The Girl in the Story

It was November.

The air was chilly, but not colder than what I was about to feel.

The school was buzzing — lights, colors, music.

Dandiya Night.

I wasn't even thinking about him that day.

But fate has a cruel way of showing up when you least expect it.

I opened Instagram.

And there it was.

His story.

A boomerang — smiling, spinning dandiya sticks —

With her.

A girl I had never seen before.

Her arm casually around his, like she belonged there.

She had the audacity to be happy.

With my Armaan.

I froze.

He was in 12th. I was in 10th.

Two different wings, two different worlds —

So I didn't know her.

But I had to know.

Who was she?

What was her name?

Why was she standing beside him like he was hers?

I dug. I asked around.

And finally, I found out her name — Mahak.

She wasn't even beautiful.

Not in the way I expected his "next girl" to be.

Just… okay-okay.

But what I heard about her?

It shook me.

Everyone said she had a reputation.

Rude. Fake. Attention-seeking.

Someone girls avoided and boys… well, some boys liked for the wrong reasons.

But what killed me the most?

They weren't just friends.

They were dating.

That word.

It hit like a truck.

I felt like the ground slipped beneath me.

Panic crawled up my chest.

I couldn't breathe.

Hands cold, lips trembling —

Anxiety hit me like a tidal wave.

My heart raced like it was trying to escape my own body.

But it didn't end there.

No.

This wasn't the end of the heartbreak.

This was just the beginning of the storm.

Because after that day, nothing felt normal anymore.

I couldn't focus.

I couldn't smile.

Even breathing felt like a task.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw them —

Laughing.

Touching.

Existing… together.

I started noticing little things.

He stopped watching my stories.

He stopped liking my posts.

He stopped caring.

It was like I had been erased from his world,

And she had replaced me —

Like I never mattered.

I'd pass him in the corridor,

My heart pounding so loud I couldn't hear anything else.

He would walk right past me.

Not even a glance.

As if the boy who once called me his everything had forgotten I ever existed.

And she — Mahak —

She started showing off.

Flaunting him like a prize she'd stolen.

Holding his hand in the canteen.

Sitting with him where I used to sit.

Looking at me… and smirking.

Like she knew exactly what she had done.

And he let her.

He let her ruin me.

He stood beside her,

And watched me fall apart — silently, invisibly.

I remember one day,

I locked myself in the washroom and cried for twenty straight minutes.

Collapsed against the door, biting my lips to stay quiet.

Because if someone heard me, they'd ask.

And I wouldn't even know how to explain the pain of being replaced.

He moved on like it was nothing.

But I was still stuck —

In our late night calls,

In our promises,

In our dreams.

They said heartbreak hurts.

But no one tells you it's the kind of pain that stays in your bones.

That you can be surrounded by people and still feel like you're drowning.

And that night — Dandiya Night —

Wasn't just the day he posted her.

It was the night I lost the last piece of him I was still holding onto.