Chapter 1, Part 2: Rich Lies
Hey guys, thanks for your support on my first part of chapter 1! I’m excited to hear more comments from you and thanks for reading!!! I hope you like this chapter because there are some big surprises! Feel free to give me feedback too! Thanks, and hope you enjoy reading! 🙂
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Is Dharshan cheating on me? But… what…?! No! He couldn’t possibly be… no that can’t be right! But maybe that’s why he was so distracted on his phone earlier… but he said he wanted to tell me something… it’s probably just a friend… but what friend says that?! My heart was pounding faster and faster, and my stomach was flipping. “Why can’t I just trust Dharshan? How am I supposed to ask him… what if it’s not even true? What if he thinks I don’t trust him…?”. I place my hand against my head, thinking about what to do. That’s when I hear footsteps coming my way. “Abi… pretend to be okay, pretend that everything is okay…”, I closed my eyes and told myself. I felt his hand on my shoulder. I turned around to face Dharshan, and pulled off one of my fake smiles. “H… here’s your phone…”, I stumbled to find my words as I held his phone out in front of him. “Thanks”, he said with a smile. I couldn’t look up at him, I didn’t have the guts to look him in the eyes. I felt like I did something wrong, even though I didn’t. My hand was shaking, and Dharshan noticed. He held my hand. “Are you okay?”, he asked me as he looked down at me, but I avoided eye contact. “Yeah… lets go”, I said. That’s when he looked down at his phone and saw the message on his lock screen. “Oh… did you… see this message?”, he asked hesitantly. I didn’t know what to say or what to do. When he asked me that question it felt like a sharp needle pierced through me. I looked at him and I felt my eyes widen. I wanted to know the truth so badly but I didn’t know how to respond. The truth was … I didn’t know how to lie to him either. I nodded as I stared at the floor. He grabbed my hands. I looked down at his hands on mine, then I glanced back up at him. “That’s my friend, Shiven. It was a prank”, he said with a huge smile across his face. “What?”, I said in confusion. “Remember when you gave me a heart attack yesterday near the water fountain? I put my hands on your eyes and when I told you to guess who it was, you guessed that it was some cute guy from your psychology class. I wanted to get you back, so I told him to text me this to see your reaction”, he said, and then he started to laugh. I felt so relieved, but I didn’t want to show it. “Nice one”, I said with a light smile in my face, and then I looked away. He put his hand on my chin, and directed my eyes towards his. I stared into his eyes and all I could think about was how lucky I was to have a guy like him. I felt terrible for suspecting that he could be cheating on me. His eyes warmed my whole body, and I felt like I had the key to his heart. “I love you Abi, and you’re the only one I would ever love”, he said. I felt my face steaming as I blushed, and my lips widened as I smiled at him. Hearing those words just made me feel so satisfied, so… special. “I love you too Dharshan”, I said, and as Dharshan leaned in to kiss my lips, I turned my face so his lips would land on my cheek. “Hey”, he said after kissing my cheek. “Ha, you missed”, I said, as I could see an assuring smile on his face. “I’ll get you next time”, he said, with a smile that just made me want to go closer to him, but knowing that there were so many people in the hall, I smiled at him, said “good luck”, as I winked at him, and quickly walked into the hall towards the table my mom was sitting at. Dharshan was sitting at a table with his mom, dad, and big sister which was four tables away from us, and we couldn’t stop looking at each other. It was a magical night indeed.
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The party was over and everyone was getting ready to leave. Mom was talking to Gowri aunty and her husband to say thank you for the invites, and I walked out of the hall to grab our coats from the coat room. There was no one in the coat room so I quickly grabbed my mom’s and my coat so I could get out of there before it got crowded. As I turned around, I felt someone else’s coat wrap around me, so I tried to get that coat off of me, but then another jacket wrapped around my legs. “Some people just don’t know how to put their jackets on the hangers properly”, I thought to myself, as I tried to unwrap the multiple jackets around me. As I tried to unwrap the coat around my legs, I slipped and fell backwards, only to land in someone’s arms gracefully. The person who caught me leaned over, but all I could see was a dark shadow. “Thank you”, I said in a uncomfortable voice, because I was so curious of who’s shadow that belonged too. The person helped me stand properly, and then I finally turned around to see who it was. I was surprised to see that it was Arnav.
