CHAPTER SIX
Twinkle never thought
acting would be this hard. She was always interested in theatre and drama but
this-this was a new level of pretense, pretending to be un-Iridescent when all
she wanted to do was the exact opposite. She wanted to climb atop the tallest
building in Amritsar and scream that she was Iridescent and in love with her
best friend until her throat ran dry.
Alas! It wasn't to be
so. Instead here she was sitting in college trying to catch up on the work she
missed all the while biting her tongue to keep her little secret from slipping
out. It wasn't enough that she had to feign indifference, because now every
time Kunj pointed out at something she had to bite down on her tongue to keep
herself from calling out the colors she saw. So yes, acting was difficult and
painful.
But she was managing,
despite the dull ache in her chest.
It was one good long
week after when Twinkle could consider things to be back at normal. She had
learnt he names of all the colors, didn't have to bite down on her tongue when
in conversation with Kunj or any of her other friends and most importantly she
had convinced herself It wasn't meant to be'.
"Kunj tum pagal ho
gaye ho! Kya zaroorat hai aisi bet lagane ki?" Twinkle screamed at her dumb
bestie. Really, the stupid things boys do was sometimes out of her comprehension.
Who places a bet over a library book? Seriously?!
The answer is dumb
boys do. And Kunj was one of them.
"Twinkle please, tu
nahi samjhegi."
Her eyes pop open in
astomishment. "Samajh ne ko kya hai?! Tum sab idiots ne library tak ki ek
stupid si race lagayi hai."
"Haan par, it's not
that simple na!" He answers back in her tone. "Twinkle it's a boy thing. Tu
nahi samjhegi!"
Twinkle knew it was
best to give up. She was stubborn, he was stubborn and like always one of them
had to back down. Clearly she had to be the one that day. Men! She huffs up at
him before tracing her way back to the crowd of spectators.
On your marks. Get
set. GO!
It wasn't a surprise
that Kunj was taking the lead. He was always a good athlete and it makes
Twinkle wonder why the others even tried to cheer Rahul or Ishaan or the
others, when they clearly knew the race was over before it even began.
The crowd slowly
followed the racers floor after floor. Kunj was still in the lead. And just
when he was close to sweet victory. THUD! He crashed into a poor girl. The
impact left them both on their butts and a mess of the girl's book in between.
"TUM?" Twinkle hears
them both yell in unison. She tries to rush to them but the crowd was thick and
still celebrating Ishaan's win, hardly giving her space to pass through.
It is when the crowd
clears that her world comes crashing down once again. Kunj was holding a small
piece of orange paper, a million-dollar worth smile adorning his face. His eyes
shone almost like the moonlight on the night sea. Twinkle realizes with
certainty that she had never seem his eyes light up like that ever before. He
walks up to her in lazy, happy strides, still staring at the piece of orange
paper in his hand. "Kunj?" she calls out to him. No response. "Kunj?! Tum theek
toh ho na?" she asks again and upon receiving no answer she bends down to
examine his knees. "Shit!" This time she exclaims loud enough to gather his
attention.
"Kya? Kya hua?"
Tumhare ghutno mein
chot lag gayi hai!"
"Haan toh?"
"Haan toh ka kya matlab
hai? Ab tumahra dimaag ghutno mein hai, toh ab tumahri mansik stithi pe asar
toh padega hi na!" The tone she used was sweet and innocent but her expression
was anything but. She smacks him on his knees. "Buddhu kahi ke! Maine bola tha
na! Bola than a, ki yeh stupid si bet mat lagao. Par nahi! Meri toh kisiko sun
ne hi nahi hai." She gets up now, snatching the piece of paper from his hand,
like it was her property in the first place. "Yeh kya hai?"
The note simply
contained a string of numbers, and a smiley face at the end. It didn't take a
genius to recognize that it was a phone number. "Uska phone number." Kunj sighs
dreamily, placing his hand over his chest.
Twinkle inhales sharply
and almost indignantly. The audacity of the girl! "Kyu?" She asks him, one hand
on her hip while the other waves the sticky note in front of his face angrily.
"Usne tumhe uska number kyu diya? Huh?"
Its Kunj who sucks in
a deep breath this time, almost as if reality struck in. He looks down at
Twinkle, eyes sparkly and mirth filled, grabbing her by the shoulders and
spinning her around. "I am Iridescent
Twinkle! I am Iridescent!! Can you believe it?! Main!"
The Ringa roses he was
playing with her was suddenly too dizzying. Her head spun, heavily and she
pushes off his hands from her shoulders to stop him. He of course places him
back, re iterating words that made her heart sink. "I am iridescent Twinkle!"
