Road to the Ocean

Chapter 7: Rehearsals Gone Wrong!

As Niti and Parth walked down the hall side to side, they sneaked in to see which class was available for rehearsal. It was a college campus after all and all they spared with were two of its class rooms, which became the hospital, and a store room, and a jamming session class, even a studio apartment for certain requirements of the scenes. Just then, they saw Richa coming out from one of the rooms as if she was about to catch a train. Since she was already on a phone call and couldn't engaged herself in the conversation with them, she merely waved at them for the few seconds; she turned around and noticed them entering the room.

"How"? Niti mumbled.

"Huh...How?,what How? Are you talking to yourself?" Her sound was nearly inaudible to Parth.

Niti rolled her eyes. "Are baba, how long are we going to practice for?". She elaborated.

"Depends how long do you want to be with me?" Parth said tentatively. Niti roused when she saw Parth was approaching towards her and then, he whispered,"How much time do you need?" His chest almost touched her nose. He wanted to pester her mind for some light distraction, but Niti felt as if last night's thunder has struck over her head and her breathing hitched.

"Excuse me?" She managed to mutter and nudged him away. She wasn't too sure what he meant; she couldn't decode, even if she wanted to.

"Wa...wha...What is that even mean?" She stammered and looked towards the other side. She avoided eye contact him and intertwined her fingers out of curiosity. She was tensed to find out about his declaration. Her hormones were already creating a havoc. She wasn't able to estimate the numbers of time she felt these unusual sensation of butterfly like feelings, flying inside her belly. Her mind was a muddle and all she thought is how nerve-racking everything around her was becoming.

"Just Look at yourself!" Parth hunched over to take a peak at her face and burst out laughing. Niti was too embarrassed to meet his eyes, so she slightly glanced at him and felt the vocal expulsion of air coming out from his lungs, as he just didn't stop laughing.

"I swear I just want to run away right now." Niti thought. "What am I doing?, Am I giving him all the possible indication that I am not being myself?" Parth entangled her into a guilt of being an effected victim of his wooing personality, from where she would not escape from.

"No... No, no... No" Niti brought all the sounds of her vocal cord. She was losing the battle because she didn't know how to reciprocate back.

"There is nothing wrong with me." She whirled back towards him. "You love to fool around with me, don't you?" She tried pretending that nothing effected her, but failed in all her attempts. Her nervousness was even more evident with her cheeks getting flushed. Parth bit his lips and decided not to tease her further and answered her question politely.

"Yes I do." He wasn't sure how would she react if he said anything more? He still had to finish something which he started, so he buckled up again. "I just love to fool around with you". He added with a smirk.

"In fact, this is only thing I have ever wanted to do since birth." He said with an intense voice. Niti's eyes widened and he broke into laughter again. She ruffled and threw the script papers at him. She knew she has given him an infinite amount of powers to absurd her in such sensitive feelings which she tries hard to avoid in front of him. She felt as if she was slowly getting to know him, inside and out.

"Jerk!" Niti shook her head out of embarrassment. It was a blunt one word statement because she knew he was being silly.

"Aww our sweet Niti got offended?" Teased Parth. The papers were scattered all over the place. Niti saw and fumbled to get through the script papers on the floor and avoided answering that question. She wasn't able to understand why he would ask, if he knew how she felt.