Chapter 1, Part 1: New Beginning
Hello everyone! So this is my first story that I am writing, and I have no idea how it’s going to turn out! Hopefully you like it and I’m sorry if it doesn’t necessarily meets up to your expectations! Please let me know if you would like me to keep writing! Thanks! ❤
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So who am I, and what am I doing here…? That’s your first question right? I’ve read so many stories and fan fictions, and as an average reader I’ll be honest, I would like the introduction to be very clear so I can understand what the heck is happening in the story. But let me tell you folks, this isn’t a “typical brown story”, which is a little ironic because most stories do start off this way. But this is my story, that I’m about to share with you. A story that has changed who I am as a person, a story that has touched me deep down, and a story that I will never stop telling. Just let me take a second to think about all the people I should introduce… okay, got it! Ready to enter the secrets of my life? Well, fasten your sealtbelts, because hopefully you will enjoy this journey as much as I did!
I’m a normal girl who is in her senior year of high school, and my name is Abi, short for Abinaya. It’s funny because half the people in my school don’t even know my first name is Abinaya, they just go with Abi, and I just let it happen. My best friend’s name is Anjali. I’ve know Anjali since the beginning of life, since her mother and my mother are the best of friends. Anjali doesn’t have any siblings, so she treated me as her sister, and I was lucky to have her. She was my best friend I could talk to, since my older brother was gone to a foreign country to study engineering. Yup, he’s a nerd. I mean I’m pretty smart too, but I don’t believe in ‘taking my further studies to foreign countries to become a smarter person’. Family comes first for me all the time, so I don’t believe in leaving my family to study when they were the ones who gave us our great start, if you know what I mean. Sorry if I’m offending anyone, I mean I’m not saying it’s bad to leave, I’m just not the type who can make such sacrifices. Now that you know a very, very, very, very little bit about me, let’s get back to reality!
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“You’re gonna be late Abi!”, my mom yelled from downstairs! “I slowly opened my tightly sealed eyes. “I turned my body so I can face the alarm clock sitting on the side table of my bright pink, floral bed. It took me a few seconds to realize what time it was. “8:40?! School starts in 20 minutes!”, I yelled, I sprinted to the bathroom with my clothes in my arms and quickly got ready. I ran downstairs and grabbed my lunch bag from the table. “Honey, you can’t skip breakfast again!”, my mom said. Why, why can’t my mom be less caring and just let me leave? “Here, eat this quickly Abi”, my mom said to me. “Mom…”, I started my usual whining but then she gave me the death stare, and as we all know, you cannot just pretend like you didn’t see that death stare. So I ate as fast as I could, kissed my mother goodbye and ran outside so I could sprint to the bus stop.
I finally got to school, 2 minutes left before class starts. Abi! A very familiar voice yelled. I turned around, and it was Anjali. “Hey jelly!”, that was my nickname for her. “Hey abs!”, she yelled back with a beaming smile. Yup… it was an embarrassing nickname, but I got used to it. We had Math together for first period, and we talked about our weekends as we waited for the teacher to come open the door. Anjali seemed to get distracted and gazed off when I was talking to her. “Let me guess, is Arnav here?”, I asked her jokingly, and she blushed. “What no! I wish though…”, she said with a sigh. Arnav was every girl’s dream, all the girls in the school wants him so badly, but I don’t see why. Some of the girls in the school called him ‘Salman Khan’ or ‘dreamer boy’, but I don’t see the perfection in him that all the other girls see. Anjali still seemed distracted so I turned around to see what she was looking at. It was Dharshan. Dharshan is now my boyfriend, and it feels weird to call him that that because I’ve liked him for 3 whole years, and he finally asked me to be his girlfriend about a month ago. He was the dream guy, and the first guy I ever liked, just hearing his name would send chills all over my body. When I saw him I could feel my heart beating faster and my cheeks reddening. He approached us with his heart-warming smile. “Hey”, he said, and I jumped into his arms. He wrapped his arms around me and it felt like we haven’t seen each other in years, even though I actually saw him 3 days ago. “I missed you”, he said. “I did too”, I said, as I looked up into his dreamy, sparkling eyes. “I’ll see you after class”, he said with the most perfect smile, I smiled at him and he gave me one last quick hug, and left. I turned around to face Anjali and she seemed very distracted. I snapped my fingers in front of her. “Jelly, what’s up?”. She finally snapped out of it and twitched her eyes. “Oh nothing… I’m fine”, she said. Then we walked into class, but she seemed very distracted during the entire class.
