Thodi Der Aur Theher Ja

Chapter Two

Shehnaaz woke up to a silent, empty room. She hadn't slept well the past few hours but now she couldn't sleep at all. She wanted to be woken up by the ringing of her phone. She needed to hear his voice, first thing after she woke up. She wanted to chide him for waking her up, have ONE light-hearted, normal moment with him after losing almost half the day because of a fight that she hadn't even started. She deserved that much.

Only if the world was a wish granting factory. Only if there was a wishing well, dedicated at fulfilling innocent wishes, of pure hearts.

Instead of waking up to a soft, loving whisper of his voice, she had woken up to his pictures being posted all over the internet, with his co-star. 

Shehnaaz chuckled, "So that was why she had called in the morning. He was probably supposed to pick her up from her apartment." She said to herself. 

The memory of the call, brought back memories of the fight too. Shehnaaz shuddered.

It was nothing. She was thinking too much. 

She wanted to believe it. She really-- really did, but what could she tell her heart, that was running a mile per second. 

Siddharth's pictures, posing with Gayatri along with the fight from the morning, brought a feeling of dread that Shehnaaz had long forgotten she could experience. A dark, dark memory flashed in front of her eyes. Siddharth, Shehbaaz, Maa, Preeti and Neetu Di stood at the door of the room, watching her, laughing at her. They made no move to come over and help her, they just stood there, unmoving and laughed to their heart's content while she felt herself being pulled into a vacuum with no way of escape.

"You're not my wife Shehnaaz--" She heard Siddharth snapping at her. 

"You don't get to decide.."

"I have a personal life Shehnaaz."

"You're not my wife Shehnaaz--" 

"You're not my wife--"

She felt her throat closing in, the world began to swirl and spin in front of her eyes. 

Not again..

Not-- 

No--

Her phone slipped through her fingers, landing on the bed with a soft thud while her whole body began to shake in earnest. Her voice betrayed her as she tried to call out to someone-- anyone to help her. She saw her phone screen coming to life, flashing a name-- a number? She couldn't tell anymore. She tried to reach for the phone, a part of her mind still aware that this could mean help. 

She struggled to hold the phone as tears-- fear.. darkness-- pain began to cloud her vision all at once. The phone fell off the bed and touched thr ground with a loud-- too loud-- too loud.. crack. 

She sobbed, her state worsening with every second that passed. She curled into herself, wrapping her arms around her knees, her whole body was shaking terribly, breathe coming in short desparate spurts. 

***

It took Siddharth a while to come to terms with what he had heard from Kaushal. He eventually did have his breakfast with Kaushal and then, tried to get some rest, but the aftermath of his conversation with Kaushal kept him deep in thought. Was he really acting clueless? Was he giving her a free pass, by simply being nice to her? Now that he thought of it, hard enough it did add up! All those accidental touches-- the giggling. 

Aapki biwi thodi hai.. dost hi toh hai--

You're not my wife Shehnaaz

Siddharth sighed, realising how rudely he had talked to her, just because she took a call.