Vote. Comment. Share.
Namik Paul as Shravan Tiwari.

Manik's POV:
Fear

It was the only emotion I noticed on Chipmunk's face as she went on staring at the tall, manly figure standing in front of her. Her pupils dilated and her fingers were curled into fists. The absolute horror on her face was similar to that of a child witnessing a ghost in their nightmares. Her face paled as if she saw a dangerous creature. But all her emotions were into display only for few seconds. And in a blink of an eye her face curved into a perfect smile and posture which rigid some time before was oozing out confidence.

The tall person offered her a handshake and was in turn rejected as she folded her hands and greeted him with another smile.

"Rejected in a best manner" my inner monkey commented looking at the scene and I chuckled at him.

Srikanth uncle (Nandini's dad) calls me and Cabir bhai to introduce the tall guy to us.

"Manik and Cabir meet Mr. Shravan Tiwari he's one of the major shareholders in Mr. Ashok Khurana's TV channel." Uncle says to us looking at the tall guy.

I formally smile at him introduce myself. The way his eyes turn dark when I introduce myself as Nandini's fiance is the detail I can never miss.

Even Cabir Bhai's face turns little bit uncomfortable as Shravan's gaze falls on him. He excuses himself and leaves from there eyeing at Chipmunk as if telling her something.

Chipmunk who also tries to leave is stopped by Shravan.

"Uncle aapko pata hai Nandini and I did our MBA in the same University and even our batches were same but it's weird how we never came across each other!" Shravan says and his tone felt cynical to me. Chipmunk stiffens again on the mention of University.

"It's nice to know that, the world indeed is small" Uncle answers him back.

"And uncle I heard a lot about Nandini that time she was really popular in our university but alas couldn't get to meet her if I would have met her that time I would be the one marrying her first, she's so beautiful" Shravan says again.

"He's crossing his limits now Asshole!" my inner monkey says gritting his teeth. 

"Flirting with her infront of her husband to be and father isn't really safe for you gentleman" I reply him back in a candid tone. Uncle laughs at this and puts his hand on my shoulder  and says "I agree with Manik!".

But, Chipmunk being the weirdo chuckles at her father's response and speaks "Manik and Dad don't worry how much ever he may flirt but for me ultimately Manik is the best" and leans her head on my shoulder.

Shravan's face paled at this.

"Comeon Shravan why so serious! " She smiles again and here I am inwardly doing the crazy steps of Bhangra along with my inner monkey.

I come out my trance as Chipmunk's father breaks into fits of laughter and Chipmunk also joins him.

Uncle then excuses him and leaves saying that we three need to hangout more as we seem to be having fun.

I almost endup puking at his words but I control myself somehow.

"Fun!!
As if!!
These are most confusing thirty minutes of my life" my inner monkey comments on this staring dirtily at Shravan and I nod along with him in agreement.

Who is this Shravan and what relationship is he having Chipmunk?

And most importantly why the hell is he staring at her like a Hindi movie villain who wants the heroine.

"Manik come with me please" my trance is broken as I hear the loud voice of Ananya. I am forced to leave Chipmunk alone with that creep as Ananya pulls me along with her.

I give a last glance to her and follow Ananya.

Nandini's POV:

I feel fear returning back to me again as I am forced to stand alone infront of Shravan. I feel the hair on my spine standing straight as he gazed at me with the same dark eyes which haunted me for years. He smirked at me evilly and I feel like a prey standing in front of its predator.

I walk away from there immediately towards the balcony to calm myself.  I hear footsteps behind my back and I know that it's Shravan who is following me.

"Be brave Nandini. This is not the time to run away. Just face him. You can do it. You are stronger than what you actually think you are" I say to myself.

On reaching the balcony I find myself alone  once again with Shravan.

"Stop running away from me Nandini how long will you?" Shravan questions me.

I morph my face to a confident one and answer him " You stink so much that I have no option rather than running away Mr. Tiwari"

His face turns bitter and he starts walking towards me.

"Winters in London have been tough without you Nandini. I missed our warm hugs and cuddles together so much" he replies.

The nerve of this idiot. After whatever he did to me he has the courage to come and speak to me.

"If I was in London I would make sure to make the winters warm by cutting you into thousands of pieces and burning you." I reply back gritting my teeth.

