Chapter 14
1
Sharon's breathing was becoming heavier and her eyes resembled that of a wounded lioness, one that vowed to destroy Swayam, tear him into pieces the moment she frees herself. More than the fact that Swayam held her captive in her own make up room in a studio owned by her father, it is his smirk that irked her. Swayam now had her pinned against the wall, her wrists in his firm grip, while her mouth was still blocked by his palm. Sharon struggled to set herself free trying to fling her legs at him but in vain. Swayam mocked her with a smile, looking perfectly at ease while exercising complete command over her body. He knew he could be jobless the very next day but there was something so intoxicating about having Sharon under his control that it was turning him on. He could not stop.
Sharon groaned loudly.
"Shhh..." Swayam hushed her up.
She groaned again throwing her legs at him.
"Okay, okay I'll let go off you, but at one condition."
Sharon stopped flinching and looked at Swayam.
"You have to promise me that you won't bite me. Understood? No biting."
Sharon understood that he was just having fun at her expense. Angrily she resumed her struggle against him.
"Oops! Looks like you are gonna bite me if I set you free. Sorry. Can't risk it," said Swayam with a tone of mock apology.
Sharon had reached her wits end. Probably she would bite him savagely now if she could set herself free from his grip.
"Easy tigress..." said Swayam moving in closer to her. Sharon looked away as his face drew near hers. She was disgusted and a part of her was more scared than she was ready to admit. He spoke in her ears as she battled to get away.
"How do you feel now Miss RaiPrakash? Not too great, I know. But you'd feel better, very soon."
Sharon became stiff at those words. She wanted to cry out. She could feel Swayam's breath on her right cheek.
"Let go Sharon... let go..." Swayam continued. "You can't have control over everything, all the time. Like right now, you are under my control. Relax... loosen up. It's not all that bad. Come on... you like it. Admit it!"
Sharon turned to face Swayam. If it was possible to set someone on fire only by gazing at them, Swayam would go up in flames now.
"Okay... I get it, you don't like it. When you don't like being controlled by someone else even for a few seconds, how do you think others feel when you rule their lives according to your whims and fancies?"
Sharon didn't move or flinch- she looked at Swayam with a hatred that was increasing exponentially with each passing second.
"Apne aap ko bhagwan samajhti ho tum? Kya ho tum akhir? You're just your daddy's daughter! Tumhara khud ka kya hai? Nothing. You just got it all... you never had to achieve anything. And you think you can stomp on other people's hard work! Tum apne aap ko diva manti ho na? You're a diva because we make you look like one. The make-up artists, the dressers, the hair dresser, the light guys, technicians, DOP- these are the people who make you who you are, and of course your dad's money. Tum khud kuchh bhi nahi ho. You are a nobody! And we can make you as well as break you. Always remember that."
Swayam spoke in one breath and left Sharon with a slight push. She winced and moved away from him. Her kohl-laden eyes were moist with tears now. Swayam realized his words came out way harsher than he intended them to be. It was claustrophobic inside, with the door closed and no AC. Both of them perspired profusely and gasped for breath, especially Sharon, who was examining her wrist now standing at a distance.
The lights were back. Sharon looked up at Swayam as she held her right arm with her left. She was crying and he could see her tears now. She felt ashamed and violated. Swayam looked a little disoriented. He never wanted to make her cry and certainly not hurt her physically. Not knowing what to do to make her feel secure, he held the door open.
"I always have control!" she screamed at him, and hurriedly ran out of the door.
As she ran through the studio she has been visiting since age three, she felt all eyes were on her, although the place was relatively empty now. She felt that everybody knew of her humiliation. She couldn't wait to get out. The old watchman looked at her with surprise as Sharon RaiPrakash ran out of RP Studios, crying. She quickly sat inside her blue Audi R8 and drove away.
Swayam Shekhawat tried to make sense of the entire situation, still standing in the heroine's make-up room. Did he just manhandle Sharon RaiPrakash on the sets?
Screwed!
2
Kriya looked at the innumerable lights through the car window. The city was so well lit- all the time. The streets, the buildings, everything was brightly lit up. It's like everyday there is a festival, everyday calls for some celebration. Sometimes the lights formed various known and unknown patterns. She knew it was all inside her head because she had too much to drink. Her head felt heavier than usual. But she couldn't shake off the patterns of lights from her mind. She stared at them without blinking.
"Kriya... do you feel fine?" asked Rey. It had been almost twenty minutes since they started off from the restaurant, and Kriya hadn't spoken a word.
"I'm okay." Kriya replied briefly.
"Are you sure? Do you wanna throw up?"
"Reyaansh please stop babysitting me. I'm alright."
"Okay. Fine..."
Rey looked at Kriya while she gazed outside the window, lost in her own world.
Who was this girl to him, thought he.
This girl who rejected him the first time she met him, who is the smartest person he knows right now, and who calls a spade a spade, and who, for some reason, doesn't make him feel like a star at all, which he is, in his own right.
Or maybe not.
Maybe he was basking in the glory that was not his. But he didn't want any of this in the first place.
All he wanted was to dance, to move like he owned that stage, to find a livelihood in his greatest passion. It had all seemed pretty simple back then.
But being Vikramaditya Singhania's only son was never gonna be simple.
Simple doesn't sell, simple doesn't have the star factor.
He had to make himself saleable, the most-talked about person in the whole country, 8 m likes on Facebook. It didn't happen overnight. He had to kill himself, the Reyaansh inside him, to become Rey.
That night when dad had the attack, he had seen defeat in his dad's eyes for the first time. The man, who flew his own jet, had to be carried by four people into the ambulance. That night he knew that being Rey was the only option. He was not going to desert his father. He would strive and he would win.
That night when Gautam uncle came to him with the lucrative offer and his conditions, the only way he could resuscitate an ailing father and prevent the inevitable black-listing of the production house which was Vikramaditya Singhania's dream project, he didn't think twice. Sharon had been sad, and mad too. She always had a compulsive need to oppose her father. But she was too broken to put up a voice of protest. She was in her most vulnerable state then and Rey had to make the decision for both of them. Being the good friend that she was, she had complied. She knew it was important for him. It wasn't the best choice, and he had been selfish too. But it was the only thing that seemed right then.
An engagement!
Later he had felt guilty, especially when he saw Sharon unhappy, lost, and slowly slipping away in a hollowness called life- too many men who didn't deserve her and the bad morning hangovers when she couldn't look in the mirror. He had felt responsible.
Since then he never looked back. He had seen both the black and the white and lived through the grey. And he played his part wonderfully well...
The car stopped at a signal with a jerk as the driver pulled the brakes.
Kriya was brought out of her dazed state and turned to look at Rey. Her eyes had become smaller as her eye lids were heavy- she had to sleep. She smiled at him and closed her eyes.
This one girl, thought Rey, this one girl makes him want to crawl out of the skin he has comfortably donned all these years and be that Reyaansh again. It was a dangerous wish.
He envied Kriya. He envied her freedom to burp after a meal, he envied the fact that she could repeat her clothes and go completely unnoticed in public, he envied her for how she spoke her mind, always, even when she wasn't drunk. And he envied her for how closely she resembled that Reyaansh whom he had chosen to leave behind him.
Guess what...
Update! 😆
Cuz I was very late with the last one, and I just felt like writing as I looove writing this one. 😛
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