The clock was striking at the time to be a little past 2 at night, still, the city was awake with its full aura. As they say, Mumbai never sleeps. But some of its areas were in deep slumber. Then too you can't say everyone in that area could sleep. Some of them must be going through something which was giving them sleepless nights and they could do nothing to avail it.

Windy Lane was one of those lanes of the city which seemed to be sleeping not caring about the world. But this was not identically for every soul present in that area.

But still, an obscure shadow could be seen in the window of a house in this neighborhood. It was a deep question who was the girl awake at this aberrant hour?

She is none other than the elder daughter of Kapoor House. Nandini Kapoor. She was standing at the window of her bedroom looking nowhere, particularly at the night sky. The cold night breeze was passing through her. They were messing up her beautiful long hair as the long traces were falling on her face. She closed her eyes to feel the soft breeze not caring to fix her hair. She let them move freely.

But she opened her eyes immediately as she got some flashes. A long sigh emerged from her unknowingly.

"The more you love, the more it hurts."

She sang in her melodious tone but her tone was low ascertaining, she was not perturbing anyone around. She hoped no one was having a sleepless night like her. These nights seemed to be longer than they were usually.

Suddenly the breeze became more expeditious. As the heftily ponderous air hit her face, Nandini came back to her real self. Till now she was in some other world. She was disoriented in the world of someone who was engendered by her and no one was about its existence neither she wanted to tell anyone about it. This is hers and only she had right in this world. She could handle the world the way she wanted to. No one else has any work in here or the power to change things without her will.

As she came back to her senses, she looked at the time. She was taken aback seeing it was so tardy. She was so occupied with her phrenic conceptions that she did not realize how the time passed and it was almost the cessation of the night. She felt she should sleep.

But was it that easy?

Can we always sleep even if we want to?

She looked at the book in her hand. It was titled "Love Story" inscribed by Erich Segal. The book was very nice. Not only it was about the story but the way every single emotion was portrayed here. There was something about the book which fascinated Nandini to read this book again and again. Every time she read the book, she felt her hear heart weighted more than usual. She felt all the pains that she endeavored to bottle up and hide from everyone, they wanted to burst out. She knew if anyone had a failed love story, this book was too precarious for that person.

Did Nandini have any pain?

Did she have any incomplete love story?

Or it was something related to her family?

What if we say she had got both of them to her bad luck?

Nandini Kapoor belonged to one of the richest families in the city. If you endeavored to look into her life from a distance, you would find everything impeccable. She had got all that a person dreamt of. As you would go near her, you would see everything was just a mask to cover the broken strings of her family. Yes, she belonged to a broken family. Her mother died after a few years giving birth to her younger sister, Avneet Kapoor. About her father, she didn't wish someone like him even for her foe.

Another reason for Nandini's sleepless night was the love of her life. But you couldn't possibly say it was because of her incomplete love story. Because her love story never started, her feelings had been one-sided from the very beginning. The person on the other side never responded to her feelings nor did he have any idea of her feelings.

Since the time, Nandini got to know what love was, she had dreamt of only one person. The person who lived two houses away from hers and her childhood friend. Manik Malhotra. Manik Malhotra was 4 years older than her but they stayed in the same neighborhood since their childhood so they had been friends since they couldn't even recollect the time.

Nandini never realized when her harmless inculpable liking towards Manik had turned into something so deep. When she named her feelings for Manik, she was trepidacious to hell. She couldn't afford to lose her friendship with him. So, she bottled up all her feelings and buried them deep in her heart which was one the toughest jobs for her, yet she did it to save their friendship.

In the beginning, she didn't pay much attention to her feelings. She kept endeavoring to repel it away from everyone's eyes. She was diligent with her feelings and unknowingly created a world of her fantasy where she had a chance with Manik. But as time passed, she realized what she was doing, she realized she was going to be the one who would be hurt at the end of this and she realized she was the only one who was in this, there was no one antithesis to her.

That's when Nandini decided to forget Manik. She decided to wipe his name from her heart. But alas! It was not easy to forget your first love. He was not only her first love but her only love. He had been the only person she had loved even before she knew what love meant. So, Nandini couldn't forget Manik. But she endeavored to keep her feelings away from Manik as much as she could and she was successful to some extent still she could never forget Manik. He was always there at some corner of her heart obnubilated from everyone.

