She was Sharon Rai Prakash. Or at least that's what she put on every assignment that she turn in to the professors at St. Louis. So, who cares if she made some alteration and tweaked her original name from here and there? It's not going to matter to anyone. No one cares about these things. And no, this wasn't a rant about people not caring about her. She was really lucky to have many people who not only cared for her, but also looked up to her. No, it wasn't narcissism to recognize this fact. It would just be false modesty not to. There is a difference...which my friends fail to understand.
"Ouch!" she stumbled to balance herself as she felt a hand gently wrapping around to balance her.
"Oi, can't you at least watch where you are going or is your inflated head getting in your way and stopping you from seeing things?" an amused voice whispered behind her neck. Before she could feel any goose bumps or fluttering of the heart like any normal girl would, she felt her temple nerve popping up. She knew that voice perfectly well.
"Swayam Shekawat!" she hissed as she gritted her teeth. She just had to stumble on to him. She quickly steadied herself and jerked his hand away. She folded her arms in an arrogant fashion and raised her eyebrows at him.
"I, at least, have a reason to inflate my head. What's your excuse? Filling your head with lies to make yourself happy again?" she said while smirking at him.
He was really amused. "No sweet heart, I have Kria to keep my head deflated enough to see past myself. What about you? You only have your chamchis for best friends!" It was his time to smirk at her.
"Hey! Listen, you.." she was not able to finish when her two best friends - Simmi and Rinni - were next to her.
"Hey Listen Swayam, we may be Chamchis for you but at least we are proud of who we are. We are at least not afraid to admit that we are her chamchis," finished Rinni smugly.
"Unlike your girlfriend. Oops, no I meant 'best friend,'" Simmi laughed and high-fived with Rinni.
"So, Swayam, is your best friend that ashamed of your relationship that you have to always keep it a secret?" It was Sharon's turn to be smug. She smirked humorlessly at him this time.
Swayam wasn't about to give in to her. There was a glint in his smile, as he leaned closer to Sharon, "Why so curious Siren? Jealous?"
Her smirk disappeared. Again, the color that had paled due to her subdued anger came back up again. Her nerve popped again. This guy really irked her. Finally she rolled her eyes at him in exasperation.
"You wish Swayam Shekawat. You so wish!" she finished, while turning around to her friends. "Let's go guys! I can't deal with him so early in the morning!" She quickly stalked away from him before he came up with another comeback to her statement.
However, despite all the fast walking, she still heard him yell, "Thank you to kehti jao. I swear, aaj kal ki generations main to koi manners hi nahiin hai."
She shook her head as a small smile played on her lips. No, she scolded herself. She will not laugh at his lame jokes that made him seem like a 50-year old. He was not funny!
Simmi nudged her, and smiled at her in understanding.
"Bas huh, stop! Whoever sees you right now will call you a lovesick puppy.." Rinni whispered in her ears and giggled.
So, yes. This was her little secret. She had a tiny, very tiny, crush on Swayam Shekawat. It was not something that big, so she kept it subtle. Long story short, she had developed this problem a little while ago. At first, her heart used to flutter at his grand gestures of kindness to other people. Then, her heart started fluttering at the little, subtle things he did without anyone noticing (anyone besides her of course). Then, it started happening when he would come close to her or pass her by. Then, worse came to worst, her heart fluttered everything she caught a glimpse of his familiar lock of hair or his familiar eyes. It got so bad that she would almost become breathless just thinking about him. However, she had things under control now.
Of course, he couldn't know about this tiny problem. He could never know that he had that kind of power over her. She had made sure that he didn't. The only way for her to do that was to make sure that she was never alone with him. Her best friend came to her rescue in order to keep her from getting flustered and awkward around him. That is how he got this really wrong notion of them being her chamchis (which wasn't true at all but they were her best friends and didn't mind at all).
She was about to smile when she felt Simmi choking her into a hug.
"Sorry yaar. Kria girlfriend topic. Bad one. But couldn't come up with anything else at the moment," she said apologetically.
She gave her a small smile, "It's alright. I know you were just trying to help. Achcha now, let's go. The scores for the exams are up!" she finished off excitedly.
She liked being on top and wiping that smirk off of his face. She enjoyed beating him at his game. Though, she could never really beat him - not really - since he was a year ahead of her. However, his best friend Kria was in the same year as her. She would beat him by beating Kria. That was close enough for her. And that had nothing to do with the fact that it was rumored that they were both secretly dating. It also had nothing to do with the fact that she felt a slight pang whenever she saw him smiling at her. Alright, maybe a little.
