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This is a long-ass chapter so make sure you have your coffee right by your side!
Chapter Nineteen
Manas called me in the evening that day. "I just heard," he whispered. He didn't have to say anything else. I didn't want him to. What was the point of any of it anyway now, when he hadn't been here throughout the day? Throughout the day that was possibly the second hardest of my life.
"Riddhi, listen to me, I just heard about it. Now when can you meet me?"
"I... I can't," I whispered.
"What? Of course, you can. Riddhi, come, tell me when can you meet me, please? I want to be here." I could hear the strain in his voice but I didn't care. He wasn't there. He was supposed to be there, and he wasn't there!
"No, I can't. I have work to catch up on," I added.
He tutted. "Riddhi, please. I am so sorry I wasn't there today, but please."
I didn't reply. What was I supposed to? That I'm sure you had more things to do until wait till 5 in the evening to call me? Especially after you stayed the night at my place and knew perfectly well what happened yesterday? Sure, I forgive you. You of course had important things to do. I understand.
"Riddhi, please don't do this. Come on, meet me at the diner, please? I have a shift today that I can't get out of."
I heaved a sigh. I didn't really have the strength today to deal with any more drama. Reluctantly, I held my left wrist and fingered the scars from that one night. I didn't want a repeat of that either. I didn't want to be that girl who couldn't handle the stress and ended up taking the easy way out. I didn't want to be that girl.
"I know you're still there," he whispered. "Please come, Riddhi."
"Fine, I'll ask Di to drop me," I sighed and nodded.
"Don't mind. I'll come and pick you up."
I nodded once again, even though he couldn't see me. "Okay."
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Manas reached my house half an hour later. I informed Mom it was just a study date and I wanted to help him out with the upcoming boards. She didn't mind, which was strange. My mother never really trusted boys as easily as she trusted him. In fact, everyone in my family did, and that was just strange.
When we arrived at his diner, he had to handle some things at the counter before he could join me properly. When he did arrive, he brought two burgers and some fries with him.
"Chef's compliments," he winked. I tried to muster up a smile but all I could do was finger the scars on my wrist.
"What happened, Riddhi?" he whispered.
"I got tortured at the school today and you weren't there," I answered. He winced but I just turned towards the burger. The chefs here made delicious food. I had only had the burgers once and they had been delicious.
"I'm just... I'm sorry," he said as he put the plate of fries in front of me. Reluctantly, I picked one up, dipped it in ketchup and had it.
"Where were you?" I finally asked.
"I... I had fallen asleep. I was too worried to do it last night," he answered, averting my eyes.
"You're lying." I squinted my eyes at him. He raised his left brow at me suggestively as his lower lip quivered. Yes, he was definitely lying now. This is what he always did when he lied. First he would avert his eyes like everyone else, and then his lower lip would quiver when someone would question him. Classic Manas. I wondered if he even knew that's how he reacted.
"No, I'm not," he said and averted his eyes once again.
"Why don't you look at me and say that, then?" I challenged. He puckered his lips and shook his head. Before either of us could say anything else, he got called back to the counter.
"I'll be back in a minute. Just wait for me, okay?" With that, he rushed off to the counter, not giving any heed to what I had to say. What if I didn't want to wait for him? I was a hurricane and I didn't have the strength to stop and wait for him anymore. Not when he wanted to lie to me.
So as soon as he went to the store room, I got up and left, leaving the food uneaten behind me.
I hailed a cab to drop me home. When I was inside, I shut myself inside my room. When anyone came to disturb me, I sent them away saying I wanted to study. If only they knew how much of it was I actually doing...
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Days passed since that incident. Manas tried to talk to me but I didn't have the heart to do that anymore. If he couldn't tell me what was happening with him, then I couldn't discuss with him what was happening with me. Isha and Lia asked me multiple times to talk to him but I shook my head.
"He sent you, didn't he? Just tell him that he can either come clean or stay away."
After a month, they stopped bothering me with it.
A week later, we were about to have our finals. I wondered how Manas was doing. He was never a great student but I had helped him pull his scores up by a great deal. I wondered how he was handling it. I promised myself that if he would come and ask me for help, then I wouldn't tell him no. But he never did. Instead, he hung out with Sanya sometimes. That girl who gave my phone number to her brother's friend? Yeah, that bitch. I couldn't deal with that now.
So instead, I focused on my studies. Boards were important and scoring good in them was all that mattered. The year ahead was going to be tough and I didn't know how would it be. Most of us were going to a different school now. We wanted to take Commerce while Isha and Lia wanted Science. So Manas, Naman, Kush, Saina, Jai, me — basically almost all of us — were going to a different school. Our current school only had Science so Isha and Lia would be the only ones staying back. This would mean seeing them less, but I didn't know if I could deal with that. Going to a new school was bound to be hard. I had no idea how I would handle watching Manas hang out with Sanya instead. That would be... I don't even have a word for that.
