"WHAT THE FU..." I clamped my palm on my swearing mouth, staring wide eyed at the scene in front of me once I managed to push past through the crowd of teenagers in front of St.Peter's. Sanaya, Vidushi and Tanya who stood beside me too were gaping at the scene.
Dhurv and Parth were trying to pull apart a furious Randhir—with blood oozing out of a cut beneath his lower lip— from a fairly well built boy. Randhir had his hold tight over that boy's collar and was trying to punch him vigorously. The boy too had gripped Randhir hard by his collar and was being held back by few other boys. Had they not been held apart, I was sure St.Peter's would have experienced a blood bath before the start of the championship.
"YOU MOTHERF**KER! I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!" I saw Randhir yelling and trying to break apart from Parth and Dhruv. Dhruv was trying to calm him down but his eyes had gone blood shot in anger. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED IN MATTER OF MINUTES?
I felt myself running towards them and in seconds I had grabbed Randhir's shoulders and was pulling him hard from that boy—who had come to my vision then but I didn't know whether I should ponder over the fact that he seemed ridiculously known to me or stop Randhir from beating the shit out of him, though the fight would injure Randhir too. That boy was huge for God's sake!
"Leave him Randhir! Stop making a scene!" I screamed and I felt Randhir's muscles relaxing under my touch. He shot a glare at me by turning back and released that boy's collar hard with a jerk, which made him stumble back a few steps with the gang of people holding him. Woah. I wonder how strong he has to be to do that. My inner self drooled over Randhir's strength.
"Yeah you better listen to your missy bro!" The boy who had attacked Randhir bellowed while smirking at me. He straightened himself and checked me out from tip to toe before licking his bloody lips. I squirmed under his nasty stare. Somehow, his stare seemed vicious, so did his aura.
In a blink, a punch landed on his jaw, making him fall flat on the ground while clutching his mouth. I gasped and tried to hold Randhir back who was snorting like a bull in anger then. He had punched him fair and square and was on the verge of pouncing on that boy.
"Randhir please.."
"I am going to kill that bastard!" He seethed and tried to unclasp my hold. I had wrapped my arms around his stomach and my front was pasted against his back. I hugged him tighter as he tried to jerk me off his back.
"Randhir calm down.. We don't want to create any more trouble.." Parth bellowed while clutching his left shoulder and Dhruv, the other one. I heard Sanaya and Vidushi screaming in top of their voice for everyone to calm down.
He relaxed under my hold after a moment and turned towards me. His intense eyes drowned into my own pleading widened orbs. His eyes held fringes of red in the corners which made me shiver under his gaze. His knuckles brushed my length of arm and grabbed my palms before seperating them from his body. He gave me a one last heated glance and picked his bag up and sprinted inside the school campus. The crowd of students turned their attention at me and eyed me as if I had grown two heads, making me fluster. I huffed a sigh and turned to see Parth and Dhruv giving each other known glances. I walked towards them while scratching my palm, only to wince feeling some fluid oozing out of a small wound from my index finger. I brushed away the slight hurt and faced them.
"What the hell was that Parth? How did this happen?" I asked breathlessly. The girls stood by me with the same query.
"Um.." Parth tried to say something but Dhruv placed his palm on his shoulder, gesturing him to stop. We looked at them with perplexed expressions.
"Sanyukta and everyone.. Please steer clear of that boy okay?" He pointed towards that boy whom Randhir was almost on the verge of killing few moments ago. He was still looking at me with that shameless gaze of his while speaking to some of the other boys. I felt weird jitters through my stomach and immediately darted my gaze away from him.
"Who is he?" Sanaya asked.
"Um.." Parth tried to speak but Dhruv interrupted him again.
"He is..."
"Wait.." We jerked out gaze towards Vidushi who spoke out loud all of a sudden.
"Isn't he.. But what is he doing here?" She scrunched her nose.
Sanaya squinted her gaze at him again and gasped.
"Nooo.... He can't be... Oh god! What is he doing here?" She bellowed, looking shocked all of a sudden.