She practically ran on her heels just to get to the board first. When the board came in view, she realized that the place was packed. Before she had time to contemplate her next move, her friends rushed her towards the board. She saw them emptying space for her. For a second, she forgot what was happening until she realized that she was Sharon Rai Prakash and people did in fact really like her. After all this fiasco she finally got a chance to see the scores again. What she saw made her jump out of her skin.
Yes, she had done it! She had scored the highest overall grade in her year. Of course, it was only with 3 points lead. However, it still counted. Before she could jump in her glory, she heard a familiar voice again.
"Wow, Ms. Diva Rai Prakash. You really know how to use your power over other people. Kya tumhare feet ghis jaate thoda wait karne main?" he questioned her in an arrogant tone.
Sharon felt her nerve starting to pop again but she calmed herself down. No, she wouldn't let him ruin her happiness. It was her turn now. Not his. So, she smirked at him.
"No Swayam. It's not that. Aage sirf wahi hote hai jo top karte hai, jo winners hote hai. Not losers like you. Well, in this case...losers like your 'friend,'" she finished off sarcastically while air-quoting the word friends.
Swayam looked at the board and smiled. He looked at her again and raised his eyebrows at her in confusion as if not comprehending what she had meant.
"Loser? You call being on the second position in her year a loser? My god Sharon, itna competition sehat ke liye achcha nahi hota. Sometimes, not getting the first position means that you won because you always learn something more by losing rather than winning. So, in this case, you're actually a loser not Kria.." he finished in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Swayam!" Kria whined in order to stop Swayam from talking. Despite this being her every day routine, she still didn't want to deal with this right now. She didn't want any trouble or fights.
Before Sharon could say something to this comment, he raised his hands to stop her. "Hold on, I have more important thing to do other than to argue right now." He turned around to and gave Kria a small side hug while congratulating her.
Something in Sharon stirred. Her heart felt a small tug when she averted her eyes. She couldn't be here right now. Therefore, she quietly just left from that place.
It was strange. When she had finally thought that she could beat him, when she had finally thought that he would realize how great she truly was, he had put her down again. She was the one who topped, who won, yet she felt like the one who lost. He didn't even congratulate her for topping her year. Granted, that they didn't really share that kind of rapport but still. He was known for being a gentleman to everyone. Everyone, except her of course.
She headed towards her locker. She couldn't deal with people right now. She had to be alone. Her friends Simmi and Rinni jogged behind her while calling out to her. She knew why they were coming, but before she said anything, she heard the announcement calling out her name.
"Ms. Sharon Rai Prakash, please report to the main office. Again, Ms. Sharon Rai Prakash, please report to the main office. Thank you."
She nodded to her friends and they followed her to the office. They knew that she needed to be with someone or she would explode. She knew that they knew that she needed them right now. It was as simple as that.
The trip to the main office was very short. The receptionist recognized her instantly.
"Ms. Prakash, I have a delivery for you," the employee stalked away from the front desk after saying this. After a little while, she returned with a giant bouquet of multiple colored flowers, and a card attached, for her and handed it to Sharon. Sharon took it with a quick smile.
Rinni and Simmi looked at her with curiosity. She shook her head as in saying 'not here. Let's get out and then we will take a look.' They nodded in understanding and off they went.
"Sharon, you topped today! You got a bouquet to prove it! Now, let's go to the canteen and get something yaar. Come on!" Simmi said in enthusiasm while Rinni helped her in dragging Sharon to the canteen.
After placing their orders, they sat down. Excitement was evident from her best friends' eyes. She rolled her eyes at them and smiled at their curiosity. Finally she placed the bouquet gently at one of the available seats and pulled out the card attached to it.
She started reading it aloud so her friends' curiosity could be sated. The card read:
"Sharon, I know that you topped your class, so here is a little something to celebrate this day. I wish I could be there with you but I can't. My bad luck! But you make sure to enjoy. By the way, you still owe me that date! Take care.
Love,
Rahul"
She smiled as she read that over again. He always knew how to make her smile so widely. She looked up and saw the same expression on her friends' faces.
"Waise Sharon, you are very unfair! You should go on a date with him already. Come on na! He's such a great guy!"
She giggled and rolled her eyes at Simmi's statement. "Yeah, maybe someday he will get lucky with me."
However, it was not a good day for Sharon. Just as Simmi and Rinni left to get in line for their order, Sharon heard that infuriating voice again, and her heart sank.
"Lucky about what? Who's getting lucky?"
Sharon rolled her eyes at him. "Tumse matlab? Not you at least!"
Swayam being Swayam paid no heed to her and just dragged a chair next to her to take a seat.
