The Nerd and The Brat ✔️

45. Harshad Factor

"Is everything okay, Nandini?"

Nandini opened her eyes and found Cabir. Manik was beside him. "My car broke down", she told.

"Where's Abhimanyu and Mukti?", asked Cabir.

"I asked them to leave. I didn't know this day could get worse."

"We could drop you."

Nandini shook her head. "It's not about that. I can go by cab, really. You can leave. I just need a few minutes to myself." But when Nandini turned around, Manik was already working on her car. She raised an eyebrow at Cabir. "Does he know how to repair cars?"

The smirk on Cabir's face was answer enough. "Cars, bikes, laptops or mobiles, my brother can make them work in minutes."

"Why are you flaunting as if it's your talent?", she snapped. He almost looked smug.

"You are in a pretty bad mood", pointed out Cabir. "What happened?"

"I hate college. I hate classes. I hate professors." Nandini didn't care if it sounded like a rant.

"At least you love me."

"You top my hate list."

As Cabir started another rant about all the lovable things in him, Nandini thought how did she end up not talking to a single person in college throughout the day to keep up an argument with this boy. Their fight came to halt when the car rumbled to life and Manik came around it towards her.

"I don't know what happened and I can't make your day good but your car is working just fine", said Manik.

Nandini had the first smile since the day had started. He had already made the day better. When Cabir went to get their car, Manik a finger to her car.

"This still needs servicing badly. I could make it work temporarily but if troubles you in between, will you give us a call? Why do you have to take a cab when we are going to almost the same place", told Manik and threw one of his sweetest smiles.

Nandini knew it was the one he uses to manipulate any argument in his favor. But before she could agree to him, he was speaking again.

"Why don't you give me a call even if the car doesn't trouble you so that I know you have reached home safely", he muttered.

Nandini shook her head at his hesitation. She had accepted his natural instinct to care about all his friends but Manik was still hesitant when it came to asking Nandini to do something. Probably, he still thinks she would punch him or something. She hugged him instead and her smile only widened as she broke the hug. "Thank you for being the sweetest part of my trashy day", she told sincerely and hoped Manik would understand how much she meant her words.

XXX

Cabir generally jumps and whines and cries at the thought of driving a car. He loves the motion and the risk that follows speed but there are rarely times when he doesn't choose to drive. One of them was when he was thinking. His thoughts consisted of Nandini Murthy and his brother.

There was Nandini a stubborn head girl, at the end of a very bad day, blasting everyone off for even attempting to talk to her and then there was his Manik, the shy head boy, the guy who was terrified of girls, complained for hours about how he didn't get them after the Soha episode. The opposites attract but never did Cabir think they would fit so perfectly. When she was hating the whole world around her, not only did he make it better for her but also brought out a brilliant smile on her face, and then Mukti says not to force them. He hasn't met any two more compatible people and he didn't know how long he could wait.