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I stared at him in shock. I didn’t even know he was at the party! He was wearing a black dress coat and pants with a dark blue shirt underneath, his outfit was flawless. We were standing very close to each other, and I couldn’t take a step back because all the coat racks were tightly closed in around us. I looked at him trying to find my words and that’s when he finally says; “stop checking me out”. Hearing him say those words shocked me, and my facial expressions completely changed. “I’m… I’m not checking you out!”, I said as I raised an eyebrow. I felt my cheeks redden. “Sure…”, Arnav said with a smirk on his face. Then he grabbed the jacket that was in my hands and placed it on the coat rack. “You’re welcome… once again”, he said, then he turned around, not waiting for me to respond again, and walked away. “Seriously Abi?! Why couldn’t you say thank you?!”, I kept asking myself. Then I grabbed our coats and approached my mom so we could finally go home.
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We finally got home. I threw all my clothes off, grabbed my phone, and started texting Anjali. I told her about how I coincidentally met Dharshan and “Salman Khan” (aka Arnav), at the party. She responded with an “Ohhh… that’s cool”. Then she quickly changed the topic. She told me how there was a new app called “Story World”, where I could write stories and post them for other people to read, and she knew I loved writing stories. That’s when I decided to write a section for a story and post it. I named the story “My Story Lover”, and posted one chapter. I was very excited to see people’s comments and who would read it. Then I turned my phone off and went to sleep.
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The next day at school Dharshan approached me and gave me one of his warm hugs. When I look into his eyes I can see how much he loves me, and it gives me goosebumps to even think about how lucky I am to have such a caring boyfriend. He kissed my forehead and left so he could go to his class, and I walked into my math class. As I sat beside Anjali she gave me a weird look. “What?”, I asked her confusingly. “Nothing”, she quickly said, and then she looked back down at the page on her desk. “Weird…”, I thought to myself. After class Anjali was in a rush. She noticed that I watched her pack her bag while she was in a hurry, so she quickly said “I have an appointment, I’ll see you later”. She then disappeared out of the classroom. “What is up with her?”, I thought, but I put my binders in my bag and walked out the door. As I stepped outside the door I saw Anjali talking to Dharshan. I stepped back so they couldn’t see me. “Didn’t Anjali say she had an appointment…?”, I questioned myself. I peeked by the side of the door and I saw them walk away together, so I followed them, as I tried to avoid being seen by them. Then they both walked into the boys’ change room.
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I saw them walk into the change room… with my own two eyes. My heart was beating fast, extremely fast. My hands were shaking… and I didn’t know why. My best friend and my boyfriend wouldn’t do anything crazy… I mean a lot to them, and they mean a lot to me. My mom always says, “you can’t always believe what you see”. I took a deep breath. What was I supposed to do? Go inside? Or just assume it’s nothing and walk away? I knew if I just walked away the suspicion and curiosity would take over me. “Okay Abi, just go in so you can prove to yourself that they would never do anything wrong.” I closed my eyes, and thought about my favourite memories and moments with Anjali and Dharshan. “They wouldn’t do this, they wouldn’t”, I kept telling myself. I take a deep breath, and push the change room door open.
I enter, and there’s not a single sound. I walk in and no one was in my sight, thank god. “You’re so stupid Abi, what were you thinking?”, I questioned myself. I turned around so I can leave until I hear a very, very familiar voice. Hearing this voice, felt like someone shot a bullet straight into the centre core of my heart. “Ohhhh Anjali… I love you, I never loved Abi, what Abi and I have is just lust. I love you Anjali, and you are the only girl I will ever love”, Dharshan says breathlessly. Those were the exact words Dharshan had said to me at the party. “Then kiss me”, Anjali whispers. I tip-toe around the corner as my hands are shaking. I feel so light-headed. I turn the corner, and there they are. My best friend…and my boyfriend k… kissing each other. My eyes widened as I put my hands over my mouth and fall to my knees in despair. That was the first time I’ve ever experienced betrayal. My eyes watered and I tried to hold back the tears and the painful lump in my throat, but I couldn’t. Louder than I ever imagined, I screamed three words: “H… HOW COULD YOU?!”
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Next Episode: Chapter 1, Part 3: Fake Love