AT NEXT MORNING -
The morning dawned, but he was gone. A hollow space now occupied the room where his presence had been. Sanvi, tethered to a fragile thread of hope, still clung to the expectation of Pranjal's return, each passing moment an agonizing stretch of anticipation. Yet, a chilling paralysis held her captive, rendering her utterly powerless.
A desperate thought sparked within her.
Sanvi- *Aashvi. I need to talk to Aashvi. She gave Pranjal my number and didn't even tell me. Though, in a way, it was a nice surprise... or was it?*
The shrill ring of her phone sliced through the heavy silence.
"Hi," Sanvi managed, her voice a mere tremor. "What are you doing?"
"Um, nothing much," Aashvi replied, a hesitant quality in her tone. "What's up?"
"Nothing *much*?" Sanvi repeated, a knot of unease tightening in her stomach.
"Yeah, tell me," Aashvi urged gently.
Sanvi- "You gave Pranjal my number without even talking to me? Why?!" The accusation hung heavy in the air.
Aashvi - "Whatttt?" Aashvi's voice shot up in disbelief. "When did that happen? I haven't given your number to anyone! And besides," she added, her voice laced with confusion, "I haven't even spoken to Pranjal in years!"
The words hit Sanvi like a physical blow, sending her reeling back into a fresh wave of shock and despair.
Sanvi- "Aashvi, please tell me the truth," Sanvi pleaded, her voice cracking.
Aashvi- "Look, I'm telling you the truth," Aashvi insisted. "And as for giving him your number, I absolutely did not."
Sanvi- "Aashvi, please," Sanvi's voice was thick with desperation. "Can you ask your friends? See if anyone might have given him my number, or perhaps his friends' numbers?"
Aashvi- "Okay, fine," Aashvi conceded, a hint of reluctance in her voice.
Sanvi- "Yes, please tell me as soon as you find out!" Sanvi urged, the urgency clawing at her throat.
Two agonizing hours crawled by, each tick of the clock amplifying Sanvi's growing dread. Aashvi's line remained stubbornly busy, an impenetrable wall between Sanvi and the truth.
Then, finally, the phone rang. Aashvi's name flashed on the screen. Sanvi snatched it up, her heart pounding in her chest.
Sanvi- "Yes? Tell me! What happened?" Sanvi demanded, her voice taut with anxiety.
Aashvi's voice on the other end was sharp, laced with a furious disgust. "Do you even know what kind of a massive piece of shit this Pranjal is?" she spat out. "He didn't get your number from me! He got it from some girl in your class... whose little sister is in my class!"
Sanvi- "What the hell?" Sanvi gasped, the revelation striking her with brutal force. "Why didn't I know any of this?"
Aashvi- "How would you know?" Aashvi retorted, her voice dripping with scorn. "They weren't even real sisters, just cousins. And do you know what her name is?"
"What?" Sanvi whispered, a terrible premonition gripping her.
"Khushi."
"What the fuck," Sanvi breathed out, the profanity a raw expression of her shattered reality.
"That's exactly what I said!" Aashvi exclaimed, her voice mirroring Sanvi's horror.
"So... you've been talking to Khushi?" Sanvi asked, the question heavy with a dawning understanding.
"Yes, because of you!" Aashvi snapped. "And now, listen carefully to all his disgusting acts over the past few years."
"Okay, tell me," Sanvi choked out, bracing herself for the inevitable onslaught of betrayal.
"After you left, there wasn't a single senior girl he didn't try to get with. He'd talk to every single one of them, constantly clinging to them! He even started talking to other girls while he was still with Khushi and spent all his time with them. With one of those girls, he publicly proposed in front of the entire class, hugged her, and kissed her!" Aashvi's voice was thick with outrage.
