Shefali invited all her high school classmates to the hotel for karaoke. Parth had been their class rep from junior high to high school. Thus everyone was familiar with each other and knew Parth liked liveliness and organizing group activities. The male student saw that everyone agreed and picked up his phone to call Parth.
Parth was sitting with Shehnaaz in a dessert shop on campus and having ice cream. Shehnaaz had a cup of
Häagen-Dazs grape ice cream in front of her and pecked at it with a small spoon. She looked at his ashen face, “You got skinner. Where did you vacation? Did you not get to rest?”
Parth rubbed his chin and didn’t touch his ice cream.
He ordered a hot coffee to warm his hands, “I didn’t go anywhere during the break and was sick at home. Otherwise I would’ve taken you out.”
“You’re sick?” Shehnaaz froze, the spoon in her hand halting, “What kind of illness? Are you better now?”
“I’m better now, it was just a fever, probably from exhaustion and getting wet from the rain.” Parth reached out to grip Shehnaaz’s hand, “What about you? Are you ok?”
Shehnaaz appeared soft and delicate, and her finely shaped chin seemed especially frail. But she was actually
very healthy and Sandeep, who always gave her physical examinations could best attest to it. Of course this was not
something an outsider would know. Shehnaaz shrunk her hand back and made a fist to lean her head against.
She leaned against the table and shook her head, “I’m good, didn’t get sick. I was just really sleepy and slept all the way till noon the second day after going back.” After waking up,
she subconsciously called Sidharth, who had been all the way in the capital. And then, nothing… Sidharth
left for a whole two weeks and didn’t call nor return. Shehnaaz propped her head, distracted. One hand held the
little spoon and stirred the ice cream, almost turning it into a creamy mush.
From Parth’s perspective, he could see Shehnaaz’s lush eyelashes cast shadows. They were full and thick, half covering her hauntingly huge eyes. He had no idea what she was thinking about. A true beauty was gorgeous at anytime, even when distracted. Parth smiled as he stared at her, until his phone suddenly rang and the two of them finally came to.
Shehnaaz immediately lowered her head to look at her phone and realised it wasn’t her own ringtone.
Parth froze and saw it was his phone.
It was his high school classmate calling.
Parth rose and nodded at Shehnaaz, “Sana, I’m going to take a call.”
Shehnaaz tilted her head, “Please go ahead.”
The dessert shop was actually quite quiet inside and although there was no explicit banning of phone calls, it
wouldn’t do to disrupt the quiet. Parth took his phone and went outside.
“Class Rep? What are you doing right now?” The male classmate’s voice traveled from the other end of the line.
“It’s you.” Parth smiled and put his hand into his trouser pocket, “Why did you suddenly think to call me?”
“The thing is, Shefali came from Z City to see us and invited a couple high school classmates for karaoke. Everyone was saying how we can’t be missing Class Rep, so I decided volunteer calling you.” That male classmate was very enthused, “Class Rep, everyone is watching me, can you
give me some decency? We’re also graduating soon and everyone will be parting ways, let’s meet up?”
Parth knew that Shefali loved crowds
and was friendly with everyone in high school. That’s why she could amass so many classmates for karaoke with one call. He turned and watched Shehnaaz through the large glass windows of the dessert shop. She still had her head propped on her hand, but wasn’t stirring her ice cream anymore.
“…How long are you guys staying for, I’ll have to see if I have time.” Parth didn’t really want to leave Shehnaaz and hesitated.
“Class Rep! Just come! What are you doing? If you’re with other classmates, just have them come too! Shefali is
treating us, she said the more the merrier!”
Parth saw that Shehnaaz was bored and wanted to take her out, so he agreed, “Ok, Where are you guys? Send me the address.”
The classmate knew that Parth had a car and directly sent him the address. Parth received it and saw it was a
hotel not far from campus.
He turned back to the dessert shop and asked Shehnaaz, “Sana, do you want to go to karaoke with me?”
“Huh?” Shehnaaz straightened in her seat, “But I don’t know how to sing.”
“That’s fine, I can sing.” Parth reached out to pull her up, “A few of my high school classmates are singing karaoke
near campus and invited me, let’s go together.”
As soon as Shehnaaz heard him mentioned high school classmates, Shehnaaz immediately thought of how she ran into Shefali on campus today.
She was almost certainly in the group at karaoke. Shehnaaz didn’t want to mingle with Parth’s classmates. They were classmates and she wasn’t part of the group, so it would be awkward being a stranger amongst them. Of course, the more pressing reason Shehnaaz didn’t want to think about was that she was subconsciously aversive to seeing Shefali. Everytime
this woman used the excuse of”true bros” to desperately cover up her feelings towards Parth, Shehnaaz felt
pity for her.
Just admit if you like him, what was there to be shy about?
Parth was a gentleman and wouldn’t raise a ruckus…
Shehnaaz was contemptuous, but merely thought about it and didn’t say anything out loud. She rose and held her phone as she shook her head in refusal, “If it’s a high school reunion, I’m not going to interrupt. You go, and remember to come back early.” She reached out and gently brushed at
Parth’s clothes, like there was dirt on them.
In reality, the dessert shop was actually very clean and Parth’s snow white T-shirt didn’t have anything on it.
Parth didn’t persist in convincing her and held her hand as they walked outside, “I’ll take you back first, then
go see them. These guys always party hard and I hope they won’t overdo it today.”
Shehnaaz smiled without saying anything and slowly walked back to her dorm. She watched Parth’s car
disappear and even waved at it. Once she was back at the dorm, her roommates were shocked to see her.
“Why are you back so early? It’s not even nine yet?”
Shehnaaz took her clothes to the bathroom to shower and answered, “Parth had a high school gathering, he had to go.”
“Hehehe, high school gathering, out university classmates haven’t gathered yet…” Little Temptress snickered and
continued browsing Weibo for the latest news. Shehnaaz showered and crawled into her own bed. She carried her laptop and wore her headphones as she edited her thesis.
Before she knew it, it was already almost 11pm and nearly lights out in the dorm when she remembered to check her phone. Parth hadn’t texted her.
At the same time in the hotel garden, Shefali had called out Parth from the private karaoke room and finally mustered the courage to tell him,
“Parth, there’s something I’ve waited six years, and finally dare to tell you.”
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I hope you enjoy reading it.
Love you all.