BREAKING FREE (Pragya’s story) Chapter 4

DELHI – INDIA

Fusion Beats

There’s lots of commotion in the room, yelling can be heard from across the hall indicating that there Is a heated argument happening, well, not exactly an argument because it sounds more like a scolding as one voice is the loudest and most audible. The rest of the employees are whispering to each other at their respective posts about what the screaming within the conference room is about.

Inside the conference room a man is shown shouting angrily at another much smaller older looking man in a black suit and tie, while another man is trying his best to calm down and reason with his brother who is screaming at the poor lad, the lads head is hung low like a scared child as he listens to the scolding his boss is giving him.

On the giant round conference room table there are a pile of documents scattered across it and an empty brown envelope that appears to have been torn open. The screaming continues and the man who is yelling is Abhi

Abhi : How can you tell me it was cancelled? What am I freaking paying you for huh!!!

The little man in the suit tries to defend himself and speaks

Mr Saluja : I’m sorry Mr Mehra but it’s really not my fault, the headline act cancelled last minute.

Abhi gets even angrier at this statement and retorts

Abhi : What the hell do you mean Cancelled?

Mr Saluja : yes Mr Mehra, Canceled. The headline act and the artist who started this whole project two years ago suddenly canceled it at the last minute.

Abhi : what!? Why the hell did he cancel it after we did all the preparations for the album here huh? Why did he wait until we did all the work and just cancel at the last minute?

At this point purab also chimed in

Purab : yes Mr Saluja why did he wait this long? What was his reason?

Mr Saluja : I don’t know Mr Khanna, he simply said he was no longer interested and refused to sign the contract.

Now at this point even purab was getting angry and shouted

Purab : How arrogant and rude, who the hell is this so called headline act?

Abhi : yes, who the hell is this guy anyway?

Mr Saluja : he’s not just another headline act sir, he is one of the biggest rappers in Europe, A platinum certified artist with multiple Grammys to his name, in fact his last album was certified Gold

Abhi was getting irritated listening to Mr Saluja praise the artist so much and shouted

Abhi : I did not ask you for his blo*dy qualifications, I asked who the hell he is!

Mr Saluja gulped in fear at Abhi’s wrath and responded

Mr Saluja : King Singh! he is the superstar rapper King Singh!

Abhi was shocked at this revelation, King Singh? The same Rapper who had been his music rival for years? although he had never met him, he always seemed to be losing to this guy, he beat him in winning the last Grammy awards and even beat his number One album rating on the Billboard hot hundred. That same guy had yet again beaten him in another area of his career, Abhi was livid. He smashed his fist on the table in anger and shouted

Abhi : Damnit! That bastard beat me again! How the hell do I keep losing to a guy I have never even met, he keeps snatching things from me

Purab tried to calm his brother and spoke

Purab : Calm down bro, this guy is not all he’s made out to be, I’ve heard he has a big attitude and is very arrogant, he is nothing compared to you our beloved Rockstar

Mr Saluja also chimed in to try and soothe Abhi’s anger

Mr Saluja : yes Mr Mehra, Mr Khanna is absolutely right, see if I’m being honest, I think the only reason he cancelled this project is because he was afraid you would outshine him…. whatever achievement he has pales in comparison to you and that attitude if his would have surely been his downfall

Mr Saluja went on praising Abhi and stroking his ego in order to calm him down and it certainly worked because now abhi was completely Gloating in his self-righteous arrogance. He spoke

Abhi : Yes, exactly, no one is better than Abhi the Rockstar!

He said with full attitude

Abhi : Now watch what happens, this time I will be the one to snatch something from him.

He said triumphantly and put on his sun glasses then left the room with full attitude and a cocky smirk on his face followed by purab who apologized to Mr Saluja one last time for his brothers behavior and left.

Mr Saluja : Oh god, see now what I have done, I had to stroke his ego in order to calm him down this time but I don’t know what will happen next time

He said worriedly and continued

Mr Saluja : I pray these two never meet, otherwise this place will not be big enough for the both of them especially when he comes know that King rejected the contract because he did not want to work with Abhi.

Mr Saluja Sighed and Organized the files on the table and put them into his briefcase then left.

