Page 7 of Someone to Love

She had no friends, no money, not any kind of a career, not even hope of a career and no education.

Her soul was without hope, joy or freedom.

She was caged in an unhappy marriage and her mother was dying. All that was meant to be beautiful had turned spectacularly ugly.

There was only one way out of this miserable life.

She stared at her hands as they opened the drawer and pulled out the sharpest knife.

She watched in wonder as she picked up the knife and placed it against the throbbing blue vein at an angle.

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Someone was chasing her. She was running, running her hardest, but he was closing in on her, and he had a gun in his hands … and…

And Koyal got up, drenched in sweat, her body shaking. It was three in the morning.

‘Oh!’ she exclaimed, looking around helplessly. She bunched up her knees, hugged herself and began to rock to stop the shivering, feeling more scared than she ever had in her life.

A knock on the window and her body slumped in relief. Koyal knew, just knew, who was knocking.

She ran to the window and when she saw Atharv pressed against it, she began to sob. Hands shaking, she managed to open the window somehow and then collapsed into his arms.

‘Hey, hey, are you okay?’ he whispered gently into her ears, cradling her in his arms.

‘Nightmare,’ she whispered, clinging to him. ‘Really bad nightmare. There was this man and he … he …’

‘Shhhh,’ Atharv whispered. ‘Do you need a doctor?’

‘No!’ Koyal said as indignantly as she could, given the tears. Atharv smiled. ‘How did you know?’ she asked after a bit, staring out of the window, her chin resting on his shoulders. He had his arms around her waist in a tight embrace. It felt surprisingly nice, being this close to him, she thought to herself.

‘I don’t know,’ he said, shrugging in the dark.

‘Zainab is hot, man,’ Vikas said and tried to give Atharv a high five. But Atharv just glared at him.

The school dance was the day after. Zainab, widely considered to be the prettiest girl in the batch, had walked upto Atharv after the assembly and, in full view of everyone, asked Atharv to be her date.

Koyal, head bent low, turned around to walk away.

‘Hey, Koyal!’ Vikas called after her.

‘Yes?’

‘Do you have a date for the evening?’

Koyal rolled her eyes. ‘Most girls are going with girls and the boys are just turning up. No one needs a date. This is not America, this is Bhopal.’

‘Do you,’ Vikas said, now coming closer with a smirk on his face, ‘want me to ask you?’

‘Oh, shut up, pimple face,’ snarled Koyal, and Vikas backed away, startled. Atharv guffawed, but even as he laughed, his eyes did not leave Koyal’s face.

Two days later, after being forced by her mother to look her best for the dance, Koyal found herself sitting in front of the mirror, staring disinterestedly at her reflection. She was wearing jeans and a white frilly top that Ma liked. Ma had even forced some lipstick on her. Koyal rubbed the back of her hands across her lips to smudge it all away.

‘I look ugly,’ she said, gulping away angry tears. She closed her eyes and tried not to think about beautiful Zainab. Why did the thought of Atharv being with someone like Zainab sear through her heart? It is just because I do not think Zainab is the right person for Atharv, she thought primly. The bell rang, breaking her line of thought. Some commotion downstairs.

‘Koyal,’ came Ma’s voice, ‘Atharv is here.’

Atharv? Here? Was not he supposed to be at the dance with hot Zainab? Stupid, beautiful Zainab?

Source: www.allfreenovel.com