"Who is this bouquet from?" he asked curiously.
She was a bit taken aback for a moment. Had he just ask her that? He never cared about anything that's even remotely related to her! As if this wasn't shocking enough, she felt him move his hands towards the card that she was holding. Before he could snatch the card from her, she slapped his hands away from her and raised her eyebrows at him. What was he doing? Of course, she couldn't let him see how much that one gesture affected her, so she did what she was good at - fighting with him.
"Why so curious Swayam? Jealous?"
For a second, she saw many emotions racing through his eyes, as he tried to keep his face from twisting. She saw the sides of his eye twitch a bit.
"Should I be?" he simply asked as he gazed intently at her. His voice was hoarse, and she felt breathless. Nothing seemed to be coming to mind for her. She felt absolutely speechless at that moment. Before she could stop herself, she uttered an unintelligible "huh?"
After realizing her mistake, she snapped out of his trance. She looked around to gain some composure. Then, she looked at him with as much courage as she could muster at the moment.
"What the heck Swayam? What the heck do you mean?" she said, feigning annoyance.
"You really don't know Sharon?"
As always, his questions were very simple. Yet, it was confusing for her. Before she could say anything in return, before she could tell him that the bouquet was from a 15-year old boy at the hospital that she volunteered at, she felt him leaving. She looked up to see Kria coming his way, and she understood. She shook herself again. What is wrong with me? Of course, he already had someone. He was just trying to confuse her. He always liked playing with her. But she wouldn't let him do that to her this time. She was tired of playing his game.
Therefore, when her friends came back, she enjoyed her meal. After all, she had worked hard for it and she deserved it. She also made plans to go see a carnival. She was going to enjoy this day and wasn't going to let anyone ruin it for her. She did all this, while ignoring Swayam and Kria who chatted away at small distance from them.
The carnival had been really fun so far. It was a slow day for them though. However, that was not at all due to the carnival. The carnival had a lot of variety for everyone (all ages). She just finished seeing the card show and the circus when Simmi and Rinni ran off to buy something. She had told them that she would just wander around there for a bit. She wasn't really in any mood to buy anything, no matter how much she forced herself to.
While she was wondering, a red tend caught her eye. She neared that tend in an attempt to get a better view when she realized that it was a fortune-teller shop. She shook her head. What crap! Who actually believed in these things? She scoffed. So she was just about to walk off when she heard the fortune teller saying something. Curiosity overwhelmed her and she went nearer to make out what she was saying clearly.
"Your soul mate would be a topper just like you. You will instantly know that he's meant just for you. He will have everything any girl could ever want: looks, wealth, health, brain, everything! However there will be problems. But don't give up! If you don't give up then your love will be triumphant," the fortune-teller finished in an almost dominating voice.
After hearing this, she became curious as to who was in the tent, however what came next was a blow on her face. She heard a girl's voice saying, "Wow Swayam, it's like they know that we are meant for each other. We should just go and marry each other right now before any 'problems' occur. Don't worry about the parents. We can handle them!"
She heard a familiar male laughter and knew that they were who she thought that they were. Her feet stood rooted to the ground, no matter how much she had wanted them to move. Luckily, Swayam and Kria exited the tent from the other way so they were not able to see her. After few moments, when she could finally breathe again, she started shuffling to move. She was about to wander off, when she heard someone inside the tent calling her.
"Why are you just standing there? Why not come inside for a bit?" before she could realize what she was doing, she went inside. It was almost instinctive. It was like the lady's voice was drawing her in.
She squinted to adjust her eyes to low light inside the tent. When her eyes finally adjusted, she saw the lady sitting in front of her, clad in black. She raised her eyebrows at the overly cliched theme. Seriously? She heard the fortune teller laugh.
"This imagery is to create the right effect. You know, for business?" Sharon couldn't help but laugh a little at the lady's comment. After calming down, she looked up.
"Look Mrs. Fortune-teller, I don't mean to be rude but I want to save you a lot of trouble. See, I believe in creating my own destiny so I think I will pass on this. Yeah? I hope you understand."
"A skeptic, I see," the fortune teller said amused. The fortune-teller looked at her unaffected, and merely raised an eyebrow at her. "Come now darling, don't waste your time. Come sit child. What do you want me to do the reading on? Love life? What?"
Sharon sighed in exasperation. She could not deal with this right now, especially after she had heard that her crush (more like first love) was a meant-to-be for someone else. After shuffling the four decks of cards individually, fortune teller told Sharon to pick a card from each deck. Sharon rolled her eyes and picked one card from each deck and placed them facing down on the table. Before doing anything, the lady looked at Sharon pointedly, as if trying to get something through.
