Safar...A Journey of First Love

Chapter 25 - Armaan

...Armaan arrived at the Gupta's place an hour after Riddhima had left; he stood on the doorstep patiently after ringing the bell. Padma opened the door with a curious look making Armaan raise his eyebrow.

"Armaan what are you doing here?" Padma asked him.

"I came for Riddhima..." he replied uncertainly.

Padma frowned; "Woh toh chali gayi (She's left already)...she didn't call you?"

Armaan thought; "She's still very angry with me..." then he looked back at Padma; "...umm...I must have missed her call..."

"Okay...you better go now...or you'll be late..."

He nodded; "Yeah...bye aunty..."

He got back into his car and drove as quickly as possible to school to meet Riddhima; on his way he thought of how he would make it up to her. The moment he turned off the car he jumped out and ran straight for registration, wanting to speak to her immediately; he rushed into the class to see his tutor end the register and turned on him; "Late Armaan..." he was cross.

Armaan started; "Sorry sir...I wa..."

His tutor frowned; "Better not happen again..." then he looked at the group; "...get to your lessons..."

He left the room and some of the group left as well; Armaan made his way towards his friends, now worrying as he didn't see Riddhima anywhere.

"Where's Riddhima?" he asked right away.

"Whoa Armaan...late...I can't believe I made it here before you..." Abhi smirked at his own joke.

Armaan was not in the mood; "Where's Riddhima?" he asked again.

"Calm down Armaan...not even a hi?" Muskaan said but looking at his face she dropped it; "...But I was going to ask you that...where is Ridz...she always comes to school with you?"

"I know we always come to school together but when I went to her place to get her Aunty said she had already left...I thought she was going to be here..."

"Let's calm down first..." Rahul said putting his hand on Armaan's shoulder; "...we should go from here...there's a class waiting to get in..."

They left the room silently and stood outside in the corridor; Armaan was now very worried.

"Armaan...what happened?" Nikita asked him.

Armaan ignored her; "Muskaan call her...find out where she is..."

Rahul was confused; "Why don't you call her?"

"She won't answer my phone calls...I've been calling her all night...Muskaan please call her..." Armaan was desperate.

"Okay..." Muskaan whipped out her phone and called Riddhima, a second later she moved the phone away from her ear; "...her phone is off..."

Armaan was now getting tensed and the others were also worried.

"Armaan listen to me..." Muskaan moved closer to him; "...I know something is wrong but I'm not going to ask what right now...I think you should go to class..."

"Musk..."

She instantly cut him off and continued; "Armaan just listen to me...you need to go to class...we all have a free period...we'll look for her...but I'm her best friend and I know her very well...right now she must be in her math's lesson...she never misses her class..."

Armaan knew she was right and so did the others; he thanked Muskaan and left them to go to his lesson, hoping that she would be there. The others walked with him half way then made their way to the library; he reached the class and knocked on the door, as he walked in everyone turned to look at him but Riddhima.