Chapter 16: chapter 16

*Knock Knock*I opened the door and to my surprise it was my entire family here to attend our convocation ceremony which was to be held this evening."Surprise", a loud chorus reached my ears.Ayu came as an arrow hearing the chorus. "How are my kids doing?", dadu walked in with the help of his walking stick.We sought their blessings.They all set foot in and placed themselves on the couch."We are so proud of you", dadi expressed. We were delighted. "What is your flight timing for Mumbai the day after, Ayu?", Naina chachi asked.Ayu will be leaving for Mumbai to join Mahindra's."Evening, mumma", he replied."Aashi will leave tomorrow and Ayu will be leaving the day after. Our kids grew so fast", mumma and chachi's eyes were moist. Moms you know!*hugs*"Aashi, tell us something about your workplace and your stay there", Akhil chachu made me sit beside him. I showed them all the possible details from online sites and explained everything related.*Ting-Tong*Ayu rushed towards the door and came back along with Yash with an envelope."Wow! When did you all come?", Yash was surprised and joyed. "Few minutes back, beta. How are you?", mumma patted his cheek. "Perfectly fine", he grinned. "What's it?", Ayu pointed towards the envelope in Yash's hand. "Duffer's Visa for London", he tilted his head towards me. "What?", I jumped from my seat to grab them."Patience, sweetheart. What will I get in return?", he wiggled his brows. "As usual, nothing", I blew rasp-berry. "Is it? Then you too won't get a single thing from New York", he countered. Ugh! He is winging New York for his further studies."Fine, what do you want?", I crossed my arms against my chest. "There's a list", he threw a smugly smile."Mail me", I snatched my Visa from his grip.Finally, the day came!After a couple of hours, we reached the venue for convocation.There were trails of speeches by our director and fraternity followed by felicitations.Our names were called one after the other as per our streams. We were given certificates and awards for the merits accordingly.We had dinner and clicked a bunch of pictures with our academic dress and certificates.After concluding, we headed towards home. After chatting for a while, we all dozed off.The next morning, I came out of the shower all dressed up and was surprised to see mumma and daddy seated on my bed. "You both are here?", I asked drying my hair. They seemed to have a lot of emotions swirling within them. Maybe, I knew what is eating them up. "I know you are grown up and have the ability to choose what's right for you in all aspects. Now, you are travelling to another country. Honey, that means you need to be extra careful from now on", dad advised.I nodded getting what they were referring to. "We always trust you and your decisions no matter what, but just on a condition that you need to be happy. That's it! You need to stand strong and should deal with all the hurdles alone in case if any. Just listen to your heart and move ahead, rest God is there and we are here the moment you need", mumma's voice cracked a little. The reality of going away from them hit me hard. "We both know that you have burgeoned trust issues within you after that stupid incident, but you need to trust one or the other person at some point of time in your life, sweetheart", dad took my hand in his. The last phrase gave me an unknown discomfort. Though I do agree with all their notions uttered initially, but the last one, I am sure I can't get rid of. However, I can't make them sad by retaliating. Moreover, when I am parting from them thousands of miles away. I took a deep breath. "You both don't have to worry. Trust me, I will be fine", I assured, when I myself was on edge. "I know my tigress", dad kissed my forehead. "Breakfast ready", a voice reached us.We descended the stairs together. After a couple of hours, all my luggage was packed and everybody accompanied me to the airport. We reached the airport in the next two hours.Bangalore traffic , ugh! "We will miss you beta", dadu, dadi, mom, dad, chachu and chachi expressed with hugs."So, no one will be there to eat your brains now", I strolled where Ayu and Yash were standing. "God save Londoners", they both unisoned.*laughs*I punched them in retaliation. I will miss their unisons and hell of a lot of things."Miss you too". they hugged me. *our iconic group hug*I bid adieu to my loved ones and paced ahead.After the checkings. I was waiting for the final announcement in the gatehouse.I was flipping through the pages of a magazine, that's when I heard someone whimpering around.I chased the voice. After walking for about some 50 meters, I saw a British lady in her 50's was struggling with her wound.Holy Lord! I rushed to her."Are you okay, aunty?", I was concerned."No child. I got hurt while walking this way. I am trying to control bleeding, but couldn't", she was in pain. "Oh no! Is the cut too deep?", I asked examining her wound."Child, I have..", she was about to complete. "I get it! Just a minute please", I swiftly moved towards my luggage and pulled out the first-aid kit.Thanks to my conventional family!