Bade Sapne

Dil Toota

Ishan's POV

Break up with her. Shubman's words kept replaying in my head as I sat on the stairs near Abhi's apartment.

Finally, I was beginning to understand why Shubman had moved to Abhi's hotel room. At first, I'd been offended, hurt even, that he valued Abhi more than me. But Vira had been the problem. She'd caused me to drift away from my best friend.

I tried to remember the last time that Shubman and I had had a boys' night out. It'd been a while. Almost 3 weeks now. Obviously, with the ongoing IPL, we'd been travelling consistently, but national team practice was still on. I cast my mind back to  how we used to hang out after practice almost every day. The crazy things we used to do in my apartment, playing pranks on Rohit bhai, and making jokes with Virat bhai. But now...

Mujhe kuch samajh mein nahi aa raha hai. Why would Vira do something like this? Meine kya kiya taki mein ye deserve karun. Had she been in love with Shubman all this time and been using me to get close to him? Shayad ye one-sided pyaar tha?

I knew that Shubman wouldn't betray me, that he wouldn't like Vira, and I'd been wrong to confront him in the first place. The one I needed to confront was Vira. She'd made me doubt Shubman, made me hate my best friend for something he hadn't done. He wouldn't fall in love with Vira. He wasn't like that.

As for Vira... maybe I'd judged her wrong. Maybe I didn't even love her. Or maybe I did, and she didn't love me back. Either way, things weren't going well. She was going to get an earful from me.

I jumped to my feet, and knocked once again on the door of Abhi's apartment. Shubman opened the door.

"Chal."

"Kahan?" He asked, confusion evident on his face.

"Let's both go. She needs to learn that breaking friendships is a bitchy move."

"No."

"What no? Are you not angry about this?" I questioned, unable to believe the calm tone and evenness in his voice.

"I am."

"Then? Aaja mere saath, phir."

"Yaar, meine already usko confront kiya hai."

"Toh?"

"Uski shakal nahi dekhni hai."

"Fine."

I jumped down the stairs, taking them three at a time, holding the handrail for support, being so fueled by anger and rage, that I didn't even stop and think for a second whether it was possible that Vira hadn't done it.

The adrenaline flowing through my veins was so high that I felt like I would pass out if I didn't do something about it. Her being innocent was the last of my concerns. After all, we'd never really made it official. Just the occasional kiss here and there, and people assumed that we were a couple.

I pushed down the thoughts that were screaming at me to stop and think, and remember all the beautiful moments we'd had together, to reminisce in the love we'd showered over each other, and instead focused on her words.

I feel guilty, regarding Shubman. How do I tell Ishan?

Translating her words into English didn't change the effect they had on me. If anything, it felt like they made it worse. She didn't trust me. She didn't love me. She didn't care about my feelings. She played me. All this time, she was thinking about Shubman while we were together. My fists clenched involuntarily at the thought. The idea of Vira, the girl I had trusted, kept sneaking into my head like poison.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, I shoved the door open with more force than necessary, letting the cool evening air hit my face. My heart was pounding, and I could barely catch my breath, but I wasn't going to back down now. I didn't care what explanations she had. Nothing she said could fix this.