Road to the Ocean

Chapter 21: The Dead Pool

The sensation of the kiss was lingering fresh in Parth and Niti's souls. Nothing was barricading their elevated emotions. Niti was on top of the world, twirling around on her red chair in her own vanity, recalling the way they kissed, singing her favorite songs and time to time reminding herself to stop behaving like a junky. In fact, when reporters came to take their interview, Niti couldn't restrain her gleaming face from overshadowing her overall appearance. She summoned the reporters to her vanity for the interview. Parth, though composed and content, was barely expressive. While, they couldn't give interview together, but looking at Parth's solo interview, it was explicit that he was avoiding most of the questions regarding Niti as if he didn't have the audacity to persuade Disha for any explanation.

The episode was a massive hit and the TRPS boosted the show to the number one spot. Every mall, every street, fans would wrestle to meet the new talk of the town couple in every way possible. The niche carved by PaNi in the thousands and thousands of hearts world-wide was so vehement, that for some, PaNi become equivalent to being their heart pacemakers. The name itself started to speak its popularity. There was rarely anyone who didn't know Parth and Niti as MaNan, a couple name which made fans go absolutely frenzied with adoration, and whose acting was so convincing that it evoked smoke of doubts on the actual equation between Parth and Niti. Fans started gushing about the conspicuous undercurrent in every PaNi's scenes and some even went to the extent of tagging Disha in their social posts, rubbing it in her face how amazing PaNi were together. Needless to say, Disha felt under the impressions that Niti was behind these antics.

Tormented and enraged by these silly tactics, Disha decided to make use of her freshly acquired gym membership to take out her frustration. After a quick warmup, she started a kick boxing session. Just as she started to feel her stress melt away and the dopamine kicking in, one of the gym staffs shifted the channel from the ongoing music one to that telecasting paNi's interview. Disha tried hard to be joyful for the success of her boyfriend, Parth, but she seethed at his chemistry with Niti. The cruel pang in her heart was enough  to send her a bolt of rage through her spine, causing her to hit the punching bag at an obtuse angle. She hissed in pain and held her wrist close to her bleeding heart, taking deep breathes to prevent the tears from spilling, she didn't know whether to cry for her heart ache or wrist ache. She was in deep contemplation on how fate was being merciless to her when a velvet masculine voice brought her back to her senses.

" Hey, are you okay?". The first thing she saw was golden brown eyes, eyes which were so familiar and yet so unknown. When Disha didn't answer, he gently approached her and extend his hand. "Mind if I have a look?" He asked again to which she merely nodded. The moment he took her hand she felt electricity coursing through her. She jerked her hand slightly and the pain was immediate. She squeezed her eyes shut, and when she opened them, she saw the stranger with golden eyes grazing her with such intensity that it made her heart skipped a few beats. He studied her wrist for a few moment during which Disha used that time to understand what was so familiar about him. He  was rather handsome in a boyish way with his straight nose and sharp jaw, and had a great sense of style too with his fitted white shirt showcasing his well-defined muscles, loose black sweatpants and his maroon beanie. When he voiced that she would only need to apply some cold compresses and take some pain killers, she timidly thanked him and locked eyes in him. Then, it knocked her, the stranger was gazing her the same way Parth looked at Niti, the same intensity and same warmth.

" I cant believe that even destiny is being so heartless as making a stranger reminding me of how much Parth is changing, how much he has never looked at me like that", lamented to herself. Her inner monologue was broken by the stranger.

" By the way I am Tiger. I know it's kind of a cheesy name, but my dad thought it was really cool to name me Tiger". He laughed awkwardly rubbing his neck. Disha was flattered that Tiger was nervous in her presence, and thought him to be really sweet, but her mind and heart weren't in the place to savor that moment.