This time he pulls her in for a hug, tightly
wrapping his arms around her. She is glad he hugged her, she truly is because
she could hide her tears behind his back. Just two tears. One for what wasn't
and one for what would never be. She didn't realize that she choked on a sob,
because he now pulling her back, hands on her shoulders, bending down slightly
to match her height. "Twinkle? Tu ro kyu rahi hai?! Kya hua?"
She lets out a little
sniffle and a smile when he hands her his handkerchief, she blows her nose on
it like she usually would to feign normalcy and then speaks in broken
syllables. "I am just so happy for you Kunj!" It was true. "You are finally
Iridescent!" She sniffles again before folding herself back in his embrace.
She was happy for him.
It was true. She has very happy for him.
She just wasn't happy
for herself.
"Uska naam poocha. Ke
aise hi.." she asks him, trying her hardest to distract her mind.
"Maya." He tells her.
Maya is a lucky girl'
she thinks to herself. "Nice name."
They finish their
remaining classes. And it was Kunj this time who was uncharacteristicly
unfocused in all the class. All he would do is stare about around him, grabbing
her pink pencil and staring at it intently, then sifting to the green keychain
on his bag, then to the blue label on the plastic bottle in front of them. He
was living the colors, trying to catch how each color made him feel and to
guess the name of each.
Twinkle tastes the
metallic tang of blood in her mouth and it is only then that she realizes that
she was biting down on her tongue to keep herself from letting the names of the
color slipping out form her mouth.
As if the day hadn't
taken its toll on her already, Kunj asks her help to break the news to his
family and to help him plan for the coffee date he had with Maya the following
day.
"Kunj! Mujhe saath
aane ki kya zarrorat hai? Tu akele hi bol de na..." she whines and pleads as he
drags her to Sarna Mansion. "Kunjjj please na!"
Frankly she was in no
mood to go and pretend to be all happy and excited for her bestfriend when her
own heart was being ripped to pieces. All she wanted at that moment was her
bed, and her teddy bear, sad songs on the radio and a rainy weather.
"Twinkle Chup kar, aur
chal."
"Par kyu?! Tu yeh baat
mere bina bhi toh bol sakta hai na!"
"Haan par, tu meri
best friend hai. Aur main chahta hoon ki jab main apni family ko apni zindagi
ki sabse happiest news do, toh tu waha mere saath ho. Meri khushi ka hissa ban
ne."
Of course, he wanted
her to be there as he broke the news of his Iridenscy' to his family, but he
added a little Mirch-Masala' to convince his best friend.
She narrows her eyes
at him, calling his bluff. "Dramebaaz!" she exasperates allowing herself to be
pulled inside his house.
Once inside he can barely
contain himself from yelling out. He calls his parents out and down, asking his
brother and sis in law the same.
"Arey bhai, hua kya
hai? Aise kyu chilla rahe ho!" Manohar Sarna chuckles, walking down the stairs.
"Papa! Jaldi aayine!
Ab mujhse aur contain nahi ho raha!"
It took another two
minutes for the entire family to gathered and seated in the living room. "Arey
ab toh bata de!" Everyone encourages him further.
Kunj throws a small
glance in Twinkle's direction, before speaking. "Ma, Papa, Bhaiya, Bhabhi. I am
Iridescent!"
Everyone breaks out in
euphoria, hugging and congratulating him, patting him on the back. Once things
calmly down comparatively he catches his mother hugging Twinkle too. That
wildly perplexes him.
"Bhai mujhe toh
hamesha se hi pata tha ki Twinkle hi Kunj ki soulmate hogi. Aur dekho baat sach
nikli." She says, clapping her hands together by the end of the sentence in
excitement.
He notices how Twinkle
freezes, her shoulders going tense and her cheeks lighting up in a scarlet blaze.
"Aunty nah-"
"Atey chup kar! Ab
sharmane ki kya baat hai" she teases, pulling Twinkle's cheeks causing the
others to erupt in a bout of laughter.
"ITS NOT TWINKLE MA!"
he screams at the top of his voice. It was the only way to grab their
attention. It was successful, all heads except Twinkle's turn towards him.
Twinkle was yet looking down, seemingly mortified beyond belief. "It's Maya."
He says after a minute of echoing silence.
A simple Oh' was all
they responded with. But then Twinkle was excusing herself and leaving. And
they continue to congratulate him and bombard him with other questions. He
reminds himself in the back of his mind to videocall Twinkle to finalize the
ideas for his date tomorrow.
Dinner was an
exaggerated event filled with more questions and teasing but it was blissful,
exciting, new!
