For Agent A and Agent K. Because why not?
CHAPTER THREE
Colors were creeping up her arm, they were tainting her world one corner at a time and she was mesmerized by it all. She was finally IRIDESCENT!
Her mouth opens in a gasp, as the colors reach him. She swears on every star she knows that she hadn't seen anything more beautiful than him. HIM! IT IS HIM. Finally, IT IS HIM! Her SOULMATE- "KUNJ!"
Her screams startle him for a moment, leading him to think that those rascals were coming back, and so he turns to face her. But instead of seeing those buffoons he is greeted to the sight of his best friend with eyes blown out in excitement with a smile a tad too wide. "Kya hua? Sab theek toh haina na?" He notices her eyes twinkling. They were always twinkling but today, now there were exceptionally sparkling.
She is looking at everything but him as she answers, "Tumhe bhi woh hi dikhayi de raha hai na? Jo mujhe dikhayi de raha hai?" She is positive that he could see them, the colors as well. Of course he could. They are meant to be soulmates!
"Kya?"
You know the felling one gets when they are sleeping and sudden feeling of falling gives them a rude awakening, that's how Twinkle felt as Kunj continuously asked her what she saw. Was he kidding her? "Tumhe nahi dikhayi de raha?" her voice quivers as she speaks and she blinks rapidly to keep the tears at bay.
"Kya nahi dikhayi de raha Twinkle?" The look he has on tells her, he was joking.
She bows her head down, so that he couldn't see her tears. "Kuch nahi. Excuse me." And that's all she manages before running to the Ladies' Washroom. Thankfully the washroom was empty, everyone seemingly having classes at the time. Her hands brace themselves around the edge of the sink and her shoulders hunch forward, head bowed. She feels breathless and choked up until a hiccup involuntarily makes its way up her throat and out. The dominoes began falling in a chain, and her hiccup was followed by a cry, then two tears escape her eyes, and suddenly her body is wracked with her sobs.
She doesn't remember how long she cries for until she realizes that she had exhausted her supply of tears. She hastily wipes away the remaining of her tears, sets her hair more presentably, reapplies her mascara and once satisfies with her look as normal, she makes her away back to the classroom. She takes her customary seat next to Kunj, who raises a single brow in question which she aptly ignores and finds out that he had missed just 10 minutes of the class. Oh,' she thinks to herself I just cried for 10 minutes'.
The class was pretty boring that fateful day, or maybe it had more to do with the fact that Twinkle was hardly paying attention to what the professor was saying. Her attention instead focused on the black tornadoes she was absent mindedly scribbling on the back page of her text book.
Kunj stealthily slides a chit across to her. And he has to knock his elbow against hers to get her to notice it. Kya hua?'. She notices the dark color of his pen first and marvels just how pretty his handwriting looks in color. A second knock of his elbow against her side brings her back to reality. She grabs her pen and scribbles another question in response. Tumhe sach mein kuch alag nahi dikh raha?' she attempts again. Maybe he actually was messing around with her before. Because that's the only possible justification she could come up with at the moment. If there was one thing, only one sole thing in the entire universe that Twinkle believed in then it was that Kunj and her were meant to be soulmates! There is no other possibility in her mind.
She waits for him to read her message, and when he does he turns to her and whispers. Of course maine notice kiya!" and the flame of hope burning in the flooded corners of her heart burn in a wildfire. A megawatt smile breaks out on her face, that goes from ear to ear. The heavy feeling in her chest is lifted and she can finally breath. "Tera naya hairstyle na!" he says just as the bell rings announcing the end of the period.
Just like that she sinks again.
She hastily packs up her belongings and lets him know that she was feeling unwell and was going home. He offers to drive her there after asking if she was seriously ill, worried. Twinkle for her part waves away his worries telling her it's just a girl thing knowing that he wouldn't question her further and would leave her alone after that. It works and soon Twinkle is sitting in her car, homebound.
