Imperfect Perfections

[7] Lies

"Betrothed?"

Jake nodded and held him by the shoulders.

But he wouldn't have it. He pushed him away and held Harith by the neck,

'who the f**k said that?"

Harith choked.

'WHO?"

"Mrs..s.....s..Ancy...."

His arms fell down, leaving a coughing Hairth on the floor while a shocked Jake got up, in sympathy, and went to Fahim.

"Dude, let her go.....let her be.."

"Why tell me?"

Fahim stared hard at the bathroom floor, dimming himself of the disco lights and shouts outside. His fists were clenched and his heart a broken piece. 

Jake shrugged, helplessly. 

"WHY NOW?!"

His scream made the two wince. Harith gritted hard and screeched,

'YOU WANNA LOVE HER TILL THE END, AND THEN KNOW THIS?"

Fahim stood still, hurt.

Jake softly moved forward and sighed,

'Let her go man....we don't want to hurt..you-"

But Fahim pushed the two of them away and jumped out of the bathroom window.

"If you were friends, then you should have kept your mouth shut!"

The two remained confused and hysteric, on the floor.

"So, how's life?", asked a sexy chick. 

"No questions during games!', barked a drunk Harith. He was now spitting liquor with his words while trying to get cheesy with some girls whose bikini was hanging over her breasts. The girls would smile and blush while some others would lure him in with more of their bodies. Watching this all, at a corner, stood Fahim and Fami while opposite them were Farhan and Jake.

"Does he always drink so much?"

Fahim hummed.

He was not at all feeling well. With her beside him and his enemy just inches away from him, this was no way for him to have a night had expected. However, little did he know, the challenges facing him. 

"You drink?"

"At times"

"Don't you know it's bad?"

'I do, but nobody ever told me"

Famisha smirked,

'Seriously? Should somebody be there to tell you all the time?"

Fahim shifted his neck to look at her. He then bent down close to her ears, breathing at her neck. The close proximity made her wince a little and her breath quickened. 

He whispered,

"There was nobody, and wouldn't be anybody to tell me."

Without completing his statement, he opened the door standing behind them and walked out. Famisha flinched a little as the door banged at his force. She knew something was wrong. She bit her lip, to not go after him. After all, she was on Farhan's side. It had been her fault after all. Stamping on her feet, she began to distract herself but it tugged at her. His face, the proximity, the feeling of emptiness; she huffed and without a glance at Jake or Farhan, strode through the door.

"Fahim! Wait!"

She was out of breath by the time, she reached him. He was in the street, trudging softy like a turtle. The streetlight shone upon the light crowd while a rather concerned Fami ran to the street, with her cold jacket hanging off her shoulder.

She then pulled it over his body and said,

"Take it and you can-"

'SHUT UP!"

Fami stopped.

"Just...shut up!", he screeched, staring at her.

Or rather, glaring hard at her.

Fami held her neck to see if the necklace was there. It was and no longer hiding or concealed.

"YOU..? BETROTHED?"

She gulped.

Fahim shook his head and tried to push it down.

"Are you..?"

Fami couldn't have lied. She could have just spilled out the truth and walked off, saying she could take in any punishment. She could have. But her mind was playing the game then. The game she had planned so seriously with Farhan; it was all that mattered to her now. For her Fahim had been a strange infatuation, while Farhan; a deep intimate brother who was gonna be a life partner. This difference in calculations made her twist her mind.

"No...."

Fahim held his breath.

'No? Then what did I just hear?"

'They are lying, duffer!", she made those words out. Words that were crushing her themselves. She was lying to herself, her opportunities of being with this boy who had made her heart flutter. But were the chances even there? 

"Lying?", Fahim asked.

Fami nodded, acting herself out despite the arriving tears.

She was cheating.

The man she loved, was being deprived of both now.

Love, and friendship.

Her fists were clenched. 

Maybe, she shouldn't.

But then her eyes ran through Farhan and his obstinate difficulties during those days.

The days she had found him all still and dead, on the hospital bed, under 48-hour observations so he didn't take a knife and cut himself.

"Yeah, they lied so they could get you back. Don't you see? You have been drifting away from them because of me, and they have no other option now. Wouldn't any friend do that, to get back their friendship?"

Fahim didn't know what to say.

"So.... you're not betrothed?"

Fami shook his head.

But just then, he dived in.

He crushed her in a hug.

A hug where he was smiling with satisfaction while she, on the other hand, cried out softly.