." I placed my hand on my cheek so that Ash mustn't make out what I was saying and loudly whispered it to Ryan, winking at the end seeing him laugh.

"I heard that," Ash said, glaring daggers at us and that made us laugh even more.

"You can't eavesdrop like that." I said nodding my head in disapproval, feigning disappointment.  

"Yeah. Rey is right. Stop eavesdropping." Ryan said in a fake stern tone. He held up his index finger and nodded closing his eyes like he was clearly disappointed in Ash. 

"Seriously?" she said while narrowing her eyes at us and folding her arms in irritation. I and Ryan again burst out laughing. 

"Haha. Very funny." Ash said in pure annoyance and we stopped our laughing session.

A few hours later, Ash and Ryan left together. They insisted me to join but I refused saying that they both needed some time alone. 

***

After finishing dinner, I decided to read Baba's diary. Whenever I was happy or feeling good kind of positive, I read Baba's diary because that made me more happy. 

I took out the box from beneath my bed and took out Baba's diary. I opened it and traced my fingers on his handwriting. He had inked the then white pages with black. The pages had turned slightly yellowish. It smelled like old wood. 

I hugged the diary to my chest and a few tears found their way out of my eyes and rolled down my cheeks. I wiped the tears and focused on the diary.

I turned a few pages and stopped on a page. May 8 it was. Dada's birthday. Baba had written it on Dada's 18th birthday. I smiled at the memory of them and proceeded to read. 

***

Hey, lovelies!

How have you all been?

So finally Ash and Ryan are together. How do you guys feel about it?? How many of you really wanted them to patch up?

Any ship name for them??

So how was the chapter?? Not so gloomy. Yeah?

Did you guys like the bonding between Rey and Ryan? What do you guys think about it?

So Rey finally opened her Baba's diary.  TADA!

Please do share your views with me. 

Please do vote and comment because it makes me sooo happy.

Will come back pretty soon with a new chapter and new surprises in the book!

See ya. Take care!

Love y'all <3 <3