Between The Pages

Chapter 26

*ping*

*ping*

For a moment, Tanmay just stared at the two blinking lights. The orange and green LED synchronised to create a music in that darkness. As he read both the messages, he couldn't help but fill the silence in the room with his laughter. The words in those messages might be the same, but the feeling they conveyed was entirely different.

'Hi'

A simple hi, that's how Natasha had decided to start the night. In her head, she had thought of a hundred different messages that could be sent. Her heart wished to make a grand entrance. And yet, somehow, she found simplicity to be the best way forward.

Riya, on the other hand, went in a bit more friendly.

'hey...'

Those three dots at the end of it meant a lot of things. While chatting with Riya, Tanmay knew that those three dots were a trademark of her messages. She loved to keep it hanging. And he didn't hate it either.

But right now, he didn't like both - the formal and the friendly messages that lay on his screen. Not only were they disturbing his precious sleep, he just didn't know what to reply. Maybe it would have been easier if he didn't know that Riya was Miss Magician. But the fact that he knew changed the whole complexion of the game.

Natasha and Riya waited for over five minutes for a reply from Tanmay but neither of them got one. For Natasha, it was difficult to tell if Tanmay had seen her message or not. Wattpad didn't allow her that luxury. However, as Riya was sitting right by her side, they knew that Tanmay was online. Then why wasn't he replying?

"Maybe he fell asleep with the chat on," a more optimistic Riya concluded.

"Or maybe he's just in a bit of shock," Natasha pondered.

And Natasha was right. Tanmay was in a shock. A reader who had been gone for months decides to message at the same time when Riya messages too? It was too conspicuous to be a coincidence. More than anything, it seemed planned. Like Riya was purposefully trying to throw him off the trail by messaging from both the accounts at the same time. But he was smart too.

'Hi,' he replied only on wattpad.

Natasha jumped around mentally on finally getting a reply. Beside her, Riya still awaited some words from her online friend. Nothing, she shook her head at Natasha. Both of them stared at each other's screen. They had decided to play a game with their favourite writer, but even before they could make their first move, Tanmay had pushed them a step back.

Deciding to go with the flow, Natasha took their conversation forward.

'Still awake?' she asked.

'Sadly, yes!' came a reply instantly.

There was a tinge of sarcasm in that message and she didn't fail to spot it. Neither did Riya, who was forced to be a mere spectator. Some more messages later, her patience gave away.

'Angry with me?' she hit the send hard.

After almost a minute of silence, her phone buzzed with his reply.

'Why would I?' he asked as if nothing had happened.

'Then why aren't you talking with me?'

Meanwhile, the messages on wattpad had stopped. Natasha's inbox lay motionless for the past few minutes. It appeared as if Tanmay had decided to talk with only one of them at a moment. But what they didn't realise was that he believed both of them to be the same. For him, only the platform changed, but the girl behind the messages remained the same - Riya.