Meanwhile in a park somewhere in Delhi

It was a beautiful scenic area, the sun was shining, the birds where chirping and the colourful flowers that decorated the park coupled with the lucious green trees truly tied the scene together. On the playground there were little kids swinging from the swing sets, Playing on the slides and seesaws, running after each other playing tag and many other kids games. meanwhile at the edges of the park facing the playground was the adults area that had a gazebo and some wooden benches where some of the parents sat and watched their kids play, on one of the benches sat Disha who watched her little sunny play around with his friends while she spoke on the phone. she seemed quite happy and excited as she talked to the person on the other end of the line.

Disha’s phone call

Disha : that’s like my sister na, I’ve been saying this all along

The person on the other end was pragya who was standing in her room by the window looking out into the city below while leaning against window frame talking to Disha with a smile on her face.

Pragya : I know, I know, you were totally right

Disha : of course I was, I know my Jiju na. So tell me, did you guys…you know?

Disha asked in a teasing tone making pragya blush a little

Pragya : You shut up, how can you ask your big sister such things?

Disha giggled at Pragya’s reaction and thought to tease her even more

Disha : I knew it, (whispers) so tell me, how was it?

pragya’s face turned red and she hid her face in her palm remembering the romantic getaway she had with king and their passionate first kiss, she mentally splaped herself on realizing that disha’s teasing was working and quickly cleared her throat and responded.

Pragya : get your head out of the gutter nasty, nothing you’re thinking happened. we only kissed that’s all

on hearing pragya’s statement disha squealed like a teenage girl who just heard the latest gossip, she was more excited by this news than pragya was which certainly shocked pragya who proceeded to ask.

Pragya : what the hell was that? you almost shattered my eardrum dummy

Disha : sorry, i’m just so happy di

pragya was slightly confused at disha’s response.

Pragya : why are you so excited about this?

disha’s cheerful demeanor became a little somber when she heard pragya say this and sighed leaning back on the bench and responded in a more serious tone.

Disha : Di, I know you always said you were fine but i knew you were not. we all knew that you were only hiding your pain from us.

she became teary eyed but continued to speak

Disha : honestly, we were all very worried that you would never move on, that you would never realize what was right in front of you because you were to busy dwelling on your past.

now even pragya was teary eyed and tried to speak

Pragya : disha..

but disha cut her off

Disha : no di, let me get this off my chest

pragya kept quiet and listened

Disha : we were worried that you would unknowingly let that abhi ruin your chance of finding love again, we thought you might never see jiju’s love for you which he kept hidden because he was afraid you would reject him and go away from him

pragya was shook, so everyone knew king loved her except her? seriously? how on earth could she have been so oblivious to such an important thing?

Pragya : I’m sorry Disha, I did not realize how many people I was hurting due to my ignorance

Disha : Don’t apologize di, we understood that it would take time. Anyhow it’s all good now, I’m so happy you’ve finally decided to move on

Pragya : me too, I can’t believe I was so blind

Disha : yes even with your glasses you couldn’t see tsk

Pragya frowned at this and retorted

Pragya : and what’s that supposed to mean?

Disha laughed at her annoyance

Disha : isn’t it obvious?

Pragya : shut up, and I wear contacts now so ha!

And so the two sisters continued their banter talking about many things and laughing, their conversation went on for almost an hour and then they ended the call.

Pragya was still standing by the window thinking about her conversation with Disha when king came and back hugged her resting his chin on her shoulder with his arms encircled around her waist. She smiled and put her arms over his and spoke

Pragya : Someone’s feeling romantic huh

King groaned in agreement and kissed her cheek

King : let’s go out, on a date, we can go to your favorite restaurant

Pragya : I’d love to baby but I can’t go out tonight coz I’ve a got a lot of work to take care of tomorrow as I will be visiting the academy as well.

King groaned in annoyance and whined to pragya like a child begging her to reconsider

King : But I wanna spend time with you, pleaasseee

He continued to whine

Pragya : I know baby, I’m sorry. Okay how do I make it up to you?

