Just Friends

Chapter - 9

She screamed.

But before she could understand what had happened, the person who threw the liquid on her was down on the ground, with Anusha sitting on top of him, preventing him from escaping. Kritika was too shocked to react. Just then Kabir and all the policemen came running from behind and the policemen caught hold of the boy while Kabir came up to Kritika and asked her,'Are you fine?'

Too stunned to speak, she just nodded her head. Suddenly realising something, she touched her wet face and said,'Wait a minute. If this really is what I think it is, why didn't anything happen to me?' Anusha, who had joined them by then, and Kabir looked at each other and grinned looking back at her. She looked at them suspiciously and asked,'What am I missing?' Anusha pointed the boy out and said,'This.'

Finally she looked at the boy carefully. Her eyes widened in shock and realization. 'Vishesh!! You??', was all that she could say. Anusha said, 'Of course, who else? He has always been Sahil's partner in crime. But throwing acid on someone? Horrible you people are,' and she made a disgusted face. There was still one thing that Kritika didn't understand,'But how did acid turn to water?' Kabir sighed and looked at her. He said,'There are a lot of things that you don't know.'

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'OKAY!! So.…... let me get this straight. When I went upstairs to take my phone, one policeman informed you of spotting some suspicious guy sitting on a bike with a suspicious bottle. You both called Sir and asked him to keep me busy upstairs while downstairs, the policemen faked a fight attracting Vishesh. And he, like a fool, left the bottle on the bike, unguarded. Then both of you, quickly changed the bottle of acid with a bottle of water. Then the fight got over and you called Sir again and told him that he could let me go. And you did all of this because you wanted to catch him red-handed!!!'

Kabir and Anusha nodded their heads with a somber expression, while Kritika was going crazy. 'Why didn't you tell me about it?' Anusha sighed and gave her a 'what-will-you-do-without-me' expression and said,'Because we didn't want you to be freaking out and the last thing that we needed was for Vishesh to know that he had been spotted. And we couldn't just go up to him and say 'Hey, you are under arrest for sitting with a bottle on your bike.' We didn't even know if he really had acid with him or that was something else. Unless we knew his actual intentions, we couldn't do anything. And before you ask me again for the 59th time, that included telling you about it. Understood!' Anusha explained to her like a 5-year old.

Kritika nodded her head and opened her mouth to speak but Anusha cut her off saying,'Don't say anything. Just keep quiet for some time.' Kritika nodded her head, like an obedient child.

Right now, they were sitting in the police station in DSP Singh's office. Vishesh, upon interrogation had given the address of Sahil. DSP Singh had gone with his team to look for him at that address. Mr. and Mrs. Rawat had been informed of this, but they had refused to come. They sat quietly, lost in their own worlds when the door of the office opened and they looked up to find DSP Singh standing at the door holding it half open. He looked at them and said, 'He's here,' and moved aside opening the door wide.

All three of them stood up and saw him and that was when she was actually scared. This was the first time she was seeing him after the F.I.R., but it was the way he looked that made her scared. Hair all messed up, clothes disheveled, eyes red with anger and hands clenched in a tight fist. His angry glare was directed at Kritika and he looked mad enough to kill her if free. Two policemen were holding him from both the sides to keep him in control. Sensing her discomfort, Kabir and Anusha stepped up and stood in front of Kritika as if they were a protective shield covering her.