My Partner in Crime #Wattys2019

Rivals for Life

Disha woke up to a beautiful morning. She got up from the bed and looked at her phone, it was 5:30 AM. She walked towards the window and looked outside, it was the beginning of dawn and there were only a few people on the roads, some of them were her elderly neighbors who usually come out for a walk at this hour.

Disha ran towards the bathroom to finish her morning routine. She tied her long dark brown hair into a ponytail. She changed her pajama into tracks, tied her sports shoes on her feet and went out of her room silently as she didn't want to wake anyone up.

Soon Disha was out of the house and was running towards the neighborhood park where she usually exercises and jogs. As she entered she started running on her jogging track where she usually jogs. After a few rounds of running around the park, she started doing Yoga exercises on the grass. As she was doing meditation she felt something was crawling on her arm, she opened her eyes to find an ugly weird looking insect on her arm. Scared she started shouting and shaking her arm. Soon the insect was on the ground and she jumped on it crushing it hard.

As she was jumping and crushing the insect she heard someone laughing. She turned her gaze in the direction of laugh and found Shourya laughing hysterically looking at her.

"Shourya You Asshole. I won't leave you." She shouted and ran towards him.

Shourya was a fast runner and he ran in order to not get caught. But unfortunately for him, Disha was fast enough to catch him. She pushed him on the ground and sat on him slapping his shoulders and face.

"Hey stop it you weirdo. It's hurting. You have a manly hand you know that right?" Shourya shouted.

"Get lost you asshole. I hate you." She shouted back and left him. She walked back to the place she was meditating to finish her Yoga exercises. After about 30 minuted of Yoga she started warking slowly towards her house when her phone rang. She looked at the screen it was 6:45 AM and the call was from Rhea, her best friend since childhood.

Rhea, Disha, Shourya, and Rohan all went to the same school and lived in the same neighborhood. Rhea was a short but pretty girl who loved Disha like a sister since she was the only child to her parents. Even Rhea's parents too treated Disha like their own daughter. Since childhood, the four of them had complicated relationships. When they were young they used to go to school hand in hand and as soon they would enter the school the guys would start teasing them, played pranks on them, calling them names. Rhea and Disha never liked it, as soon as the school will be over the girls would be coming back with each other when the guys will follow them silently and later apologize to them for their behavior at school.

It turned out the guys wanted to show off at school to their friends that they didn't care about girls and were tough. For years Disha and Rhea tolerated their stupid behavior but as they reached class Tenth, one day it was heights with the pranks so Disha and Rhea broke their friendship with the guys.

"Hello, Rhea" Disha answered the call happily.

"Hey, Sweetheart. Are you done with your exercising?" Rhea asked in a sleepy tone.

"Huh! Are you still sleeping? We have to leave at 8" Disha said.

"I know and I called to tell you that I will go late today. So you carry on." Rhea replied.

"Again? You must be having a great Boss who is okay with you going late to work 3 of the 5 days a week." Disha said mocking.

"Shut up girl. I am smarter than you. Remember I am in Sales. I have a client meeting at 9 in a cafe nearby. I will go to work after the meeting. I am smart so I line up my meeting in the mornings around 9 close to the house so I can sleep an extra hour. You know that." Rhea said irritated.

"I know. I know. Alright. You sleep I have to get home, get ready and leave else I will miss the bus." Disha said and hung up.

As she reached home, she saw her dad sitting in the front porch reading newspaper, business section to be precise. She kissed her dad on cheek and said good morning before she entered the house.

Her mom was still in her room. Disha went to her parent's room and knocked before entering. Her mom was working on her laptop. She smiled at Disha as she entered the room.

"Hey Mom, Good Morning," Disha said as she kissed her mom on the cheek.

"Good Morning Princess." Her mom replied and kissed her forehead.

"You are back from exercising and your brother is still sleeping. Why don't you teach him some discipline?" Her mother complained.

"Mom, please leave him alone he is only 16. Remember how much I used to sleep when I was 16?" asked Disha.

"Of course I remember, you used to sleep day and night and missed school on several occasions but you never failed in your tests and worked hard on your studies whereas your brother failed his math test last week." Her mother replied.

"Mom it was a surprise class test, the grades don't matter in that one. The final exams are yet to happen. And Nikhil is a bright student okay. He will score more than me, you just wait and watch." Disha replied.

"You are spoiling your brother, I am telling you." Her mom said as she moved her gaze from Disha back to her laptop.

"Don't worry mom, he will turn out better than me. Anyways I am going to get ready for work." Disha said and was about to leave the room when her mom called her.

"Disha please try to be home at 6:00. Shourya and his family are coming to dinner." Her mom said.

"Okay Mom" Disha replied and left the room.

Disha's Dad was a successful businessman with a down to earth personality, her mom was the same too, however, she was more of a social worker although she ran a designer clothes boutique which was very famous. Disha and Shourya's dads were business partners and great friends. Unfortunate for Disha her and Shourya's parents would meet at least once a week in her or his house and they will make sure the kids are there too. Nikhil liked Shourya, they were video games and football buddies. Disha, on the other hand, hated to be around Shourya as the only relationship they shared since class Tenth was only enemies. They would play pranks on each other to humiliate or embarrass the other.

Soon Disha was all dressed up in a black pantsuit with a light blue shirt and black heels, hair tied up in a ponytail and headed out of the house as she shouted Goodbye to her parents and Nikhil, who was now awake and sitting in the dining hall.

Disha has had her own car but she liked to take the bus to office as she enjoyed seeing people from different walks of life with their daily struggles and learned from them. She waited for a couple of minutes before the bus arrived and Disha boarded. After about 30 minutes she was at the company. She swiped her ID card at the gate and entered the company office of the GK Group of Enterprises. She headed towards her cabin when someone called her name. She turned to look, it was Mukul her boss and friend, Mukul liked Disha however Disha always treated him as a friend and professional acquaintance.

"Hey, Disha. You are always punctual."

"Hi Mukul, Thanks I like to be on time to prepare myself for the day and be ahead of others."

"I know that and that is why we all admire you. Not everyone gets so much of success like you in so less time."

Disha just smiled at him and moved to her cabin. She knew Mukul was not a guy who will praise someone only to flatter them and she knew it was all her hard-work that she progressed from an intern to Marketing Manager in a matter of 3 years only. But she also knew how he felt about her so she always tried to ignore his praises in order to not give him false ideas.

The day was very busy with Disha as they won a big client and she was the one responsible for all creative marketing for them. She had to prepare the statement of work and contracts for various modes of marketing along with leading the creative department meeting in order to track the growth of various projects running under her supervision. She didn't even get time to have her lunch. By the time she got some time to eat it was already 5:30 PM, she remembered that her parents ordered her to come home early for the stupid dinner with Shourya and family.