Up In The Air |✅|

A New "Friend"

Akanksha Thakur wanted to remain aloof.

But somehow, she couldn't.
So the next morning, at school, she kept an eye on the entrance while reading the novel in hand. It was Agatha Christie this time.
She glanced at her watch. Ten minutes past eight. Everyone should be here by now. Then why was Karan running late?
Shweta was talking to the other classmates. No one was paying Akanksha any attention. As usual. And then from the corner of her eye she spotted clear, swift movement. Instantly her book was down, she was on her feet and walking across the classroom towards the doorway.

Karan entered rather turbulently, panting gently. As soon as he did so, half the guys and half the girls turned and greeted him, approaching him. Karan waved and smiled back, talking simultaneously.
Akanksha stopped. She would've backtracked if Karan's gaze hadn't caught hers.
They both looked at each other.
'Uh...um—' Akanksha was suddenly short of words, 'How are you doing?' She then asked coolly.
Everybody else standing, slash, leaning, slash, sitting or rather everybody else in the entire surrounding immediately turned towards her and stared like she'd sort of brought the end of the world.

Karan, on the other hand, was absolutely delighted.

'Great. I'm doing better. Thanks.' He replied cheerfully.
Akanksha blinked at the change in personality. But a burden seemed to have lifted off her shoulders. He seemed... normal. No more vulgar.
She nodded once before returning to her seat.
'She had actually walked up all the way just to greet him?' A boy blurted.
A lot of people oh'd and woo'd at that.
Karan's smirk did not fade.

As soon as she took her seat, students woo'd and oh'd even more so. When she looked ahead, Karan's smile greeted her.
'Why are you sitting here?' She asked.
'This was my original seat anyway.' Karan said matter-of-factly.
The other girls shot Akanksha strange looks. But they were unnoticed by the student in question.
Akanksha inhaled.
'Suit yourself.' She merely said before resuming reading.
Shweta, on the other hand, was fascinated.
'Okay. I'm missing out on a major thing. What happened between you both? Did something happen?' She was immediately all ears.
Akanksha did not even spare her a look, while Karan continued to smirk.
'It's a secret.' He said rather attractively, at which Akanksha looked up. Shweta gaped at him. Akanksha clearly spotted the look in her eyes.
'What? Why?' Shweta said slowly, 'I want to know...'
Karan averted his eyes. The bell sounded and Preeti Ma'am walked in, bringing an end to a conversation that hadn't even begun.

Akanksha gladly spent the first half of the school day, immersed in physics, chemistry, math and english, undisturbed.
But as soon as the bell rang for recess, Karan was her pet dog. Kind of.
Shweta though, tugged at her arm and pulled her feet away from him to one corner of the classroom.
'Why wasn't I told about this development?' She whispered.
'"Development"? More like, why are you whispering?' Akanksha said.
'Because he'll probably be right here—'
'What are you both talking about?'
Shweta jumped at his abrupt interruption from behind her. She turned to face Karan and smiled crookedly at him before pulling Akanksha away and outside the classroom.

'What is with you?' Akanksha panted as they stopped sprinting when they were outside the school building.
'I just want to make him impatient, I guess.'
Akanksha glanced at her dubiously.
'I don't know what you're talking about.'
'Tell me everything that you're hiding from me first.' Shweta sat down on the school bench near the football field. Akanksha took a seat beside her.
She did not hesitate.
'I think he was trying to suicide. Yesterday.'

