Happy reading, honey buns!

(Not edited or proofread)

"Well still Vennu, I promise I will visit here regularly but I can't stay here and neither I can afford this",Ekantha said and Vennela shook her head in disappointment.

"We'll talk about this once you are back home? Okay? You just wait here, I will be back in 5 minutes. I am dropping you and I am not listening a no",she said and rushed to the rest room to get freshened up even before Ekantha could speak something.

Ekantha went outside the room to find her mother sitting on the chair with a tensed look on her face.

"Amma, I'm going to school if there is any emergency just give me a call and take care of yourself. I will look for some houses when I come back from work",she said to which her mother nodded.

Ekantha pressed her hand tight and blinked her eyes in assurance while her mother nodded.

She didn't knew what to say to her mother to give assurance to her that everything will be fine, when she didn't know herself if everything will be fine or not.

"Ekantha, shall we go?",Vennela asked picking her scooty keys.

"Yeah, bye amma",she bid bye to her mother and walked to the parking lot along with Vennela.

Vennela drove her to the school. Her mother had some other work that day so she would go to school later on.

"Ekantha, ping me when you are done. I'll pick you up, okay?",Vennela said.

"Ah, no Vennu! Actually Abhi said he will pick me up. I need to talk to him",she said to which Vennela nodded.

They reached the school and Ekantha got down,picking her bag and placing it over her shoulder.

"Everything will be okay, if you need anything just don't forget to text me. Have an amazing day ahead, okay?",she said and Ekantha gave her a small smile and nodded.

Ekantha went inside the school. She was early than she had to be and she quickly signed the entry book and went to her cabin. She couldn't neglect her duties here no matter how bad her life was going, she just pushed herself to work for this.

She checked the mails and made a note of things that she had to discuss with Asmita and then made a social media handle for their school. She looked at a few videos to make profile picture for the social media handle, by that time Asmita and her colleagues were there.

"Good morning, Ekantha! You're early today?",Asmita asked her.

"Good morning, Asmita. Yeah, had some work so I came early",she said and smiled.

She went out for the school assembly and came back to work after the assembly. She had to meet the team again after the school at same spot and before that she had to make an action plan. Along side she had some administration related work.

She was working on the files she was assigned to and a text from Anika made her phone vibrate.

Anika :
WHERE ARE YOU EKANTHA?

Ekantha took a deep breath, she did talk to Abhi but not with the two cousins of her yet.

Me
In office
Will text you in the evening! Sorry!

She replied quickly feeling guilty for not giving her the details about what happened and got back to work to divert herself from the thoughts which were going back to the previous evening.

It was lunch time and Ekantha didn't get her lunch box that day nor she was feeling hungry. She hasn't been feeling like eating anything since last evening and was practically surviving on water.

She moved out of her cabin and went to the water plant in the school, filled a glass of water and gulped it down her throat. That's when she saw Valli was standing in the corridor, she smiled at Ekantha and came towards her.

"Good afternoon ma'am",she wished pleasantly with a broad smile.

"Good afternoon Valli",she wished back.

"Had your lunch, ma'am?",she asked.

"Uh, yeah. What about you?",she asked.

"Yes ma'am",she said.

"Okay Valli, will meet you at same time then. Ask them to be there a bit soon and not late please",she said to which Valli nodded.

She went back to work, Asmita didn't get to talk to her as she was assigned some work completely different from her usual ones and Ekantha was keeping herself busy too.

Anika
WHERE IS AUNTY?
WHY IS NOBODY AT HOME?
WHAT HAPPENED?
ARE YOU BOTH SAFE?
YOU ARE SCARING ME EKANTHA

Ekantha picked her phone again and thought she would call up Anika. She connected it to her bluetooth and called up Anika.

E : Hello

A : Ekantha, how are you? Where is aunty? What happened? I- I am so worried. You both are okay right?

E : Ani, I am okay I guess. Something huge happened last night and amma and me left the home. We were staying at Vennela's place from last night.

A : What? Ekantha why? You don't know how worried I was. Should have dropped me a text atleast. I came home to tell you that I cleared my entrance exam and I was terrified, scared when I found none in the home. I called up uncle, he didn't answer and neither of you three were answering my calls. I lost my sanity, I was going to complain to police a missing complaint hadn't you replied to my texts.

E : Ani, calm down please!

A : I can't Ekantha, when something huge happened and I am kept in dark and you both staying somewhere. Didn't you feel like calling me atleast?

E : Ani, Please it's not like that. You know da- he can reach out to your home if he found out we were going there. He doesn't know about Vennela, and that is why we had to go there. I didn't- I didn't want to keep you in dark now or never.

