Ishq Kinara[Love Ashore] Complete

23. Fall

Trigger Warning: Harassment and related themes

The household of Inayat Hassan and Kausar Inayat was, by no means, a silent one. They had four kids, three of them in their teens so having a calm and peaceful atmosphere around the house was never an option. But for the last few days the air surrounding it was solemn, everyone was in constant worry. The thing about close knitted families is, anything that touches a member is felt by the whole clan and right now the eldest child of Inayat Hassan was going through, probably the most crucial phase of her life.

The usual chaos inside the house, which was often the doing of Reeja's restless and adventurous nature, was in complete silence. Her younger siblings were in their shared room across the hall and not even a single yelp could be heard from it. Not the kind of energy you'd expect from three children who love fighting amongst themselves.

Reeja stood there looking at the closed door. She had no amount of energy to go in there and see for herself why they were this silent. She knew the reason so what was the point anyway?

She was the reason.

For the last few days that was her reasoning for maybe, almost everything that was going wrong in her life and so much had gone wrong.

Was that Facebook post worth it? That was her question to herself and she had no coherent answer to this. She knew Furqaan Akmal was from an influential family, that's why she resorted to social media to help her but turned out, his family was more in control of everything than she'd ever be. She refused to forget and move on and now she was paying the price.

The news was just a matter of gossip for the people she was putting her hopes in, that they'd understand her plight and help her get justice. Everyone had their two cents to give. Some, going to the lengths of telling her that he wasn't able to do much so she should just drop the subject.

That had been the most hurtful thing someone had ever said to her. The most insensitive thing and the fact it was said by one of her female classmates was more disturbing. She could blame Furqan's family but she knew even without their interference, the people she was expecting to help her weren't willing to do much. She had just opened a Pandora box for herself and her family. And their excuse for not acknowledging what she went through that night in the almost empty parking area of her university campus? Her clothing, her timing, her way of presenting herself, her bold nature and everything which started with her and ended on her as well. Somehow Furqaan Akmal was totally drawn out of the picture even though he was the perpetrator not her.

She was tired of this. Maybe she put too much faith in humanity and in her fellows. Maybe she was just being delusional. She was strongly considering taking off that Facebook post which added to her misery instead of soothing it.

She had switched off her phone. This was an escape. Maybe switching off the world around her would make it less worse than it already was. It was almost dinner time. She had returned from the campus earlier than ever, just waiting for her classes to get over. She couldn't afford a dwindling attendance rate due to the ongoing mess on her part so no matter how absent minded and mentally exhausted she was, she'd have to attend classes.

She was in her room most of the time after coming back from the university. When she could no longer bear her own thoughts, she came outside. The silence in the otherwise always buzzing house was daunting. She swallowed a lump in her throat and that's when it occurred to her, she needed a glass of water. With slow steps she walked towards the kitchen when she stopped in her tracks. With her house complete in silence, there was no way she couldn't hear her parents from the living area.

"Here, You haven't even touched the food yet. This isn't right."

Her mother was sitting close to her father who was in deep thoughts and mostly silent. The plate of food was placed right in front of him, by the looks of it, untouched. The worry lines on his forehead were evident from behind the wall Reeja was standing and they seemed to deepen with every passing second.