King smirked because a devious little idea popped up in his head. He swiftly turned pragya to face him and pinned her against the wall completely taking pragya by surprise as he did it so fast that she didn’t have time to react. He leaned in close to her , the tips of their noses were touching and their lips nearly meeting, pragya bit her lips to try and suppress the burning desire within, she thought to herself “no, come on pragya get a grip, how does this man drive me to think such nasty things with his mere presence” at this point their breathing slowed into single rhythm, their hearts were racing completely high on ecstasy, the gap between their lips closed ever so slowly as they felt each other’s heated breath that just stoked the flames within them. They were moments away from kissing and pragya thought to herself ” I can’t hold back anymore, tonight..” but they were both broken out if their moment when Kiara came bursting through their door shouting

Kiara : Dadddyyyyy, mooommmyyyyyy!!!

Kingya immediately separated and straightened on hearing their daughter and stood 3 feet apart, they were completely embarazzed and hoped to God that Kiara did not see them in that position.

Little Kiara who was so consumed with her talking as soon as she walked in did not even notice what was happening before. She kept on whining about her little child problems while king and pragya just Sighed in relief that she did not walk in on them

Meanwhile in Tarun’s Bedroom

Tarun was frantically packing his clothes into a small suitcase, he was nervous as hell and kept forgetting what to pack, so he kept going back and forth to his giant wardrobe completely undecided on what best to pack for the special occasion. While poor Tarun was drowning in panic, Jojo was sitting on his bed, legs crossed munching on a big bag of gummy bears reluctantly instructing him on what to pack. Tarun grabbed an outfit from his wardrobe and tried to pack in the suitcase when Jojo shouted

JoJo : No!

This absolutely startled Tarun and irked him, he glared at her and aggressively signed her to whisper

Tarun : Shhhhhh, ah, what is wrong with you? You want to get us caught?

Jojo smiled sheepishly and and scratched her head on realizing what she had done

Jojo : (whispering) sorry, my bad, I forgot

Tarun facepalmed and sighed defeated and wondered how on earth he got himself into this mess with this clown

JoJo : (Still whispering) it’s ugly, put it back

She got up and went towards his wardrobe and started picking out outfits for him.

Jojo : Pragya di gets you fashionable clothes, I don’t understand why you dress like you don’t own a mirror. Why don’t you wear these clothes?

Tarun rolled his eyes and continued packing what Jojo was handing him

KINGYA’S BEDROOM

King and pragya were sitting on the bed chatting when suddenly something came to Pragya’s mind and she shouted

Pragya : Tarun!

King was puzzled by her sudden out burst and asked her

King : What about him? Wait, come to think of it, we haven’t really seen much of him since we got back from Mauritius

Pragya : Exactly, that’s what suddenly rang in my mind. He’s actually been acting weird lately

King : yes you’re right, I’ve been meaning to ask him about that.

Pragya : well he’s in his room right now so let’s go and find out what’s going on with him

King agrees with Pragya and they both head to Tarun’s room to talk to him, on the way in the hallway they run into Dholi who was also going to Tarun’s room with a tray of food in her hands

Dholi : Pragya beta, King Beta, are you also going to Tarun’s room?

Kingya nod I acceptance

Dholi : I’m actually worried about him, he has not been eating much lately

Kingya are shocked at this revelation because Tarun is a huge foodie, if he’s not even eating then there certainly is something wrong somewhere. So the trio head to Tarun’s room determined to find out what is going on with their Taru.

TARUN’S ROOM

Jojo and Tarun are still bickering about what to pack and Tarun’s fashion sense, they go back and forth in their silly little fight that they don’t even hear the approaching footsteps of Kingya and Dholi. Finally Tarun has had enough of Jojo’s antics and shouts

Tarun : Enough! I’ll just wear whatever!

But Jojo also shouted back

Jojo : like hell you will! This is your wedding Tarun! You can’t just wear anything! I won’t let you!

At this statement they both hear a tray fall to the ground and turn to see king, pragya and Dholi Standing at the door with mouths agape at what they just heard, they shout in unison

Kingya/Dholi : WEDDING!???????

Jojo and Tarun stand frozen with shock and the screen freezes in their faces and the trio who are shocked to the core.

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That’s all folks✨

~Esie