I groaned.
"Duh. He is a student of St.Peter's of course.. And about the fight.. I am pretty much sure that Randhir will not want to discuss about it..." Aryan chimed in, appearing suddenly from nowhere. He had that smug expression on his face and he spoke while looking at me in the eye. What? Where was that useless fellow even during the fight? Couldn't he help us in stopping Randhir? I felt like his statement was directed towards me.
"Please can somebody enlighten me with his identity?" I ignored him and exclaimed.
"Don't you remember him Sany?" Vidushi asked me looking confused.
"Yeah.. I thought out of all of us, at least you'll recognize him beforehand.." Sanaya spoke, looking thoughful.
Dhruv groaned along with me at that and grabbed my shoulders, making me face him. I looked at him confusingly as he took a deep breath and pulled his eyebrows at me in a questioning manner.
"He is Rehan, Sanyukta. Remember the boy who got expelled for beating Randhir in the ninth standard?" I widened my eyes at him.
NO! That can't be him! Oh god! My mind screamed and I felt a hollow in my stomach.
I vividly remembered that jerk. Damn, how could I even forget that bastard? He had practically ruined my ninth year in school. He was a filthy jerk who couldn't leave me in peace for even a minute. I remembered being paired with him in the chemistry lab and that was the start. He was that bad school bully who even pranked the teacher. He used to deliberately get cosy with me during the classes and the fact that we were mere children then didn't even bother him. His pranks and filthy behavior used to annoy the shit out of me but I was that girl who didn't speak a word when it came to academics. I wanted good grades and the thought that I could easily ask the teacher to change my partner didn't occur to me then. Actually no, it did occur to me at a point but—oh well why bother the miss when I was one of the best students of the school? I thought that she might have had felt like I can't work good in teams. I clearly remembered the time he had replaced the pomegranate juice from my lunch with potassium permanganate solution when we weren't even allowed to touch any chemicals as it was our beginners class for practicals. I took in a small sip and the next moment, I was puking my guts out in the washroom. I had to stay in the hospital for a week— completely down with food poisoning. Seriously, his pranks could kill a person. Mom asked me several times about the reason behind the whole 'me-drinking-potassium permanganate' fiasco but I didn't want to add to her already brimming worries and eventually lied to her, saying that I might have had mistakenly drank some KMNO⁴ accidently (she did NOT believe it though). When I returned to school after getting released from the hospital, rumours were everywhere that Rehan, the bad boy bully of our school was expelled for indulging in a serious fight with someone and he had broken that boy's arm. Truthfully, that news was probably the best rumour I had heard in my life. Few weeks later, I found that the boy Rehan had fought with was none other than my smart-ass archenemy —Randhir Shekhawat. I did feel bad for Randhir genuinely after that though. Indirectly, he acted like my savior, it was just that it costed him—walking around with a plaster in his left arm.
That was the past and I couldn't possibly brood over my dumbass luck more at that moment. I felt like ripping out all my hairs. Why did my life need to take such meandering loops when I start thinking that it might turn out well for me? The only thought in my mind wasn't that. The fight between Randhir and Rehan could possibly be because of the past occurence but what does that has to do with me? Spoke my inner self. Aryan's gaze and taunt which was surely directed towards me did put me on thinking.
I walked till the window of the large dorm room St. Peter's had provided us with and pushed it open. The moment, we arrived at our dorm room, after the huge drama, the beautifully decorated room greeted us. The staffs of St. Peter's who had escorted us till our room told us to feel at home and get ready by six thirty in the evening for the welcome party and then left. The room was large enough to fit in at least ten people at a time. It had two big Bunker beds and the fight to get the bunkers, betwen Sanaya and Vidushi started as soon as we entered the room. A decorated board read 'Welcome to St.Peter's' right on the wall between the two beds. We dumped our luggage on our beds and the big window grabbed my attention instantly. I have weird fetishes about windows, uh never mind. Tanya said that she wanted to go sight seeing and I gazed over at Sanaya and Vidushi who were sitting on their respective beds and posing for selfies. I sighed at them.
