The Passionate Ego

38:WHO'S HE?

A man runs through the roads with a backpack in one hand while the cars run by his side. He crosses the intersection of roads unsure about his way when he notices a sign board and swiftly takes a left paddling his way between the cars stuck in the traffic. Out of breadth he stops at his desired locality, the road here is pretty silent as compared to the ones he just ran through. Gazing around he spots the apartment building he's been looking for, with a satisfied smile on his face he turns around towards the backside of the apartment as he jumps on a dumpster and then on the fire exit ladder attached to the building.

The staircase leads him 5 floors up when he grazes through the glass window satisfied with no-one being in sight. Looking at his watch, exactly 2 a.m at night, he carefully unlocks the window of the hall, forgotten to have been locked as always. He slips inside with a pin drop silence and turns around to close it before any noise awake the residents of the apartment when the light flicks open. Busted.

Almost 20 hours later

NANDINI'S POV

I hear Navya calling out to me, apparantly we all are supposed to attend an elite party comprising of all the famous actors, actresses, businessman and every rich person we can ever think along with media, that is us.

"Nandini how long?" Navya asked me through the bathroom door. Currently i sat infront of my closet still unsure of what to wear hence i didn't want her to keep waiting for me.

"You guys leave. I'll meet you there a few minutes later." i replied.

"You sure? We can wait if you want to." she spoke in a soft voice, voice of pity maybe but i don't need that.

"I'm fine Navya. Moreover Maria must be waiting. I'll be there trust me." i replied with much more confidence this time and she agreed.

I heard the door being closed and i looked at the mess around me. Gosh i am overthinking again. About what? Let's rewind a little bit.

Last night i couldn't stop thinking about the things Manik spoke, the way he kept acting. My heart fluttered seeing those changes in him but my mind spoke against, reminding me of how he crushed my heart with those harsh words. I felt like fighting myself and in the end decided aginst seeing him ever but maybe my luck was never in my favour. This afternoon Maria informed us about this elite party we were supposed to attend as in to know and interview more rich and famous clients which definitely means that HE'll be there too. So therefore, i am here lying between my entire closet , unsure of what to wear.

I don't want to look like a mess infront of him or give him the satisfaction to know that he and his cruel decision even hurted me a bit. I picked out the black dress i had been eyeing for a while and decided against it. This definitely screamed my funeral, so i decided to go with the lavender dress i bought when we all went on that trip as a group. This definitely held up a sign of, "I AM HAPPY AND YOU DON'T EFFECT ME", atleast according to me. Oh what would that time be if i would have walked into this party with him by my side holding my waist. I wanna belive him so bad, i want to trust him so bad but i've got my heart broken once by a man but still gave Manik a chance but then what did he do, he broke it again and i've heard that third times a charm.

MANIK'S POV

Cabir hangs around with me in this lousy evening. Lousy because such elite parties don't effect me anymore, don't excite me the way they used to because it's her who's missing from my side. The way she used to encircle her hand around my arms in jealousy to remind all these women eyeing me that i belong to her. And indeed i did.

"She's been eyeing you since long." my trance is broken by Cabir.

"Huh?" i asked not hearing him properly the first time.