No, it didn't matter. A new school meant new people. I could befriend so many of them. It would be alright. It would all be alright. I had hope.
Only, I didn't.
After school ended, I was just on my way back to the bus when an eleventh grader stopped me.
"Riddhika, are you free?" she asked. "I have something important to talk about."
"Important?" I raised my eyebrows. I didn't know this girl, except maybe her name. That too, I wasn't sure about. I barely interacted with seniors. All of the boys seemed to want the same thing, and all of the girls seemed to want to downgrade me. Not a happy sight. I stayed away most of the time.
"What is it?" I asked in return. She led me to a quiet corner in the building. My heart began to race. What was happening? Was she about to do the same thing that Aisha did? Tears I didn't know I had been holding back came to my eyes. I blinked them away and followed her with cautious steps. I wished I had brought Lia or Isha with me but they were already in their own buses. I could have brought Manas, had he bothered to hangout with me instead of with that stupid Sanya. They would have been a proof that nothing happened here, if in case it did.
For a moment both of us stood in silence. I waited for her to begin so that I could either stay or make a run for it — whichever way the need arose.
"Do you know Vivek?" she finally asked. I looked at her with squinted eyes. Did I know anyone by that name? I couldn't remember a single soul.
"I'm sorry, who?" I was confused as to what this was about. Was she about to ask me to befriend some guy who desperately liked me, or what? Because honestly, I was tired of that business. I had boards to think about not guys I didn't even know about.
"Vivek," she repeated.
"Vivek? Hmm, no... The name doesn't ring any bells," I told her.
"I talked to him on Facebook yesterday," she replied. "I mean, we often talk over there. He lives a few blocks from your house and has something very important to talk to you about."
"And whatever that something important is, you wouldn't be telling me about it, by any chance, would you?" I castigated. I could feel the distaste in my voice. I hoped she felt it too, because this was such a classic guy move. Get some other girl to talk for your sake. She is bound to get the girl of your dreams to talk back to you. Ha! What did boys really think of us?
She shook her head. A smirk plastered on her face. "I don't think I even know it," she added. Within an instant I knew something was up. Something wrong that I needed to get away from.
"Well, in that case, I'm not about to meet a stranger who lives a few blocks away only because you tell me to. I don't even know who you are. Tell him I'm not interested," I informed her nonchalantly. She might think that made me rude but really, it wasn't like I cared in that moment. I never understood how girls could help boys in hurting their own brethren this way but it was only beginning to get on my nerves now.
So I turned around to leave. I didn't have time to think about or be worried with stupid guy trouble at that time. And I certainly didn't want to miss my bus over that!
"Listen," she called after me. "He'll send you a friend request. Just accept it, okay?"
I turned back to tell her I wasn't interested, but she had already turned around to go herself. I shook my head. Not worth my time. None of this was.
That night, while I was casually scrolling through my news feed, I got his friend request. I had just taken a break from studying.
My first reaction was to decline the request. But then I figured that he would just send it to me again and again until I accepted. So, I decided to just leave it that way, unaccepted, un-declined.
However, it wasn't that easy. A few minutes of my scrolling later, that same girl I had talked to today messaged me. Apparently, I had accepted her request a long time ago. I just didn't remember. Her name was Ashi Goel.
"Riddhika, accept Vivek's request. Please," Ashi messaged me.
"Why should I? What's the point?" I wrote back.
"Riddhika, it really is important. Why don't you understand anything!" her next message read.
"Because you didn't tell me anything!" I entered.
"Accept it."
"Look, stop ordering me around," I began. "And tell him to message me whatever it is. If I deem it important, only then will I accept that request."
"Brat!"
That message ticked me off. How was I a brat when she wasn't ready to explain to me what the situation was? Hadn't she seen enough happen to me already? How was I a brat if I didn't want to talk to a random boy?
So I didn't reply. If that Vivek guy would message me anything about how he likes me and all that crap, I would make sure to block him. Along with Ashi. I wasn't about to sit around and be called names by this bitch of a girl anyway!
"Hiii," Vivek messaged me two minutes later. I didn't respond.
"Hiiiiiii," he messaged me again. I yet didn't reply.
"Hellooooo," he sent this time. I stayed put.
"Helloooooooo," he wrote. Irritated by his constant messages, I decided to finally message him back.
"Who are you?" I sent my first message.
"I am Amit friend," he wrote back.
