A ʟᴏɴɢ Jᴏᴜʀɴᴇʏ
𝓐 /𝓝: 𝓣𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓼𝓸𝓷𝓰 𝓲𝓼 𝓪 𝓫𝓲𝓰 𝓹𝓪𝓻𝓽 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓼𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂. 𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝓬𝓪𝓷 𝓬𝓸𝓷𝓼𝓲𝓭𝓮𝓻 𝓲𝓽 𝓪𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓞𝓢𝓣 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓫𝓸𝓸𝓴. 𝓣𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓼𝓸𝓷𝓰 𝓱𝓸𝓵𝓭𝓼 𝓪 𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓭𝓮𝓮𝓹 𝓶𝓮𝓪𝓷𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓲𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂. 𝓘 𝓱𝓸𝓹𝓮 𝔂'𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓵𝓲𝓴𝓮 𝓲𝓽. 𝓘 𝓹𝓮𝓻𝓼𝓸𝓷𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓼𝓸𝓷𝓰.
Shraddha's POV:
(The Dhawan household)
I gently knocked on Varun's door, patiently waiting for his response. I have so many things going on in my mind right now. I have never felt this awkward, meeting with Varun before. Today, it just feels like I am meeting someone for the first time at a college date, I am 24 for fuck's sake.
Just then the door opened, revealing Varun wearing a tight grey t-shirt and sweatpants. He is built, I gotta give him that. When he was 16 he always used to tell me, how he wanted to have big man muscles. "Well I think your dream has come true!" I thought.
"What dream?" he looked at me with confusion, yet there was a slight devilish smirk lingering somewhere. Wait, WTF did I say that out loud? OMG I am so stupid. I looked up at him, I could feel my cheeks burni-. Wait, why the hell are my cheeks burning, this is just VD, my Batuklal. This needs to stop. Stupid cheeks!
"Would you stop staring at me!" He said with a raspy voice, while walking up to me, closing in on the gap between us. What in the world is happening? Where is my oxygen at? Why have I stopped breathing? He looked so dangerous right now, there was this evil glint in his eyes with some other sinister look as well.
He was stepping forwards and if you think, I was stepping backwards like the main character in all those romance books. You are wrong! Because apparently I am not smart enough, like those characters who move back immediately, I am a dumbass who is frozen on her spot, while she unintentionally thirsts over her Best friend. I did not say that. Oh my God I should just shut up.
Third person POV:
The next few moments could cause a huge butterfly effect in both their lives. As the space between the two decreased, the atmosphere got more intense. Shraddha stood there, frozen on her spot, while Varun moved stealthily towards his prey.
They were now not even 15 centimeters apart.
Shraddha could feel Varun, look her up and down. She decided to speak up.
"I am pretty sure you are the one checking me out right now." Shraddha said with a clear smirk on her face. An arm was snaked right around her waist, making her breath hitch right in her throat. He pulled her towards him, her body was pressed against his. Shraddha's mind was racing, with million thoughts per second. The man in front of her was her chuddy buddy of 19 years, she couldn't be seen standing here with him like this. Yet, here she was standing, with her breath hitched, her heart racing and butterflies playing gymnastic in her stomach.
Never once in her life did she ever think, she would experience this feeling with her best friend. She shouldn't be feeling like this, it screamed wrong in so many ways. Yet here she was not feeling like herself.
She looked like she was gonna pass out any second. Her face looked red like a tomato and her forehead had clear swear on it.
Varun couldn't hold back his laughter anymore, therefore he burst out laughing. His plan was to try and seduce shraddha, to see what her reaction would be like. He did this to ease the atmosphere, so that they could both go back to being normal, rather than being awkward with each other. In his brain this was a perfect prank. But in shraddha's words this was, "Ridiculous! This is ridiculous! You piece of shit! How dare you? OMG!" Shraddha screamed, while hitting and running after Varun, around his room.
"You have to admit you were baffled by my good looks, chirkut!" He said half running and half laughing. "I did not check you out, I was just- thinking back to the time when you told me you wanted muscles." Shraddha said, Still trying to punch him, but in return punching the air. After around 15 mins of running and cursing each other, both of them fell tired on the bed.
"Okay, I don't think I am going to gym today. What the hell was this? The Tom and Jerry show?" Varun said in a exasperated tone. "You are the one, who started with these snarky comments." Shraddha rebounded, out of breath from their little marathon.
"But it was true. You were checking me ou-" Varun was about to start again, when he was interrupted. Shraddha jumped up on her knees again, holding the glass vase that was kept on the side table. "Say it one more time! come on, I am waiting for you! Say it again and I'mma crack your skull open." She said ready to pounce on him.
Varun didn't know if he should be scared or mesmerized. If anyone else saw the stance of this girl in front of him, they would run away thinking she is a psychopath. But to Varun, it seemed like he met his childhood again. It felt like he was finally home.
To be where he was today, he went through so much struggle of learning acting, dancing, acrobats, karate, Judo, kickboxing and gymnastics. All this, just so he could become a successful actor. He trained for 4 years in his acting academy. After finishing that, for the next one and a half year, he also assisted big directors with so many hit films. He also worked as a spot boy and a backup dancer just so he could learn a little bit more.
But all the while he was doing this, he felt like he was missing something. He always used to think his emptiness would go away, once he debuted. But he was wrong. He debuted got famous, started earning, bought a house and came back to live with his family. He thought maybe his family would fill that void, but it was no use. He loved his family from the bottom of his heart, yet he felt like something was missing.
