Cigarettes & Peonies

13

"Karanvir has a thar as well!!!!" Kush argued with his twin. Maahi timidly stood alongside them, scared and apprehensive. For a second she thought to make an excuse and take a day off from the college but then she can't stay forever inside her house, she'll have to go to the college anyways. But she can't stand the creepy Karanvir. She didn't know what his problem was, like why on earth was he bothering her like that. She had never ever done anything to wrong him, she doesn't even talks to him. Suddenly the bus honked in the distance and she stiffened. Clasping her bag tightly she waited for her bus to stop near her. The bus smoothly halted close to her and she embarked the bus. Waving at her friend she sat on her usual seat and looked outside the window. It wasn't a bright sunny day for sure. The overcast sky was laden with heavy grey clouds which hung upon the entire city, ready to burst into heavy showers of rain anytime. The wind blew westwards and was cold, it skimmed the foliage which rustled eerily in the near silent downs. She propped her chin in the palm of her hand and gazed at the beautiful city. The sweet smell of recently blossomed wild flowers drifted across the downs, the early morning dew was still fresh upon the blades of grasses and glimmered like tiny diamonds upon the bed of green. Within 10 minutes they had covered the distance between her stop and the bus stop. The majestic downs vanished and now she could see only a large park and distant hills flanking the stop. And unfortunately, her eyes landed on an open wily jeep on which sat her biggest nightmare, THE CREEPY KARANVIR, along with his doltish friends ofcourse. His deep piercing stare hooked on her. She quickly averted her eyes and busied herself in her phone. A minute later she heard a soft tap on her window. Casually looking over she found Akhil- the cute guy, grinning down the window. She courtly slid the window open.
"Yes." she said politely. He beamed from ear to ear cutely. He extended his hand towards the window and she could see something purplish and shiny peeking out from his fist.
"For you." he opened his fist and there was a Cadbury chocolate sitting proudly upon his palm. She quietly shook her head.
"No, thank you." she declined politely. He pouted.
"Please, my little sister has born today and I am giving it to everyone...... please take it." his puppy dog eyes were the star of the show. Although she wanted to refuse but seeing that look in his eyes she kinda felt bad to decline. She nervously extended her fingers and softly took the chocolate from his hand. He grinned joyfully.
"Thanks." she whispered timorously. He smiled and ran back to the creepy Karanvir who was eyeing her with a weird satisfaction. She didn't look at Karanvir for as long as they were on the stop and she had a feeling that he was seriously displeased with that, not that she cared. Half an hour later the bus started and she peacefully listened to some music as the bus sped off to the college.

When the bus screeched to halt on the university's bus stop, the first thing Maahi observed was that Karanvir was walking towards the stop after parking his jeep in the parking lot. She quickly climbed down the bus with vaishali and continued talking randomly with her just to ignore him. A covert peek at her left revealed a pissed off Karanvir and she really couldn't assess why the hell he gets mad when she's ignoring him. Nonetheless, she still overlooked and marched straight towards her building. Karanvir didn't follow, which was a relief.

Professor Sethi was lecturing on Annelids, the obnoxious segmented worms including earthworms and leeches. Professor was briefing about the characteristic features of the phylum before he takes the class to the lab to demonstrate with the help of a preserved specimen about the body structure and other features of the animal. Casually her eyes shifted to the door and she gasped loudly. Outside was the creepy Karanvir, propped against the sturdy parapet and busy in his phone, atleast for the moment. She quickly withdrew her eyes off him and looked into her notebook. After some time when she looked up at the door then he was gone. She sighed in relief.
"Students get your bags, we're moving to the lab." Professor said loudly. Maahi shouldered her bag and started moving out of the door. Just a little ahead she saw Karanvir sitting on the stairs, surrounded by his foolish friends. Her heartbeat raced upon finding him staring fixedly at her and smirking to himself. She turned her eyes away timorously and ran towards her professor to stick around him.