"Being bitchy  makes you look more sexy Nandini" he answers back with the same shameless smile.

"I have the habit of being a bitch to assholes" I reply back with the same intensity.

Not able to tolerate him anymore I try to leave but my attempts go in vain as Shravan grabs my hand and tightens his hold on my wrist.

"Shravan leave me" I say glaring at him. "Little birdie you're flying really high and crossing your limits. Don't forget what I did to you and what can I do. You definitely wouldn't like your ugly secret coming out" he says in a callous tone and his nails dig into the skin of my left arm.

I wince in pain and my legs immediately raise to knee him to protect myself.

Not able to take the impact he moves away from me and crouches to ground.

"I will not forget this Nandini Murthy" he speaks to me in a dangerous tone  and leaves groaning in pain.

I hug my body and sit down leaning against the wall trying to control me from having a major breakdown.

And involuntarily I find myself sending a message to Ostrich to come and meet me.

Manik's POV:

I laugh at another joke cracked by Navya. She's really a funny person and I can't believe how come Cabir bhai fell for her when he's serious most of the time. And thanks to her for saving me from Ananya too.

Opposites really do attract!

I tilt my head and look around searching for Chipmunk. I don't find Cabir bhai around too.

Where is she?

My smile turns into a frown remembering the scenario which happened with Shravan.

Navya who observes the change in my expression taps on my shoulder.

I turn towards her with a questioning look on my face. "Searching for di?"

"I am searching for her and Cabir bhai too" I reply her.

"You know sometimes I wonder how my di fell for you" Navya speaks again and my attention shifts to her.

"Why what's wrong with me?" I say giving her a playful accusatory glance.

"There's nothing wrong with you. It's just that you both are so different. Di is always busy with work. Sometimes I need to play pranks on her to bring her out of robotic working mood" Navya replies truthfully.

"It's because for her The Murthy Department store something very much more than a store." I say remembering how Chipmunk forced me and put her personal life into risk only to save the store.

Navya nods at me and I continue "But you know even she has an innocent and childish side to her and her eyes glow with a different spark when that side comes out." My face curves into a smile again as I remember how we both spent the night on terrace speaking about the little things related to each other.

"Someone seems to be fangirling about my sister" Navya comments looking at the smile on my face and face flushes as I am caught red handed.

"Aisa kuch nahi hai I am not fangirling about her" I say to her and our bickering continues only to be disturbed by a message notification from Chipmunk on my phone.

Navya gives a teasing smile to me and leaves from there to join Alya.

Chipmunk:
Meet me.  I am at  the balcony.

I frown again as I read the message. Is she okay?
Did Shravan do something?

I rush towards the balcony only to find her sitting the ground, hugging her body.

She looks at me and I feel like someone threw a bucket of icecubes on me. Her gaze was so cold , aloof altogether that I start questioning myself whether she's the same woman who stared at me in awe when I pecked her cheek.

She gets up from the ground and dusts her dress.

"Leave" she says again or rather orders me in a stony tone.

And here I thought we will have an emotional scene together where she will breakdown a little and I will be comforting her.

Ignoring her order I step closer to her and ask "Is everything okay?. Her eyes flicker to me and for few seconds I notice a different emotion in them. But it vanishes again and I find her asking me to leave her alone.

Why did she even message me if she wants me to leave?
She's so freaking confusing.

My eyes fall on her left arm where I see multiple bruises as if someone peirced their nails.

"How did this happen?" I ask taking her left arm into my hold gently. "None of your business" she answers ignoring my question.

I am already loosing my patience and she is doing no help. I sigh loudly and ask her again the same question but in a softer tone.

"Fuck off Manik" she answers back.

"Did you hear the same I heard?" my inner monkey asks me touching it's ears as if checking whether his ears are not working properly.  I stare at him blankly.

She didn't just cuss  me did she?

"You heard me right, if you didn't hear properly I can do the favour again" she answers in a rude tone.

"Didn't you message me to come and meet you?" I ask her controlling my anger. Both of us loosing our calm will lead us nowhere.

"And now I want you to leave can't you understand such a simple thing?" she exclaims her voice louder than before.

"Fine! you know what I don't freaking care" I turn to leave.

I come back from there only to collide with Cabir bhai.

"Did you see Nandini anywhere?" Cabir bhai asks in an impatient tone.

