Mismatch/ Identity - THE END! (pg 93)

"Kripa, listen to me"

Kripa turned around to find Mishty standing behind her with a worried look. She ignored Misty and started walking ahead. But, Misty was fast, as she caught up with her pace, and swung Kripa around as muttered, "Kripa, listen to me first"

She observed Misty for a minute before she answered back "No, I don't want to! It's not going to work out that way".

Misty paled as she heard these words out from her best friend's mouth, and Kripa did feel a bit bad, but whatever Misty was being unrealistic and she ought to realize it.

With a quick goodbye, Kripa turned on her heels and walked out the doors leaving a shattered Misty behind.

********

The old lady smiled as she placed the cup of coffee on the table. Kripa smiled back, then grabbing the cup she turned to look outside at the wet snow, which fell on the sidewalk like a blanket.

She noticed a bunch of children were playing ahead in the snow trying to build a snow man and that brought back all the sweet memories of her childhood, which were still embedded somewhere in her mind behind all those bitter dark memories of last month.

For a second she was lost in her thoughts, before her heart shielded itself from the pain and screamed at her to stop. She did not want to remember that incident at least not today, so instead she chose to look at a little girl about the age of five sitting in the snow with a young boy, about the age of ten, who was throwing snow on the girl's face. It was just an awful sight.

Her heart went out for the poor girl, she ran near the window and stood there trying to yell at the boy move, and when she got strange looks she realized her blunder.... Hastily she left all her belongings behind and ran outside to stop that little brat.

Kripa pushed the door open in hurry, and almost slipped on the slate, but luckily some guy saved her in the nick of time. She thanked him without once bothering to look at his face and rushed out to stop the monster, who was troubling the little girl.

********

"Sister" was the first word Mishty heard before she could say hello. She turned around with a smile and replied, "Yes, Prithvi how did you find the time to call me?" some nurse was calling her, and she just motioned the lady that she will be there in a minute.

However, she frowned as she heard him mention about bumping into Kripa at Tim Hortons. She argued with him, as it sounded ridiculous that Kripa was at Tims, but he sounded positive.

She rushed to Liz and informed her to take up her duty, as she had to leave urgently without bothering to hear Liz's response she grabbed her purse and rushed out the doors to catch Kripa.

Prithvi looked at Kripa, she had lifted this Asian girl and was scolding a 10 year old. He wanted to go and talk to her desperately, but he withheld this thought, as he noticed her engrossed into the argument.

He shrugged his shoulders and turned around to face this gorgeous young lady, and he openly started to flirt with her not once caring about his surroundings.

********

Mishty stared in horror as she noticed Kripa with a small kid in her lap. Before she could say a word, Kripa noticed her and immediately placed the kid on the ground, and then she yelled something that sounded like "if you do that again I will hunt you down" and made her way back to Tims.

Mishty ran behind her, and yelled, "Kripa, wait... we really need to talk" it sounded more like she was begging.

This time Mishty was pleased to see Kripa turn around and nod with approval. She asked, "Want to go for a walk?" while Kripa just nodded her head and they began to walk.

It had been so long since she (Kripa) had been out with someone for a walk. She could literally see little kids everywhere and she wondered why she had never noticed them before. She lived in the area since three years, and yet she never noticed so many kids. Perhaps, a new amusement park opened somewhere near by, and she made a quick note to check it out sometime.

By now they had walked for quite a fair distance, when she heard Mishty clear her throat to break the silence.

"Kripa", Misty said, then with a bit of hesitation, she continued, "You need to talk to him".

Kripa took a deep breath, and replied coolly, "No Mishty".

Misty looked really unhappy and she added, "But, he has the right to know about it, and before you answer no again, please think about it!".

Kripa noticed this cute little boy dragging his mother to the candy store, while the mother refused and with a cute puppy face he asked her again and again, when finally the mother agreed and gave it to him.

It sounded strange, but Kripa was happy for him. She had never felt happy for someone especially for something like this, but today as she stood there she felt immensely happy for the little kid.

It was the waving of a hand that brought Kripa out of her thoughts, someone was waving her hand in front of Kripa, and yelling "Kripa". She turned to face Misty and immediately answered, "Yes".

Mishty looked at her for a while before she asked, "Did you hear me?" Kripa looked at her blankly and replied, "Remind me where we were again?" and noticed Mishty turned red in anger and yell, "From the past five minutes I have been trying to tell you something and you are lost somewhere else. I have no time to give you free advise....I am leaving" and with those words she walked away.

Now, surely Kripa really couldn't afford to loose a sweet friend like Mishty, a friend who had been with her all her life. The only thing that was annoying about Mishty was that she wouldn't leave her in peace until she (Kripa) listened to her.

She couldn't avoid Mishty for so long, so she walked as fast as her legs could carry and immediately apologized. Mishty remained silent, then when Kripa promised her that nothing would distract her and she would pay full attention to Professor Mishty, for the first time that day Mishty smiled.

********

Prithvi dialed Mishty's number, but apparently she had switched it off. He wondered where they had gone, a minute ago both were outside, but they had disappeared when he had gone to pick Kripa's cell.

He hadn't answered it mainly because Gayatri Aunty was calling and she would ask way too many questions if he answered her call, so he had held the cell in his hand and gone outside to check on Mishty and Kripa, but they had vanished. He could see Kripa's things on the table in front of him.

