Broken Strings...

Chapter 5.

       It took my real guts to control my expression and stop behaving like a mouse which had been cornered by a huge cat. What was she here for? Not for sweet talk for sure. I prepared myself for the worst- flying sandal, maybe…

       “So? Any excuse?” her voice couldn’t have been more firm.

       “E..Excuse? For wh…what exactly?” I decided to act clueless to what she was saying.

       “Seriously! Okay. For what happened today back in class!” Her eyes seemed to a change color to a darker shade of brown.

Human heart… How it starts appreciating beauty without giving a shit to the situation.

       "What happened back in class?” I tried avoiding eye contact. She seemed to be casting a dangerous spell on me which everytime ended with  my ruin.

       "You behaving like a jerk and smelling my hair and drawing the whole attention of the class! Did I put it right this time?” she almost snapped at me.

       “Oh! You really thought I was sniffing at your hair!” Though I was poor at acting, I put forward all my acting skills to work and let go off a small laugh.

       “What do you mean?” Her face showed confusion this time.

       “I am not such an asshole that I would go about sniffing at a girl’s hair. My situation was just wrongly interpreted by others”, I said as I sank in my chair acting casual.

       “And what exactly was your situation?”

       “Umm… I…” Shit! As nothing came to my mind immediately I started avoiding eye contact.

       “Hmm hmm. I am listening.”

       “I… was actually…” AND someone tapped on my back. I turned to find Karan. Phew! He must have saw that I was in trouble.

       “Hello-“

       “ Hello ke bache! (What hello you idiot!) I never knew you will change so much just on the first day of college! You fucking forgot your promise. Now are you coming with me or do i have to scold you more infront of the whole cafeteria?" Saying this he gave a small smile to Radhika.

       I was left speechless. He appeared as a lifesavior.

I sprang to my feet and gestured to Radhika saying I would have to deal with Karan and will have to leave. Once she seemed convinced we left immediately.

                           *****

       It was the English class again and Mrs Ahuja was going to announce the names of the students who were going to participate in the Inter-school Declamation competition. She had said that there will be 2 students representing our school.

       As soon as i entered the class, I could see everyone staring at me. I sat on my bench with Karan.

       "Oye, you still owe me a thank you, you know."

       "Thank you so much yaar!" I said gratefully.

       "Okay okay. You took so long to come from the washroom! Ladki ban gaya hai Kya? (Have you turned into a girl or something?) The whole school was missing its Kishore Kumar-" he was interrupted as the teacher started speaking.

      "So students, I have chosen two people from our class who would compete in the declamation competition...." Mrs Ahuja announced.

       Karan pointed to the right side with his eyeballs, to which I moved my head. There, I found Radhika sitting with all of her extravagant beauty. I kept gazing at her until she caught me again. She gave me a look of anomosity as if she never wanted me to come back.