#TejRan - The After Series

After the Wedding

It's been exactly 3 years, 7 months and 1 day since she had seen him. As she got nearer to the venue, a kind of nervous excitement gripped her. She had been numb for so long she didn't know where these sudden emotions were coming from and it made her a little overwhelmed. Her driver brought her out of her thoughts and let her know they had reached. They were parked on the red carpet and there were cars behind her waiting for her to get up. She knew what would happen as soon as she got out. She had gotten so used to being out of the media eye, this was going to be very difficult. 

She took a deep breath, steeled herself and got out. Someone from the media assembled noticed her and shouted, "Tejasswi mam aa gaya". And then it was a circus. The entire swarm of the press assembled left whatever they were doing or whoever they were interviewing and rushed towards her. She hadn't thought to bring body guards and was about to get crushed by the paps when someone put their arms around her and asked the press to stop. She turned to see Nishant looking at her with worry and smiled a grateful smile at him. 

The press stopped at a respectful distance and started with their questions. Some she had expected, "Aap kaise ho, Where are you staying, Why did you leave, Have you come back to the industry" but somewhere so blatant and direct it took her by surprise, "Have you come to stop the wedding, Who invited you, Do you think she's better than you". She ignored these questions and made her way inside with Nishant's help. 

Once they were inside the wedding hall, she saw that he was guiding her towards the Biggboss group of people who were staring at her not even hiding their surprise. She stepped away from Nishant and said, "I'll wish him and come, I have to leave soon". Nishant nodded and let her go. She looked up at the dias the couple were standing on and started walking towards it. Halfway through he saw her from the stage and his smile froze. She was wearing a red and golden saree and looked breathtaking as usual. But there was no life in her face and that dulled everything else. Karan shrugged off his shock and focused back on the guests on the stage. He hadn't expected her to come when he invited her. He didn't even talk to her. It was just over a message on instagram. He didn't know what to feel. he kept his smile on knowing she was getting closer with each second. 

Teja smiled at people who gave her smiles and finally reached the stage. Karan's mom was standing there and as soon as she saw Teja, she came over to her and hugged her. Teja hugged her back tightly and rubbed her back. Karan's mom kissed her cheek but didn't see anything. Teja knew Karan was watching them and didn't want to make it awkward for the bride. She went to the center of the stage to the couple and gave them a bright smile and the holiday voucher she had brought as a gift. "Teja, how are you?" Karan asked his voice surprisingly steady even for him. "I'm good Su.. Karan. Hi Diya, Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! I wish you both all the best" 

"Thanks Tejasswi. You should come to the wedding ritual tomorrow" the girl, Diya said. Teja ade her excuses of having an early flight and said her goodbyes to the couple and went. Karan's eyes followed her and watched her go over to the biggboss gang. His heart has gotten heavy in the past minute and he didn't know what to do. Diya brought him back by introducing the next set of guests, her school friends to him. He made easy conversation with them, making them and Diya laugh. 

Teja went to the gang knowing what was coming but there were people in the mix she had truly missed and she needed a few minutes of her old life back. Vishal stood up as soon as she reached them and gave her a tight hug and guided her to a chair. Ishaan came over to give her a hug and a kiss to her forehead. Nishant came back with drinks for her and she took it gratefully. Vidhi came to sit on a chair near her and throught these gestures showed her that they cared. Rashmi started by asking her where she disappeared off to and Umar joined in. "Did you leave because of the breakup. You shouldn't have. You should face things". She had seen this coming and didn't respond with anything other than nods and smiles. She spent a few more minutes and decided to leave. She asked Vidhi to ask her bodyguard to accompany her to the parking and Vidhi readily complied. Teja said her goodbyes to everyone. As she was leaving, she felt his eyes on her and looked back one last time at the stage and saw him staring at her. She gave him a half wave and hurried out of the wedding hall. 

The next half hour went by in a blur for her. Her heart was racing and she couldn't remember how  she had reached her hotel room. But she slumped into her mattress and order room service to bring her drinks. When she had seen the message notification from him 5 days back, her heart had skipped a beat. But when she saw it was the invitation she didn't know what to think. She kept staring at it. All the imaginary wedding invitation designs she had made in her mind flashed back. Never once had she thought, she would see his name with someone else. But here it was. Karan Kundrra weds Diya. 

She remembered how once when they were chilling, they saw on the news that a famous actor called Vijay DevaraKonda had married a girl called Aishvarya who was not from the industry. She had jokingly asked him if he could ever marry someone not from the media. He had vehemently refused and called it a moot question as he had her. Tears rolled down her eyes but she realized she was happy for him. After all it was her who broke things off. She had no right to an opinion to what he did after that. She didn't know when she decided to go but the tickets were booked and without even realizing what she was doing, she was on the flight. 

There was a knock on the door and she called them to enter. The room service had brought her a fresh bottle of tequila with some juices and asked her if he should help her make the drinks. She thanked him and said no. She changed into something more comfortable and started with the drinks. She opened her phone and logged into her official account after a long time. Her followers had bee stagnant for a while now. Her last post was 3 years ago. She went into her suggestions to see the page filled with Karan's posts or videos posted by his fans. Their fans. It amused her that people were still using the hashtag TejRan and tagging her in it. She had completely disappeared from public sight but her fans and their fans were still sending her messages. 

She didn't want to open any of them to see how she had disappointed them. She switched to twitter to see his wedding was trending. and that her appearance had caused a storm. That hadn't been her intention. She truly wanted to wish him and see him happy. The drinks kept going in and she switched from one app to another till she got tired and switched her phone off. She had one final drink noticing there's only one fourth of the bottle left. She was starting to feel dizzy and gave herself to the welcome sleep. 

It was 2 am in the morning in Punjab, India. Teja was sleeping in her hotel room. Most of India was sleeping. But in a wedding venue in the same city, some people were doing anything but sleeping. All hell was breaking loose and all it took was one eye contact. 

To be continued.....