Chapter-1
BROKEN
He looks out of the window, gazing in the night sky, in which moon is shining as brightly as ever. His arms folded to his chest and his back rested against the wall, his face having a vacant expression as he remains still and motionless. His eyes unlike his stoned face reflecting pain, grief and betrayal. His mind seemed to be lost in thoughts, deep thoughts. Why all this has to happen to him? What has he ever done to receive all this? Why the ones he ever loved end up playing with him? Using him? Why? Why he? He blinks his eyes rapidly, trying to fight back tears that are threatening to fall. He feels warmth on his shoulder and looks to find someone's hand resting there. "Shivaay..?" a voice calls out behind him and he turns to find his brothers standing there. He stares at their concern filled faces. No one speaks anything but just stands there trying to absorb each others every single feeling just by looking into each others eyes. And at last, on not able to control himself, he hugs his brothers, with so much force and delicacy at the same time. The other two did nothing but hug their elder brother, their pride, their joy and their life. Arms around each other, enormous emotions within them, they didn't know how much time passed. They let go of each other and goes back to staring at each others faces. There was nothing to say or they didn't know what to say. After what seemed like hours, Shivaay sighs, he sits down on the bed, hands on his knees and fingers intertwined, he gestures OmRu to take seats beside him. Both of them sits on either side of him looking anxiously at him, while he continues to stare at the blank space in front of him. OmRu exchanges uneasy looks as Shivaay says nothing but continues to look straight. "I am moving out tomorrow." he says out of the blue, still staring at nothing in particular. OmRu were expecting worse than this, but still in quite shock they waited for him to continue. Shivaay says nothing at all so, Om tries to talk him out of this. "Shivaay, are you sure? I mean.. just for what happened today you will leave your brothers? Your family? " he says keeping a hand on his shoulder. Shivaay meets Omkara's eyes and for a moment he (Om) is shocked to see a world of different emotions and feeling flowing in his brother's eyes. "Isn't it enough? After what happened today, I shouldn't even wait for tomorrow but leave right away! LIKE LEAVE RIGHT NOW! OUT OF THIS PLACE!" his voice suddenly raises and was filled with anxiety, rage and trigger. He looks all around himself, his room disheveled, glasses shattered, furniture broken and everything destroyed. This room had suffered the after effects of his anger, frustration and heartbreak. His room accurately shows his life right now: disheveled, shattered, broken and destroyed. He feels his brothers's strong gaze and tries to calm himself. "And I am just leaving this house not you both." he says sincerely. OmRu looks at him for a moment, hugs him one last time and gets up to leave. When they reach the door, Rudra turns back, hoping that Shivaay might change his decision but when he (Shivaay) continues to look down, he leaves, tears flowing out of his eyes on seeing his 'Great Wall Of Shivaay Singh Oberoi', as they called him, broken, that too by those who he loved and protected. Shivaay laid back on his bed, tired and exhausted. And finally after sometime he falls asleep, wondering what will be life from tomorrow onwards.