"And what am I supposed to do about that?" I questioned. Just this name made me hate this person a lot. I wanted nothing to do with that Amit or any of his friends. The boy was a living disaster. Along with his friend, Sanya.
"I just let you know Amit really miss you. He agree it was stupid mistake and he is sorry. Please unblock him and take him back," his next message read. For a good whole minute, I stared at the screen, not able to believe what on earth was I reading. What did this boy mean by 'take him back'? It wasn't like I had him with me earlier.
"Wtf! What the hell are you talking about? I don't even know this Amit of yours!" I furiously wrote back.
"Please do not act like this," he requested. "You are his girlfriend and even though you have every right to be angry at him, do not do this to him. He broke without you."
I stared at the screen once again. I couldn't believe the boys in this town. They called me a slut, degraded my dignity in every possible way, and yet had the nerves to do even more. What good did this Amit get after telling everyone I was his girlfriend? His, that too, his!
And why on earth did his friend with a crappy English have to message me?
"Dude, I'm so not his girlfriend," I told him as I tried to defend what little honour I had left. "Tell him to stop spreading fake things about me. Tell him to man up and speak the truth — that I don't even know him! And that I don't fucking care about him!"
He started to type something in reply. I didn't wait for his reply as I remembered something and started to type that too.
"Oh and don't forget to inform him to STOP BOTHERING MY FRIENDS, too!" I exclaimed.
After that, before he could send me a reply, I quickly went to his profile and blocked the boy. With a boiling rage within me, I shut the laptop down as I went outside for a walk. This was too much, why did boys always have to act this way with girls?
A not so happy sight greeted me outside either. I found Manas and Sanya walking right in front of my house, laughing with no care in the world. Did they not have boards like me? In his hand, he held a bag from his diner. Was he taking food to his place now, too? He never brought anything to mine. What was wrong with him? Why was he even doing this, when he knew what she had done? How could he?
I simply stood at the door and watched them pass by. Once they had crossed my place, he turned around to look at me. Our eyes locked but I simply shook my head and went inside. Whatever he was playing at here, I didn't want to be a part of any of that.
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A few days after that, I began to get random calls from strangers. Messages from people I had never heard of, who were complete strangers to me.
There was one boy who lived a few houses away. We often met on our bus stop even though he went to a different school. We rarely ever talked and every time we did, he seemed to be a fine guy. So six months earlier, when he had sent me a request, I had accepted his. We would sometimes talk online too, if I was free enough to chat.
This happened right after the boards. Until the eleventh grade began, we were on a permanent vacation. There was really nothing to do all day but stalk celebrities online and watch TV shows and movies all the time.
"You know that your number is spreading to every boy in the city, don't you?" he messaged me that day.
"Yeah?" I replied sadly. It was true. Many people had it.
"Yes, last night when I was out with friends, a new group had joined us. One of the boys asked me if I wanted your number," he added. "I told him no. The others took it."
The message shocked me. I hadn't expected such a thing to happen. Who even got it in the first place? And how did that person get it? And why would anyone do something like this? What would you even get by doing any of that?
"Just tell everyone that that number is my mother's. They probably won't call after that," I typed back. It was a long shot, but I had no idea what to do.
"I can try," he replied.
That was when I risked to ask him that question I had always wanted to know.
"Do you know who started this phone number spreading business?" I asked him. He responded with a sweaty smile emoticon.
"I thought you knew by now," he wrote.
I didn't. I waited for him to add something more. A minute later, he did.
"It was Amit Dhingra. That guy in a local school. He got it from a girl in your school."
It didn't take me more than a minute to figure out who that girl would be. Why, it was Sanya, of course! She was the only one who knew anything about this. Or who Amit was, for that matter. Perhaps, when I had considered to tell her about all of this drama, I had taken her to be a loyal friend. Someone who would help me, and not stab me like all the other people. When I had sought her help, I had assumed she would help me like a friend. None of this had struck me back when I had asked her to gather information.
Sanya had spilled her beans, all of them. Not just for me, but for Harsha too. Because of her, things became a living disaster for me. I hated her. I hated her terribly.
And Manas was hanging out with her? Was he really that shady to want to do that?
When I read that last message from this boy, all that I wanted to do was go up to her house and make her apologize to me. I wanted to go to Manas's place and make him beg for mercy. But I didn't. I couldn't stoop to their level.
Trying to ease myself up, I figured I could ask Raj for help again. It was for the best, after all. He was my cousin. He helped me once. Wouldn't he help me again?
I had no idea back then that I didn't want to know the answer to that.
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A/n: What do you think of this second to last chapter? (Yep, we're that close to an end!) Do let me know in the comments below. And don't forget to vote if you liked it. :)