"Yikes Agastya, you ruined your crush's dress, how can you do that?" Anirudh teased him, when he threw a pillow and smacked it at his face.

"Shut up, Anirudh" Agastya said, taking his phone. "I already ruined her top and stop shouting crush,  Aaru will know"

"Everyone who can't see your love for her is blind anyways, I mean it's so evident" Anirudh said, when he rolls his eyes.

"Yeah, don't believe, everyone will know it, and Agastya paglu girls will bully her" Anirudh said, while Agastya sighed.

"No one is crazy for me, shut up" Agastya said.

"Hmm, hmm, for sure, you can't accept that anyone likes you or care about you" Anirudh asked,

"Yeah, because everyone likes me because my father is an influential figure, but no one loves me, not even him"

There was an awkward silence in the room, when Agastya and Anirudh sat at a distance— for Anirudh, the least thing he knew, that he was the least worthy person when it comes to consoling.... He barely could.

Anirudh opened his mouth but closed it. His teasing grin faltered as the tension between them grew. Words weren't that easy to express that too, when it's a serious talk between two guys.

So instead, he leans back to the bed, smacked the pillow, he'd been hit with, and muttered, "don't overthink this much Agastya, I'm there, because I want to be, not because of your father's influence"

"My father is coming back to India"

"What?"

"Hmm, and I fear if he gets to know that I like Zara, he'll make a ruckus in my life.... What should I even do?" Agastya said, his voice petrified "and I don't give a fuck to what he'll do with me, but for sure he won't take a minute to question Zara, and I hate it, because she treats me as her friend"

"Abbe oo Zarapaglu, why're you thinking this much?" Anirudh said, "stop bhai, he won't get to know about anything"

"What if he? I'm doomed then— he and Zara's father, they both are friends" Agastya said. "And what if he tells him?"

"Biryani kha ke aaye?" Anirudh asked, when Agastya looked at him.

"Huh?"

"You look hungry, Agastya, and it's not good to overthink with an empty stomach" Anirudh said, when Agastya blinked at him and stood up.

"Yeah, seems sensible" Agastya nodded  "vaise bhi, I wanted to go outside, let's go"

"Kitna ghumne ka pada hota hai tereko," Anirudh said, as he saw him wearing socks already.

"I'm already done with all this, to manage it's better if I go out" Agastya said, standing up.

****

Zara lay flat on her bed, Vamika tried talking with her, but the more anyone tried, the silence they got, until she'd hear the footsteps of her mother.

"Zara, what's your problem, huh?" Her mother said, standing at the entrance of her room. "Kya manhoosiyat fela rakhi hai? Cant you come out and sit with your siblings? Pata nahi aisa bhi kya ho gaya hai, ya kya keh diya hai jo rani sahiba kahi aana jaana nahi chahti"

Zara's fingers tightened around the bed sheet, as she blankly looked at the ceiling. The words echoed louder in her thoughts, the room grew colder....

Zara parted her lips, but words died inside her mouth. Even if she tried explaining herself, her mother would consider it as disrespect.

"You don't even know how you've ruined the mood of the atmosphere here" her mother said, before banging the door of the room loudly.

Tears escaped from her eyes, as she heard the loud noises— which have always triggered her insanely.

Her chest shuddered, air sticking halfway down her throat as if her lungs forgot the rhythm. The room wasn't cold, yet her body shivered as though she'd been left out in rain. Her hands trembled against the mattress, fingernails digging into the cotton. Every beat of her heart echoed against her ribs too fast, too loud, too wrong.

Her stomach twisted — that hollow, gnawing pain she'd trained herself to ignore. It wasn't hunger, not exactly; it was the ache of emptiness demanding to be filled, then punished if it ever was. Her body had started betraying her: lightheaded whenever she stood up too fast, hands too cold for April. The voices made it worse — you ate too much, you shouldn't have touched dinner, you don't deserve to feel okay.

She curled on her side, knees pressing hard into her stomach as if she could crush the hunger into silence. The shivers didn't stop. They only grew sharper, running down her spine in waves, like her body was both freezing and burning at once.

