Novels by Aquila Lyn

Rubbing my neck with the hand, I felt his presence on my back. "What is he doing here?"I turned to face him. "Kabir--""Alina, no." He cornered me, caging between his body by placing both of his hands on the counter table. "It's ten at the night.""He came. I couldn't say him to leave.""Or you could have said it's not ideal for him to come," He shot back, straining lines visible on his forehead. "You looked uncomfortable. Did he say something?"Nothing just confessed it to me and I had no idea why he thought he loved me when he knew nothing about me except the things I shared in the support group when he had no idea how needy I was, how I seek for attention."No," I whispered. "You got late.""Work." Pranit voice from the hall echoed in the kitchen and Kabir's eyes darkened. "I hate him. When I see him, I see how you said you loved him." But it was a lie. I was trying to hurt you, make you see how you leaving had impacted me. "I know you both have same past," He dragged a shaky brea

"Come again?" Dr. Sha asked, her hands flying from right to left, hitting the ping pong ball with the red colored bat.Hitting with my bat, I tried to dodge her attempts to make me lose a point. "Why are we playing ping pong?""Don't you get bored staying in a room?""Kind of."But this wasn't what I had expected when she called for an outside meeting instead in her building's cabin. I had thought a café maybe, or someplace quiet but she had surprised by calling me to a club and assured nobody would come in this room."Your dad was ready to allow it.""His friend owns the club," I mumbled dryly, the sound of the hitting echoing in the four walls."And he loves you," She pointed out, smashing the ball and before I could hit, it flew from my side. "And you lost a point.""Funny," Grumbling, I walked to one of the corners, picked the ball and started the game again. The sweat had started forming on the forehead, my grip on the handle of the bat was losing, my wrists were aching. What was

Yawning, I closed my books and stretched my legs. Getting up from the bed, I walked out of the room to find something to eat. Switching on the lights, I found a note stuck to the refrigerator.Food is in the microwave. You were sleeping. Must be hard practice 😝 Ps. Heat and eat.Chuckling at her handmade emoji, I crumbled the note and threw it in the dustbin before opening the microwave and found the plate in it. She never forgot about me. Twitching my lips, I brought the plate out and grabbed a spoon.Cold food was better than hot food and she wouldn't understand that.She wouldn't understand why I had gone straight to the bed after coming back from college, she wouldn't understand how much it was killing to know that how deep secrets we both were holding.Before I could take a spoon, the kitchen walls were invaded by the screams.Alina.Dropping the spoon, I sprinted to her room, opened the gate and saw her struggling in her bed. She hadn't gotten any dreams since she had started s

"I still think you shouldn't go," Kabir's voice brought me back to present.Shaking my head, I tried to remove the memory. It was before I had started imagining him as Rishi, it was before when we were happy and there used to nothing other than nightmares to trouble our relationship.Now we had to be careful. This careful was getting on my nerves."It's fine," I stated, changing the song on the stereo of the car."Here." He passed me his phone, connected it to the black aux cable. "Listen any you want."Taking his phone, I went through the songs, ignoring the EDMs he loved to hear and settled on something soft to not make him hyper."Now, Dhruv and you. You're traveling too much.""I'm not. He needs me. He's all alone, handling Ria." I curled on the seat. "She's too small. She needs to see people love her despite her father leaving for jobs. And Dhruv deserves a break.""I get you're worried. We all are." He dabbed his palm on the horn. "But look at yourself. You're squeezing your sch

[ A L I N A ' S P O V ]Gripping the pen tightly, I wrote down the explanation of the sonnet, completing the work that had been due last night. I blamed it on my over-worrying boyfriend who couldn't keep his mouth shut on why I was traveling this much. From past two months, I had been pacing back and forth between Bangalore and Delhi every weekend.He was getting angry.And I was getting pissed.Sighing, I placed the pen between the pages. Just two more lines, Alina and then you could go and shower to remove the aftermath of mediation and yoga."What you writing?" Hearing him, I levitated my head to stare at his face, but then, my gaze dropped to his chest.Where was his shirt? And why the hell wasn't I changing my gaze?Gulping, I paid attention to the white pages, overwritten by my hands. "Sonnet explanation. College work. You didn't go to GYM?""I'm taking a time off for a while," he answered, moving across the kitchen to grab a bowl for himself and picked the milk carton from m

***"You!" Shouting, I shut the door of her cabin. Jennifer looked up from the files. "In my cabin now."She raised her eyebrows in amusement and nodded. Who told her to tell lies to Alina? I got her teasing on me, I accepted it but feeding lies to her wasn't acceptable. I was an inch away from losing Alina again. Inch away to destroy all the progress we both had made after getting back together.Taking a deep breath, I entered my office and turned to face her. Yesterday, I had spent all my day to get new clothes before selling my old clothes and helping Alina with the packing.She was moving back with me. Good. I could see clearly how she was scared of me.Jennifer stepped in. "Now that's the Kabir I know. Angry and dominating one."Rolling my eyes, I nodded my head to the money placed on the table. "You're leaving India in next twenty-four hours. This is your pay. You're no longer my assistant.""I answer to your father, not to you." She crossed her arms over her chest. "He sent me.