"I will just do a general reading for you then. I know that you kids are skeptical but know this that these cards hold the power to show your future. They can be used as a guidance for your future, or it can be used as a tool for dire consequences of ignorance. That's entirely up to you to decide. These four cards will tell you different aspect of your life, and they hold the power to return what was rightfully yours."
After saying this, she slowly began to turn the four cards. After looking over the first card, she looked up to Sharon. "Something really dear to you will soon come meet its end."
Sharon's eyes popped out hearing this. She guessed that the card was referring to her feelings for Swayam and the hope she had for their future together. That would slowly come to an end. It had already dimmed now. She knew it would take time. She shook her head to focus on what the fortune teller was saying.
"However, when one ends, another begins. Something else, better, would be on its way for you. It will be beautiful, just as you imagine for it to be. It may not seem like that at first, because the beauty of this would be masked. However that decision to accept that would be entirely yours. If you pick the right choice, you will have your greatest dream. You have a guardian angel that will guide you to get through this dilemma. You have no enemies besides yourself. Don't fall prey to arrogance. It only knows how to destroy. Keep that in mind."
The lady slowly flipped the last card, and looked surprised for a second. She looked up at Sharon, as if shocked at what she was seeing. She held up the card for Sharon to see.
"Never in my life have I seen anyone pick this card. No, this card wasn't even supposed to be in the deck. It's far too powerful." The lady paused to calm herself down a bit.
"Do you know what this card holds? It's a magical card. This card holds what people dream of. You are indeed very lucky girl! Whatever you dream of, whatever you wish for the most right now would definitely get fulfilled. There are no 'buts' with this card."
Sharon shook in laughter, because really? That's all she got? The lady almost had her until she ruined it with the last card. She shook her head.
"Alright, well, thank you. This was certainly, um, very entertaining for the both of us. Can you please tell me how much this cost?"
The lady gave her a long look before breaking into a smile, "This one is on the house. Don't worry about paying. Take it as a gift."
"Right. Of course. Sure, then I will be going now. Good talk!" she finished off awkwardly. After that, she made her way out of the tent. This day was getting more and more eventful. She couldn't even handle it anymore, so she called Simmi and Rinni and left to call it a day.
She had the worst headache when she came to college the next day. She went to the canteen to get some coffee. She had a long day ahead. So, she stood there waiting for her coffee.
"Good morning!"
She turned around to see a cheery Swayam in front of her. She turned around to ignore him again. She was not going to let him affect her.
"So, party tonight haan.." he just spoke without paying any heed to the fact that she was ignoring him. "So who is the lucky someone you're taking to the party tonight Sharon?"
She turned around and raised her eyebrow. He continued, "You know? The party that is held at your place by your dad because of your grades. Which doesn't make sense since he won't even be there. Sharon, are you in there? We are supposed to take someone with us. You remember this right?"
"Swayam! Why the heck would I need to bring someone to my own party? Besides that's only to make someone look good. I don't need a guy to make myself look good. However, you on the other hand..."
Swayam smiled at her, "Well you are right. I can't look good by myself. I am taking a beautiful girl tonight. Sharon, she will be the show stealer tonight. I am telling you this so you are ready for it!"
Sharon merely looked pointedly at him, as if prompting him to tell her who he would take.
"It's a surprise for you and everyone else.." And he was gone as quickly as he came before Sharon could question him further. Though she didn't need to. She figured that it would probably be Kria. Then she tried to shrug it off by taking huge gulps of her smoldering hot coffee.
Unfortunately, she could not gulp down another cup of coffee at the moment, which she really needed right now. Here she was, dressed in a ball gown, wearing a mask, while standing on the stairs waiting for her friends to come down with her. How could that have happened to her, one would wonder. It all started when she got up in the morning and her dad mentioned a surprise party. Yes, she could definitely take that. However, her dad, being the way he is, decided to make things a bit more interesting. At the last minute, he changed the theme of the party to ballroom dancing where the couples would be given a mask at the entrance of the party. So technically it was a masquerade party. Really? She sighed again as she made her way down with her two close friends beside her.
Slowly after they came down, her friends were swept away by two other masked strangers. At least for now they were strangers since she couldn't exactly see their faces. She looked around to search for any familiar faces. Everyone looked so different in their attire that she couldn't tell who each person was. She felt chills as she moved around the room. It was actually very liberating to have the mask on. It was like taking attention away from you, be a third-party and just observe. It was a feeling of being a part of the group, when you don't stand out. It was new, and she sort of liked it because no one paid heed to her. She hugged herself as she felt the chill again. She wondered where Swayam was. There was no way she was feeling chills without him being near her. The temperature of the hall was perfect. She looked around only to end up disappointed when she didn't find him. Soon a voice caught her attention.