❤️ *smile*I ran towards her. I cleaned her wound using antiseptic liquid, applied numbing cream used for haemophilic patients and bandaged it."Now you will be okay", I smiled. "I have haemophilia. It's a..", she tried to explain."I am aware, aunty. My dadu has the same disorder..", I completed."Dadu?", she raised her brow."Um..I mean my grandfather", I cleared her confusion. "Where are you travelling to?", I asked her."London", she replied."Ah, I'm..", I wanted to tell her but I sensed someone staring at me all this while. Girl's intuition! I raised my sight towards the stare only to find a man sitting across from where this lady was seated. He slid his eyes away the moment I looked at him and wore his shades immediately.He wore a black hoodie accompanied with expensive glares. It seemed like he was trying to hide his identity.Strange!He was sitting alone and I moved my sights to see another two guys sitting four seats away from him.In fact, I was a bit displeased. They were seated opposite to this lady throughout, but didn't even try to help her.Ridiculous!Meanwhile, a guard kind of person came and bowed to that hoodie guy and handed him a business class ticket.Yes, the way he said "Sir! Your business class ticket", it seemed so. He nodded and asked him to leave in sign language by partially waving his fingers from left to right.Why am I noticing him so much?I shook my head to brush the thought off. Suddenly, I recalled something and started searching for it in the first-aid box. Ah! Here it is! Painkiller!I offered it to that lady. But, she refused."No child! I already had one for haemophilia, this boy gave me already", she said pointing towards the same hoodie guy.He helped her?Good for him!"Thank you, dear. There are very few who help an unheard person. You are one among those. God bless you", she fondled my head. There was the final announcement."Take care, aunty", I waved at her.I boarded the flight. I took my window seat and settled accordingly.I was least bothered about the one who was about to occupy my next seat. I had my window seat and that's enough.*thought clicked*Crap! That aunty said she too was travelling to London. I would have accompanied her.I searched for her but she ceased to be visible.Probably, she might have cancelled her journey as she was a bit feeble. *sigh*I was busy with my phone, I felt someone occupying the seat next to me.I turned likewise. My eyes widened to see the same hoodie guy seated next to me and that guard who gave him the ticket.What is he doing here instead of being in the business class?Can't digest!He took off his glares and glanced at the window.Is he stalking me?Aashi, relax! You are brave enough! *self-motivation*I knocked down that blue-eyed jerk Mohak in the past. I have gained much more capability than that phase to teach lessons whenever required.Blue eyes?Wait!This hoodie guy has blue eyes too!He revealed his partially covered face. He seemed to be from a well-to-do family."Hey", he initiated.I didn't respond and looked away. He seemed dismayed.I had a realisation in these years after that loser Mohak's issue. Though, I did move on with Mohak's incident, but that awful shit gave me trust issues!I am unable to trust any other person these years except my close ones.In fact, it sounds preferable. Instead of getting hurt again, it's better to STAY AWAY!Fair enough!I shouldn't trust any guy, especially those blue-eyed ones."Hey, I am talking to you", he tilted his head to look at me. "Sorry, not interested", I blurted. I may sound rude, but it is better to be blunt than stupid. I thought of texting home before I switched my phone off. "You need to shut off your phone right away", he spoke. Again?"And, you should shut off your tries in someone else's business", I fumed. "Careful, miss. Don't you know whom you are talking to?", the guard frowned."To the one who is disturbing me", I retorted."You should behave..", the guard continued."Quiet", the hoodie guy shut him up with a glare "Apologies, Sir", the guard hung his head down. "Off your phone, please", the hoodie guy came again.Tsk! "You..", before, I could finish, a voice halted my action. "Excuse me, ma'am. Kindly, switch your phone off", a cabin crew requested me. *Imaginary face palm*I could see him suppressing his smile from my peripheral view. Argh! Why was I gifted with such chopsy, God? ****************************Hello there! Alright, just to clarify, I generally use the word 'Chopsy' for an embarrassment. Coming back, Aashi is flying to London finally. But, ah.. Leave it. See you in next chapter!Till then stay tuned and miss me😉#KeepReading #KeepLoving❤️❤️