She pushed his hands away from her and replied sternly, 'Mudiyathu '
'Avalo dhairiyam aaiducha?' He asked her with gritted teeth,
'Enakku unna pidikkala.. Enakku ennoda date ah vara ishtam illa..enna bother pannatha.. Idha vida ennala clear ah solla mudiyathu..
Leave me alone, Dinesh' she breathed heavily,
Srishti 's blood boiled at the way he made her feel powerless for a split second. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and pushed him away,
'You don't like me.. You never did. Stop forcing it. Please ' She whispered one last time before heading out.
Srishti was too good to be true.
She took long strides and reached Priyanka 's car ,cursing her terrible timing. She didn't even get a chance to tell Chandru about the dinner surprise she had planned for Barath's homecoming.
Srishti hated feeling this way, that a single incident had that claim over her will power. She hated feeling so helpless , it occupied all the times when she had nothing to think about throughout the day.
She wished she had stayed at home the previous night and spoke to him regarding the surprise as she felt bad that Chandru would now feel left out. But to the contrary, he didn't even care.
She had to go grocery shopping to make dinner and buy some stuff, but Chandru had already taken the car and was nowhere in sight, Srishti felt crestfallen as it'd be impossible to go grocery shopping after the evening class since she didn't have the car.
All she wanted to do was make Barath a simple dinner of his choice and hang some celebratory balloons around the hall. Nothing complicated.
Rahul led Priyanka and Srishti to their classrooms after lunch that day. Srishti mumbled a bye when they were conversing and slipped inside Professor Adhiran 's class, her favorite time of the day. She wondered how it was the patch of time that went by the soonest.
Perhaps they weren't bluffing when they said sweet moments pass by sooner.
She found him perched on his chair with a stack of papers in his hands , ' Good afternoon'
He nodded at her, acknowledged her greeting and scanned her face before seeing that she was looking down at the papers in his hands, ' Idhu.. namba last ah kodutha essay prompts ku students draft panna paragraphs. Idha iniku review panlam nu eduthutu vanthen..
But tell me first, What's bothering you, Sasha?'
'What? Nothing!' Srishti was taken aback for a second,
'Un kanla poi theriyuthu, edho sari illa.. you know you talk to me right?' he told her gently,
She simply nodded, her heart dwindling uncommonly fast,
'Sollu' he stood from where he sat and took a few steps forward, still so far away from her, she thought,
'Athu..change of plans..Anna iniku dha veetuku varaanga' she told him,
'And that's a problem?'
'illa.. actually I'm really happy..Anna kaafha oru surprise dinner plan pannen.. avanuku promotion kedachirku..
Idha pathi Chandru kita sollanum nu nenachen..aana avana kaanu' she purposely skipped Dinesh's encounter with her because she didn't want to dishearten the man in front of her,
'Apo evening class mudichitu veetuku poi ne ellamae thaniya pannanuma?'
'Apdi sollathinga..it sounds bad … Enaku Inga iruka ishtam dha..but time dha issue' she told him, pursing her lips,
The passionate pilgrim
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