~Mysteries to Unravel~

"Nandini, I said I'm sorry. How many times should I repeat it now?" Navya follows me as I barge into my house, slamming the door hard behind me.

"You missed that." She says annoyed with my move and shuts the door behind her.

I didn't even intend for it to hit her anyway.

"Nandini!" Navya jerks my arm which makes me stop and turn back at her. "I forgot to tell you about him! It just slipped my mind!"

"Nevermind Navya." I pull my arm out of her grip and walk straight up to my room.

I sure am angry. I'm angry and hurt but it's not Navya's doing. It's his. He could just walk out of there? Like.. how? How could he just walk out of there without even smiling once. There was no emotion in his eyes, nothing. I couldn't even make out if he even knew who I was because he didn't even spare a moment to look at me and acknowledge my presence. Did I really not mean anything now? What about our friendship? What about all those feelings we promised to hold on to?

After that incident in the cafeteria, I couldn't focus on even a single word that my professors uttered today. My first day and I was blank. I couldn't stop thinking about that little moment when our eyes met and when he just looked away like he'd never seen me.

He sure took my name. He sure knows who I am. He sure remembers everything but what I am not sure about is why didn't he talk to me or try to find me the entire day?

I hardly knew where to look for him after that cafeteria incident today. I didn't dare to leave my class the rest of the day. I also made sure that I didn't talk to Navya either. Not because I blame her for any of this.. because she doesn't play any part here, but because she should have at least told me that Manik goes to the same college. From what it seemed they have a pretty bad tiff among themselves and I have never been told about this.

I slam the door of my room and lean against it. I press my back against the door as I slide down to sit.

I want to cry because my heart hurts so much right now but tears just don't come.

I just can't get that look out of my head. He ignored me like I meant nothing. Like I was a nobody.

We were supposed to be best friend for life. We were supposed to stick together and hold on to our friendship.

I can't wait longer to know what made him this way because even if he wasn't, which was very evident from his actions today, but I still was holding on to those feelings and that friendship. Even though he didn't contact me once, even though for five years we were completely out of each other's lives but I still was holding on to all of that until now. I still am.

"Nandini" I hear Navya from the other side of the door. She knocks.

"Navya, not now." I press my head between my palms and tilt my head backwards, resting it on the door.

"Nandini.. I really forgot to tell you about it. I know what it means to you.. I just.. it slipped from my mind. I really am sorry. Please just open the door." She knocks again softly.

I am not even angry at her anymore. I wasn't even because all I had been thinking about was Manik. I compose myself and gather my mind together.

I open the door for her and she walks in. I throw my shoes away and settle in my bed. Navya just sits down besides me.

"I am not angry at you, Navya. You warned me. I was just unprepared for such a reaction from him. I just.. didn't take it well."

"I know what happened five years ago Nandini." Navya looks at me with sympathy.

"I just didn't expect him to be this way.. you know, I thought.. I hoped for a better welcome from him." I scoff. "Something like this wasn't what I had pictured and it was already an awful timing I guess."

"It was an awful timing but Nandini.. tell me you're not holding on to it still. You aren't, right?" She searches my face for an answer that matches her question but I fail to give her that.

"He isn't what he was anymore." I figured that already, didn't I?

"We haven't spoken to each other in years now Navya, things ought to change and I surely wouldn't know him now but I at least expected that he would just.. look at me once again and remember me like I remember him." My heart feels so heavy with all the emotions residing in it. I need to cut down the burden it carries.

"How can you even Nandini?" Navya looks at me in disbelief.

I shrug. "What do you mean? I know we haven't spoken in years and it was all his doing but Navya our bond isn't that fragile."

"Five years is a lot of time to make any bond fragile, Nandini."

"I still hope."

"You're crazy." She shakes her head. "You don't know what he is like now.. He isn't the same guy you used to be friends with and I don't know what changed him but this is the Manik you never thought would exist."

I know what makes her say that. Whatever happened today at the college wasn't neat. It wasn't really nice of Manik and his friends to gang up upon us and it was definitely not nice of him to give me the cold shoulder and I can see why he changed but I can't just give up on something I've held onto for so long this soon. I have to try one last time. I have to talk to him.

"I don't know Navya.. Maybe I'll see for myself?"

"I am just keeping this out there for you.. just warning you." She looks concerned.

I think I should just let this topic slide for now.

"I see you stood up for me." I smile at her.

"We fight like hell and I agree that I hate you sometimes but I have come to terms with the fact that you are my sister. So I might as well suck that up and do what family does for one another." She shrugs.

"Yeah.. You're right." I nod in agreement. "I can use someone to clear my head every once in a while too."

"Me too." She smiles. "So, do you crave pizza?"