"He even went to that girl's house and slept with her, and then just dumped her because he got interested in online girls! He's shared his nudes online, and other girls have shared theirs with him! He brags to his friends about how many exes and girlfriends he has! He's become a complete womanizer! If you're still talking to him, block him right now! No girl who knows him wants anything to do with him anymore! Block him! You probably haven't talked much anyway, right?" Aashvi's words tumbled out in a torrent of fury and disgust.
"No... not much," Sanvi stammered, her mind reeling from the devastating revelations. "Um... yeah... I'm blocking him right now." The phone slipped slightly in her trembling hand as she navigated the steps to sever the last remaining connection to the man who had so cruelly shattered her illusions.
"Oh God, why does this always happen to *me*?" The raw anguish tore from Sanvi's throat, each sob a violent shudder that wracked her entire being. Tears streamed down her face in relentless torrents, each drop a burning testament to the injustice she felt. "What sin am I being punished for?" she wailed into the empty air, the question echoing the desolate landscape of her heart.
The ghosts of her past rose to torment her – the childhood trauma, a family life steeped in misery, and now, this final, devastating blow to her love life, utterly and irrevocably fucked.
A bitter memory surfaced, sharp and agonizing. Ahaan. The boy who had loved her, truly loved her. And she, in her foolishness, had cast him aside, blinded by the deceptive allure of *this* asshole. Now, the path back to Ahaan was a chasm she couldn't possibly bridge, and Pranjal... Pranjal was a phantom, a cruel mirage that had vanished, leaving only the bitter taste of betrayal.
"I've just been *used*," she whispered, the word a venomous truth that seeped into her soul. "Used from every direction."
A chilling fear coiled within her. "Will I always have to live with this regret? Will I ever find a decent man? Is happiness even a possibility for someone like me?" The questions hung in the suffocating silence, unanswered and terrifying.
But amidst the wreckage of her despair, a fragile seed of resolve began to sprout. A deep breath hitched in her chest, and with it came a flicker of determination. "From now on," she declared, her voice trembling but firm, "I will follow God's plan." A silent vow echoed in the desolate room. "No more chasing after boys, Sanvi. It ends now. My focus will be on myself. On my own happiness." The words were a fragile shield against the storm raging within, a desperate attempt to seize control in a life that felt utterly and irrevocably adrift.
A fragile dawn painted the sky with hues of tentative hope as Sanvi, her eyes still swollen but holding a newfound clarity, looked out at the awakening city. The storm within hadn't entirely subsided, but a quiet strength had begun to take root in its place. The raw edges of her pain were still tender, yet a steely resolve lined them.
The path ahead wouldn't be easy. The scars of the past ran deep, and the betrayal had left an ache that would likely linger. But in the stark solitude of her heartbreak, Sanvi had found something she hadn't possessed before: a fierce commitment to herself.
She picked up her phone, her fingers hovering over Ahaan's contact. A wave of guilt washed over her, but this time, it didn't paralyze her. It fueled a different kind of courage. Perhaps the bridge wasn't entirely burned. Perhaps, with honesty and genuine remorse, a fragile connection could be rebuilt, not as it was before, but as something new.
Later that day, a message appeared on Ahaan's phone. It was simple, heartfelt, and carried the weight of Sanvi's newfound self-awareness. It was the first step on a long and uncertain journey, a journey not towards chasing love, but towards healing and self-discovery.
Life wouldn't magically transform. There would still be moments of doubt, flashes of pain, and the lingering shadow of what had been. But Sanvi had made a choice. She had chosen herself. She had chosen to step away from the destructive cycle of seeking validation in others and instead, to cultivate her own inner strength and happiness.
The future remained unwritten, a vast expanse of possibilities. There was no guarantee of a fairytale ending with a new love. But there was the promise of something far more profound: Sanvi, finally whole and at peace within herself, ready to embrace whatever life held, on her own terms. The focus was no longer on finding someone to complete her, but on becoming the complete version of herself she was always meant to be. And in that journey, lay the truest form of a good ending – a beginning.
----THE END----