"She isn't dying ok so stop freaking out. She's out there and Madam needs some alone time" I spat at him finally loosing my calm.

"Manik did you fight with her?" Cabir bhai asks gritting his teeth.

"I didn't dammit! I even went and asked her if everything's fine but she fought with me in return" I exclaim.

And then I tell Cabir bhai how things turned out after he left in between while we were talking to Shravan.

Cabir bhai almost looses his calm when I tell him how Shravan flirted with Chipmunk.

"Manik I think Nandini didn't tell you anything about Shravan. He is Nandini's ex boyfriend and things ended up in a bitter manner between them. He did a lot of shitty things to her which affected her a lot. Nandini will tell you remaining when time comes but until then I request you to handle her with patience. I know she's not exactly in her best mood now but please be gentle to her. Things may take a worse turn for her and you if Shravan gets to know that you both are fighting" Cabir bhai pleads and my anger almost flies away at this.

I decide to keep my anger aside for sometime and behave like a matured adult about this. Cabir bhai is right so, it's better if I just handle her with more care.

After sometime Chipmunk steps inside and joins us near the table. She smiles at us normally as if nothing really happened few minutes back.

"Thank goodness I didn't went on a date with her she's bipolar" my inner monkey comments looking at her.

"As if she is dying to have a date with you" I snap at him. He doesn't has the right to judge her just because of her behaviour few hours back.

The DJ who was playing  peppy bollywood songs until now requests all the couples to come on to the floor for a Newspaper dance competition.
I curse the DJ inwardly for including this stupid dance competitions as part of the party. I stare at Chipmunk who inturn was staring at me with the same uncomfortable look on her face.

I move towards the dance floor and she also joins me after removing her high heels.

(See the video for a better idea )

We  were comfortable dancing initially as the newspaper had enough slot for us to occupy. But as the songs kept changing I needed to fold the paper thus the slot decreased,so the distance between us.

She's so short compared to me and now when she's standing this close to me she  looked like a tiny dancing doll. There's one moment where she lost her balance and almost stepped out of the paper but I pulled her back by making her stand on my feet.

At the end it was only us and Bhai and Navya left. The newspaper had no space at all for both of us to stand properly.

Another song starts playing and we both stare at each other in confusion. I or her have absolutely no idea what
to do now.

If it has been other girls I would just pick them up in bridal style and danced...but the situation is not that normal here it's Nandini Murthy and she might even kick me where sun doesn't shine if I touch her without consent.

"Manik Nandini ko aise kyu dekh raha hai? Usein haathon mein utaale or naachna shuru kar." Aryaman shouts loudly amidst the music playing.

"Go for it Manik, I will pray for your family jewels" my inner monkey says and joins his hands to pray.

It takes every ounce of my patience to not snap on this idiot of my inner monkey and my silly friends who planned this paper dance.

Not knowing what to do I lift her in a bridal style and start cradling her in my arms moving  to the slow tone of the song.

Chipmunk  stares at me and her eyes are filled with childlike innocence. The look on her eyes is similar to the child staring at its mother  after doing something wrong.

"You look like a small doll but weigh a ton" I say smiling slightly with a mischievous look in my eyes.

Wait why did I even say that?

I put her down immediately as the song stops and leave from there ignoring all the teasing looks my friends are giving me.

One moment I am so angry on her that I want to replace her shampoo bottle with Veet hair removal cream and there's another moment where I tease her, flirt with her. These incidents are so fucking insane. And the problem is I can't stay angry on her for long time after looking at the innocence of her face.

I mean she cussed me when I did nothing wrong so instead of being angry all I want to is know the reason behind her anger and assure her that whatever is wrong will be okay.

I never handled anyone's temper tantrums except for Andy. And Nandini isn't Andy. So I won't even try to know what's wrong with her. It's not my concern.

Nandini's POV:

"What are you doing?" I ask the DJ Nandini who's busy making a poster with all its sketch pens and pencils scrawled on the floor.

Well Ostrich left me alone after the dance and went somewhere. And here I am sitting all alone counting the number of people who are ordering more than one drink whereas my younger sister Navya is busy romancing her husband and all other friends of Ostrich are busy in their own world.

"Is it possible that right now probably a ghost is humping on me and I can't even feel it?" I ask the DJ Nandini again to entertain myself as it ignores my previous question.