A : I don't know Ekantha, I am just disappointed because of this. Anyways, can we meet?

E : Yeah we can Ani, why not? We'll meet tomorrow?

A : Why not today?

E : Actually, today Abhi is coming to pick me up and then I need to go for searching a house in my budget.

A : Why would you search for a house? Ekantha, we're not dead here. I don't care what will uncle do but why should you do all this?

E : Ani, please I want you to support me at the same time please let me be and be there to hold me just in case I slip and fall deep down.

A : I just- I don't know what to speak Ekantha. Fine, if you say so. We're meeting tomorrow and that's all. I am not taking any excuses. Did you eat anything?

E : Uh, yeah I did

A : Stop lying, will you?

E : I don't feel like it Ani, anyways I need to wrap up this work. I'll catch up soon with you. Please inform Dikshit as well and I am really sorry once again

A : Keep your sorry to yourself. I am not taking any of that. Just take care of yourself please

Saying so she hung up the call. Ekantha got back to her work, she worked till the students came to call her to the multi purpose hall. She made a mental note to keep a reminder so that they don't need to come down everyday to call her.

They worked for around an hour and dispersed from there after getting a bit of homework, Ekantha noted it down in her to do list. She came back to her cabin and packed her stuff.

"You seemed busy today, Ekantha?",Asmita asked.

"Nothing like that Asmita, just trying to complete works so that nothing is left out by the end of the day",Ekantha said and smiled.

"I noticed you didn't have your lunch today? I was going to ask you but this call kept me busy. What's up? All okay?",Asmita asked and Ekantha was flushed.

"Uh yeah, I forgot my lunch box but don't worry. All good",she said and managed to give out that nothing was bothering her.

"Okayy, I trust you about it. If you want to talk about anything I'm here okay?",she said and patted Ekantha's shoulder while she just smiled.

"Is it visible on my face that something is wrong with my life?",she thought to herself.

"I'll get going then, how are you going back?",she asked.

"My friend said he'll be picking me up. I'll text him",Ekantha said.

"That's cool. See you tomorrow, Ekantha! Bye",she said and went from there.

Ekantha took out her phone to text Abhi, but she heard someone calling her name and it was the guard.

"Ma'am, some one is here and he is looking for you. I wanted to confirm if you know him or else I can make him forget his name",he said and Ekantha went to the gate along with him.

Ekantha was surprised to find him there.

"Ma'am do you know him?",the guard asked and she nodded.

"God, I kept telling her that you knew me he wouldn't believe it. Thank god you are here",he said.

She just followed him silently hanging her bag on her shoulders lost in thoughts.

"Ammu, bike or car?",he asked.

She didn't reply anything.

"Ammu?",he snapped his fingers and she came back to reality.

"Huh? Yeah Abhi",she looked at him.

"I did not ask a yes or no question, Ammu! I was asking car or bike",he asked.

"Car",she said.

He asked his assistant to go with his bike and took the car keys, unlocked the car and opened the door for her like an absolute gentleman.

She got in and he got into the driver seat. Both of them put their seat belts and started their journey.

"Ammu, will you please tell me what happened? I am worried",he asked glancing at her once in every second.

"Abhi, amma and me moved out and we are no longer family with my father"she said and he applied a sudden break.

He thought it would be serious but not this serious. He was shocked at her sudden confession.

"Oh, where are you living now then if not your home?",he asked.

"At Vennela's home. We went there last evening",she said in a plain tone.

"God, what actually happened?",he asked and she narrated the whole thing that happened.

He was angry, he didn't like how her father behaved hell if it was him in her place he wouldn't have been able to take it in the first place.

He stopped the car beside a foot path and looked at her. She looked emotionless at the same time her eyes spoke a lot, everything that she went through and everything.

Both of them stared into each other's eyes for a good two minutes.

"Abhi, what if this is the last time we'll ever meet?",she asked..

To be continued..

Hello dear readers,

How are you all doing?

Yesterday I couldn't update sorry about that, I'll try to make it up to you all tomorrow.

I am back with an update today, yayyy!

So how was the update y'all?

I hope you enjoyed reading the update.

The next update will exclusively be between Ekantha and Abhi also maybe Ekantha and Anika along with Dikshit.

How do you like the story so far? Good?

Don't forget to vote and comment your views! They mean a lot for me, a few words from you about the story is all I need to ink like a maniac🙈🌝

Thanks a bunch for always supporting and encouraging me, I'll always be indebted to you all for it.

Now that's my cue to run away, see you all in next update.

Adios, take care of yourself!

Your Author
Sakshi Devi