Parth And Niti (PaNi FF): Professionals At Work

Chapter One : Nothing More, Nothing Less.

Meet me behind the college in 5 minutes . -Parth.

Duh, I obviously knew it was him. His number was saved in my phone since like forever ..Maybe he thought I would delete it now that we were not that friendly with each other..

The walk to the place was really long. I didn't know what he wanted to talk to me about , nevertheless I wanted to go and check. He wasn't rude to me, unlike her.. Maybe he wanted to sort stuff out from that day ? Maybe ?

There he stood, loitering around the place like a thief , afraid of being caught. Why not ? Where was his girlfriend ? Maybe somewhere near by.

"Niti." I heard him say. I was walking towards him and stood a couple of feet away from him.

"Hi." I mumbled quickly.

"I wanted to talk."

Of course he did. Why was I there, then ?

"Go on."

He fidgeted a bit, maybe he was unsure of something but he couldn't bring words to his lips. His lips which had managed to wreck a havoc inside me in totality , his lips which looked absolutely kissable. Shit !!! What am I thinking ?

"Thank you." He said after minutes of analyzing, fidgeting and giving me all kinds of thoughts regarding his lips and his important talk.

"Thank you for what ?"

"Woh Niti, I know jo uss din hua..woh.."

"You wanted to say sorry ?" I cut him. I knew he was talking about the day we had shot for the shower sequence, he hadn't done anything, his girlfriend had.

"Umm, I guess.." He looked so skeptical. Hasn't he ever said sorry before ?

And why was he even saying sorry ? He wasn't at fault. She was. She had managed to hurt me, he hadn't.

"Niti I know you're hurt but I truly want to apologize for her behavior. She's extremely possessive of me ."

How does he care if I'm hurt !

Was this just possessiveness ? I doubted if she even gave him a chance to breathe properly..Nonetheless I didn't want to comment on them. Its his relationship Niti, don't dig deep into it.

"Don't apologize. I understand." I managed to put up a really brave smile. Because I didn't intend to, but I didn't want him to feel that I was uncooperative or so..atleast I could do this much for him.

He smiled back. Fake smile.

"One more thing..please bura mat maano and listen to the entire thing first..."

"Yeah say."

"See Manik and Nandini are the lead couple."

Manik and Nandini ! MaNan hai !! Ek saath nahi bol sakte kya?

I hummed.

"So, its obvious that Parth and Niti would be linked up with each other."

PaNi. We had been acquainted with the name only two days back, and although it was a little funny, initially , I had liked it. My name with Parth's...sounded nice.. Just like water is a prerequisite for survival, something that everyone needs to survive, the same way, we... Uh..well forget it.

"Yeah..that is normal."

"Niti I want to request..no actually tell you that we need to be careful in what we speak about each other. Like, do not, under any circumstances mention that we ..umm...were friends before.." He said. More likely, he wanted me to accept his idiotic request. Not even request ! It was pre decided by him and he was just letting me know !

WERE friends. Yes, we were friends before..before Disha came and almost ruined our friendship. Wait, what almost ? She did it ! I don't know why but she did. Despite the fact that she was the prettiest girl I had seen in a long time and despite the fact that her and Parth made a good looking couple I disliked her behaviour. She intruded a little too much ! I had started feeling that she suffocates him.

"Don't you have some answer or something like that ready? So that you know I can blabber an already mugged up answer...whenever Im asked about you?" I asked in a sugary sweet voice hoping he would get the sarcasm. He glared at me for a couple of seconds and nodded his head in agreement. What the F !

"Say that you and me , are professional. Nothing more, nothing less. Just pure professionals who don't interfere into each other's personal lives." He concluded. He didn't have an ounce of regret on his face and I felt like punching him hard. How could he just say this ?

Nothing more, nothing less. What even was that ? Nothing more ? Seriously ?? Did he forget all the times we studied together before MaNan got popular ? The times we hung out together ? Gave each other treats in McDonalds ? And now he was saying this ? Was he the same person who had begun to be in my good books ? Whom I had started trusting inspite of my cringe worthy relationship that had ended almost a year back ? Was he ?

God ! What am I even thinking ? Niti , how much have you even spoken to him post your argument with Disha ? You don't know anything about their relationship ! Friends the, now its gone. Over. Done. He's calling it off, and you need to stop thinking that he will be friendly with you again because he won't.

No I can't. Shit. How will I keep my feelings at bay ? How will I possibly keep my mind off his thoughts ? How am I even going to move on and date someone else in life now that my heart yearns for him everytime he's close to me ?

No Niti. Hate him. He's with Disha. Accept this and move on. You need this show. He needs it. You both are actors and you cannot fall weak. You are strong Niti. Deal with it.

Don't be weak. You need to learn to accept these things for now.

"Niti you heard me right ?" I heard him say and snap me right out of my land.

I nodded.

"So you're up with it ?"

Why are you doing this Parth ! Please, don't make it difficult for me. No I'm not up with it ! I need those friendly days back, when everything was okay. Why did you even become such good friends with me in the first place ? Why did you make me get attached to you ? Why did you compel me to start developing feelings for you ? Why are you doing this to me ? I wanted to cry my heart out.

Obviously calling each other professionals in interviews meant that we were possibly never going to interact with each other , except for when we needed to do MaNan scenes.

No I don't want to do this.

Niti, you need to stay away. Please. For yourself. It's going to cost you in future , else.

Vehemently, I nodded positively , flashing my 32 teeth, as if trying to tell that it was the best deal I had agreed upon.

Fine. If that's the case. Yes, I'm strong. I'm not weak. I am an actress and I can very well hide my feelings and bury them deep inside my heart, that's it. Niti, be cold. If that's what he wants.

He looked at me quizzically, and then a warm expression took over. Jerk. I wanted to slap him hard.

"Then, professionals it is ?" He asked, forwarding his hand expecting me to respond back.

Why was he asking now that he had made this decision on his own. Mere bolne se kya farak padega ?

Nonetheless,

"Yeah, professionals". I responded halfheartedly and my tiny palm met his. Immediately, he clutched his fingers around my palm as I gaped at the sight. My palm was pressed against his huge one..it looked, just the way they showed in those cheesy romantic movies..Stuff which couples do..Oh god ! I'm back at it again . Niti remember you have to act all cold ! Be indifferent and with time your feelings for him will fade away.

Yeah. They would. I said to myself. I wasn't 1% confident about this though. The situation needed me to be strong. Maybe I could do it..Maybe..