The next day, Shivaay as usually waked up early, bathed and is now packing his stuff with OmRu's help. They both are looking a little down but comparatively Shivaay looks a lot better than last night. He looks almost normal except two things. First, it doesn't look like he cares much about his appearance (including his hair) which WAS a typical SSO style. And second he looks much older than his age with dark circles and stress lines visible all over his face, and most importantly the twinkle of happiness and love is missing in his sleep deprived eyes. Rudra zips up the last bag and sighs. The three brothers make their way downstairs towards the main hall. It is 6:30 in the morning and no one is up. They reach the main gate and Shivaay stops. "Tum dono yahi raho, yaha se main khud chala jaunga" he says taking his bags from OmRu. They stand their silently, looking at each other, none of them knowing what to say. At last Rudra spoke with a grim expression "Bhaiya, at least tell us the address of where you are moving to so, we can visit you." he says looking up to his elder brother in a defeated voice. Shivaay writes the address on a notepad, tears the page and hand it to Rudra. Rudra stares at it for more than a minute while ShivKara looks at him. Then out of nowhere Rudra hugs Shivaay, tears flowing from his eyes. "Bhaiya! Please! Don't go! Please Bhaiya.. Please" he says in a quivering voice, not releasing him but continuing to cry. Shivaay tries to console him by caressing his back and saying that they can come and meet him anytime. But this doesn't seem to have any effect on him. Om who himself was finding it hard to not to cry stepped near ShivRu and placed a hand on Rudra's shoulder. "Rudra, sun, if Shivaay has taken this decision, he must have thought thoroughly about this. Usne sochkar hi itna bada step liya hai. Please understand." he says patting Rudra. Rudra parts with Shivaay still sobbing. Shivaay and Om hugs one last time "Take care of yourself and him" Shivaay whispers in Om's ear while hugging him and pointing towards a sobbing Rudra. "Tu bhi! And call us when you reach there" Om says at the last and Shivaay departs but not after smiling faintly at his two brothers. OmRu are left alone, standing there, Rudra still sobbing on seeing his brother, his idol and a part of himself going. Shivaay disappears from the view and Rudra looks up at Om. He puts a comforting hand around Rudra and they both sigh, probably thinking how to break it to the family that Shivaay has left this house. No one knew what happened yesterday other than them, Shivaay and of course those two other monsters who forced their innocent into this, breaking him and hurting him. Two people, who their brother loved to his death are the reason of his shattered life and broken self.
Shivaay steps out of the taxi, pays the driver and looks at the small building in front of him "Nithya Apartments", which is now going to be his new home. He stepps inside, carrying his luggage. The main lobby appears quite cheerful, as some people sat on the sofas, chatting away happily over some tea. The walls are painted a bright shade of red contrasted with white. Shivaay spots the sign 'reception' and approaches a girl sitting behind the table. The girl looks around in mid twenties and as she sees Shivaay approaching, she pauses doing her work and greets him with a smile. "Good morning! How may I help you, sir?" she asks politely. "Morning, I am Shivaay..." before he could complete the sentence, the receptionist continues "Oh, Mr. Shivaay! We were expecting you. Your room no. is 521, at left on the fifth floor. Here are your keys." She hands him the key. "And I think you may know that you have to share your room with someone. Right?" She asks and Shivaay nods. "Well, your roommate has already arrived and is in the room. And as per instructions, I may tell you that you have to pay rent on time, after every month. And there are certain basic rules that you have to follow. I hope you understand." she gives him a paper on which some rules are written. Shivaay accepts it politely and proceeds towards the lift with the key and luggage.
She is sitting there, leaned back on the sofa, her eyes closed and trying to relax herself. After all this years she is finally here, close to her dream and finally free. Her years of hard work and sacrifice is starting to pay off. She starts thinking about future, wondering whether her dream will ever come true or not. Suddenly, she hears a click of lock and stands up, turning to the door. She sees a man wearing casual navy blue kurta and white trousers entering inside. 'Who is this man?' she thought. The man spots her and keeps his luggage down on the floor. Shivaay looks at the girl. She have a basic look: a black top and blue jeans, her hair left open. And she looks somewhat confused on seeing him, same as him. Wait... receptionist said that his roommate has already arrived. This means that he has to share his apartment with a girl. 'Great!' he thought sarcastically. The girl also seems to register this and asks "So, you are my roommate?"
