'Hi!', Shrishti blurted out and Arpit let out a shout. He turned around clutching his chest. She giggled.
'What are you doing here?', he asked, looking spooked.
She pouted playfully. 'What? No good morning or hello, how are you? I am hurt.'
Arpit rolled his eyes. 'Hello? How are you? I am fine. Thank you.', he deadpanned.
She chuckled. 'What are you doing?' She asked as she looked at him standing next to his cycle. He gave his cycle a look and then he looked at her with a bright smile. 'This is my car! I am going to office!'
Now it was her turn to roll her eyes.
'What do you think I am doing, Pari? Its Monday! I am going to college.'
'But don't you normally go with me in the car?'
'Yes, but I want to cycle. I miss going to college on cycle.'
'Fine. Then I will come with you too.'
'What? No way!', he looked at her unamused. 'Don't you remember Saturday? You fell down on the highway!'
'That was because of that jerk who drove wrong.', she cried out before pouting. 'Come on. Let me come with you. Please. If you can go to school on cycle, then why can't I? Please!'
He sighed. 'Fine. Lets go. But remember it is long distance. Almost half an hour of non stop cycling. Will you be able to do it?'
'I don't know. But I want to try and see.'
'Ok. Get your cycle out. Lets go. We will be late if we delayed it any longer!'
Half an hour later, Arpit winced as Shrishti wailed loudly. 'Aayiiiii! Ouch! It pains!'
He chuckled and got a glare from her as they parked their cycles.
'My thighs are burning.', she wailed as bent her knees slightly while trying to walk. He burst out laughing at that.
Then suddenly, he pointed towards something and she turned to see a bus come to stop at the bus stop opposite the college and in one of the window seats sat Raghav. They waved at him and he waved back. His course began today and his college was two bus stops away from their college. The bus left and Shrishti sighed.
'Maybe I should also come to college by bus.', she mused, looking at the bus, not realising that she blurted it out loudly.
'Oh man! Don't tell me you are still hung up on Sharad!', came an annoying voice and she rolled her eyes. She turned to see Pratik parking his bike nearby.
'How is the bus connected to Sharad?', Arpit asked.
Pratik scoffed. 'Don't you know? Sharad comes to college in the bus.'
Shrishti remained silent. She knew that. She also knew that Lekha also came to college on bus and that was another thing Sharad and Lekha bonded on, even though both came from different directions, so they travelled in different buses.
'Well.... She did not want to go on bus for your beloved Sharad.', Arpit retorted. 'She wanted it because....', he trailed off as Shrishti grabbed his arm. She gave Pratik a glare. 'It is none of your business, why I want to go on the bus.'
She turned and looked at Arpit with sternness. 'Who is he that we are giving him a justification? He is nobody important! Lets go!' He sighed and nodded. She winced as she began to walk and he right away grabbed her left elbow to support her while he walked on her left side. As she limped to the gate, suddenly she stumbled, falling to the right side. Despite Arpit's hand holding her left arm, she still swayed to the other side and closed her eyes, sure she would reach the floor and even drag Arpit with her. But the floor never met her as she fell into someone.
Shrishti seemed to have collided with someone and the person grabbed her arm.
Automatically a name came out of her lips. 'Raghav.'
She heard Arpit scoff. 'We wish. Its Sharad.' Shrishti's eyes opened wide just as Arpit tugged her arm and she righted herself, leaning on Arpit while apologising. She would rather have rely on Arpit than on Sharad. Who knows what his friends would say!
Right on cue, came a comment. 'Oh man! You are so cheap! He rejects you and yet you try all these tricks to woo him! How cheap are you! How low can you get!'
'Enough!', Arpit roared. 'Don't you dare say another bad thing about Pari!'
'Why? You like her?', Pratik asked. Shrishti sighed in annoyance. She realised that there was a crowd gathering around them. Most of them were her classmates. Dammit!
Pratik continued to ramble, 'You are dating Daljeet while going crazy for Shrishti here? You are a two timing cheat, aren't you?'
'Oye!' came a loud shout and Shrishti, Sharad, Arpit and Pratik turned to see Daljeet storming over to them.
'Daljeet! Come. Have a look! Your boyfriend is cheating on you!', Pratik looked excited as if he was eager to see Daljeet break up with Arpit. Shrishti frowned till she noticed Kabir and Ronnie standing behind Pratik. Oh. She had forgotten. Kabir liked Daljeet. Of course, Pratik wanted to break those two up! As far as Pratik was concerned, his friends were the best and everyone should fawn over Kabir and Sharad. Pratik actually believed that girls would happily break up with their boyfriends if either Sharad or Kabir showed interest in them. What a pretentious prick!
Daljeet came to stop in front of Pratik and scoffed. 'Stop badmouthing my best friend and my boyfriend! Is this all you got? Shri is limping and my boyfriend is helping her like a friend should, LIKE A GOOD HUMAN SHOULD. And you are accusing him of cheating? Are you blind? Or are you just plain old DUMB?' She shook her head in disbelief. 'You are honestly the most moronic guy, I have ever met in my whole life!'
Having said her peace, Daljeet turned to Shrishti and winced. 'Are you ok?'
