We Found Love

Part 01

Episode 04 – Heart break

“Is Mr.Lovestruck drugstruck?!” “Drugs in the house?!” “A star couple or a drug couple?” ” High up in the air?!” Fashion and entertainment magazines, blogs, news channels, websites, social media sites and newspapers were all flooded with pictures from Pranay’s birthday party. Pranay had woken up flabbergasted the morning after the party. It showed him, Leila and their friends smoking weed and consuming ecstasy. Since it had been a private party no professional photographers were invited. If the pictures had to leak then someone from inside the party must have done so. Unfortunately Rohan was not at the party that night. He was at hospital taking care of his mother in law who had had a heart surgery. If not those pictures couldn’t have escaped his eagle sight and there wouldn’t have been all this drama.

Pranay came down on Leila, “Why didn’t you tell me there was going to be drugs in the party huh? Who let you post those pictures and videos on Instagram?” He had asked, shaking her violently. Leila was shocked at his sudden outburst. This was unexpected to her. In the past Pranay had been severely addicted to cocaine, ecstasy, cannabis, heroin and alcohol. He had slowly overcome the addiction through a continuous rehabilitation process. His bud Rohan was a witness to the mental struggles that he faced. Rohan had supported and helped his brother come out of this addiction fully. Pranay’s career would have actually been ruined without Rohan’s cooperation. But his relationship with Leila had brought him closer to these narcotics again. He consumed them often though not regular. Rohan was not ok with Pranay’s habit resurfacing. He had warned him but had not objected because he saw that it kept both Pranay and Leila happy.

” Why, I didn’t want to see you sad on your special day baby, and we have had drug parties before, why are you questioning it now? I don’t know who leaked the pictures. I was not even aware where or with whom my phone was” replied Leila with an equal rage.

Anmol, popular music artist and husband of Leila’s bestfriend Sheela had leaked those pictures. He always considered Pranay as his biggest rival and competitior in the industry. He had long awaited a chance to ruin Pranay’s reputation. Drugs in the party proved to be a golden opportunity for him. He somehow managed to take Leila’s phone from her hand while she was dancing and recording and had those pictures and videos posted online. Totally unaware of this , Leila and Pranay were fighting each other with hurt pride. After all this is what Anmol expected to happen.

“Then was it necessary to immerse yourself in absolute pleasure when you knew you couldn’t be responsible?” asked Pranay furiously. Leila was seriously offended by this. “What do you mean to say Pranay? That giving you cocaine was my mistake? Helping you cheer up and brighten your dull moment was my mistake?” she asked with tear brimming eyes. “Yes” Pranay snapped back rudely. “You are making me feel guilty Pranay. You are behaving as though you had no role to play in it”. “No I had no role to play in it, why do you even think it is your duty to make me happy? Why do you always want everything to be perfect everytime? Why can’t you just let me feel unhappy? Why do you have to attach yourself to me?” an exasperated Pranay blurted out. “I am sorry Pranay, it all happened by mistake. Please don’t overreact, let’s just sort this out. I’ll call Abhinay. We’ll tell the media to take down the pictures, I’ll even ask him to issue a statement on behalf of us….” “No Leila… it’s not about this incident alone” Pranay cut short her words coldly. “I have begun to feel lately that you are consuming too much of my energy. I feel I have lost myself, my real self. I think I need space. I think we should distance ourselves”. Leila felt the ground beneath her sink. She saw her whole world come crashing down. She had not even dreamt of hearing these words from her beloved some day. “Do you want this for real Pranay?” she choked as she asked him. “I think so Leila” he replied. “Fine then, I am leaving” said Leila and walked out of the room with her hands clutching her heart and tears rolling down her cheeks. She packed her bag, got downstairs, stood at the door for a second, looked up one last time teary eyed, then wiped her wet cheeks emphatically and left. She drove to her sister’s apartment which was a mile away.

Minutes after she left Rohan came hurriedly to Skylark. He too was shocked by this overnight happening. He had already called up every single person in the electronic media, social media and had asked all the fan accounts to take down the pictures saying they were morphed and someone had purposely posted them to ruin Leila and Pranay’s reputation. He rushed into Pranay’s room and started in single breath, “Bro I have asked the media to tone down the coverage and got the pictures removed from the internet, I never knew all this shit would happen in a night, by the way where is Leila, I want to know who all came to the party?” Pranay did not reply, he looked at Rohan with dead eyes. “Bro, where is Leila?” “She left” replied Pranay slowly. ‘What do you mean she left?” “I sent her away Ro, I sent her away, I sent her because she was spoiling my life, she was having too much of my soul, she made me desperate all the time for something I know not what, she was trying to be too perfect to be real and I wanted to detach herself from me” “What!? What are you saying bro? You broke up with Leila?” asked Rohan in utter disbelief. “Yes, I did” “Are you out of your mind brother, what was poor Leila’s mistake? She just wanted to make your birthday special. For heaven’s sake why would she post those pictures and recordings herself? Why didn’t you take a moment to think about it once?” asked Rohan angrily.

“No….she was the reason I got high, she was the reason why there were drugs in the party. Her pretty face makes me go crazy, and I don’t want that, do you understand? I don’t want that” shouted Pranay holding Rohan by his collars. “What devil has taken over you brother? Why are you behaving like this?” asked Rohan looking straight into his eyes. “I am myself Ro, but I don’t know why you are taking her side despite me being in pain.” ” Look Pranay I tried to warn you about this evil habit of yours at the beginning when it was taking over you again. But I kept quiet thinking that might take a toll on your relationship. Now you are blaming Leila for no reason, as if you had no control of your life”said Rohan trying to bring Pranay to his senses. ” I thought of keeping away myself only from Leila but… now even your words are piercing my heart Ro…… I am leaving. I want to be alone.” “You are hurt and angry Pranay, you will destroy yourself” “If it is so, so shall it be” said Pranay viciously as he walked out of the room. He could hear Rohan calling him back but it seemed as though no force on this earth could stop him. He took out his car and drove to the airport. He was flying back to Dawn City.

For the next three months Pranay isolated himself from the world. No public appearences, no tv shows, no interviews, no human interaction at all, nothing except his big lonely mansion. Meanwhile Rohan had found out that all this had been Anmol’s mischief. He had made him pay for his mischief but it was too late. The damage done was quite irrepairable. Rohan had tried to contact Pranay several times in vain.

Pranay went back to his dark and painful ways. He took to alcohol addiction and weed smoking. He indulged in self loathing and self pity. He thought nothing better than writing would be a way for him to spill out his overflowing emotions and pain . So he began writing songs for his next album which he named “Heart Break”. He finished recording the songs and released the first single “My dear Jasmine”.

Little did he know that this album was going to be a monstrous hit in his career “cause each of us has his own rythm of suffering” and people love listening to tragic rythms.

To be continued….