He always wanted to find out what. But he never did.
Today when he saw her just standing on his bed with vase in her hand. He was reminded of the childhood he spent. Whenever he used to think about his Life and it's parts, he always thought of his childhood as the happiest part of his life. Those were the days where he was a reckless child, without a 'stop' button. Those days brought a smile to his face and happiness to his heart.
Now that he was old and had a lot of responsibilities, he always thought he could never return to being that reckless child, he could never have his childhood back.
But here he was sitting cross-legged on his bed, watching his childhood stand there uttering cuss words at him, while holding a glass vase. Which would probably end up on his head soon. But he didn't care, he wouldn't even care if he had to be rushed to the hospital after this. All he knew was that, his happiness was here, his smile was back and his void was 'finally' filled. His heart felt like the flowers in a shady meadow were finally blooming. The most beautiful smile was etched on his face. Without giving it a second thought he moved up to her.
He realized something though. The reason for his smile was Shraddha.
Her again...
For some reason, anything and everything leads up to her, as the answer.
Shraddha's POV:
What the hell? What part of 'I was not checking you out' does he not understand. I mean I am not saying I wasn't, maybe I was, but just for little bit. Was I going to tell him that? Hell no! This good for nothing rotten pig will tease the shit out of me if he finds out. "Listen to me you idiot, I wasn't doing shit. You were the one who did... Something?" I said not knowing what I should be saying and what not. 'Whatever, why is he not responding?'
"Oye! Dumb bozo!" I called out. No response.
"Yah! I am talking to you!" I tried shouting. No response.
"Varun Dumbass Dhawan!" He hated this name, he'll definitely rebound. Still no response.
"Behre!" (Deaf person) No response.
"What's wrong with you? Are you dumb?" I tried hand gestures, 'maybe he fell too hard on his ear, that's why he lost his sense of hearing'. I snorted thinking about my thoughts.
I was in my own world, when I heard sudden commotion. Okay, know one thing about me. My reflexes and sixth sense are too fast for my own good. This is why I was able to see a huge smile on Varun's face and see something sparkling in Varun's eyes, before I was attacked. I could have stopped whatever was going to happen in the next moment. But those two things, messed up my brain.
Maybe for the good...
Because in the next moment, I was shoved against Varun's chest. No, I still did not realize what was happening. All that I knew was that, I was engulfed in something warm. Caged by something strong. I could feel the small soothing rhythm of his heartbeat. His warm breath fanned the top of my head. His strong arms were around me.
You know that feeling of safety you have when you realize you are wearing a seatbelt, while being on one of the world's fastest roller coasters? That's what his arms felt like to me. A safe haven. A safe haven on a rocky death drop.
I haven't felt like this in a long time. I have always been alone. Alone, working hard for a better life for the past 7 years of my life. People might think it's easier for me to get in the industry, as I am a daughter of a famous veteran actor. But that's not the case. I worked my ass off practicing hard in my acting academy, learning different forms of art, while doing a double degree in Psychology and Business management.
My pathway was filled with thorns. I gave auditions, got rejected, fell down, got sad, got up, auditioned again, got rejected, fell down, felt tired, got up again and auditioned. Even after I got selected my films didn't do that well. I am still on my way to having a better future and my final destination is no where to be seen.
During my whole journey up till here, there was no one there with me, I didn't tell my family all my problems, they had enough of their own. I couldn't tell my friends, because I had trust issues, I didn't know who was real and who was fake. I was all alone in this fight, no one beside me. I didn't have anyone's shoulder to lean on.
Today, while I lay my head on his chest, I realized something.
I wasn't alone.
This was the first time in 7 years, I felt like I had someone. First time I felt like, maybe if I fall down today someone would be here to catch me. If I were to lose my self in this crowd, someone would be here to pull me out.
There is something really crazy about this guy, that makes me feel weird inside.
My soul feels safe and secure, but my heart feels like it's about to leap out. There is this sheer happiness in my heart. Yet on the other side, I can also feel a dark fear consume me. The deeper parts of my heart know, that this whole thing is not going to end well. When I told you, I had a good sixth sense, I really meant it. Whatever this was, it was going to be a long journey. A long journey, where we would both have to be cautious about our every step, because if one of us fell. Both of us will suffer.
'Both of us will have to tread carefully, no mistakes can be made.'
With that thought I pushed him away from me.
~•~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~•~
I-
Don't know what to say.
This chapter is dedicated to the title of the story. Behind The Scenes. When I first thought of the title, I knew that this book was going to be a romance, but I also knew that I was going to put light on the struggles of all the actor's life too. This chapter does exactly that, it gives away a little depth of these characters. I hope I was able to portray their struggle well enough.
I was going to add so much more to this chapter, but I felt like for you guys to connect with the characters, I needed to describe them more. So instead of writing more of the plot, I decided to write more of the feelings.
Don't worry next chapter, is on its way. This was the calm before the storm.
(About the chapter)
I am not going to say anything. This chapter was supposed to be serene and calm. Like meditation.
You guys can tell me whatever you felt like while reading it.
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Ooohh BTW next chapter is going to be a long one, be ready. 🙃
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But till then smile and spread love
Love you
~Mehak 😘😘