Nandini let out a long breath which she was abstaining for a long while unintentionally. With her warm breath, the circumventing air became warm too. She rested her head on the wall of the window that's when she heard a sound of a notification from her phone. Nandini was surprised by the thought of who could be messaging her at this hour.

She had always been an introverted soul. That's why she never had many friends except a few from their lane. So, she did not have any such friend who could text her at this eccentric hour of the night.

Keeping her noetic conceptions aside, Nandini peregrinate to get her phone. As she took her phone in her hand, she was surprised once again to see the id. 'Mani' the name was flashing on the screen. A cold chill ran down her spine only by a flash of his name, that much he affected her.

With her shivering hand, Nandini tapped the screen of her phone to open the message. She wondered what he must have sent that to so late at night. She prepared herself to hear something urgent. Because they didn't have anything personal.

'Your birthday is nearing. You know right I don't do good with getting gifts for anyone? You tell me what you want from my side? -Manik'

She didn't turn off the internet connection that's why it was still showing that she was online. Manik had messaged her seeing the green dot beside her name. It wouldn't look good if she didn't reply to him. Again if she replied to him then...

Sigh!

All her thoughts got messed up. She couldn't think of anything else. She tried to suppress the storm going inside her.

'How will I say? Give me anything you feel like.'

'What do you mean by anything? Don't you have any choices? Also, I can't gift you anything random.'

She got an immediate reply from the other side. She felt tears forming in the corner of her eyes.

Wonderful!

That's the exact word she could think of at that moment.

"He knew the liking and disliking of everyone else except me." She said to herself.

'I don't know. I'll accept anything, you'll give. I'm feeling very sleepy. I'll talk to you later. Good night.'

Then Nandini didn't wait for his reply. She simply switched off her phone and hid her face in her pillow taking out all her anger, love, and sorrow in it.

On the other side of the same lane, a deep sigh came out from the chest of a young guy. Yes, it was none other than Manik Malhotra.

Tonight he couldn't sleep either. He didn't know what was keeping her awake this night. He didn't know whose thoughts were occupying his senses. He didn't know what was transpiring in his heart and mind. He didn't know how to control his fickle heart, he had lost his control over it completely.

Manik had descried the green signal beside Nandini's name for a long while. He wanted to message her since then only but he didn't know what to message her. He couldn't control his urge to message her and talk to her either.

That's why after thinking a lot, he messaged her asking about her birthday gift. He thought for this sake, he would be able to talk to her for a while but she didn't let that happen.

The change in Nandini's recent behavior didn't go unnoticed by Manik. Her every move was observed by him keenly. He had no idea why the happy-go-lucky girl was getting serious and quiet day by day. She had changed completely. She didn't even keep a tab to all the happenings in his heart and mind like before. She was trying to avoid as much as possible. She did everything necessary to not come in front of him.

She avoided him if he endeavored to ask for something which was so unlike her.

He couldn't think of it anymore. He got down from his bed and went to the washroom. Standing in front of the washbasin, he splashed water on his face trying to calm his inner turmoil. He was not used to her cold shoulder. He was used to seeing the caring side of Nandini, her illimitable concern for him, so this behavior was not helping him at all. It was getting into his nerves now but he didn't know what to do get her back to her normal self.

Manik raised his face and looked at his reflection in the mirror. "Why're you so worried for Nandini, Manik Malhotra? Why do you feel sad seeing the sadness in her eyes? Why does everything about her affect you so much? Why does every single thing related to her seem to be so important to you? Why does every action of her bother you this much? Is it because you have some kind of other feelings or weakness towards her? She was not just a friend or well-wisher to you? She has been the place of dependency to you since forever." He questioned himself only to be flinched by his thoughts.

He just nodded his head in no hurriedly wiping the thoughts from his mind. He couldn't think of anything as such for the girl, he had grown up with. They had been together for a time they couldn't even recollect. He denominated the feeling only 'mistake of his heart' and nothing else. He consoled himself saying he was just concerned as she was not behaving herself lately.

Still, this could not make him satisfied. He went back to his bed with his perplexed feeling and numerous questions in his heart whose answers were not known to him.

These two young souls were awake with a thousand questions in their minds when the whole city was fast asleep.

Will they ever find the answers to their question?

Here you go with the very first chapter of my new book. I hope you all enjoy it and love it.

This beautiful cover is by angel_girl003
The cover is absolutely stunning 😍

Do share your views about the 1st chapter.

Thank you.

25.09.2022