Chapter 1
"You've got to pick Sharon, whether you hate me more, or you love your friends more."
Ruhi's words resonated in Sharon's mind as she tried to work on formations for the impending musical, albeit unsuccessfully. Twisting her hair into a messy knot, she took a deep breath and tried to focus on the task at hand.
"Concentrate Sharon, concentrate. The team needs you now, and Rey's promised to take care of Ruhi. You can't lose focus. Concentrate Sharon." muttered Sharon to herself, as she tried to force the unnerving thoughts out of her head. As she turned to pick up her bottle of water, her eyes fell on someone who'd clearly been spying on her all this while.
"Ruhi? What're you doing here?" asked an agitated Sharon.
"Oh nothing, I just thought I'd come here to see how you've been faring. Clearly, I've gotten your knickers in a twist, haven't I?" smirked Ruhi.
Sharon took a deep breath and turned to collect her stuff, pointedly ignoring Ruhi in the process. As she was about to leave the rehearsal hall, Ruhi called out to her.
"Awww, what's the matter Sharon? Now that you've told your best friend to 'handle' me, you're gonna ignore me and walk away? Is that what he told you?"
Sharon stopped dead in her tracks as she turned to face Ruhi, eyes shining with unadulterated fear. "How?! What? Ruhi did you-" spluttered Sharon in shock.
"Sharon, Sharon, Sharon. Haven't you heard the saying that deewaaron key bhi kaan hote hain? And you were talking in the freaking cafeteria. Tsk. And I thought Ms Sharon Rai Prakash, the so called Diva of St Louis actually had some brains on her! Clearly not." replied Ruhi smugly.
Reeling in shock, Sharon was at a loss for words. All she could think to herself was that Ruhi'd cornered her, and there was no way in which she could protect Swayam and save the team. Not knowing what to do, Sharon did something she never thought she'd do in her entire life.
"Ruhi, please. Why are you doing this? We've really not done anything to you! Stop your obsession Ruhi, this is turning into borderline insanity! How low can you stoop to win Swayam? He doesn't love you, he can NEVER love you!" cried Sharon desperately, trying to get Ruhi to understand her fallacies.
Ruhi merely shrugged Sharon's plea as she walked towards her, looking her straight in the eye as she proclaimed, "But that's the catch Sharon, I am MAD! I am madly in love with Swayam, and anyone who comes between the two of us will have to face my wrath. First, it was just you. But since you got your beloved best friend Rey involved in it as well, he's going to have to deal with me too."
Sharon's eyes widened in shock as she took in Ruhi's statement.
"WHAT?! You've got to be joking Ruhi, stop it! You've got an issue with me, lets sort it out with each other! Why are you bringing the team and Rey in this?!"
"Because dill, dosti and dance is VERY important to you, aren't they? Its going to be fun playing with the entire team. Of course, Rey's gonna go down first. I'm debating between pulling out the breaks of his car or-"
"NO! Ruhi you can't do anything of the sort! You're already blackmailing me about the team, and now about Rey too! Stop!" coughed Sharon, as she tried to control her erratic heartbeat and short breaths.
Ruhi smirked with vindictive pleasure as she watched Sharon plead, cough and struggle to breathe. To her, it was as if Christmas had come early, watching Sharon writhe in pain. Her smirk soon turned into a frown when she noticed Sharon desperately ransacking her bag, looking for something which was evidently not on her at the moment. As she tried to figure out the reason behind Sharon's sudden loss of breath, Simmi and Nilesh entered the rehearsal hall.
On taking in the sight in front of her, Simmi rushed to Sharon's side in shock as she tried to calm Sharon down.
"Nil! Hurry, look for Sharon's inhaler in her bag! She's got to have it there! Calm down Sharon, please, you're hurting yourself! Ruhi, what happened here?! She's not had an attack in ages! Nil, what the heck are you doing?! Get the damn inhaler out!" shouted Simmi, as she tried to rub Sharon's back in an attempt to soothe her breathing.
"Its not here Simmi! What do we do?! Lets rush her to the medical room!"
"Nil its 7 PM in the evening, the medical room is closed! Freaking hell! OMG Sharon please, calm down! Stay with me!" shrieked Simmi, as Sharon continued to gasp for air.
"I really don't know Simmi! I came here looking for Swayam and we-"
"OMG NIL! Call Swayam! He always had an extra inhaler on him! There's a chance he still has one on him now! Do it, fast!"
"But why would Swayam have an inhaler for Sharon?" asked Nilesh, as he made a questioning face towards Simmi.
"That's NOT the issue now, just get him here!" screeched Simmi, as she tried to unsuccessfully calm Sharon down.
"Swayam! Yeah listen, Sharon seems to have had an asthma attack, and she doesn't have her inhaler on her. Simmi's asking if you had an inhaler?"
"WHAT?! Sharon's having an attack? How did it happen? Where are you? Where is she? Are you guys with her?" spluttered Swayam, as he spilled water all over himself in shock.
"Rehearsal hall bro, come quickly! It seems like a bad attack, she can't even breathe!" replied a worried Nilesh, as he cut the call.
Swayam dashed over to his locker, opening it with a bang and literally threw all the contents out of it. Rey, who was waiting to talk to him about Kriya's rejection, was shocked to see his demeanor and asked him the reason behind it. Swayam, however, ignored Rey's ministrations as he looked for the inhaler. On finally spotting it lying down right at the back of the locker, he sprinted out of the room towards the rehearsal hall, Rey hot on his trail.