"When do I never?" I laugh and Navya joins in.

"I'll order in." Navya takes her phone from her pocket and gets busy in that.

Meanwhile, my mind drifts back to whatever happened earlier today and I look outside my bedroom window at another window, almost ten steps away from mine. The curtains are still drawn and the window still remains shut.

I saw Manik today which means he should be living here but by the looks of it, I think he isn't.

"Do you know why?" I ask Navya as soon as she gets off the phone.

"Huh?" She raises her brows.

"Do you know why he is like this?"

Navya frowns and shrugs. "How would I?"

"I don't know.. I thought.."

"Nandini, I hadn't seen him since you guys left from here either. It was just last year that I happened to bump into him at the college. We were both freshers but he just attracts attention and trouble which lead him to be the most wanted Bad Boy among the girls." Navya explains. "I wouldn't say it was hate at first sight because we always kept out of each other's way but as the year passed by, we just started to dislike each other. His friends would pick on me just like they did today and he never tried to stop them."

"I knew who he was the day I saw him for the first time in the college, but I never went ahead to talk to him and he never came to me asking about you. I think it was over for him way back." She looks at me sadly.

Over for him? How can it just be over for him? How can he just forget our friendship?

"We are in the same class and trust me he's the troublemaker, Nandini. He's changed in ways I can't even tell. You'll see for yourself now that you'll be in the same space as him." And that is exactly what I need.

I need to know what went wrong so badly that he did this to our friendship. I put the entire blame on him. It was him and not me who never tried to reach out to me. I was always trying.

"He seems to be.." Not so Manik.

"He seems to be exactly what you saw today. He's the arrogant player you don't want to mess with."

"But you did mess with him." I point out.

"That's because he messed with me first." Anger takes over Navya's expressions. "He and his blood-sucking, shit faced pack of losers." She grits.

"At least one thing didn't change." A small laugh escapes my mouth.

"What?"

"He still doesn't like you."

Navya laughs out loud on hearing this. "The feeling remains mutual though."

"What's the story behind this?" I ask out of curiosity.

She presses her eyebrows together probably not getting my question.

"I mean.. what's the story behind whatever happened with you today and what did he do to make your life hell?"

And all that smile on Navya's face just wipes out as I say this. She isn't laughing anymore.

"I think there has been an overdose of my niceness today, hasn't it? I'll just be in my room now."

"Bu-"

"I have a lot of work to do. There are debates coming up.. I've gotta prepare, Nandini. Bye." And just like that she rushes out of the room.

Weird.

Something definitely went wrong with these two and I have to know what.

Some unlikely childhood dislike can't just be the only reason.

Oh, my god. I have so many mysteries to unravel here.

--------

The rest of the day passes in a jiffy and I don't see Navya either. I have been glued to my bed, laying all day, just thinking about whatever Navya said and the things that happened today.

But until now I have not been successful in finding out any clue as to what went wrong.

I look out through my window and it is almost dark outside. There is still no sign of Manik either.

I think I should give my brains some rest for today and probably practice my routine for tomorrow's auditions. Thanks to Navya, she did put my name in the audition list about which she had told me while we were on our way home but I was too preoccupied already to think about that.

Dance is an integral part of my life. I've been dancing ever since I was in the first class. In the beginning I used to take classes for Indian classical dance forms but soon I grew out of my like for them. Manik never understood those complicated steps that the classical dances had. He would always imitate me when I was practising and make fun of me. But most of the time he was the one who was laughed upon because he would always fall down while trying to copy me.

I laugh at the memories from our innocent childhood. I so hope that one day soon we can sort this mess out and go back to being what we were.

Five years that I have spend in New York, I have devoted them in learning Contemporary dance and it's various forms.

Dancing helps me cool off. It helps me forget all the mess that my life is in.

So I put my playlist on and start dancing around my room, performing the steps I had learned and prepare for the auditions tomorrow.

An hour passes by and I stop dancing. I unplug the speakers from my phone and walk into the washroom to freshen up. After that I decide to go give Navya a visit.

It surprises me that we have survived an entire day without actually fighting like we do and also that Navya has actually been very nice to me today.

I knock on Navya's door. "Navya?"

"Yeah?" She replies back and I gently push the door open.

Entering in I see her sitting in the middle of the bed with books surrounding her.

"What's up?" I find an empty, book- free place on her bed and sit.

"I have shitloads of work to do and I freaked out and slept for two hours straight." She blabbers as she turns the pages of her book.

I laugh. "Sounds like something you would do."

"Don't laugh asshole, I have to prepare for a test tomorrow and also prepare for the debate. I'm in a mess." Navya pulls away a strand of hair that falls on her cheek.

"Aren't we all?" I say.

"Yeah. You feel okay now?" She asks.