As the kilometers to her house recede her tears increase. The driver barely manages to pull the car in the driveway of Taneja mansion properly before Twinkle is throwing the door to the vehicle open and running towards her comforter. "Ma!" she screams hoarsely. "Maa-aa" her words cut in off in unnecessary syllables as she hiccups. "Maa!"
A worried Leela Taneja comes bounding down the stairs hearing her daughter in distress. "Ki hua puttar?" No sooner than she had reached the last step on the stair did Twinkle launch herself in the arms of her.
"Ma main Kunj ki-woh nahi-I am not!" Twinkle started and stopped numerously, trying to get her mother to understand her. Leela, calmly strokes her daughter's hair, trying to get her to calm down in order to understand her problem better.
"Shh, shant ho ja puttar. Tu aise royegi toh mujhe teri baat kasie samjh aayegi, huh?" She leads Twinkle to the couch and makes her have a sip of water. It takes a while before Twinkle manages to compose herself in a more understandable manner. "Hmm. Ab bata kya hua. Tera aur Kunj ka phirse jhagda hua hai kya?" And she feels the tears pricking the back of her eyes again. Her voice doesn't quiver this time however and she narrates the incident that took place in college in a firm yet soft voice.
It disappoints Leela to hear that. She herself was so sure that Kunj and Twinkle were born soulmates and yet to see the events turning out like so, was quite unexpected. But she steels herself. Her daughter was already distressed and the first thing Twinkle needed right then was reassurance. Thankfully Leela was pretty good at washing her daughters fears away. "Arey puttar. Ab tak 24 ghante thodi na huay hai. Pagli"
Twinkle sniffs asking her mother to elucidate. "Matlab?"
"Matlab yeh ki, koi logo ko,woh tu kya kehti hai? Haan Iridesent hone main time lagta hai! Chune ke baad bhi."
"Sach?"
"Mooch! Toh kya pata, kal tak Kunj bhi Iridescent ho jayega. Tu be wajah ro rahi hai!"
It placates Twinkle for the time being. Though she yet refuses to attend college the next day. She didn't want Kunj to realize and tell her that she was his soulmate in a boring place like their college. Instead she wanted his affair to take place in the comfort of their home. Perhaps they could even go out for dinner after the confession. It lifts her heart, just imagining such scenarios about tomorrow. And now with a heart lighter and happier than two hours ago, she freshens up with a shower, changes in her PJs, and settles down in her bed with her favorite rom coms, pretending Kunj and herself to be the leads.
Kunj had a hard time focusing on lunch that afternoon. He was inexorably pestered with thoughts of this Yuvi'. How could Twinkle cut their conversation short for this man? He was her best friend dammit! He should always come first.
"Kya hua Kunj? Tum khana kyu nahi kha rahe ho?" Maya called out on his behavior. He looks down at his plate, the food is completely untouched. He forcefully chews on a morsel of Lo Mein just to ward off any other questions from Maya, yet lost in thought. He was in half a mind to call Twinkle up right then and clear off the air. But then Maya's favorite song play on the TV and she pulls him up in an impromptu waltz. Kunj allows his thoughts to drift away from Twinkle and instead focus on the lady in his arms.
The song comes to its imminent end, and another starts and they continue dancing. Somewhere between the end of the first song and the chorus of the second, Maya rests her head against his shoulders. She lets go of their fingers that were laced together and wraps her arms around his neck. Kunj places his hands against her waist, and their waltz slows to a sway.
And somewhere in the deep recesses of his mind, he imagines how Twinkle would never initiate a dance like this. If anything she would most likely jump to the rhythm of Radha on the Dance floor'. And he completes his imagination picturing her holding a hairbrush as a Mic, and trying her best to lip sync the upbeat song.
They dance well into the evening and only break apart when Maya with a gap remembers that she was to meet her friends for coffee. She quickly slips on her shoes, plants a kiss on Kunj's cheeks and asks him not to wait up for her. She might be late.
Kunj plops down on the couch, he watches the cricket for a while, tunes into Football after sometime and eventually settles for Rambo'. He glances at his mobile in the middle of the advertisements, hoping that he had notification from Twinkle.