Shrishti pouted and said loudly, just so that others would know what happened instead of believing whatever nonsense Pratik was spewing, 'I decided to come to college on cycle for the first time.'
Daljeet's eyes widened and then she began to laugh loudly. Shrishti's pout became bigger. Daljeet's laughter died and she shook her head. 'Silly girl! Your thighs are sore, aren't they? They are screaming in pain, aren't they?'
Shrishti continued to pout as she nodded. Daljeet laughed again but put her arm around Shrishti's waist from her right and nodded to Arpit. 'Lets help her till the class. She will need both of us.' Arpit nodded and helped Shrishti walk. Shrishti walked as slowly as possible, wincing every two steps, her friends chuckling beside her.
Shrishti was feeling better by the time the classes for the day ended. So she decided to go to the library without her friends' help. She needed a book that her Teacher recommended when Shrishti realised that she could not understand certain concept and needed more clarification and went to the Teacher asking explanation. Shrishti hoped reading the book was enough. She did not want to go back and ask the Teacher again for help. It was embarrassing. Maybe she should ask Divya if she did not understand.
After a while, with the library book in her hand, Shrishti descended down the stairs of the college corridor. She came to a stop suddenly when she saw Sharad standing there on the stairs. Oh no. What was he doing here? Forget that. That's irrelevant. Relevant was the fact that she would have to pass him to get down. What if someone saw her while she walked past him? She did not want to be accused of being a stalker. He had yet to notice her so she could turn around and walk away. But what to do after walking away? There was only way down and that was the stairs. She needed to get down to cafeteria where her friends were waiting for another round of Economics notes checking session. There was no other option. She had to walk across him.
With a sigh, Shrishti got down the stairs. She was doomed today. First the bus thing, then colliding into Sharad and now meeting him here! She should have checked her horoscope before getting out of the house today. Just then Sharad looked up.
'Oh good. You are here.'
'Huh?', Shrishti stared at him with confusion. Did that mean he was waiting for her here? Why? What for? What did he want?
'I ..... needed to talk to you.', Sharad looked hesitant.
'I don't.', she blurted out, still wide eyed and confused.
'But...?'
'Your friends will once again accuse me of bad things and defame me if I talked to you. So I am out of here!', she told him and tried to walk past him. Suddenly her arm was grabbed. She froze for few seconds before whirling and wrenching her arm away from his grip.
'Don't touch me.', she hissed, her eyes spitting fire at Sharad. Sharad was clearly surprised by her harsh reaction as he raised his hands while looking at her with wide eyes. She turned around and stormed away.
Shrishti did not know why she was so angry. A slight anger at being touched without consent was normal. But why was she fuming so much? It took her a while to realise. She was not angry at Sharad for grabbing her arm. She was angry because now he wanted to talk to her. For years, she yearned for one glance of him and he never even deigned her that. But now suddenly, he wanted to talk to her. Why? Why not keep ignoring her existence as he did for so many years?
Shrishti did not mind that he rejected her in the past. That was his right. He had every right to accept or reject someone. No! Her anger was over the fact that this was the time he chose to talk to her.
Just as she reached the corridor towards the canteen, Shrishti heard footsteps behind her and she looked behind to see Sharad jogging towards her. Oh no! What did he want now?
'Listen.', he blurted out, the moment he came to stop in front of her, 'Please. I just wanted to talk to you. Just a little. Please, give me a chance.'
She sighed and then nodded. 'Fine. What is it?'
'I .... I want to start over.'
'Huh? Start over what?'
'I mean.... I want us to forget the past.'
'I.... I am still confused? I guess?'
Sharad huffed, looking annoyed at having to explain. 'Can we please forget the fact that you had a crush on me and pretend that it never happened?'
She shrugged. 'I am already doing it.' She turned and walked away.
'What?', came his reaction. She turned to see him look confused. She frowned. 'I said I already forgot about you. Totally.'
He looked shell shocked by her response. She shook her head. Weird fellow! She turned to walk away.
'Wait!', came his voice.
She sighed. Now what? He walked upto her and stood next to her. 'Then.... Today morning, your comment about bus....'
She stared at him with annoyance. 'You do know that there are other people that also travel in bus. Some of them are even our classmates.'
'Uh.....' He looked embarrassed now.
She huffed. 'Look! I get it. Lets put the past to bed. Ok? I have no interest in you. You have no interest in me. Lets move on. Ok?'
He nodded, a frown on his face, as if he was confused. She let him be and walked away. What a weirdo! How the heck did she even like this guy? She had no idea.
After few steps of walking, she stopped and turned. She narrowed her eyes and spoke up, 'You know.... I was wondering.' Sharad perked up at her words.
'Can you do me a favour?'
His eyes widened and suddenly he looked wary. She realised he assumed she was going to try and get closer to him. She ignored his reaction and said, 'Can you tell your friends to stop harassing me with your name? I have had no interest in you since Valentines Day and this nonsense of theirs is really irritating me.'
'Err.... Ok.... Sure.'
'Thank you.'
She turned and walked away, annoyed and angry. Why did he have to come in front of her and remind her of her stupidity of falling for him?