Stay

Arjun made his embrace tighter to comfort her, knowing that she might have mistaken the red paint on the road as blood, and would probably be scared for his life, having imagined every unfortunate scenario playing out. That was when she started muttering, "Ju-jun-juno...Nanu and nani, both of them...both of them just gone. In the blink of an eye, the moment they all were in the car...completely happy and content, thinking that, that person had gone from their lives and now they were free to live a happy life...a peaceful life...Why, why? Is it a curse or something going on in my family, that whenever we think of living a peaceful life, we just can't?! We just...can't...I love you Arjun. I love you so much... Everyone, everyone who knows us, or thinks that they do, always say that Arjun loves Manya from the very beginning. That he waited for her; he cared for her. And yes, it is true indeed...you love me...you love me so much that I am scared of ruining everything, everything that we have. I am afraid that I won't be able to give you the love...the love that I have for you and the love you deserve. This is why I always thought of not showing my emotions to anyone...not even to myself, I have kept these feelings hidden from me as well...I have kept lying to myself that I will be okay without you, that I can live without you...but you know what, I- I was wrong...I was completely wrong,Juno!!"

Arjun heard a sob escape Manya's mouth along with his name, and he tried to hold her face up, to look at her and assure her that he was alright and standing by her. But she hid her face, burying it in his chest completely, like a baby koala hiding itself at the first sign of danger. Her voice was muffled, but she continued, "Arjun...Arjun!" 

"Yes, Minnie, I am here only! Look, nothing has happened to me. This is all paint, the vehicle had been carrying cans of paint and collided with the tree, leading the containers to roll out of the carrier and burst open due to impact. I am completely fine, the driver is also fine." He said, rubbing her back to comfort her.

"Juno- It hurts...it hurts so much ,Juno..I can't-"

"Minnie! Where, where did you get injured, show me? No, let's just go to the doctor,now!"

He panicked, when he felt Manya's grip on him become tighter. He felt her body shiver slightly, and so he held her tightly as well, when he heard her voice again.

"It hurts me here, in the heart Juno,it hurts me so much that I can't even breathe. It starts aching even after thinking of the possibility of you not being by my side. Funny, isn't it? I knew this, I knew it from the very beginning that I love you. But I have never found myself worthy of you, I was never worthy of you, and this is why I never let this thought dominate my mind. Don't you feel sorry for me, because I was quite content about it and probably would have spent my life with that same feeling of unworthiness because of me mistaking Ishaan as you. Here I was, thinking that I have conquered all my feelings, and now I won't be looking back, but soon after, I realised that Destiny has a habit of playing pranks on me. I feel like my whole life has been a sequence of events confirming this belief, that all the happiness I was promised was a lie. And...you know what, when I met you again, I knew after some time that I love you. I was okay with the feeling, because I had been thinking that you can't love me more than I do. But once again, I was wrong...and whenever I am wrong, my adrenaline gives me a rush of emotions that is so high that I can't stop myself from running away. But this time, this time when I was ready to stay...ready to face everything, because I know...I know-"

She took a pause and snuggled her head against his chest again, after taking a deep breath as the constant monologuing and the tears were making it hard for her to continue.

She resumed, this time in a very low voice that he might have missed the beginning if he had not been focused on her completely. "I am ready to stay, because I...because I know I can't live without you...the thought of you not being around me is enough to stop my heartbeat. The moment I heard the sound of crash, my own heart had stopped beating for a moment...for a moment, I had forgotten how to breathe, or how to react, as if the life force from my body had drifted off from me in search of you. And the very next second, I was rushing...rushing to find you. I am sorry Arjun, I don't wanna run...I want to stay. Please make me stay, please keep me by your side. Don't let me run, I am scared. I am scared of myself, and what I might push myself to do. I don't want to live without you, I don't want to go far away from you...but I am unable to stop myself. I have been on the run for so long that I don't know how to stay; and even if I stayed, is there any guarantee that I won't disappoint you? I want to live, I want to live with you, I don't want to-"

Tears were falling from Arjun's eyes as well, even though he was well aware of the fact that they were standing on the side of a road and everyone could see them. *Everyone could see them being so openly vulnerable, but he didn't care about anything. The words she was saying were piercing his heart; yes, he knew that he was in love with her, but why had he not been able to see the love for him in her eyes, or the self-doubts she was dealing with? How scared she must have been, because of the fear of rejection? How unworthy she must have felt when she was on her own? Only God could tell how many dark caves she had let herself wander into, through her imagination. How lonely she must have felt, and how dare he claim to love her when he was unable to look past the fake smile on her face and detect the sadness? But now, he really wouldn't let anything happen to her. Yes, he would make her stay, he would make her realise that she was more than worthy. She was everything anyone could wish to have in their lives, and it was high time she saw it with her own eyes!*

He had assembled his thoughts and cut off her while she was repeating what she didn't want to happen. 

"Minnie, shh! You're my good girl, just don't cry. I know you love me...I know you love me way more than I love you, so first of all, just throw the thought of you being unworthy, somewhere very far away. Nobody is worthy of having you in their lives, and yet here I am, extremely lucky to have you with me- not only as the love of my life, but also as my best friend. You know what, although we were apart, but I never let this feeling remind me that you are not with me. This is why I started ARMA's. I have thought a thousand times about telling you this, but never had the courage, right time or the circumstances to tell you. But today I am telling you this…The name of my company, 'ARMA' is made by the amalgamation of our names, Arjun and Manya...do you like it? I know you must like it, and now I won't be letting you go anywhere and we will be living a very, very, very long and happy life together. Just like no-one can take ARMA away from us, no one can separate us, now stop crying. Smile for me, we will have plenty of occasions to cry, for example when Sia will get married, or many more! There will be tears in the future, but they will be of happiness. And we will lead our happy and peaceful life, enjoying each and every moment of time, making up for every minute we have missed. Because now, we can. We have everything, Minnie…"

"Except time- Time is the only thing we don't have, Arjun…I have a tumor."

Manya spoke with a very stable tone, devoid of any emotions, looking at the emptiness of her eyes through their reflection in Arjun's eyes.

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A/N- Hello my dear readers! How are you all? I hope you all are enjoying the book! Please keep supporting me, and let me know what you think! I love you all (✿^‿^)