Chapter 10

Blithe

@nancy56

Faded#10



The worst part of being in love was to lose the ability to picture yourself alone. You would close your eyes, and they would just settle in the frame seamlessly as if your existence was a vacuum without them.

Shravan opened up the new bottle of brandy he had gifted himself. His morals were an all-time low, and Suman Tiwari would take applause for doing it single-handedly. She had pulled him out of the strong protective shell he had made around himself, and had left him bare in the middle of a hurricane. He opened up the bottle, which fit snuggly around his fingers. He could feel her palm pressed across them, still. In both cases, he was intoxicated.

'I was so so damn wrong about her. She is such a bloody disease.....' he drank an ounce of liquor in one breath. 'Holy hell, what was she thinking? Yesterday night, she saw me as if nothing could please her more in this world. And now she goes on to marry that a**hole. She again played her part Shravan, you better stay away.' he screamed, his throat burning of anything but hate. Today he wasn't able to hate her. There was something so powerful in her touch. That with every blink he could feel the texture of her skin against his soul, the light of her blush- the taste of her collar bone. 

'SHITT!' he smashed the vase kept beside him. He could feel tears streaming down, his eyes and body tired of holding a whirlpool of whatever it had felt in a few days. Deny it or not, when Bassi had come early in the dawn, Shravan had barely pulled up his wits together, but he somewhere knew that whatever his friend said was heavy words of truth. He so wanted to believe them, to come out of this ocean of sorrow. All this had happened because of the touch of love he had experienced with all his guards down. His first mistake- to let her come too close than it was safe. To let her announce that she found him endearing, that she loved him and not that bloody Vikram. She had so so clearly said that Vikram wasn't the guy she wanted to marry. Then what had changed in one night? A night, he would have cut his right arm to live through, 7 years ago. It was some awful joke, of a teenage imagination. But to him, it was the unraveling of deep-buried emotions. For him, it had turned the tide. 

But for Suman Tiwari, things changed in the twilight, how could he forget that? 

So he just concentrated on finishing up the rest of his bottle.

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Bassi was so sure that something wasn't right with Vikram getting engaged to Suman. The frequency with what Suman spent with Shravan was nothing when compared to him. He had barely seen him around the Cantt. A few luncheons couldn't defy the ability to eat a bullet for the other. The ability to hide them under your shell to let yourself get tarnished but not them. He had seen it so clear in his mate's eyes. There was fire and smoke. There was something so different than what he had known Shravan off as if a new person taking birth. 

So he took on his shoulders to find out something more about his school mate Vikram Raichand, who wasn't what it seemed to be. Maybe a direct conversation was better.

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Suman stared at the box of sweets, Shravan had gifted her. 'Congratulations!' his every word sprinkled with a stretched grin, as if she had just announced that she was pregnant with his child. At this, she laughed, and then, maybe cried.

For some reason, the box of sweets was much dearer to her than that flashy engagement ring she had accepted just for Shravan. Funny, how Suman Tiwari works. She wondered if she would remain this impulsive bullhead all her life, that if Shravan was right?

Doing what she thinks is right, without thinking about what others would like to say in the matter.

Her phone buzzed and she regretted her another minute on earth. 'Vikram!' she faked enthusiasm.

'To not beat around the bush much, Suman' Vikram's voice hit cold on the receiver 'would you like to discuss some marriage plans.' he spoke business, smelled of it rather.

'Let my Aunt arrange a ceremony, I hope your parents..' before Suman could complete her plans of a sober social engagement she was cut unethically by him.

'My parents are back in the US. They would hardly have the time to reach for a small- tie-up? you understand?' He seemed such a put off that Suman wanted to bark a sodd off into his head, but she bore it. 

See what you did to me Shravan.

'You don't want to let people know that you are engaged to me. Is it the matter?' She asked with sincerity. She could hardly decipher the jovial guy who had turned shades greyer in a day.

'You take me so wrong, Miss Raichand' his voice was warm again for all the wrong reasons, plus, Suman felt like cringing on his nickname for her. ' How can I say a no to you, like ever?' With this and a few minute-long conversations, Suman felt like getting relieved of a burden.

She opened up the sweet box and took one in hand. She looked at it as if her dear life weighed on its existence. 'Congratulations to you too Major Malhotra!' she exclaimed as she chewed, and found that sweets could be bitter as well.

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Bassi bragged through Shravan's apartment. 'MALHOTRA!' he screamed out of his wits. 

'Where are the terrorists?' Shravan came downstairs, sporting a lemonade. Morning blues.

'He is a bloody imposter!!!' Bassi could barely stand so he jumped and shook Shravan's shoulders.

'Who?' Shravan still looked as if Bassi had again gone mad. He hardly took him seriously when they were away from the field. But his madness kept him alive as if blood thrusting his veins.

'Vikram Raichand.' Bassi announced and Shravan let his glass loose in his grip. There was a chill wind running down his spine, praying dearly that Suman was safe.

The next moment he heard the postmortem of Vikram's personality, that how he generally grabbed women at authority positions. That how his parents were not in the US but lived somewhere in Haryana. That how he had graduated from some tier 2 city contrary to his false riches. 

The interesting thing and the reason he was approaching Suman was that he was fighting a case, actually defending an imposter company against the armed forces. He needed a tough ground to manipulate his case, and what better then begetting an Army Girl. So, the bait Suman Tiwari somehow was far from his reach. Shravan remembered her clearly announcing that she couldn't love him because, because.............. Anyways, that wasn't important to him now. But surely something odd had happened in one night, that made Suman fall trap to his honey.

'What are we waiting for?' Bassi held his breath.

'Where are my keys?' Shravan ran to get his car keys, and Bassi couldn't help but smile. Finally, they were on the right track.

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Suman fooled around her coffee maker when her doorbell made her jump. Her coffee was ready. She had given up on tea and rather preferred black coffee with no sugar, the best deal for her seemingly dull life.

She ran to open the door and found Vikram Raichand stand there with a bottle of peach wine. He smirked and entered her house without her greeting him back. She fiddled her brows in confusion at his hurry.

She would definitely tell him that she had an allergy from peach. 
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Part 11, page 12