Parallel Lines: a story of memory, silence, and first love

False Starts

She was outgoing. Magnetic. Admired.

And she was dating Kabir.

Kabir was kind, gorgeous, witty.
The kind of guy who had abs and ambition.
He could've been a model — but instead, he was the rising star of the senior batch.

He made everyone feel seen. Especially her.

To him, Tiara meant the world.

But sometimes — when they were alone — he noticed something.

A shift.
A crack in the mask.

She'd go quiet mid-sentence.
Or stare at the ceiling like it was whispering secrets.

It felt like there was a different Tiara living inside her — one he could never reach.
He told himself he was just imagining it.

But deep down, he wasn't.

Arvind – Private Law College, Somewhere Else

Sahil noticed it on day one.

The way Arvind barely spoke.
The way he ate quietly, mechanically — like survival was just another subject to pass.

"Bro, you breathe like a haunted house," Sahil joked once, trying to break the ice.
Arvind smirked. That was progress.

Sahil never gave up.

He invited Arvind to plays, music nights, fest planning meets.
Arvind never really said yes.
But sometimes, he tagged along. Silently. Watching from the edges.

Sahil believed one day, the wall would break.
He just had to wait for the right crack.

Arvind was dating too.

Her name was Kiara.

She was persistent. After he ignored her twice, she came a third time — smiling, half-apologetic, half-brave.

At first, he only said yes to get it over with.
To please her. To try something.

But Kiara was different.

She had a small crush at first, sure — but then she noticed something else.
He wasn't just quiet. He was alone. Utterly alone.

Like he lived inside a world made of glass, watching everyone else move outside it.

She started wondering how to reach him.
How to help someone who didn't know they were drowning.

Then one night, she came up with a ridiculous idea:

Maybe if she got close enough,
if she made him laugh — just once —
maybe she could bring him back from wherever he'd gone.

Closing Beat – Scene 3.1 Ending

They were moving on.
They were surrounded by people.
They were both in relationships.

But in truth, they were still nowhere.

Fate, however, had already started moving again.
Quietly. Patiently.
Waiting for the moment when everything would shift.

"Parallel lines don't touch.
But sometimes, they glance over — just long enough to wonder what could've been."

3.2 - "The Familiar Stranger"

The sky was a dull shade of gold. Orange bleeding into grey.
Arvind sat on the hostel balcony again, legs stretched out, eyes fixed on the same skyline he had memorized a hundred times.
The same rusting water tank.
The same peeling blue wall.
The same kids playing cricket far below.