"I feel fine." I assure her, nodding.

"Okay, that's great." She says and puts her nose back into her books.

"Uh, Navya.." Okay, I have to ask.

"Yeah?"

"Why are you so nice to me today?" I ask cautiously.

"Don't get used to it." She smirks.

I laugh. "I don't wish to. But why?"

"I don't know.. I guess I understand how upset you must have been. I was shocked seeing that annoying brat turn into a total dick-head. So I think I understand what you might have felt." She reasons.

"You totally hate him." I shake my head, smiling.

"You will too once you get to know him." She says with confidence.

"I already do know him."

"The person you know is the 15 year old Manik who was your bestfriend and secretly in love with you, but this-" I just lose her right here. In love with me? I mean, sure we loved each other as friends and I did have a crush on him but he never showed any affection of that sort towards me.

"Get that deer in the headlight expression away, everyone knows about your little love story." Navya says looking at me widen my eyes.

"You don't know.. we were always just friends"

"Yeah, right. Nandini, I spent all my summer vacations with you my entire life. I have seen you guys for two months, every day, for almost 10 years. So I would know." She states.

"I think you misread him. It was me with a huge crush on him, not him."

"He did too. And I don't think he does now because what he is like now, is nothing compared to what he was back then."

"How would you know what he was like then? He too hated you because of me."

"He did and so did I but I know he's a lot worse now."

I opened my mouth to say something against it but Navya just stopped me.

"Nandini, I know you still don't believe what a piece of crap that asshole is now but you will soon. So don't argue on that with me." She flips a page of her book.

"Okay."

I don't know why am I still defending him every time. Navya is right, I don't know what Manik is like now. I don't know what changes the past five years have brought but I still don't think he's worthy of that hatred she has towards him.

I guess the friend inside me just still doesn't want to believe that stuff even though I got completely ignored today.

"I am just so glad he isn't next door." Navya sighs in relief.

"I wonder why though. That's where he lived before."

"I don't know why and I am not interested in knowing why. But I haven't seen him here for the past four days and I love to believe that he doesn't live here anymore."

Navya really has something strongly against Manik. And I should too, considering the kind of treatment he gave me today and also for the past five years but I still don't.

There's a very thin line between me holding on and me giving up right now. I am just waiting for my answers which I plan on getting from him as soon as I see him tomorrow because I can't keep living this way anymore.

"But the watchman outside the gates of his house told me they visit sometimes." I tell her.

"I just hope that "sometime" doesn't come until I am living here." She puts her book away from her lap and starts to stand up.

"Well, what can I say?" I lift my shoulders.

"I'm not just saying all of this because of some childhood grudge I have held against him because I haven't. There is a reason why I am saying all of this Nandini."

"What is it?" I ask.

"I.. I don't want to go into the depths of it right now. I have so much to study right now.. I'm just caught up in stuff." Why doesn't she just tells me already? I am so curious about this!

But I don't want pressurize her into telling me anything.

"Okay then, I'll be in my room." I say.

"Okay." Saying that Navya enters into the bathroom and I exit out of her room.

For about an hour I lay in my room, watching 'Mean Girls' on my laptop when suddenly I hear loud music bursting from outside. I throw my laptop on my bed and hurry towards the window and open it.

It's coming from Manik's house. The lights of his house are switched on now. I arch my neck ahead, leaning forward and see a crowd entering his house but the light of his room is still not on.

"What the hell is wrong with you Nandini?! I have a test tomorrow!" Navya barges in my room and I turn my head to look at her. But soon all her anger turns into confusion.

"It isn't you." She says and I fake smile at her.

"It's him." I say pointing at his house.

"What the fuck?" She blurts out and rushes to the window. Navya too takes her head out of the window and looks at the crowd entering his house.

"That little shit." She grits. "He's throwing a fucking party, again!"

"Does he do that often?" I ask.

"He does. Every week he does. He has heaps of money and he likes wasting all of it on people he doesn't even know." Navya clenches her jaw so tight that I'm afraid she'll break her teeth. "They say his parties are the best. He invites all of the popular crowd of our college and from other colleges too. Whenever there's a party at his place, half of the student population of our college doesn't show up the next day. I didn't know he did those here."

"What's so good about it?" I ask Navya but she just doesn't say a word. Instead her eyes are fixed at the crowd entering his house.

"Well I don't know but I guess we're going to find out today." Navya's eyes hold an expression of mischief in them and I know this isn't going to be good.

"What? Why? You don't even like him!" I cringe my brows together.

"We'll gate crash, Nandini." Her smirk widens into a smile and why do I have a feeling there is nothing nice about this?

___________

I updated again! Yay. Do tell me how you like it and vote please!

Will update soon (:

Love ya'll.