Two days passed since the whole wedding drama and everyone was back to their normal routines. They have to attend classes no matter what. Medical colleges don't give much time to relax, anyway.
But something changed. Aaradhya's confidence. She understood that standing up for herself gave her much more satisfaction than agreeing to everything others said. And the only reason for this was Abhimanyu.
She has decided to correct her mistake. She is not gonna act coward and avoid him. He was upset with her. He never talked to her unless it was something important. She was the one to push him away, she will be the one to bring everything back to normal.
It took her two days to decide this. And the best way to start a conversation with him was with a 'thank you.' So she approached him as he was sitting in the canteen scrolling through his phone.
"Hii," she said sitting on the chair next to him.
He looked at her from his phone and raised his eyebrows.
"What happened? Is Teena ok?" he asked.
"Yes, she is alright," she answered.
"Ok," he said again shifting his focus to his phone.
She sat there for a minute to gather the courage to talk to him again.
"I wanted to say thank you," she said after sometime.
He just looked at her face and nodded and then again shifted his focus to his phone.
"You don't wanna know for what I am thanking you," she asked again. She wanted the conversation to go on.
"Honestly, Aaradhya I don't care. I helped you just because you were my friend once. As I told you earlier, I can have losers as my friend but not cowards. So now when everything is back to normal, I don't want to do anything with you," Abhi said standing up and went outside the canteen.
"Abhi.." he heard Aaradhya calling him running towards him in the corridor.
"What?" he stopped and asked.
"I am not a coward," she said.
"Yeah, you are very brave. May I leave now?" he said in a bored tone.
"I want us to become normal. As we were before," she said in a small voice.
"So that after a week you realise that being friends with me is a sin and avoid me like a disease. No thank you very much. I am fine this way," he said.
"I won't do that. I promise," she said hurriedly.
"Promises are mend to be broken, Aaradhya. I don't trust you now," he said moving beside her.
"What should I do to earn your trust," she asked stopping him by holding his hand.
"Earn it," he said taking out his hand out of her grasp and left.
Aaradhya felt like crying. He was right. She cannot just leave his life whenever she wants and enter like that. She has to earn his trust. But how?
***************************
Aaradhya exhausted herself by thinking ways to earn his trust and then decided to study for sometime. They have their practical tomorrow, she needs to prepare herself for that. As she opened the book a dried flower came to her view. The flower Abhi has sent her when she was mad at him.
He sent her flowers everyday. She will do the same. Maybe he will like it.
***********************
Abhi was engrossed in his thoughts when his phone rang. It was an unknown number.
"Hello," he said answering the call.
"Hello Sir. I am standing outside your hostel. There is a delivery for you," the man on the other side said.
Dilevery? But he did not order anything. Nevertheless, he went downstairs towards the hostel gate and found a man standing with a beautiful bouquet in his hand.
He realised almost immediately that it must be Aaradhya. He took the bouquet and went to his room. There was a card in it which said 'Sorry.' He was thankful that Anuj was not in the room now. Because he was blushing. He tried hard not to but failed. It was the first time someone has given him flowers. Usually he was the one to give it to girls. He had received many gifts in his life but most of them were gadgets or electronic devices.
Not that he was complaining. He found it cute and kept the bouquet in his almirah. But he was not going to give up this easily. He was hurt by Aaradhya's behaviour that day. He don't want to face something like that again. He was sure that he cannot be 'just friends,' with Aaradhya. And if their relationship has to grow he has to ensure that she will stand with him when needed.
*********************
Abhimanyu sat on the last bench in the class as usual. He sat in the middle bench when he wanted to sit with Aaradhya but from the last few days he preferred sitting at last only.
"Anuj would you please exchange your seat with me?" came a voice he knows too well.
"Ye.. Yeah?" he said looking at Abhi and Ishita.
He wanted Abhi to say something but Abhi behaved like he did not listened anything.
"I said can I please exchange the seat with you?" she asked again a little louder.
"Ok," he said quietly getting up.