Bending on the ground, I smoothed her hair for the tenth time. Nobody could blame me for making sure my daughter looked best for her first day in the school even though a part of me was scared of sending her.She would be okay."I will be okay," She said, as if getting the devious thoughts conjuring my mind. From the corner of my eye, I found Dhruv with same tension, same frown."Promise me you won't run." I advanced my hand to her. "If you don't feel good, you'll tell the teacher."I had explained to her in charge about her heart and how doing physical activities weren't good for her, and some days, she gets out of breath. Her surgery would fix everything but not right now. For a while, she had to go through it until she became strong enough to handle a bypass to cover the holes."Promise." She placed her small hand on mine and squeezed it."Be a good girl," Dhruv said, crunching to my level. "You don't want to cry?" I nudge Dhruv's stomach. She was doing pretty good till now and by

[ D H R U V ' S P O V ]Shedding the sleep off from my eyelids, I got up from the bed, leaving the blanket and ran my hand through my messy hair. Sleep tumbled down but the weariness and headache was thrashing my head.I couldn't sleep off after the crying, acted like I had slept to make Sanchi doze to the peaceful night. She didn't have to get up, and see how much fucked we all could get. That behind the act of a merry group laid the most fucked up people of the world.Fucked up seemed like an understatement.Grabbing the shirt from the floor, I wore it. I needed a strong coffee to curb the hangover. I shouldn't have gotten drunk. I should have known my limits, and been adhere to them. Stupid, nonsense me.The blanket was nearly falling on the floor. Fisting it in my hands, I covered Sanchi, letting it rest till her chest but her shivering didn't stop. Cold. It was too cold here and this stupid girl had no ounce of care about herself. No matter what I do, she never understood how a

"Wake up and shine, bear." Tugging my lips in a smile, I squeezed my eyes tighter, snuggling deeper into the blankets. It was too much comfortable, sleeping on a soft mattress and having no tension of the work. I wish I could go on a long time vacation, with no deadline of coming back and handle the life of work and tension.His hand rested on my neck, lips stirring against my ear. "Wake up before I throw water at you." Instantly my eyes flew open and I pushed his figure away from me, but to my luck the jug of water was spilled over my hair. As if finally feeling the cold, I flew my hands in the air to curb down the cold, but it froze on my skin, chilling my bones.Wiping my hand over my face, I glared at Dhruv, who looked terrified, but had an audacity to wear a smug smile."What the hell, Dhruv?" I screeched, wiping the blanket away from my water dripped body. "Why you brought the water?"He joined me on the bed, placing his shoes on the white bed sheet. Giving him a dirty glare, I

“You packed everything?” Mom asked for the tenth time. Suppressing the groan, I nodded, helping the driver to put the luggage at the back. “Medicines? Towels? Remember to wear warm clothes if it gets cold. Don’t forget to eat, and most importantly, stay away—“ Whirling, I placed my hands on her shoulder, silencing her marathon of reminders she had been putting in my mind since a week. Ever since I told her I was going on a road trip with Dhruv and his friends, she had been worried to hell. I had reminded her Dhruv was there—her servant. He was truly her servant. They both would get together, discuss my bad habits and how much of a bad person I was. The only thing I could do was watch them, and wonder how they could be my mother and boyfriend. They both were gossip queens along with dadi. Talking all the hot news of the area, media, celebrity and everything from scarp. Even Meghna had become tired of them. “I’ve packed everything.” I cocked my head to the side. “And you double ch

Nervousness coiled around my throat, anxiety seized my feet and an everlasting smile stayed on my face. Fisting my hands on my lap, I endeavor to scorn the smell of henna, but it wafted around my nose.The heaviness of the dress made me rooted to my place. How was I supposed to walk in such a heavy lehenga? No matter what, it was a beautiful red lehenga with threaded golden embroidery. I loved it the first time mom had taken me for wedding shopping. I love the detailed golden embroidery on the skirt. The golden blouse was a complimentary, stopped right at the bottom of my chest.Dhruv didn't like because it was too short.But you don't get marry every day and I had insisted I wanted it. The red dupatta on my head was held with the help of pins, and half dropping on my shoulder."Sanchi, you need anything?" I lifted my eyes to her.Shaking my head, I tried to move my hands, and the noise of kaliren echoed around the room."Why am I wearing so many of them?" I hoisted my hands, showing

Dhruv POV Their were moments you hated in your life. Moments you wanted never to come and that you could press the skip button and never face them. It was like GTA 5. When you hate a mission, you skip it and jump onto another, avoiding the difficulties. I wish life was like a GTA 5 but it wasn't and I had to face the dreaded moment. "Dhruv, get out of the room." Kabir banged the door. "We'll miss the flight.""Coming, idiot," I yelled. "And fucking lower your voice, Ria is eating."Pushing the wallet in my pocket, I opened the wardrobe and collected the small box. Kabir and Rahul yelled my name back. Peering at the ceiling, I asked again why they both were my friends.Because you love them.Sanchi words echoed. Glaring at the door, I opened it and gave them a duh look. They returned the favour. "Fuckers." They both flipped me off. Where was Alina to control him? Kabir pointed his finger at my chest. "This time you cursed. Isn't it Ria?"My cruel daughter nodded and walked to me,