Swayam's heart came into his mouth when he saw Sharon nearly collapsing due to the lack of oxygen in her system. Rey, who was trailing behind him, rushed towards Sharon on seeing her this way and tried to soother her, but to no avail.
"Swayam, get the inhaler! What're you waiting for dammit!" screamed Simmi, as she spotted Swayam frozen in his tracks.
Simmi's voice shook Swayam out of his state of shock as he rushed towards Sharon with the inhaler in his hand. Pulling a nearly comatose Sharon into his arms, he gingerly placed the inhaler into her mouth and carefully pumped the spray, all the while patting her head. Rey and Simmi continued to rub her back while Nilesh had rushed over to pull out the car, so that she could be taken to the local hospital once they'd managed to revive her.
Ruhi, on the other hand, was seething in fury on witnessing the scene play out in front of her. She couldn't fathom for the life of her as to why was her plan backfiring. Swayam was supposed to hate Sharon, not hold her in his arms! Her eyes burned at the sight in front of her and she slinked out of the rehearsal hall in a huff, something which didn't go unnoticed by Rey.
After a long and painful wait of 5 minutes, Sharon took a deep breath and blearily opened her red eyes. Simmi and Rey hugged each other in joy, while Swayam just continued to stare at her, eyes shining with unshed tears.
The first thing that Sharon saw on opening her eyes were Swayam's eyes. His chocolate brown eyes, normally shining in mirth, were now shining with unshed tears, as she felt him stroke her hair. Like always, she lost herself in his chocolaty brown orbs, thanking the Lord for this private moment that she was able to share with him.
"Sharon! You're fine! Thank GOD for that! What had happened?!" gushed Simmi, as she tried to pull Sharon out of Swayam's arms. This seemed to shake the two out of their reverie, as they came to their senses. Swayam, however, crushed Sharon to himself and buried his face in her hair, much to Rey and Simmi's delight and surprise.
"Sharon! What'd happened to you?! How did you get an attack all over again? I thought the asthma had gone! I mean how?! What?!" exclaimed Swayam in an agonized voice.
Sharon pulled away from Swayam and smiled bleakly at him, not knowing what to say. To her luck, however, Ruhi's sudden disappearance had made Rey realise that she'd had something to do with the attack, and stepped in to cover for Sharon.
"Swayam, lets leave all this. First up, we need to take her to the doctor to get her checked. Come on now, Nil's got the car out. Simmi, can you inform the rest of the team that we'll be taking Sharon to the hospital so all rehearsals are cancelled? We'll start it off tomorrow." instructed Rey, as he veered the topic away from dangerous waters.
Swayam stood up with Sharon in his arms, much to Simmi and Rey's amusement. The two shared a look and decided to have some fun with the couple.
"Swayam, Sharon's had an asthma attack. She didn't break her foot. You could put her down you know." remarked Rey with a straight face, as a facial muscle twitched.
"She's ill! I'm not gonna put her down until the doctor tells her she's fit to walk. Lets just go visit the doctor first." replied Swayam pointedly, not wanting to let Sharon out of his sight.
As Swayam walked out with a visibly red Sharon in his arms, Rey and Simmi burst out into laughter and quickly hugged each other before rushing to follow the others to the hospital.
"Sharon, remember to take your medicines on time. I really want to stay over, but there's no one at home tonight and mom wants me back. I'm really sorry!" gushed Simmi, as she placed medicines and water on her bedside table.
"Its alright Simmi! You were there when I needed you the most, and that's all that matters. Kaka's at home anyways, I'll call him if I need anything." replied Sharon gratefully.
"And you actually think you're gonna stay alone? With kaka? And I'm going to let that happen? Really Sharon?" remarked Swayam from the corner of her room, while he continued to fix the loveseat by the window.
Sharon turned towards Swayam in surprise, as her face split into a wide grin on understanding that he'd be staying behind. Swayam chose that moment to turn towards her, and was bowled over by her sheer joy on her face that made her look all the more beautiful.
Simmi smiled to herself as she quietly slipped out of the room, giving the duo the privacy that'd been evading them from a long while. As she shut the door with minimal sound, she turned and bumped into Rey, causing the two of them to squeal in surprise.
"SHUSH! Don't make a sound, lets get out of here! On your tippy toes, mind you!" whispered Simmi aggressively, as she pulled Rey towards the living room.
"Haiiin? Simmi, why're we moving around as if we've come to rob Sharon's house?"
"Seriously, all you boys are such certified idiots." huffed Simmi, as she plonked down on the sofa.
"Me too?" asked Nil in a rather sad voice, as he came out from the kitchen with a bowl of popcorn in his hand.
"Seriously guys? Okay so Nil, we're not staying here for the night cause Swayam's insisting on staying back to take care of her. And THAT is why I dragged you away from the room Rey! Boys!" sighed Simmi, as she picked up her bag and motioned the two to follow her out of the house.
Rey grinned at Simmi as he turned to walk out with the two of them. "Well,", he thought to himself, "At least someone's love story is moving in the right direction!".
Edited by BalamPichkaari - 11 years ago
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Geet - Hui Sabse Parayee
Cricket