As Ishita was about to come and sit there, Aaradhya appeared from nowhere and sat beside Abhi.
"What the... Aaradhya I asked him to get up. I want to sit there," Ishita said.
"I need to discuss some topics with him. You can sit with him tomorrow," Aaradhya said in a sweet tone.
"Abhi tell her to get up. I was the one to ask Anuj to get up. I also want to discuss something," Ishita said looking at him.
She has promised herself that she will not run after him anymore but she observed that Aaradhya and Abhi were not in good terms from the last few days. So what's the harm in trying once.
Aaradhya looked at Abhi with a challenging gaze.
"Sorry Ishita. We will discuss whatever you want after the class," Abhi said looking at her.
Ishita did not say anything and left. Aaradhya smiled satisfactorily.
"Why did you do that?" Abhi asked.
"What?" Aaradhya asked.
"You knew she wanted to sit here," he said.
"So? Let me be very clear Abhimanyu. I don't like it when you talk to her. Even a blind can see that she likes you. I have no rights to tell her to stay away from you. But you better stay away from her. Atharva too sits alone. Hope you understand," she said and left as the professor entered. She went to sit with Tanu for the rest of the class.
What did she just do? Did she indirectly tell Abhi that she has rights on him. And did she wanted to make him jealous by taking Atharva's name. Whatever it was, Abhi liked it. He did not show it but he loved this Aaradhya. This was the confidence he needed to see in her. He tried not to smile but found himself smiling for the rest of the class.
*****************************
"What are you doing here?" Yuvraj asked as he opened the door of his flat. He was shocked to see Tanu, standing with some fruits in her hand.
"I heard you were not well, so I thought to.... you know..... visit you," she said awkwardly.
She did not find him today in the orphanage today. So she asked the other volunteers about him. They told her he was having a fever. She has been restless till then. She wanted to see him immediately. She literally ran towards his flat after returning from the orphange.
"There was no need for this. I can manage," Yuvraj said gesturing her to come inside.
"It's not a problem. I was free so I thought to visit you," she said.
"Ok. You want anything. Tea, coffee ?" he asked.
"No! You are not well. You should rest," she said. As she kept the fruits on the table the bell rang. Yuvraj went and came after five minutes with some packed things.
"What's this?" she asked.
"Pizza. You want to eat it?" he asked.
"Pizza? Why would you order that when you are not well?" she asked.
"Act... Actually, my cook is on leave for two days and I did not felt like cooking. So..." he said scratching his head.
"So, you ordered this? Are you an idiot? You are a medical student yourself. Don't you know how unhealthy it is," she said.
"Yeah, Sorry," he said sitting on the sofa. He has no power to argue with her now. He was sick and hungry.
He started unpacking the food to eat it. He has to eat his medicines after that too.
"Are you deaf too? I just said you cannot eat it," Tanu said taking it away from him.
"I am feeling tired. I don't want to cook. Give it back," he said.
"I'll cook something for you. Wait," she said running towards the kitchen.
He followed her immediately.
"You don't need to do that, Tanu. I think you should leave. I am used to this live like this," Yuvraj said stopping her. He don't want anyone to help him. He has been living like this and he can keep living like this.
"Then change your lifestyle," Tanu said opening the refrigerator and taking out the vegetables.
"I don't like changes. Keep that back and leave. I'll manage," he said again.
"It's your problem if you don't like changes. Just accept it. And I won't poison you. Go and sit there quietly. You eat capsicum, right?" she asked picking up a knife.
"Don't add too much pepper," he said and left accepting his defeat.
It was impossible to stop this girl from doing what she wants. Though he did not wanted her to help him but somewhere he liked it.
After twenty minutes he was served with chappatis and fried potato capsicum. The taste was good. After he was finished eating, she gave him his medicines and asked him not to order anything from outside. She told him, she will come again tomorrow morning and cook the breakfast. He denied and she denied his denial.
After she left, Yuvraj found himself falling a little more for her. He don't remember when anyone has shown this much care for him last time. He just wondered how he got so lucky to meet a girl like Tanu in this life.