It gives me a mean look and goes back to its work.

"Ahh comeon don't ignore me" I whine poking her shoulder.

She gets up from the floor and hands me down the poster she's working on with a proud grin on her face.

The poster has my photo posted on it along with the writing:

' 'This weird and strange wild animal named Nandini Murthy has run away from its cage. Whoever helps me in locking this animal in the cage will be rewarded heavily'

Contact: DJ Nandini.

My mouth nearly touches the floor as I read it. And she smirks at me.

"What the fudge!?" I exclaim glaring at her and she glared back at me shouting
"Well you were exactly being a bitch to Ostrich too what the heck is wrong with you? That guy came there only because you messaged him and he was concerned about you dammit! Can't you be a little kind to him?"

I remember back the time when I was being rude to him and sigh loudly.

"I can't do anything rather than being to him. You know if he had stayed there for more than 5 minutes I would breakdown into tears and spill every ugly secret I am hiding. You know when he was staring at me with those caring eyes all I wanted was to hug him and cry like a baby. But we both know that I shouldn't. Manik is too innocent to see my ugly scars. He will start hating me as soon as he knows everything about me." I say trying to stop the tears forming in corner of my eyes.

She pats me on my shoulder understanding the situation and sighs out loudly.

"But you need to apologise for being rude to him Nandu" she reminds in a soothing voice. I nod at her and leave from the party searching for Ostrich.

I lean against the door of Ostrich's  pressing my ear on it to hear what is he doing inside. Dhruv told me that Ostrich left to his room after the dance so I am sure he's inside.

The door opens and I lost my balance  as I was not ready for the impact. My nose would be kissing the floor if Manik wouldn't have caught me in the right moment.

He makes me stand straight and speaks "Tum mere room ke bahar watchman duty kar rahi thi kya?"

I almost roll my eyes at this but stop myself from countering back.

"Mein andhar aa sakti hun?" I ask him softly.

"You are already inside my room if you didn't notice" he answers in a mocking tone.

DJ Nandini palms her face looking at the way this is going.

"Listen I really need to speak to you please" I plead with a puppy face.

"Before that don't you think you need to punished for spying on me?" He says with a serious face.

I don't answer back and lower my head. "Kneel down" he says again and I stare at him shocked.

"What I am not gonna do you that shit!" I exclaim and leave the room.

"Wait" he shouts loudly and pulls me back. "Sit down on the bed" he orders now.

"Huh!?" I stare at him confused. Did he lose his brain somewhere?

"Can't you understand such a simple thing?" He speaks mimicking my tone from the early evening.

"Arey once you tell me to kneel down and once to sit down what should I do then?" I ask in a helpless tone.

"Chipmunk please sit down on the bed" he says to me as if he's explaining a kid.

I sit down on the bed listening to him and wait for him as he walks out to get something.

After few minutes he returns back with an antiseptic cream tube in his hands.

He squats down on the floor closer to me and I stare in anticipation to know what is he doing. Rolling up the sleeve of my dress he squirts a small amount of cream and applies it at the same place where Shravan peirced his nails.

"Infection hojata tha if we leave it like this" he says still applying the cream.

My heart swells with happiness looking at his care and I feel more guilty for being rude to him.

He's such a pure human being. He's totally opposite to someone like she-devil as me.

"Does it hurt?" he asks again and I feel that his words  are not only about the nail marks.

I nod my head in a No and stay silent.

"It's okay even if it hurts. It will hurt now and one day everything will be fine. Trust me." He speaks again.

And then our eyes meet
And only our silences communicate,
Sparks create,
And two broken hearts collide to perfectly become one.

Wait!!! Wait!!!nothing as such happened if you were imagining it will. Manik left the the room as soon as he said those words and I sat there itself  enjoying the awkward air.(note the sarcasm please.)

Two days passed since the bedroom incident and Ostrich is successfully ignoring me from these past two days. I tried to apologise whenever I see him but he either leaves the place immediately after seeing me or comments something rude.

I remember the way he stared at me during the haldi ceremony. It was nothing of awe or admiration, the stare was full of mockery.

"You look like a rat dipped in buckets of turmeric paste" these were his words exactly.