Every nerve seemed awake — skin buzzing, heart hammering, head too heavy. The trembling wasn't only from cold or hunger; it was the fear threaded into her body, the endless cycle of punishment. Her ED wasn't just in her stomach anymore; it was in the way her hands wouldn't stop shaking, in the way she kept clutching her sheets like a lifeline, in the way her bones seemed louder than her breath.

A few minutes passed, when the door creaked again. The steps weren't that heavy this time, and Zara didn't had to tell who it was.

"Zara" Vamika entered the room, when she felt an inner irritation.

"What's your problem, di?" Zara asked, frustration cracking through her voice. Her body was trembling.

"Were you crying?" Vamika asked, trying to come near her and sit when she flinched.

"You told mumma, right?" Zara said, tightening her fingers to the blanket.

"What, Zara?"

"You very well know, Vamika di?" She said, again when Vamika lowered her head— she did with a will to reconnect Zara with her parents but no, it was going to be a bigger fuss, and she didn't need anyone else to confirm it.

"Why do you even come again and again? And even if you come, so what the hell is the need of interfering in my life like that? Huh" she questions,

"Zara, what's with the tone? Am I being rude to you? I've my semester break I'll go back in a few days, till then if I want you to spend some time with me so what's wrong" Vamika questioned.

"Please stop being over dramatic for no reason, didi.... I'm done with all this" Zara said, not even wanting to talk anymore.

"What's so wrong with you, it's an year now, but there's not one day where you weren't this dramatic"

"You're about to be a doctor, right di?" Zara asked, her eyes betrayed the tone she was talking in....

"I was just trying to help you Zara" Vamika said, as she tried to talk. 

"I'm not your patient, I don't want any help, and please don't pity over me... I'm not trying to gather sympathy"

*****

It was midnight, and Zara was sitting on the ledge of the terrace, looking at the sky. She could never understand her family, why can't they let a person in peace.

The noises were always sharp for her, enough to kill the inner her. It took her a lot to recover.

She took two steps back, as she turn.

"Aaaaaa" she screamed, when she saw Agastya standing there, his hands in his pockets.

"Shh..." he indicated, "so I'm the ghost"

"You'd have called me!" Zara said, when he chuckled.

"You'd have gotten scared and then could've slipped. It's so dumb to call you from behind"

"Hmm" the silence between them didn't felt awkward. Zara and Agastya exchanged their looks.

"So what's the meaning of Zara?" Agastya asked, out of nowhere, when Zara gave him a look.

"Don't try to strech time, just because you want to speak"

"Why can't I? Look I don't sleep anyways, so it's okay.... And I'm curious because Zara.... I heard it less times, like rarely"

Zara smiled faintly. "In Arabic, it derives from "Zahra" and means "radiance" and in Persian, it means "gold"."

"And your name? What does that means?"

"Mover of mountains"
He said, "I can humble anyone"

"Good night" Zara said, standing up.

"Can I've your 10 minutes?" Agastya asked.

"Vaise to you're scared of ghosts, but you come upstairs daily!"
Zara claimed, indirectly pointing at the vomiting incident, when Agastya smiled.

"Because bhootni here is my friend" he said, looking at her.

Zara glared at him, "okok, a beautiful ghost is my friend"

She rolled her eyes. "Me and beautiful," she mumbled under her breath.

"Come'n Zara, you're beautiful"

"Hmm"

"Are you bored?" He asked.

"I'll have to choose some anonymous time to come here" she said.

"Don't you like talking with me?"

"Why're you so frustrating, Agastya? I don't want to talk— not with you , not with anyone" Zara said.

Agastya stood there, looking at her.

"I didn't meant to—"

"I'm tired, excuse me"

"My 10 minutes didn't ended anyways" he said, his voice calmer. "I promise, I won't utter word, Zara"

And that's when she sat with him, Agastya picked his phone to put a song.

They both sat, quiet.

As the 10 minutes ended, Zara stood up. "I'm not apologetic"

"ok madam ji" he stood as both of them went downstairs.

—————

TBC <3

Sorry for a short chapter thou- it'd be boring too! 😭🫶🏻