She felt an open hand in front of her. She looked up to see the person waving towards the dance floor (or the hall in the case). She was about to say no, but there was something very familiar about his eyes. She couldn't tell who it was exactly since the rest of the face was hidden. It was his height, his physique (despite the fact that it was hidden under the attire), his hands and yet she refused to believe that dream because she was afraid to break it so she just accepted her hand and let him lead her to the center of the hall. The strangest part was that no one seemed to notice.
He placed the hand on her waist and gently pulled her closer, as she placed her hand on his chest. They slowly started swaying to the music, their eyes no leaving the each other.
Her heart was caught in her throat. She was afraid to speak, or do anything that would break this dream. So, she just simply let him lead her. She saw him lean in, and she grew more nervous. He came closer to her and saw her close her eyes in anticipation.
"I am glad that I picked the perfect size. You look beautiful in this dress," he whispered slowly.
Her eyes slowly opened and red traveled up her cheeks. However, she was Sharon Rai Prakash and no guy had power over her.
"No, I think that's where you are wrong. The dress looks beautiful because I am wearing it. Not the other way around. Besides how can you be so confident that I look beautiful? That's really bad pick up line! You're gonna have to try harder. Besides weren't you bringing a really beautiful girl here tonight?"
She felt him smiling when he leaned in again to whisper. "Do I really need to try that hard Sharon? Don't you already know who that girl is? She's standing right here."
Her smile disappeared. She gulped as she felt him breathing onto her earlobe.
"Swayam..." she whispered.
"We can play this game of Tom and Jerry forever. I really don't mind. It's actually pretty fun for me."
"Wha.." her voice caught in her throat as she looked at him, surprised.
"I have liked you for the longest time, but you know that already don't you?" Swayam twirled her around and brought her back. She was facing away, her back to him. He could feel her heavy breaths as he leaned to savor the moment.
For a second, Sharon had no idea what to say. Her heart skipped a beat. Hadn't he liked Kriya? This was all so surreal for her. He twirled her around and brought her closer to her. Their faces were inches apart.
"For how long?" she whispered.
He let out a nervous chuckle. "Long enough to know that it's not 'like' anymore. Long enough to know that I am utterly infatuated by you. Women, you haunt me in my dreams and you make me dream in the daytime. Isn't that enough already?" He questioned to her softly. Even though the voice seemed pleading, it had a strange sense of joy. He leaned on her shoulder to rest his head for a moment.
"Put an end to this suffering and be mine Siren. One word is all I need."
Sharon's breath hitched. She felt so overwhelmed with emotions right now that she didn't know where to begin. She wanted to pour her heart out to him. All this time, she had thought that it was only her that was suffering. All this time, she had been a fool.
"Swayam.." she whispered
Swayam eyed her again, as she began to remove his mask. She wanted to see him. She wanted to be sure that it was not a dream. She wanted to confess her feelings to him directly, with no masks in between. However, Swayam's hand stopped her.
"I don't know if I will still be able to..I don't think..."
She shook her head at him. No more pretenses. She removed his mask, caressed his right cheek and simply looked at him as if savoring the moment. It was like all of his hidden feelings for her were revealed in that one moment.
"Ask me again.." she whispered.
"Be mine forever.." he whispered uncertainly.
She smiled, "I literally thought that you would never ask." She pressed her forehead to his and closed her eyes in an attempt to calm her emotions
That was the moment when Swayam Shekawat engulfed his Siren into an embrace, in an attempt to show how much she had meant to him.
Sharon smiled at the feeling of content that she had felt. That is the precise moment when her eyes caught the glimpse of the mask she was holding. It was indeed true that her happiness had been masked, literally. She knew she had made the right choice and she could almost see her magical future. Almost. She would first have to take revenge on him for being a bully to her in school.
A/N: When the fortune-teller was saying that she will lose something, it was referring to the fact that she would lose the 'Tom and Jerry' relationship they shared which Sharon cherished a lot because that was the only connection she had with Swayam. I just wanted to clarify this part.
Thank you all for reading this OS. I know that this was not my best. It was pretty crappy and cliched. But I was literally hitting the worst writer's block in the history of Writer Blocks But I am glad that something came out. The challenge was to be done in 10 days and May 11th makes it the 10th day. It's 1 a.m of May 11th in US so I still counting it to be on time lol. Anyways, please do read and review. It is very very much appreciated. Thank you!
Take care,
Jiya
comment:
p_commentcount