"Seems like this." Shivaay replied. The girl sits back on the sofa while Shivaay struggles with his luggage. "By the way, I have chosen the room towards the right. So, you can set yourself up in the apposite room." the girl speaks from the sofa, her back facing Shivaay. 'So, she got a little attitude.' he judged and turns as she directed, to settle himself in his new room. Shivaay takes a look around, the living room is spacious with a set of three sofas laying in the centre, surrounding a glass table. Latest technology T.V is hanging on the wall apposite to sofa. Behind the sofa is the entrance to kitchen. All the walls of the living room and kitchen is painted cream. Shivaay turns left and spots the door to two rooms. He takes the left one and enters the room. The room is not so large but cozy. A queen size bed is placed in the centre, a side table adjacent to it having two drawers and a lamp upon it. There are two cupboards, a small wooden bookshelf and a study table. The walls are of orange colour with white polka dots pattern. Shivaay keeps his bag on the bed and sits there. He calls Om, informing him that he has reached the apartments. After the phone call, he starts unpacking and arranging his stuff. After an hour or two, he was done. He sighs and looks at his newly arranged room. Bookshelf and cupboards were no longer empty. Drawers were filled with his medicines and other basic things. His eyes fall on the empty space near the lamp. He takes out a golden photo frame from his bag on which a smiling Shivaay, Omkara and Rudra are standing beside each other. He places it there, a warmth spreading throughout his system just by looking at it. He checks his wrist watch which shows 10:30 AM. Feeling hungry, he heads towards the kitchen. He finds the girl there, searching something. He goes and stands beside her.
"What are you doing?" he asks her. "Looking for something to cook" she replied busy searching.
"There is nothing to eat?" he asks.
"I have got maggi. But there's nothing to cook it into. No utensils." she says with a sad face.
"Now, what? I am feeling hungry." Shivaay says to her.
"Let me think." the girl says trying to think of something. Suddenly an idea clicks her mind.
"Why don't we ask one of our neighbors to help us!" she beamed.
"Ask to help us? Are you serious?" he looks at her in disbelief.
"You got any better ideas?" she asks raising her eyebrow.
"No, but we can't just go to anyone and ask them to give us their pan as we have to make maggi! What will they think of us?" he asks shrugging.
"You want food or not?" she says sternly. "Yes, but... " he begins to speak but girl interrupts him.
"No buts. Let's go." she says pointing towards the door.
"Excuse me? Why should I go? It's your idea, you go." he says glaring at her.
"I am not going alone. And after all you will also have that maggi!"
They both glare at each other for a minute.
"Fine! Let's go." he says giving up.
"By the way, What's your name?" she speaks as they move out of the door.
"Shivaay. And you? " he answers.
"Anika" she says with a smile.
After asking for a pan to cook in and some plates and forks, they returned to their apartment and started cooking. They eat in silence, sitting on sofa while watching T.V. Shivaay was feeling strange in eating maggi as his breakfast. Well, why wouldn't he? He is very much used to have a proper English breakfast served to him by the house servants. But he has to learn to adjust here, meaning he should probably let go of his old habits and lifestyle.
"So, Shivaay? What you do for living?" she looks at him.
"Well, I always wanted to be a chef and now I am looking for a job in a good restaurant." he says hesitantly.
"Oh! Good."
"What do you do?" he continues the conversation.
"Umm.. I want to start my own event organising company in the future. But now I am looking for job in the same field to gain some experience."
"I see.."
There is silence again now, as they continued to eat their food. After sometime, when Anika finished eating, she got up.
"Shivaay? Are you free this evening?" she asked hesitantly.
"Yes, why?"
"You know.. that there is no utensils and groceries in here... So, I was thinking that... maybe we should go to the market..."
"What? Market?" he says with astonishment
"Yes, market. You have any problem with that?" she is a little confused by his reaction.
"Do I really need to go? Can't you go by yourself?" he says while shrugging.
"I think that this apartment belongs to you the same as it does to me. So, don't you think that you should be taking the equal responsibilities, Mr. Shivaay?" her voice sounded highly intimidating.
"Ok... When are we going?"
"Whenever you are free."
"I have literally nothing to do today."
"Me too. So, let's make it at 4:00?"
"Ok. But do you know the market around here? Cause I don't"
"Don't worry! It's just 11:30 now. We have plenty of time to ask someone."
After eating their food, they both went to their respective rooms. Shivaay sits on his bed and surfs internet, trying to look for a job.
***
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