Crossing The i's And Dotting The t's

(XIV) Bathroom Break(down)

"Aww...don't cover your face Ash, you're not that ugly," Vivaan mocked, sliding into the seat beside me.

I was sitting in my usual place, slouched with my face in my palms and elbows resting on the desk. My headache had forced me to open my shoulder length hair from their usual tight, high pony tail.

Maybe I looked depressed.

"Why are you here?" I tried to snap, though my muffled voice ruined the effect.

"When my parents got married, they did some stuff I'd rather not think about, and three quarters of a year later, I came here."

Had it been any other time, I would've twisted his ear with one hand and slammed his face on the desk with another. He was an extremely lucky Homo sapien, however, for I didn't have even an iota of energy inside me.

Slowly gathering my hair in a loose bun, I gave him my most deadly glare.

It successfully wiped the grin off his face. "Okay, chill, I was just trying to make a joke."

"Not funny, why are you here?"

"This is our free period...and I'm bored..." he said meekly, scratching his head.

"Then go annoy Radhika, she's the one person who'd actually like that."

"I would but," he hesitated, "she has made it explicitly clear that she does not want to talk to me. And I don't even know why, she was fine in the morning."

"Oh," I said, already bored, "that's unfortunate. As much as I would like to help you Viv, I won't because honestly, I don't want to. But don't worry, Rads would come around, her mood swings are rare and short. Mine, on the other hand, are very frequent. So bugger off."

"I'm just worried about her." He frowned, "why are you being so mean today?"

"I'm always mean."

Ignoring me, he persisted, "how much did you score in physics? Did you fail again?"

"Geez, thanks for having so much faith in me," I muttered sarcastically. "And no I didn't fail. But after studying my butt off for a week, I somehow still managed to lose seven marks."

"Let me have a look."

As he scanned my answer sheet, I allowed my eyes to wander, absently searching for his girlfriend. Despite my uncaring words, I couldn't help but feel anxious. Radhika was the most cheerful person I knew. She was one of those girls who never forgot to smile at random strangers, firmly believing that it might make their day better. When life threw lemons at her, she caught them like an expert cricketer and made lemon rice. She was many things, but right now, she was nowhere to be found.

In the entire classroom that is.

The moment I was about to voice my concern, Vivaan finished his inspection, announcing, "this is not too bad Ash, your concepts are clear, you've mostly lost marks in calculation errors. Try to concentrate more from next time."

Sighing loudly, I admitted, "it's hard to concentrate if I'm shit-scared when I see the question paper, and that happens all the time."

"Exam anxiety?" he asked.

"Nah, more like physics anxiety."

"So then...start practicing. The first term exams are beginning from September twelfth, start practicing now."

"Thank you for telling me, a fortnight before exams, that I should start studying, captain obvious."

His reply was cut off as the bell rang, signalling our freedom from prison, at least for the rest of the day.