He sneaks glances at
his phone, wondering if he should text Maya. Maybe, catch up or confirm about
the timings or even just wish her goodnight with a smiley emoji?
He decides to go with
the safe Good night' option followed by a smiley emoji. He also decides to
send a Can't wait to see you tomr.'
~
Yuvi likes Classical Rock music and Twinkle finds his
preference of his rubbing on her too. And she feels this because Yuvi has now
taken to blasting Rock Music at all odd hours of the day and Twinkle finds
herself nodding her head to the same, furiously and rhythmically swiping the
mop in her hand from side to side.
"TOH WOH HALLOWEEN PARTY KE BAARE MEIN KYA SOOCHA HAI?!" He
faintly hears him yell above Back to Black' by ACDC. He told her that the song
gave her a very Iron Man feel and that if he feels like Iron Man than he feels
like he can accomplish any task, be it as mundane as the weekly cleaning of
their apartment.
"KYA?" She yells back.
Yuvi hold his hands up, gesturing her to wait. He walked
over to the sound system, turning the volume knob all the way down, before
walking back to her. "Woh Halloween party! Tu chal rahi haina?" Her expression
tells him that she had indeed forgotten about the most happening party of
October. "Arey yaar, tu bhool gayi na? Jacob ki party yaar. Tu chal rahi hai
na?"
That did ring a bell! Now she remembered Jacob bouncing down
the tiered classroom stairs to their best and slapping down the invitation
cards. The words, "One isn't much of a scare, so please come in a pair' written
in red with a font that mimicked dripping blood. And now she also remembered
why she forgot about it. "I don't have a partner." She admits in a defeated
tone. She had wanted to attend the party so bad! It was her first Halloween
Party after all.
She raises her eyes to look up Yuvi, who hadn't spoken in
response. When she does look up, she sees his mouth agape and a look of shock
reflected in his brown orbs.
"Kya?"
"Kya nahi! Matlab tu itni badi duffer hai, mujhe nahi pata
tha!" Yuvi whisper yells. "I mean itna handsome banda tere saamne khada hai,
aur tu bol rahi hai kit ere paas partner nahi hai? Ajeeb ladki hai."
Twinkle furrows her brows, "Tu kehna kya chahta hai?"
Yuvi lets out a couple of clucks of disapproval before
explaining. "Dekh tere paas partner nahi hai, mere paas partner nahi hai. Tujhe
party mein jaana hai, mujhe party mein jaana hai. Toh kya bol ti hai,
Partners?" he extends his hand to her.
Twinkle doesn't even think twice. "Partners."
They sat down on the couch, a laptop boosted up between them
after cleaning the whole apartment. Couple Halloween Costumes' was nimbly
typed in the search bar. The result was a lot of weird ones, sexist ones, old
ones and plain stupid ones. Inspiration thought hard to find, was eventually
found and each made a list of the costumes they liked.
Soap and Loofa? No!
Fireman and Dog? Are you for real?!
Jasmine and Alladin? Can be considered.
Harley Quin and Joker? Too clich.
They fought a lot through the above discussion. Each
suggesting an idea only for it to be justifiably shunned. It took them an
ungodly amount of time to finally settle in an idea that satisfied or semi
satisfied them both. And by the time they did, it was well into the evening.
Twinkle cursed herself under her breath. She had promised
Kunj that she would videocall him. She was already half an hour late! She
connected her headphones in the jack, connected SKYPE and waited as it rung,
praying that he wasn't mad at her.
He wasn't. Thankfully.
And the conversation started off without a glitch.
"Aur bata." He asks her, dipping the bag on tea in to the
steaming cup.
"Ummm...Arey ha! Main to tujhe bata na hi bhool gayi. Yeh week
end main ek Halloween party attend kar rahi hoon! FINALLY!" She drags off the last word for emphasis, throwing her
hands up too.
He makes him chuckle. She always did have a weird obsession
with Halloween for some reason. "Finally!" he repeats, thankfully. "At least
yeh saal teri bak-bak toh nahi sunn ni padegi, ke tujhe Halloween Party attend
karni hai, Ki tujhe Jessie bana hai, Toy Story se."
"Let's not forget, Casper the friendly ghost." She reminds
him with a smile.
"Oh, hum who kaise bhool sakte hai! Tu ne toh Leela aunty ke
cupboard mein se who while bedsheet chura kar ussme eye holes bhi kaat liye
the!" He recalls the incident with a mighty laugh, tears of laughter streaming
down his face. "Aur phir-" he hiccups,
"Aur Phir, jab aunty ne tuhje pakda toh badi hoshiyaari se kaha-CHUHO!" He is
unable to continue further, clutching his stomach, his head thrown back in a
loud laugh.
