THE NEW GIRL?

11-and i ran!

CHAPTER-11

And I ran!

Akeera~

“Why do you hate me?”

Kabeer had finally asked me the one question whose answer I couldn’t give him. The one question I had been hoping he wouldn’t ask for some time. And by some time I really mean never.

 Not knowing what to do I did the one thing I that came to the top of my ‘genius’ head (note the sarcasm)

I shrugged and said, “Just because…”

“I won’t take a ‘Just because…’ for an answer.”

Damn!  Did he have to be so determined? Why couldn’t it just let it go? It’s not like he cares or ever cared.

Or does he?

No he is just sick of me making an ass of him.

That has to be it. He didn’t care. He had proven that 4 years ago that night!

I didn’t want to answer so I gave another shrug and brought all my hair over my right shoulder and hid behind the makeshift curtain. He couldn’t see he uncertainty and hurt my face before I had a chance to control my emotions. 

I had a feeling I was getting on his nerves and testing his patience. But I knew he wouldn’t do anything in front of the class

“Akeera, ANSWER ME DAMNIT!”

I guess I was wrong!

My head shot up ad I knew my face was a picture of shock.

 “MISS. Goyal AND MR.KAPOOR, I WON’T ALLOW YELLING IN MY CLASS! GET OUT OF MY CLASS RIGHT NOW AND COME BACK ONLY WHEN YOU HAVE ALL YOUR MESS WORKED OUT! OUT! NOW!”

Oh shit!

Now I couldn’t avoid him!

What do I do?

I felt my heart fill with panic as I realized there was no avoiding Kabeer Kapoor now!

At a really sad attempt to avoid the issue on hand I blabbered,

“These slips are pretty aren’t they? The font is appropriate too, ’Ariel black’; very intimidating, perfect for a detention slip, isn’t it? Nice color too, yellow. What do you think is it buttercup yellow or canary yellow? I think it is canary yellow, isn’t it? Personally I feel the slip would have looked more intimidating if it were red. Red can be a very intimidating color, can’t it?”

My rambling didn’t seem to help in fact he looked positively on the edge of losing it! That scared me little.

Taking a deep breath, obviously to calm himself down he spoke in what was the most sincere voice I had heard. 

“Akeera, stop babbling and using so many question tags, and answer me. Why do you hate me so much? You have forgiven Kunal completely even though what happened all those years ago was both our fault equally. If the crime is same why are our sentences different? Why can’t you forgive me?”

The confusion, frustration and desperation in his voice were my undoing and all my feelings and memories from my past came rushing back.

 I closed my eyes, remembering everything I had tried so hard to forget, everything that had made me cry, and everything that had sent me running to take up my scholarship in France.

***

My father and Kabeer’s father had known each other since they’d been kids. They even started their own financial consultant company together. In fact Kabeer and Kunal were even born on the same day. They had always been close even as babies. Mom used to say they even needed nappy changes at the same time.