"I'll come with you.." I said before walking out of the room and closing the door behind me. I needed fresh air to clear out the haphazard thoughts in my mind.
We walked through the long corridor of the girl's dormitory and descended the staircase, trying to remember the path we had followed to come up.
The school was huge. Huge as in like those snotty—filthy rich schools they show in the movies. I noticed the nameplates of each school participating in the competition over the dorm rooms. That said that Randhir and the guys would stay in the same big rooms as we were provided with in the girl's dorm. Few teachers—probably—walked by us and we smiled warmly and greeted them. Several teams were indulged into talkings in the huge field ground in front of the school building who were easily visible through the huge floor-to-ceiling glass windows of the main hall of the school. I looked back to talk to Tanya but as I turned I was greeted with the then-empty hallway. Where did she go all of a sudden? I shrugged and folded my hands over my chest, deciding to wait for her there.
Suddnely, I felt a tug on my waist from behind me and as I gasped at the touch, a palm slammed on my mouth and dragged me with them. I squirmed and kicked the floor, trying to get out of the strong hold. Oh my god! Is that Rehan? Did he recognize me? Is he going to kill me? He looks dangerous enough to kill now! My inner self kicked in, getting all nonsensical in fear.
"Stop fucking squirming like a squid bimbo!" I sighed as soon as I heard the voice and the word 'Bimbo' suddenly seemed so sexy. Duh.
I turned to face him with a glare as soon as he left me. He had a poker face on and seemed not even a zilch sorry for knocking the air out of my lungs like that.
"Can't you for one single moment behave like a normal human being and stop grabbing me out of nowhere?" I bellowed only to be pushed against a wall by his towering body. His palm found my mouth again as he peeked out of the door while holding me close. Just then I looked around me and noticed that he had dragged me into an empty classroom. I looked over to the thing he was observing so anxiously and a shadow caught my eye.
"Where did she go? I am sure of seeing her standing right there few seconds ago. " The voice from the other side of the door spoke and I had no problem in recognising it. I widened my eyes, feeling scared all over again. It was Rehan's voice and he knew it was me. Randhir's hold on me kept tightening throughout the time Rehan stood outside the door. I could practically feel my lungs going jumpy for oxygen and he had squished me against his chest. The sudden proximity between us was something I had come on terms with and it didn't make me feel uncomfortable until and unless he didn't look at me with his intense orbs. The moment Rehan left the doorway, Randhir huffed a sigh and turned to look at me.
"Once a bimbo always a bimbo.. You should thank me for saving you from that crack head again.." He said, still holding my waist but releasing his palm from my mouth. I breathed air haphazardly.
"Again?" I deadpanned while clutching my heart. He immediately diverted his gaze from me and looked around while scratching his neck. That sign interpreted that he was caught off guard.
"Uh I meant... No.. Not again.. I mean.."
"Stop with the stuttering already! What is wrong with you? Why do I feel like you guys are hiding something from me? Huh?" I groaned pulling him to face me. His eyes locked with my annoyed ones and he sighed. I noticed the blood on his chin and realised that he hadn't used a first aid after the fight. God that boy needed everything to be done for him! Involuntarily, my finger slided through his jawline and wiped away the blood from the corner of his lips. I heard him gasp a little at that. My eyes followed my action lips it landed on his plump full lips. They were slightly swollen and unnaturally pink. I imagined how he could get that brilliant shade of pink lips without even being a girl. They looked soft and I blushed remembering that they were once against my own. That fateful night!
"Ahem.." My trance broke at his voice which made me realise how close we were standing then—in an empty closed classroom with not even a soul around.
"I could give you a ride back to that night, if by any chance you have forgotten how they felt by the way..." I looked up at him with bewilderment. Seriously? How did he turn such corny? He was smirking at me with that unusual gaze of his. I felt my cheeks warm up instantly, realising that I might have had spoken my thoughts out loud.
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TBC