Not in the Script: An Ahaan & Aneet Collection

Start Of Something New

Not the good kind. Not the heavy, alive silence she'd dreamed of creating.

Mohit gave her a small, polite smile. "Thank you."

Her chest caved in. She nodded, whispered a barely audible, "Thank you," and walked off the mark.

She didn't look at Mohit. Didn't look at the assistants. Definitely didn't look at Ahaan.

But she felt it. His gaze, warm and steady against her back like water she didn't dare step into.

Her fingers trembled so hard when she sat that her phone almost slipped from her hand.

----

The lobby outside was quieter. Colder too, in that weird, impersonal Mumbai way.

She sat on the hard bench near the elevator bank, pressed her fists into her eyes, and whispered to herself, "Fantastic job, Aneet. Completely tanked it."

Her phone buzzed. It was a text from her mom.

Ma: "How did it go beta??"

She stared at the message for a long minute, then locked the screen.

"Hey."

The voice made her jump.

She looked up.

Ahaan.

He stood in front of her, hands in his pockets, expression unreadable. His voice and presence landed softly, somehow, even when unexpected.

"You saw," she said, not bothering to mask the defeat in her tone.

"I did."

"Wanna talk about it?"

She shook her head, swallowing around the lump in her throat. "Nothing to say. I messed it up."

"You were nervous." Ahaan wasn't trying to sugarcoat it. He wasn't giving her a pep talk, either. Just... standing there, grounded. Familiar. He straightened. "It was nerves. That's it."

"It was more than nerves," she muttered. "It was me completely blowing it in front of Mohit freaking Suri."

He moved closer, dragging a chair across the floor to sit beside her, elbows braced on his knees. He didn't look away. Something flickered in his expression. His eyes softened. Then, in a voice low enough she almost missed it, he said, "Maybe he just needs another look." 

She stared at him. "What?" 

"Come back tomorrow, I'll talk to Mohit. Ask him to see you again."

"Wait...why would you do that?"

He gave a small shrug, as if it were the simplest thing in the world. "Because you're better than what happened today, You're better than that read, and we both know it."

Something in her chest ached at the certainty in his voice. For the first time since stepping on that mark, she almost believed it herself.

----

She didn't know then what strings he pulled, what conversation happened behind closed doors. All she knew was that a day later she was called back in. Same mark. Different Aneet.

She came in wearing jeans and a soft white kurta paired with tiny jhumkas. Hair open and effortless. No performance. No props.

Just her.

The silence was still there. So were the lights. But today, she didn't fight them.

Vaani wasn't a costume. Vaani was grief with a smile. And today, she brought her to life and became Vaani.