Tenth Grade was Fun!

20. UNEXPECTED HELP

Standing near the door of the office is Nikhil, with clenched fists and gritted teeth, but as he walks towards me, his eyes soften.

"You okay?" He asks, concern laced in his tone, as Ved awkwardly stands up.

"Thanks Ved." Nikhil mutters grudgingly—surprising me—and Ved simply nods in reply before giving me a parting wave as he walks towards the exit. 

"Yeah, just a cricket match injury." I assure him after waving back at Ved for which he slightly scowls and seats himself beside me.

"Just a cricket match injury? Are you fucking kidding me Ritu? Almost half of the skin on your knee is scraped and yeah, maybe it's just the skin and nothing internal but the blood?" He rants.

"Hey, hey, it's nothing, really. I'm fine. I just feel this...kind of burning on my knee but you know how um...physically rugged I am?" I reply trying to lighten him up.

He still looks somber, shoulders slumped with his hair sticking up in all directions probably the aftermath of running his hands through them repeatedly.

But still he looked hot as hell.

Aye, true that.

The nurse finishes up and I get up to go back to class which earns me a glare from both the nurse and Nikhil.

I pout and sit back on the bed while the nurse leaves Nikhil and me alone now.

"Nikki don't wor—"

My consolation is interrupted by Nikhil grabbing my face and kissing me, all his worries and fear put into it.

Pulling away, he inhales deeply before sternly saying, "You better be careful, okay?"

"Sure. But tell Darsh to notify me of him not being ready earlier." I shrug and my comment finally gets a smile from him.

"Seriously though, how did you find out about this?" I express my doubt.

"I was about to go to the ground when I saw Mia, Harsh and Darsh rushing somewhere and I just stopped by to say hi but then they told me what happened. You must have gone for a really fast delivery if you had taken this big of a hit from skidding."

"Sort of, yeah. Darsh didn't even look like he was getting off after a few overs!!"

"Yeah, Harsh told me." He chuckled while I roll my eyes but then, at Harsh's mention, I remember what DQ had commented about me and Harsh earlier in the day.

"Nikki, I— about that, today while working on the posters for the exhibition...me and Harsh— we were— we were just laughing because of—"

"Aaaaand Mia already told me about that. Shaina doubting you and Harsh. That was what you're gonna say about right?" He asks calmly.

I nod, gulping in fear.

"Seriously, Ritu, I trust you and Harsh is a friend of mine too. And I know how friends are kind of a big deal for you. You know I regret mentioning about you getting manipulated by your ex-bestie, even if I was angry and that was not an excuse," He pauses before continuing, "so no, I don't think of it as anything except good friendship. Oh and what's with the 'DQ'?" He asked confused.

"That's the name we've gave for Shaina. She's such a drama queen, so instead of calling her 'Drama Queen' which might be too obvious, we call her 'DQ'. We can call her 'DQ' even in front of her this way, y'know." I shrug with a grin.

He hums in reply and then turns to me.

"You know, I'll admit, I was jealous that a boy—Harsh in this case—talked to you, laughing and all, but who wouldn't be with a girlfriend such as mine?" He wiggled his brows.