None.
And it makes him wonder for the first time in the whole span of their friendship, if she had forgotten about him. It makes his heart clench and his stomach churn painfully at the thought of being forgotten by her. His finger dance over her name in his contact list, undecided if he should call her or not. His mind says no, but his fingers on their own accord press down on her name and the call is connected. He absent-mindedly glances at the wall clock, hoping that she wouldn't be mad at being woken up at 5 in the morning.
"Hello." Comes her groggy voice on the seventh ring, followed by a "This better be good, Kunj"
He waves off her threat with a nonchalant "Hi. Kaisi hai?"
"Kuunnjj!" she lets out a whine. "Subah ke paanch baje hai yaha. Cut the call and let me sleep."
He knows Twinkle enough to know that she was serious about her sleep so he quickly cuts to the chase. "Yuvi kaun hai?"
"Kunj."
"I am serious." He lets her know in a straight, no non-sense tone. But then thinks better of it and adds, "Dekh, tu ek anjaane seher mein akeli hai. I think I should know about the people you hang out with." He coated it with reason.
She sighed in defeat knowing that if she didn't agree then he would call her mom and then her mom would call her and it would all be a huge mess that she didn't have the energy to deal with. "Yuvraj Luthra. Mera class mate. Happy?"
"Sirf class mate?"
"Kunj. I repeat subah ke paanch baj rahe hai. Please interrogate me another time."
"Par-"
"Raat bhar soi bhi nahi, aur jab soi toh tumne disturb kar diya." She informs him in a voice punctuated with little yawns.
In any other circumstances Kunj would have gone a little bit easier on her and would allow her to sleep. But today, today his mind was running on a different track and could she answer him GOD DAMNIT! He was genuinely worried about her. She shouldn't just be hanging around with anyone. Especially when that someone caused her to cut a call with him.
"Tu raat ko soi kyu nahi? Kya kar rahi thi?"
Twinkle was too sleepy to note the aggravated attitude of her best friend. She rubbed her eyes to get rid of the little dust crusts in the corner of her eyes, knowing well and goo thathe wasn't going to allow her to sleep. "Woh kal Yuvi ka birthday tha, party se aate-aate late ho gaya. Phir yaad aaya mujhe class ke liye chapter read karna tha."
"Tu apne classmate ke party mein aise hi chali gayi? Mujhe party ke baare mein bataya bhi nahi!" His voice raises an octave higher.
"Kunj. You are being unreasonable and I haven't had my coffee yet. SO GOOD MORNING!" She raises her voice too, not understanding why he was acting so strange and promptly hangs up.
"Hello Twinkle? TWINKLE? Dammit! Phirse kaat diya!"
Rmbo comes back on TV but suddenly the movie was the last thing on his mind. He boots up his laptop with the good intent of stalking this Yuvraj Luthra on all social networking sites. But his good intentions go down the drain when the lock to the main door of their apartment jingles and Maya announces her return.
He puts on a smile with a little difficulty and asks the customary questions about how her evening went. Maya doesn't notice his bitter mood and if she did she ignores it and plops down next to him on the couch.
They have Subway sandwiches and Limca for dinner. It is then that she notices Kunj's abnormal taciturn behavior. She knows that if she straight up asks him what it was that was bothering him then he would shrug on her question and pretend that everything was well and dandy. So she tries to distract him off the matter that was bothering him with a little conversation.
"Kunj, mujhe par yeh dress kaisi lagegi?" she shows him a deep green kurta on an online shopping site.
Kunj plays along and allows himself to get carried in her conversation.
But of course later that night, after Maya had retired to her room, Kunj did manage to look up Yuvraj on Facebook. He didn't like what he saw!
WHY WAS DID YUVI HAVE SO MANY OF HIS BIRTHDAY PHOTOS WITH TWINKLE?!?!'
He picks up his mobile phone. Time to call Twinkle again!
And this time she better answer all of his questions!
TO BE CONTINUED...
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Edited by neverlandspirit - 7 years ago