It wouldn't hurt to go and sit on her chair and look after her things until she came back. There was cup of coffee placed on the table and it appeared untouched. He could at least drink it and he was sure Kripa would be thankful that he drank it unless she fancied a cold coffee.

Lately, she was different especially in the past week or so. She had turned suddenly distant. 'She was always strange', he concluded as he took the first sip of the bitter liquid.

********

They turned around for the way back to Tim Hortons. Mishty started to lecture Kripa and she (Kripa) turned a deaf ear on her non-stop chatter, and stared at the cake shop, as she was desperately craving for that delicious chocolate cake sitting on the countertop.

She decided to eat it later and turned to face Mishty when she heard, "Kripa, common you need to act like an adult". Placing her hands on her hips as answered angrily, "Excuse me! Don't give me that **** that I act like a kid" and marched up in front.

"You do", Mishty screamed and further added, "You don't want to talk to him.. you are so stubborn.. There you go that's one reason". Kripa looked away Mishty's lecture was going to literally make her throw up.

********

"Gayatri" called a tired Suryaben as he stepped in the Sharma mansion. He placed his bag on the side and dropped on the sofa as he closed his eyes. It was a hectic day he just had a meeting with the Khanna's regarding the merge of their companies, and they had spent a great deal of time discussing various prospects for each of their best interest.

In the today's world, this was the most powerful news of the century. Both Sharma's and Khanna's were well known for their respective companies, which had been unbeatable since years. Now with this merge no one would be able to even compete or match up to the level of Khanna and Sharma's.

He felt soft hands on his neck and he opened his eyes to face his beautiful wife, who smiled at him. She rubbed his shoulders and sweetly asked, "How was the meeting?" as she also had heard about the merge from Suryaben and was hoping that everything went fine. It was an important day for them it could either make or break them, and she certainly hoped that Surya was right about this.

"Good" was all he answered and she knew she shouldn't bother him about this he already seemed to stressed, so she decided to bring up a new topic. But, before that to her surprise he brought her down to make her sit beside him and asked, "Gayatri, what's up with Kripa?" as he looked into her eyes.

She shivered and he noticed the smile on her face disappear as she replied, "I tried calling her, but she is not answering" with a worried look. He tried to comfort her as he replied, "I am sure she is doing fine Gayatri, don't worry". At that she simply placed her head on his shoulder as she answered, "I don't know Surya, our daughter is lost in some other world these days" while he just patted her back to comfort her.

********

It was pitch dark when they came near Tim Hortons and Kripa hadn't heard a word of Mishty's lecture rather she had just nodded my head when Mishty would blabber something.

There was no point in arguing with Mishty, the girl was a stubborn idiot, who would always bring up some tiny little thing to prove her point, even if the words were ten years old.

Kripa looked inside Tims, and she was pleased to notice that her things were safe on the table and they appeared untouched, except she noticed a figure sitting on her chair. It was a Male.

She tried to get a closer look of the person, when she recognized the familiar shirt and her brain had hit the chord, it was Prithvi, the last person on the planet she would want here. She turned around to look at Mishty, who was in the middle of something and asked furiously, "Mishty, what is Prithvi doing here?" Mishty just blinked, and Kripa pointed to the place where Prithvi was sitting, Mishty replied happily, "O he was the one that informed me you were here".

"What?" Kripa replied as she looked at Prithvi again, before she could further investigate. Mishty looked at her angrily and asked furiously "And, yes that reminds me what were you were doing at Tims?"

"What's wrong with going to Tims?" Kripa asked innocently. Mishty turned red in anger and spat, "You lied to me Kripa". Kripa didn't respond to that accusation, Mishty was right about it, but she had a reason to lie Mishty had been a pain in the *** for the past week or so.

The next words from Mishty's mouth literally made Kripa jump, as she heard Mishty say, "Kripa, since you have agreed to my point. I am going to him" and Mishty made her way towards the entrance of Tims.

"No, Mishty don't", Kripa replied as she literally dragged Mishty away from the doorstep and assured, "I will talk to him. I PROMISE".

To this Mishty smiled and nodded her head, then she looked at Kripa and said, "Kripa, I am giving you only 48 hours to talk to him" she looked at Prithvi and added, "Otherwise, I will have no other choice, but to talk to him"

********

The ringing of the cell brought her out of her thoughts and she smiled as she looked at the familiar number. She heard the sweet voice of her mother, Mrs. Gayatri Sharma, who sounded worried as she said, "Kripa beta, are you alright?"

She just assured her mother, as Gayatri kept on complaining and asking all the questions in the world. She could understand her mother was worried, since Kripa wasn't exactly acting like an ideal daughter, but her mother failed to figure that Kripa was no longer ideal.

Before she could lie about anything, which she didn't want to. Kripa just made up some excuse and hung up. She wanted to tell her parents everything, but she couldn't... as her parents would be heartbroken, as it is they had so many expectations from her, and she had failed to meet their expectations. She was a very bad kid, indeed a bad one. A tear slipped down her cheeks, as she admitted this to herself.

********

To be continued...

Next part – Reason for Mishty's insistence revealed!

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A week ago

Later that night