I was taken aback by that but it was okay since I expected something rude from. I didn't see him during the whole day of Mehandi ceremony and I was slightly disappointed.

The elder aunties surrounding me told me that my husband to be will love me a lot as the colour of my Mehandi turned out to be of a dark shade and I almost laughed at it.

As if.
It is the joke of the year.
Irony is that I and Manik struggle to even have a civilised conversation.

All these thoughts occupy my mind again in the night and I find myself awake staring at the ceiling blankly.

Upon hearing to the grumbling of my stomach I decide to go to the kitchen and fetch some hot chocolate drink.

I am stopped in my tracks as I see Ananya standing in the balcony with her head down and Manik shouting at her?

I walk towards them to know what the problem is and I hear Manik shouting again "Ananya get your shit straight. I have no feelings for you whatsoever and yours is just crush which will not last long. You are more like a little sister to me. How can you ask me to elope with you when I am getting married in one more day?"

I get alerted listening to this and move away from there as it's Manik's personal problem and he might not like me intruding into it. But I stop again as I couldn't contain my curiosity.

"Manik please listen to me, I love you and I will do everything to make you happy. Let us just leave this place" Ananya exclaims.

Manik ignores her words and tries to leave from there but is stopped as Ananya drops the flower pot on the floor angrily and it shatters to pieces making a loud noise. All the family members wake up due to this and immediately come out of their rooms to know what's wrong.

In matter of few minutes Manik and Ananya are surrounded by all the members staring at them with confused faces. Raj uncle glares at Manik with an accusatory glance and at once I understand that he's ready to blame his son for whatever he didn't do.

"Ananya why  are you  here alone with Manik in the middle of the night?" Ananya's mother asks her and Ananya stays silent.

"Ananya did Manik call you here beta?" Raj uncle asks her and Manik's head snaps towards his dad.

Things can really take an nasty turn if I didn't do anything. Raj uncle may even say that Manik forced  himself on Ananya.

"Uncle it's me who called them here" I interrupt and everyone now stares at me confused including Manik and Ananya.

"Woh actually I and Manik had a fight over a petty issue and we weren't talking since two days. So I asked Ananya to bring him here so I can talk to him as I was missing him badly" I continue.

"Nandini tumhe toh pata hi hoga that you and Manik shouldn't meet before the wedding?" Mom scolds me.

"Haan pata hai mujhe but I couldn't wait more so..." I reason sheepishly.

The elders nod their heads at this and warn us to not repeat it again. Then everyone retires to sleep leaving both us, suggesting that we need to speak and resolve our fight.

"How can you blindly support me without knowing anything do you trust me that much?" Manik asks me directly.

"Who knows it may be myself who called Ananya there to do something fishy" he continues.

I shrug  and reply " There's a lot of difference between trusting and not judging Manik. Trust takes time to build. It's just that I didn't judge you. Just because you are standing out alone with a girl doesn't mean you are doing something wrong."

He nods and continues to stare at the night sky. And I secretly stare at him. He looks so damn fine even in his Bermuda shorts and a vest.

"Nandini freaking pervert Murthy stop ogling at  him  and apologize. You didn't apologise yet for your rude behaviour yet." DJ Nandini reminds me.

I clear my throat to gain his attention and speak "Listen I am sorry for the rude behaviour two days ago. A lot happened that day and I didn't know how to handle it and I took it on you." I nervously tuck my hair behind my ears waiting for his reply.

"I am disappointed with you Chipmunk. I expect a better apology." He says in a playful tone. "So  sit on your knees and hold your ears and then apologize" he continued.

I roll my eyes at this but however do what he's asking me to. I get on my knees and speak holding my ears
"Oh my dear Manik, I Nandini Murthy apologize for being a prick to you when you are nothing but a sweetheart. So please with a cherry on top can you accept my apology and forgive this sinner?"

Manik breaks into fits of laughter at this and I join him laughing loudly. I actually love the way how we both resolve these fights and end up laughing for being idiots.

"I can do nothing other than forgiving you when you are being this cute." He says pulling my cheeks.

And after speaking for some more time we both retire to sleep.

Little did I know that my sleep eventually be disturbed by Manik because around 4.00 am of the same night Manik was standing outside my room with his phone in his hand which had the message to blow our fuses.

              **************
~"Life has the ability of throwing shit at us in different ways."~