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After school I waited at the water fountain right outside the school, where Dharshan and I always meet after school. I watched the water, and kept thinking about the day when Dharshan asked me to be his girlfriend, and how it was a dream come true. Then all of a sudden, everything turned black. “Guess who it is”, a deep voice said. I laughed and put my hands over the hands on my face. “Hmmmm… oh… this must be that cute guy from my psychology class”, I said, knowing that it was actually Dharshan. What did you say?!” Dharshan questioned as he took his hands off my face. “You’re so stupid, I knew it was you”, I said, I just couldn’t stop smiling. I put my head on his shoulder as he sat beside me and put his arm around my shoulders. “Guess what happened to me today?”, I was so excited to hear how his day went and tell him how mine went like we usually do, but Dharshan seemed very distracted on his phone. “Who are you texting?”, I asked him, as I leaned over and looked at his phone. “No one…”, he said quickly as he moved his phone from my sight. “Don’t you know it’s rude to look at other people’s stuff like that?”, he asked jokingly with a cute smirk on his face. ” We always do that though”, I said as I looked up at him. He smiled, and then he continued texting. “So what’s new?”, I asked him as he continued texting. “Yup… mhm”, he said as he nodded his head. “Okay… Dharshan! You’re not even listening to me!”, I said in his ear. “What was that for?”, he said as he looked at me with one hand over his ear. Then he took a deep breath. “Can we talk later? I’m just really distracted right now.”, he said. “I can see that”, I said to him. I put my hand on his hand and looked at him. “Do you wanna talk about it?”, I asked curiously. “Maybe later…ok?”, he said with his pleading eyes, so I nodded and he kissed me on my forehead. “Bye”, he said. I waved back at him and then he was gone. I was very curious, I wanted our relationship to be… magical. I wanted him to feel comfortable with sharing everything with me, but I realized that it might take him some time, and I felt empathetic towards him. That’s when I saw him. The boy everyone at school was crazy about. Arnav. Every girl dreamed about him, but he seemed like a very cocky, selfish guy to me. I mean sure, he was good looking…but he just wasn’t that interesting in my eyes as he was in everyone else’s. As he walked my direction I spilled my coffee and dropped the cup that was in my hand. That’s when he approached me. “Oh, looks like you spilled something”. I glared at him. “No really… thanks for stating the obvious”, I said to him with an annoyed expression on my face. He picked up the cup and the cap and tossed it in the garbage. He dressed like a male model, he was wearing a leather jacket, dark coloured jeans, expensive shoes, sunglasses on his face which blocked his eyes. He had a very sharp nose, and his hair was perfectly cropped and layered with some hair brushed to the side. He tossed me my bag and said, “You’re welcome”, even though I didn’t say thank you. Then he just walked away without waiting for me to respond. I watched him walk away and thought “What a guy”, then I put my bag on my back and headed for the bus stop so I could get home.
