Just You | √

Chapter Three : Hair Cuts And Favourite Colleague

It was an active Sunday morning. Nebula Mall was looking as lively as ever with people filling in. Nisha was excited-would be an understatement. She was more than just elevated as though her parents were divorced recently, they had actually come together to take Nisha out as it was her fifteenth birthday.

Nisha immediately ran towards her favourite ice cream parlour as her parents glanced at each other awkwardly. Nisha's mother, Aarunya Varma immediately followed her daughter's footsteps so as to avoid her ex-husband. Her father, Advith Varma looked at her back longingly before taking his phone out to make a call.

Nisha was enjoying her ice-cream as Aarunya looked at her daughter lovingly. As the mother-daughter duo were conversing about Nisha's school life and her plans for her summer break, they heard a huge sound from outside. Nisha immediately panicked and held onto her mother in a tight grip as if letting go of her would make her disappear. Aarunya consoled her daughter by rubbing her back and whispering sweet-nothings in her ear. "Baby, stay here. I'll go check on your father. Don't panic. You're a strong girl, alright?" Aarunya kissed Nisha's forehead briefly before walking out with other elders of the ice cream parlour.

Nisha was alone there and she felt the table shaking. Not only the table, but every thing placed there were shaking. Nisha heard another loud sound which made her run outside. She caught the railing of the first floor and looked down. The front part of the building had completely collapsed. The air was filled with smoke and other suspended dust particles along with the shrieks of the people who were crushed under the huge building blocks. Yet again, a deafening sound made it's way to her ears and she saw it coming; an uncomfortable silence settled in, the same silence that settles down before a storm.

Her hopeful eyes immediately searched for parents as her cold and numb hands now gripped the steel railing firmly. She ran slowly still catching the railing as her eyes looked around to find her parents. Finally she spotted them in a corner and they were seated tiredly with blood oozing out from different parts of their body. She watched numbly as her mother released saline droplets of water as her father leaned over and placed a gentle kiss over her forehead. She could see that her father had whispered something to which her mother smiled sadly. The building was collapsing and the danger was fast approaching. Within seconds, her parents had faded away into the thin air.

She woke up sweating and breathing heavily. It was the same dream again with the same ending. Even after so many years, memories of that dreadful event hadn't left her mind and they've been haunting her in the form of nightmares even since then. Though she managed to survive that accident, she considered death to be more peaceful as she couldn't live with all the scary visuals of her parents perishing infront of her black orbs flashing in her mind, reminding her about that unfortunate day.

Suddenly the alarm ringed, indicating that she had to get ready for her new job as personal assistant of the founder and CEO of Camaraderie. You might be wondering that how a tomboy with such an unappreciated fashion sense had actually managed to get a job in the most successful clothing company. Well, she hadn't acquired the job but she was being sent there as a replacement for three months as a token of gratitude and with an intention to pay back. Yet that wasn't the real reason why she has ended up in that company as her loose baggy clothes were enough for her to get rejected. Thus, the most interesting part and the actual reason why she was chosen for that job as a replacement was her gender - the fact that she was a homosexual woman err . . . pretended like a homosexual woman.