New perspective: A Retelling of D3 Dil Dosti Dance

A visit.

[Dehradun. July 2011
A month since Kriya left Mumbai]

Kriya jerked her head up, startled by the loud noise. She had dozed off on the sofa, lights on, laptop still open. She looked at the time on her screen. It was past midnight. University applications on twenty different tabs stared her in the face. "Oh no," she thought. She had so much more research to do.

The noise sounded again. Now, she grasped that someone was at the door.

Kriya's mother was sound asleep, the sounds of rain against the roof humming a constant lullaby. Nervously, she got up and unlocked the door.

"How could you?" a voice whispered angrily in the dark. "How could you?"

Kriya turned on the porch lights. "Sharon..?" Kriya stepped back, frowning. This was the last thing in the world she expected to happen.

"You...you cheat! Dhoka diya hai tumne." Sharon stood fuming, slightly wet from the rain.

"I-..." Kriya just shook her head confusedly. "How did you find me?"

"Of course!" She closed her eyes. "Of course, you don't care. I can't believe I'd started to like you."

Kriya couldn't believe this was actually happening. She wasn't ready to confront the situation yet. She didn't have it in her to face her friends, yet. "Sharon," She reached out to touch her arm. "Have you told anybody where I am?". No one really knew she was back at her old family home. Only Swayam, and there was no way he would tell anyone. All she had said to him was that she was being pulled away from them and from dance, and she needed time to process everything, and he had given her space, no questions asked.

Sharon jerked her arm away, the repulse clear on her face. "Oh, get over yourself! No one cares!" She raised her voice. "You know why? Because you betrayed them. Your own so-called 'best friends'. And you didn't leave mine alone, either. You double-faced-"

"Sharon!" Kriya interrupted, getting tenser by the second. "Ma is asleep, please dheere bolo". Sharon's words were getting to her, and she was trying her best to remain calm. She couldn't let herself break down now.

"Do you care, at all?" Sharon stared at the girl in front of her, unsure which version of her was real.

There was the Kriya she thought she knew-the one who wore integrity like a medal, who blurted out her opinions without hesitation, who worked hard for everything she wanted. The one Sharon had even started to respect, though she had never let herself admit it.

And then, there was this Kriya. The one Rey, drunk and heartbroken, had finally told her about.

She had sat through his entire story quietly, watching him-a look on his face she had never seen before. In the following days, she had pieced together whatever she could-old college forms, a stray mention of Dehradun, a frustrating trail of nothing-until she finally found an address that felt right.

Before she knew it, she was on a flight. She hadn't thought about what she would do once she arrived.

She had let her anger lead her.

"Rey toot chuka hai. You broke him. Tumhe zara sa bhi fark padta hai?"

Kriya took a step back, a lump forming in her throat.

Sharon let herself inside, and began pacing mindlessly. "I don't understand. Mujhe lagne laga tha ki main galat thi. I was wrong about you. But no. Main soch bhi nahi sakti thi, ki tum aisi hogi." She turned sharply. "I know what happened. Rey ne mujhe sab kuch bata diya."

Kriya sat down wordlessly, her chest tightening. She couldn't look at Sharon.

"Of course you have nothing to say. I don't know why I even came." She turned to look at Kriya, now with her head in her hands.

For a minute, no one spoke. The rain tapped softly on the window panes.

Sharon laughed once, cold. "For weeks I felt bad about how I treated you. I made apologies in my head. But you were fake, the whole time."

Now Kriya looked up, surprise evident on her face.

"You know what, I'm glad I came, because I'm satisfied. I was right to dislike you from the beginning"

"You regret that we couldn't be frie-" Kriya started.

There was a shuffling noise from the farthest room. "Ma!" Kriya said, standing up. "Sharon, please, I don't want Ma to listen to any of this. Aap-" She stopped, taking in the anger and dissapointment on Sharon's face.

The rain had started to get heavier, and so had Kriya's heart. She struggled to find the right words.

"I never meant for any of this to happen," she finally managed to whisper, her voice trembling. "I know I've messed up, and I wish I could undo it, but I-"

"You cant." Sharon's tone was harsh. She was feeling stupider by the minute, for having come here.

A bedlamp went on in the room.

Sharon turned to leave.

"Kriya?" Her mother called.

Looking at Kriya one last time, Sharon said "I had started to like you." Then she shook her head and walked out the door.

Kriya stared after her, wanting to explain, say something,anything! But it was too late now.

She walked wearily to the door, and closed it shut, quietly mourning a friendship she didn't even know she could have had.

"Coming, Ma."

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soundtrack:

https://youtu.be/uo_Bb3nk3gE?si=nJuoZrYYTmql7hIK
0:00-5:20