Chapter 74 - Newfound

                                    

                                          
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[16th November]
"Muskan... Muskan? MUSKAN!" Suhana yelled, bringing Muskan back into the zone.
"Huh, Haan?"
"Your turn."
Muskan played her turn in the group UNO game when a message popped up on her phone's screen.
[Dropped all our gifts at Abeer's. He loved yours. Wanna give a call and talk?] It was from Abhimanyu. Muskan would've loved to talk to Abeer but she was not in a mood to talk to anyone. Suhana, her roommate, on Girisha's request, had somehow managed to convince Muskan to play a card game. Her attempt at distracting Muskan was failing, it seemed.
Muskan replied to Abhimanyu's message with a [Sure. Thanks!] and went back to the game.
After a brief pause, Abhimanyu's new message read, [You know you can ignore messages if you don't feel like replying, right? Take rest. Bye-bye!]
- X - X - X - X - X -
"Hel—lo...?" Aashna stretched her greeting as she slowly peeked into Abeer's home. She swung open the door when no one came into her sight. "Where's everyone?" She mumbled while nearing the tea table. 
The tea table in the middle of the couch gang was loaded with gifts; some open, some still wrapped. Curiosity took the best of her when she started looking over every gift there. One-after-another. Every box looked too pretty to be opened. She picked up one of the boxes and admired the cute wrapping paper, wondering what could be inside.
"These... are lots of gif— WOAH!" A sudden push from behind and Abeer's chest was already pressed against her back. Engulfing her, his hands snaked over hers, tightening her grip on the gift box. "Abeer! What—" Her words halted when his chin rested on her shoulder, trying to look at the thing she was so engrossedly holding.
"So? What did you bring for me?" Abeer nudged her head with his.
"Oh? I was supposed to bring something?"
"Of course???" Abeer's hands now moved down to wrap her waist. "I am officially a car owner now! I deserve gifts!"
"Yeah, so all these must be enough, no? See! So many!" She was now having fun. "This, this, and oh! Thi— mffphm."
Abeer squeezed her cheeks, muffling her words. "YOU!" A sudden push and Aashna's back was now against the nearby wall while Abeer caged her, his hands locking her forearms. "Just say you are the gift already, duh."
"But I'm not?"
"Huh?"
"I have a gift for yo— us." 
"HUH?!"
"Come here," Aashna laughed and pushed him away. She was followed by Abeer to the main door where she had kept two medium-sized navy blue bags. Picking up one of them, she handed it to him. "Here."
"DON'T TELL ME!" 
"Yeah, I mean, just... see?" Aashna chuckled.
A bunch of pigeons would've flown away, that was the speed at which Abeer unzipped the bag and uncovered a fresh new pair of inline skates. Bright red colour. Just like the ones he had bid farewell to, years ago. He felt tears forming in his eyes and his face turning warm and red. That's when he realised the real amount of him missing his skates. No one could put it into words. Not even himself.
He shook his head in disbelief, failing miserably at controlling his tears. As if words were stuck on the tip of his tongue, or failed to qualify as concrete sounds. "Aash— this— I—"