Road to the Ocean

Chapter 10: The Lost & The Found

"Disha?"

The name echoed despicably in every corner of the vanity. It was probably the end of the exquisite journey for Parth and Niti who contemplated of the warm, affectionate hugs, the good friendly conversation, the exchange of the glances, the scrabble of a dubious emotions and the beautiful name 'PaNi' which was barely given and witnessed by the blooming hearts. Somethings which they thought would last long, but it was impermanent, leaving a dent in their hearts.

"Hi baby!" As excited as her voice sounded, Disha squeaked and ran towards Parth, expected to have a passionate clenched, but almost bombed him to the ground. Her body leaned against his as she wrapped her arms around his neck and held him securely. There was an explicit territorial gesture from her body language that indicated her inflated insecurities. The only way Disha could have investigated is by visiting Parth's work place to grasp a clear indication of the reason behind MaNan's flaring chemistry.

Disha was a model, struggling to get into Bollywood movies, but she was still well occupied with modeling and some advertisement projects she was working on. She was among many of Parth's closest friends, though her relationship with him spoke otherwise, but she still denied to divulge or comment on anything about their personal lives. Her devious response to the people on the sets were the same and people thought nothing of her, but a friend who has come to visit. The on going popularity of MaNan has agitated her, but Niti held no importance in her life, except a costar whom Parth was working with.

Seeing Parth and Disha enveloped so tight in a hug sent Niti in distraught. The nausea swirled in the pit of her stomach. She felt her heart shattering in thousands of pieces and each of the edges piercing through her body in their descent. She did not realise her eyes were full with tears till her vision got blurred. She could no longer stand on her feet; her nimble mind was benumbed to all she was watching in front of her. The deluge of feeling betrayed, slammed her mind and cascaded her soul because she could no longer find his embrace genuine when they were clenched like that. Just then, Parth eyes met her grieving gaze, while he still clasped to Disha. In the moment, he was feeling defeated as he could see the tears about to fall off from Niti's eyes. He felt helpless and torn due to the loss of explanation in which he could only deliberately watched her shattered. Such demeanor was obscure, but he easily managed to shroud his true feelings by holding Disha so close to him. Abruptly, Niti unlocked her eyes from Parth's and rummaged in the vanity to find her satchel and jumbled in her things to pretend to look for something.

"Ah! I am happy to see you Disha. I am glad you made a surprise visit for me." Parth was first to disengage himself from Disha and quickly glanced at Niti to make sure she was ok. The smile on Disha's face was an easy give away of a satisfaction she felt by hearing those words from him. Unusual of her actions to surveil on the sets, but compelled due to abundance of praises of the chemistry between Parth and Niti, she was able to take a sigh of relief by earning an appreciation from him.

"Meet Niti." Parth side hugged Disha and gently twirled her around so she could see her. Inattentive to their greetings, Niti continued searching for something she doesn't even know. Just then, Disha came close to her side and held her hand.

"Hi Niti. I have been wanting to meet you for a long time, but have been restrained by other important things." Disha expressed in a sugar coated voice and looked towards Parth while emphasizing on other important things.

"Hel...hello Disha." Niti managed to look into her eyes, but her voice crackled and her eyes were flushed in sadness. Fortunately, Disha wasn't able to observe the dreadful stillness on Niti's face. Some explosive questions which rendered her mind, instigating her to drift away from Disha and Parth in the vanity.

"Never seen you on the sets. You are Parth's....?" Niti asked while hoping to get a proper answer to justify the raging storm in her heart.

"She is my..." Parth was about to answer her question when suddenly Disha chimed in.