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I kicked off my shoes, ran upstairs and changed into my pyjamas, so I could eat some snacks and then get started on my homework. I found some rasmalai in the fridge, and though my mom told me that I was only allowed to eat them for dessert, I quickly grabbed a spoon and picked up one rasmalai, shoved it in my mouth and enjoyed every bite. Then I sat at the table to do my homework. I glanced at my phone every now and then to see if Dharshan had texted me, but I didn’t get anything. “Give him some time”, I kept telling myself. Then I heard the door open. “Hi Abi, how was your day?”, I heard one of my favourite voices ask. “Hi mom”, I said, as she kissed me on my cheek and placed the grocery bags on the kitchen table. “Oh I need to tell you something”, she said as she leaned against the countertop. “What?”, I asked as I grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and started biting into it. “Today is Gowri aunty’s 40th birthday, and their family is going out for the weekend, so they wanted to have a birthday party for her at the local hall.”, she said, with a guilty facial expression. “Are you serious? But I have so much homework! Why didn’t you…”, I started to say, but as usual, my mom cut me off. “I was going to tell you Abi but I completely forgot after my client called yesterday.” My mom is a lawyer, and I want to become a lawyer like her one day, but sometimes I wonder if I really should become a lawyer because my mom tends to forget to tell me a lot of things since she’s always very busy with her job. I let out a sigh and then said, “Fine”. “Thank you sweetheart, I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you earlier!”, she said as she kissed my cheek again and then sat on the couch. “You should wear that dress I got you for your birthday”, she said with a smile on her face. “Okay”, I said as I smiled back at her, and then I quickly went back to my work so I could finish it before going to the party.
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My mom had bought me a beautiful, long, baby pink dress. It had small sleeves and had a lace top to it, then a light, sheer long skirt that covered my feet and complimented my body shape elegantly. My mom always had the best sense of style. I grabbed a pearl bracelet and earrings set that my brother had bought me for my birthday. I put on the earrings and looked at myself in the mirror. As I looked at myself, I realized how much I missed my brother, and I was very excited to see him again when he comes back to visit for the winter break. I put half of my hair up and clipped it together with a sparkly pearled barrette, and then left the rest of my loose, wavy, long, dark hair flow at the bottom. “Ready Abi?”, my mom asked as she knocked on the door. I opened the door, and she looked amazing. She was also wearing a baby pink sari, and she looked stunning. “Aww my baby, you look beautiful!”, she said as she embraced me tightly. I love my mother, and I was proud of her for the long way she has come in raising my brother and me all alone. “I wanted to match with you”, she said. “We look flawless”, I said with a giggle. “We sure do”, she said, and I could see a sparkling twinkle in the corner of her eyes.
“Hello Aaliyah, and Abi, you two look fabulous!”, Gowri aunty said with her usual bubbly smile. “Thank you”, I said to her, with my most innocent smile. “Happy birthday, and you look beautiful as always aunty!”, I said as she hugged me. “What an angel, just like Aaliyah”, Gowri Aunty said as she smiled at my mom. My mom talked to Gowri aunty as I went to look for a bathroom. The hall to the bathroom was nearly empty, not a single person to be seen. I pushed the door open to the womens’ bathroom when all of a sudden, I felt a warm hand grab my wrist. I felt the hand on my cold skin, and goosebumps spread all over me. I slowly turn around looking down at my heels, then I slowly look up to see the charming smile that I’ve been thinking about all day.
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“Dharshan!”, I yelled in excitement as I entered his arms and placed my head on his chest. He wrapped his arms around me and I felt his chin on the top of my head. “You look amazing”, he said. I pulled myself away from him so I can look at him. “You look very handsome yourself”, I said, as I felt my cheeks reddening. “I need to tell you something”, he said as he looked into my eyes. “Just hold my phone for a second, I need to go to the bathroom quickly”, he said. He gave me his phone and went into the mens’ bathroom. “See Abi, I told you he just needed some time”, I thought to myself. I was thinking about how it was such a coincidence that he was here at this party too, and it was obviously meant to be. That’s when I felt Dharshan’s phone vibrate in my hands. I glanced at the phone and there was a message on the lock screen. “Last nite was amazing baby, I miss u already <3". My heart dropped as soon as I read this message. It felt like it dropped a million miles down. My heart was beating really fast, but this time, not in a good way. I found myself breathing faster, as the feeling of betrayal lurched over me. "Is… is Dharshan ch… cheating on me…?"
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Next Episode:Chapter 1, Part 2: Rich Lies