The car ride home was filled with Sarah's long speech of the delinquent that she didn't want her children around. Her voice rising with every second and every sentence. Her, brows furrowed together as she continued to complain about the boy. What made her think, he was an offender or criminal was beyond crazy according to Mannat.
"Long Hair, Leather jackets; you know they have no future. Let's not start with the way he spoke to Mark! No manners, what-so-ever! " She rambled again. Her voice so loud in the small blue car Mannat almost didn't hear the notification on her phone goes off.
"The second one had a piercing!" Her mother suddenly remembered in the background.
'Griffin_Hayes wants to follow you.'
But the only, thing that Mannat could focus on was on her mobile screen. The morning flashed through her mind, his woody and earthy smell, hazel eyes, and ringed fingers. His hard calloused chest, that she remembered feeling as she tried to push him off her. These were new emotions that she was feeling, admiring a boy. It felt weird, yet right!
"Do you understand, Manny?" Her mother demanded her attention. Quickly locking her screen the girl looked up "Huh? " She looked up like a deer caught in front of a car. Scared and out of place.
"I don't want you anywhere, near that boy! Did you see how he was all over you? Absolutely disgraceful! " She scrunched her nose in extreme distaste.
Mannat rolled her honey brown eyes, having no energy to deal with her mother.
The family sat together, Sarah continued to mutter over Griffin's bad behavior. Mannat, on the blue couch, hummed slowly to Lata Mangeshkar's Humko Husmise Churalo... It was the best kind of combination Lata Mangeshkar voicing to the eternal beauty of Aishwariya Rai and Shahrukh Khan. Only so many good-looking people on a screen together, she always wondered if any of this was ever real? Can she ever find such a love? One would never know.
"What movie is this again?" Mark asked he was plopped on the wooden flooring, eating Pringles, and Riaan sitting next to him playing with his phone.
"Mohobattein," Mannat answered.
"So, she's not real? A ghost?" Mark asked, confused.
"Yeah, it's basically taking a note on eternal love and stuff." Mannat noticed how her mother smiled at Mark, handing him a bowl of popcorn. This is how she wanted her to be with her father, but no! The woman hardly spared him a glance, especially after she was pregnant with Riaan.
Her phone vibrated with a DM. Hopeofgreenery' sent you a message.
Hope had become a quick friend of hers, she was surprised as to how non of the conversation that they had, were filled with ignorant questions or rude remarks, cause that's all she got in her previous school.
'Hey! Heard you met Griffin, today!'
'Yeah' Mannat quickly typed her response. Was Hope going to lecture her, just like her mother?
'Yeah, he told me. He's a great guy! Don't ignore him.' The reply was instant, but it had put the young Indian in confusion. How was she ignoring him.
'Ignore him?
' She asked.
'Didn't he send you a follow request?'
That left Mannat's mouth wide open. Yeah, her account was private, she wasn't much active on Instagram, she could have easily told him she didn't notice. But, he had told Hope to ask her, it was desperate maybe?
'Oh'
She quickly accepted the request, for some stupid reason, she shouldn't have accepted it at all but, she did. Maybe she will regret this. But, she won't ever say it out loud, she had one motto 'Live life, with no regrets.'
Mannay_Dayal accepted Griffin_Hayes follow request.
Mannat noticed the boy had a whopping 73 posts in comparison to her 12 Instagram posts. The recent one with Dylan and Hope. No caption, and 11 thousand likes. The Hope sat on the hood of a black 1970's Ford Capri, Dylan stands on the passenger seat with a beer can in hand, and Griffin on the driver's seat beaming at the camera. The bad boy dressing really did not jell well with his bouncy personality.
The next picture was of a lovely poodle. 'He has a dog! ' She shrieked in mind. If there is something about Mannat that people should learn is that she was scared of dogs. Terrified of them. In fact, she was scared of every animal. Zoophobia.
"Manny, can you please help me with the dinner, today?" Sarah asked her daughter who was engrossed in her mobile device.
"Hmm" Mannat nodded but made no move towards the Kitchen. "Manny! Now" The mother ordered. Groaning, she shut off her phone and moved towards the Kitchen, with her brother sticking his tongue out in a teasing manner.
After dinner, she groaned, sitting on her bed. The boy had asked Hope to tell her to accept the follow-request, but had not messaged her at all. She walked towards the window, her hands itching to open the window. Mark would be upset. Her subconscious reminded. Tiptoeing to the opposite side, she locked the bedroom door. She never did that, but she was afraid that Mark or her mother would walk in anytime to check on her. Then again moving towards the window she opened the window, inhaling deeply the faint woody scent.
"Ha" She sighed as she closed her eyes. Welcoming the cool wind.
"I can call this home!" She whispered and smiled. Her phone vibrated a DM on Instagram, too excited she read it.
'Ani_Dev shared a post.' It was just her cousin and not him. She didn't like how much she looked forward to his message.
Throwing her phone across the bed she walked into the adjoining bathroom.
The yellow eyes in the shadowy woods glistened with mirth. 'Someone's angry.'
"Someone's a twisted bastard!" Dylan sang, in the background.