The Start Of Something New - Part I

Flipside

Niti carefully tiptoed into the room she been lead on to for changing. It was simple yet what you would call classic. Dark wooden floor boards and slick white walls, that were astonishingly spotless complete with a few one seater leather couches and a white cupboard which she assumed were for shoes and other accessories. Clothes were meticulously arranged on two movable clothing racks, which she assumed just be changes or spare clothes for various shows. A jacket was carelessly thrown over the head of the couch and from its size it could be well deduced whose it might have been. It didn't take her to be a genius to realize that the room belonged to the one and (thankfully) only Manik Malhotra.

She walked towards her left, where she had been told she could take a shower. Curiously enough once she moved the curtain covering the space she noticed, it had a shower alright, and the rest of the toiletries too, what it was missing was a door!

"What the absolute hell? Who on earth showers without a door? Trust Manik Malhotra to do everything normal people wouldn't dream of!" She thought in her head.

Niti proceeded to take off her clothes with care so as to not make any more mess and stepped into the shower. It was as it is so clean she could not dream of dirtying it.

She stood under the shower and closed her eyes, letting the warm water pour over her skin. She was enjoying the feeling of the dirt being washed away gradually and taking stickiness and stink with it. She applied the shower gel she found there, which didn't smell very nice but was atleast for women, which was rather surprising actually. Yet not really if you would have noticed how cosy Manik really got with his women. She had been standing in the shower for a long time, longer than necessary when she heard something. It was faint and for a moment she had considered it might be in head as well, but then along with the soft strumming of guitar came a loud, unanimous squeal of excitement and it was beyond any scope of mistaking. Manik Malhotra was on stage.

Niti went out and across the room wrapped in a towel and promptly dropped it to get changed into the fresh pair of clothes she had been offered. As she was changing, she could hear his voice, rather low for comfort but still quite distinguishable. She instinctively moved closer to the wall which she suspected was closer to the stage, angle wise, with some difficulty. She would not admit it to others, but the voice had aroused a curiousity in her and now she had to hear it in order satisfy that urge.

As she suspected the voice rose higher after the initial lines and she had to agree that live his singing was so much better than on tape. The high notes effortlessly coming out accompanied by the alluring texture of his voice. It was a bit raspy but perhaps that made it dound better.

She strained her ears no further once the interlude started, realizing that since the tempo of the song had gone down she would not be able to hear anything other than crazy fans screaming. She had barely been able to hear the high notes, the low notes were completely off charts but she could tell he wasn't doing them too badly, infact if there was one thing this man did right, it was music.

It had been about half and hour or so, probably more and Niti was currently sitting on one of the couches. She had peeped out twice in between to find someone anf telk them she was leaving, but she hasn't found anyone. Strangely all of the people earlier present were missing from there. She was just getting up to go when the knob turned and in game the devil himself.

"Hey" he said taking in her presence at once. If he was a bit startled, he didn't show it.

"I was just leaving" Niti said dryly, getting up and straightning her t-shirt.

Manik just nodded without replying and flung his jacket, aiming at the couch opposite to the one Niti was sat on, but it missed the mark and fell at, not more than a step away at his feet. It didn't miss her but it was not her jacket, therefore not her concern.