When things do calm down and it takes 30 minutes for it to
happen, Kunj suddenly remembers. "Toh tu kya ban rahi hai?"
Twinkle opens her mouth to answer but he cuts her short.
"Nahi Rukh. Mujhe pata hai! Cinderella!"
"Main kya tujhe 5 saal ki bachi dikh rahi hoon?" She huffs,
annoyed. "Cinderella, it seems!"
"Acha baba main, Mazak kar raha tha. Tu Dory bana chahti
hogi." He says in all sincerity.
It melts her heart because it was true. If it wasn't a
couple costume party, she would have been Dory. But she didn't want to give him
the satisfaction of being right. So, she huffs up again. "Nahi! Main Olive ban
ne wali hoon." She stubbornly announces and cuts the call.
Kunj is taken aback. He thought he knew her choices well. He
thought he knew her!
But now...
And olive? Why in the world did she want to be an olive of
all things?
But then there was this stupid fear in him that was put to
ret. He was scared that she might want to be Cat woman, and he worried that she
might be eve-teased by boys seeing her in those tight latex suits. An Olive
would be an appropriate costume, especially when he want there to protect her.
Kunj shuts his laptop with a sigh, the main topic of the
conversation yet undiscussed. He wanted to let her know about him and Maya,
about him wanting to visit her in New York but then he saw how happy and
carefree she was and he didn't have the heart to damper her spirits. Another
time' he tells himself. The door to their apartment swings open and he smells
her Chanel No. 5 and the click-clack of her kitten heels before he even sees
her.
She passes him a customary smile, dropping her purse on the coffee
table.
"Um, main thodi der ke liye walk pe jaa raha hoon." He
announces, the air in the room far too thick for his liking.
Walking down the titled path of Bandstand, Kunj tries to
think about how things changed so fast and so drastically that they couldn't
even stand to be in the same room as their soulmate'. Is this what love is
supposed to feel like? Suffocation and misery?
~
The weekend rolls around quicker than he noticed and he
finds himself browsing her Facebook
page because he was missing her and a phone call didn't do much justice to
their friendship. Plus as usual time differences sucked.
He almost immediately notices the video she was tagged in.
They set the dance floor on fire!' It was captioned. His mood turns bitter
before he could even click the side way triangle to play the video.
Yuvraj was tagged in it as well.
Playing the video didn't help. It was-torture. And it wasn't
because Twinkle looked like she was having the time of her life, but it was
because she was having the time of her life with Yuvraj.
He used to be the one she used to have fun with...What
changed?
There was something else wrong in the video that he couldn't
particularly put his finger on. Something was slightly off. He brushes off the
nagging feeling for a while, as the video to them dancing on Lets Nacho' ends
and scrolls further down her page. She had uploaded a new Album. Halloween'
And as he clicks past the first picture he finally understands what was wrong.
Twinkle was not in her Olive costume. She wasn't dressed in
a puffed by Green and red dress as he had imagined. Rather she was clad in a
pretty black skirt, gold around the hem and a white collared, Red shirt, tucked
in. She had her hair, curled in the retro way. Kunj didn't understand what she
was supposed to be. She looked like a Pin-Up but not quiet. And then he clicked
the mouse for the next picture. That is when everything started making sense.
She wasn't an olive-Olive.
She was Olive and Yuvraj was her Popeye!
He feels anger bubbling in his chest and he vaguely
registers his hate for that nuisance named Yuvraj grow. How dare he be the
Popeye to Twinkle's Olive?!
Kunj doesn't have the heart to see the other pictures. He
was simply enraged beyond belief to see any of her other photos with the care
and light hearted humor they deserved to be cherished with.
Lying down on his bed, flinging a tennis ball in the air and
catching it, repeatedly, the more rational part of Kunj's mind tell him that he
was being illogical and too fast to judge this Yuvraj character. He didn't even
have a justifiable reason to hate him. Heck! He didn't even know the guy
properly.
And his heart seemed to agree with his mind. But then he
reasons that emotions did not need logic to be real. He just misses his Twinkle, Okay! And he might be too embarrassed to admit it to
even himself but watching her spend that much time with someone else, is kind
of painful. He used to be the center of her attention, care and companionship.
And everyone, especially Twinkle knows that Kunj doesn't like
sharing.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Hugs and Kisses to all of you who continue reading this
story. You guys are the real MVPs. Please continue showering this FF with your
likes, comments and love!
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