Tere Liye | ✔

Chapter Twenty-Five - An Allergic Reaction

Her phone rang and she took it leisurely, still not keeping the bowl away. It was just now that she was able to eat and she had no heart to halt it for anyone. 

Thus, with a mouthful of Khidchi, she answered the call. 

"Hello?"

"Hi Sheetalji!"

The food took the wrong tube and traveled down another lane in her body, making her choke. She coughed, keeping the bowl aside as she identified the voice. 

"Who-who is this?" She asked tentatively, her throat sore from swallowing the food without chewing. 

"Tch tch tch. What a shame Sheetalji. At this age you are suffering from amnesia? Arrey I am Khushi!" 

"Cut the crap!" Sheetal gritted. "You are not Khushi. You can't be her. And if you think you can fool me like that then you're wrong. Now spit out. Who. Are. You?" 

She enunciated her words with emphasis, gripping the bedsheet as if it was the throat of the person she was talking to. 

"Wrong? You think I'm wrong? Well Sheetalji, me and you both know who is actually wrong. And who did wrong." 

"Just shut up!" She grounded her teeth and scratched her neck, feeling a sudden itch there. "This is not a movie for you to play like that. It's real life and I'm not dumb." 

"Really?" The voice sniggered. "You're not dumb? Well, try saying that the next time you eat something blindly. How's the Khidchi by the way?" 

"Ho-how did you know-" Sheetal groaned, twitching her body as the itch spread everywhere.

"I know everything. It's you who is oblivious, first of your limits then of your food. It's second time in a row, yet you haven't figured out a thing." 

And with those words, the line went dead. 

Sheetal stared at her phone, aghast as the meaning of her words sank deep in. 

On the other hand, Prachi cut the call and chuckled.

"She must be scared to death right now." She commented, laughing along with Neha. "Honestly, I never thought my job as a mimic artist would ever be this fun." 

Neha shook her head, chortling along with her friend as both imagined the state Sheetal must be in. 

"Well, scared to death as well as scratching herself to death." 

Neha looked up at Rashi, whose physique was a replica of Khushi's and laughed harder at her words.

"You guys are too much." 

"Not us." Prachi sobered. "But Arnav Sir and NK. I bet they must be rolling on the floor in laughter by now." 

True to her assumption, on the other hand, NK was having a hard time controlling himself from bawling into laughter as Sheetal turned redder and redder with each passing second. He held his stomach and bit his hand as she leapt out of her bed and stared at herself in the mirror, letting out a shriek of sheer horror. 

She ran her hand on her face, then winced when the rashes burned at her touch. The irritation and burning sensation was so high that she started crying but that only worsened her pain. As the salty liquid rolled down and touched the affected area, she felt a scalding pain. 

"H..how did...id this happen?" She sobbed helplessly, neither able to stop her tears from flowing nor being able to endure the burning in her skin. 

The earlier words of Khushi rang in her ears and she turned swiftly towards the bowl of Khidchi.

It's you who is oblivious, first of your limits then of your food.