Chapter 17: chapter 17

Chapter SeventeenThe monitors beeped, the only sound in the hushed silence of the hospital room. Yash swallowed hard as he looked at Maya’s still body. She was sleeping, the heavy sedatives helping with the pain. In the end, it hadn’t been as bad as it could have been. She had a hairline fracture in one leg, the same one she’d hurt before and a badly bruised hip with a ligament tear. Oh and then there was the concussion. Not to mention, the scraped cheek and the cut and torn flesh on her hip…Yash could feel his heart still thundering as he stared at her, willing her to wake up, to open those beautiful eyes and look at him. She didn’t. Bile rose in his throat as he remembered the moment the van had hit her. He’d been reaching for her and his fingertips grazed her arm before she spun with the impact and went flying through the air. The door opened behind him as he blinked rapidly to dispel the darkness clouding his vision. Maya’s parents burst into the room, her mother letting out a loud wail at the sight of her daughter. Yash’s vision cleared miraculously at the high-pitched sound the woman was emitting. He was surprised Maya didn’t sit bolt upright in the hospital bed in that moment. Her father put a calming hand on his wife and got her down from her pressure cooker whistle’s screech to a more tolerable level. The man was a magician.“Yash,” her father said now. “Thank you so much for calling us and letting us know what had happened.” Yash was surprised he still had the man’s number stored in his phone.Maya’s mother hissed again. “Why were you there? What were Maya and you doing together? Haven’t you and your mother done enough to her already?” Yash couldn’t find the words to defend himself. Also, he was starting to realise that maybe he wasn’t in a defensible position. He was missing large chunks of information in this drama and he didn’t want to say something without finding out more. “Kamala.” Maya’s father hushed her. “Now is not the time for all this.” He ran a tender hand on his daughter’s tangled hair, smoothing it away from her brow. “What did the doctors say?” he asked Yash who stood uncomfortably by.Yash cleared his throat. “She’s going to be fine. A bit battered and bruised but they see no reason why she won’t make a full recovery. In a way, it’s probably for the best that she doesn’t need to go to work now. She can take her time and heal.”“Why doesn’t she need to go to work?” Her mother’s brows lowered as she glared ferociously at Yash. Oh shit! Why had he said that? He glanced desperately at Maya but she didn’t magically regain consciousness and leap to his rescue. He cleared his throat again. “Umm. I think she, umm…”“Umm, umm what?” her mother snapped.“Kamala,” her father said again. “You don’t Kamala me,” she growled at him. “Because of you this boy came into my daughter’s life and then ruined it. And now again, she’s in a hospital bed and this fellow has something to do with it. And now, he’s mumbling something about her job.” “She got fired,” Yash blurted out, the words spewing out of him. Both her parents stared at him, aghast. “Fired?” her father asked, his voice barely louder than a whisper. “What do you mean fired?” Her mother sat down on the tiny attender’s stool with a thud that had Yash wondering if the stool was going to buckle under her. “Fired,” her father repeated, disbelievingly.“What are we going to do now?” her mother whispered. “The loans and all and now, Maya’s medical bills also.”“We will manage,” her father said, unconvincingly. “Like we always do.”Yash stared from one ashen face to the other, learning a lot more about Maya in those few seconds than he had in all the time he’d spent trading barbs with her. “I can help.” He heard himself offering. “We don’t need anything from you!” The old lady was back to hissing at him again.“Consider it a loan,” he began. “We don’t need any more loans. We are still paying off the last ones you left us with.” “I left you with?” Yash stared at her. “Could you all please shut up?” A pained voice broke through and all their eyes swiveled to Maya who was trying to glare at them but was mostly wincing. “How is anyone supposed to get any rest with you all squabbling like a pack of vultures over a dead body?” She didn’t wait for a response before turning to her father. “Am I going to be okay?” she asked him. Clearly he was the only one she trusted in the room.He nodded. “The doctors told Yash you will make a full recovery. Just a little rest needed, okay?” He stroked her hair again, their bond unmistakable. “You lost your job,” her mother burst out from where she sat. “I did,” Maya slurred, the pain medication making its presence felt. “But it’s okay. I have a plan.” “Plan!” Her mother snorted. “Your plans have landed you in a hospital bed again. And why were you with this fellow?” She pointed an accusing finger at Yash. “Amma, not now,” Maya said, tiredly.And then, finally, she turned to look at Yash. “Thank you for bringing me to the hospital.”He nodded, not sure what to say to her. But, Maya, as always was not lost for words.“Now, could you please get out? And don’t come back.”