Chapter 86 - Just Two Of Us (3) (2/2)

Isighed as I stretched my body on the bed beside her, keeping little distance between us. I started telling her, ”My first house is the one in Bangalore. At that time I never thought I would move to Mumbai, but later due to the expansion of our business, I shifted here. I missed that home. So eventually, I tried bringing some things so as to not feel that homesick. It helped, and then it sort of turned into a habit.” I sheepishly rubbed back of my neck.

”Your first house? Do you mean to say it's not owned by your parents?” Innaya's eyes snapped towards me.

I was aware of her questioning orbs. I pulled out my phone from my pocket. I opened YouTube and searched my old account on it. I passed my phone to her and continued, ”Back then, I had opened the account for fun, but later I turned it into my passion. Fortunately, I got lucky, and I achieved over two million subscribers over two years. The money I earned through it was more than enough for that house.”

It was something even my parents did not know. I wanted to be independent, and to my parents, my studies mattered not my extracurricular activities. Not that I had hidden about it knowingly, but my parents never tried to involve themselves in my life that much.

I was in one of the bad phases in my life when my life took a turn for better. My hobby eventually pulled me out of depression.

Iwas quite thankful to Innaya's grandfather actually. It was he who supported me through that.

”How old were you?” Innaya enquired as she scrolled through the videos I had uploaded, disrupting my train of thoughts.

”I bought that house at eighteen,” I answered, remembering the excitement I had felt after purchasing that house with my own money.

”You have worked hard,” Innaya whispered, tracing her finger over the screen of the phone.

She placed the mobile aside as she directed her attention to the ceiling. ” I quite admire you a lot, Eshan. Not everyone can achieve what you have. It certainly takes tremendous hard work,” her voice wavered as if she was being emotional.

I turned my face to take a look at her.

”I know your life also has not been easy. Just from making videos, I know you can't earn that much. You must have done many things to reach where you are. I know you made it sound like it was no big deal, but I am not fool. I understand, how hard it is to make a living when you were just a student.” Her eyes glistened with the tears as she unblinkingly stared above.

I suddenly laughed, feeling amused and happy as well. All those years ago when I needed someone, I had no one to share my grief and hardships with, and years later, I did not need anyone as I achieved the results of all my difficulties. Yet, Innaya was grieving over something that had happened very long ago.

I interlocked my fingers with her hand that was lying on the bed and brought our joined palms on my chest. I frowned at how cold her hand was. ”I'm not telling you all of this to make you feel sad. Have we not decided to relax and have a happy time? Hmm?”

I turned on my left to face her.Innaya bit her lip as if wanting to say something, but in the end kept mum. ”You have me now. Don't bear anything alone,” she responded as she voiced her innermost thoughts.

I smiled at her innocent promise. I pulled out comforter over us. Her cold body was making me worried. I rubbed her palm as I tried to warm it up.

”I'm always cold. Don't worry,” Innaya spoke as she saw my troubled face.

”Thank you for bringing the stars for me,” Innaya giggled as she stretched her hand in front of the planetarium projector and made a motion of grasping something.

It looked as if she held those stars in her fist.

Beaming at her action, I felt proud of myself for being the reason for her happiness. Full credit did not go to me, but Ayush. However, I should be appreciated for befriending him, shouldn't I? I chuckled internally at how shameless I was being. If Ayush knew about my thoughts, he would certainly take away all the gifts.

”You know, Grandpa would take me to the terrace and tell me a story whenever I couldn't sleep at night. If he couldn't remember any story, he would tell me about his and grandma's stories from their past. He would turn himself as a hero in his stories,” she laughed, ”but then grandma would sneak up on us and would take his class for lying. After him... I often stared at the stars- searching for him... Later, I stopped, unable to bear the sinking reality-” her voice trailed off.

Until she finished, I kept listening to her in the silence, but once she stopped, my mind stopped working too.

It would soon be a year to grandpa's demise, and I realized how much she was still hurting.

Those small memories with Grandpa disturbed her as they reminded her of their happy times.

Thankfully, after our last talk on this matter, she did not cry reminiscing about him.

That hole was still there, but she was trying to come in terms with the present.

Maybe, her mother was right. It was a good decision to take her away from Bangalore because if she had stayed there, things would have been more difficult.

”Do you want to hear a story?” I tugged at her hand diverting her attention, she turned her head in my direction.

She eagerly nodded, giving me a teary-eyed smile.