'What?!' Shweta jumped off the seat, exclaiming very loudly.
'Calm down!' Akanksha patted the wooden bench. Shweta sat down again, 'That is when I spotted him. Returning from my coaching classes— I was.'
Shweta stared at her.
'You're kidding me, right?'
'Nope.' And that was that.
'But—He—how could he—a person like him...'
'That's what I thought too. Anyone would actually.'
'And you did what?'
'I basically... saved him. Caught his hand at the right moment, I guess. Pulled him up to safety. Something like that...'
Shweta was awestruck.
'I don't know what to think.'
'Don't. Think nothing of it.' Said Akanksha, 'And don't spread this. I don't know what impact it will have on him.'
'That's okay. But— to even think...' Shweta was bewildered, 'Why though? He seems like such a nice, happy guy.'
'That's what I'd like to know, honestly.'
'So you have taken an interest.'
'Don't change the topic, Shweta.'
'You know I'm not trying to. He probably worships the ground you walk on now.'
'You know in most cases it's the opposite, right? He was trying to commit a crime. I could've reported him. I should've. I don't even know what he's thinking right now.'
'Why didn't you ask him that?'
'I did ask how he was doing.'
'Sheesh, that's not enough.'
'You don't know him. Neither do I. Who knows what he's thinking or what he wants to think.'
'Don't you want to try to understand him?'
'Why would I?'
'But... you saved him, right?'
'Look, all this is very weird. Half of it doesn't make sense.'
'Exactly.'
'What?'

'You should feel like knowing, exactly because it doesn't make sense.'

Akanksha looked at her,
'I don't think I want to involve myself with someone like him.'
Shweta narrowed her eyes at her,
'But don't you see? You already have. You already have involved yourself plenty.'
Akanksha pursed her lips.

'If you're not gonna do it then I might as well try.' Shweta continued after a moment.
'You mean, you'll talk to him?' Asked Akanksha.
'Yeah.' She stood up, 'I feel like he has a lot on his mind. I can literally see it.'
Akanksha rolled her eyes.
'Yeah, right. That's pretty obvious.'
'Should we take any other action? Teachers? Parents? Any other adult?'
'I was thinking about that. But the guy seems pretty down to earth again. I don't think his parents know anything.'
'Shouldn't we try to knock more sense into him then?'
Akanksha shrugged.
'You do it. You're better at it.'
'Akanksha, seriously? Are you that afraid?'
'I'm not afraid. I'm just—lazy.' A pause, 'Moreover, I can't understand guys like him.'
'I'm sure if you try, you can do it pretty well.' Shweta remarked, 'You're the smartest girl in tenth grade after all.'
Saying so, she walked away.

Akanksha was weirded out by the talk she had indulged in. She didn't know what to do anymore. Her mind was a whirlpool of ideas and not a single judgement seemed the right one.
She was about to walk back to the class to have her food when a certain boy appeared and occupied Shweta's place on the bench.
'Hello.' Said Karan.
Akanksha stared at him.
'Four words.' Flat tone as ever, 'I don't understand you.'
Karan smiled his smile once more.

'Trust me, I'm not vulnerable anymore. So you can relax.'
'How can your personality change so quickly, so vigorously?' She was surprised at the way the words just poured out of her mouth. Was she that frustrated? Or was she—as Shweta put it—interested?
'It's almost like you're a different person.' She said.
'You can put it however you want.' His tone was kind, gentle. It somehow drove Akanksha crazier.

'Tell me. What exactly happened to you yesterday?'
Karan sighed. After a pause, he said,
'Don't you sometimes wonder, why do we do so much in life, struggle so hard, when we're all gonna die one day anyway?'

'People live their lives everyday because they're gonna die one day.' She said a second later.

Karan looked at her,
'Unmatched as ever. No wonder. I'm glad we're friends.'
Akanksha glanced at him skeptically now,
'When did I say we're friends?'
'Huh? We're not?'
'I—I guess...' Akanksha was damned, 'Okay, here's the thing. I've never had a male friend before.'
Karan stood up promptly.
'You serious?'
'You don't have to exclaim.' She looked away.
'I mean— you're a tenth grader!'
'So what?'
Karan gaped.
'Okay....'
Akanksha felt inferior suddenly. She felt like retaliating. But the boy in front of her changed her mind.
'Okay then.' He said, 'I'll be your first "male friend", as you put it.' He suppressed a chuckle.

His pure sincerity threw the girl's mind overboard again.

'I feel like he wants to be your friend.'
So... Shweta was right? She thought.

But I can't understand guys like him... Her thought continued.

'I'm sure if you try, you can do it pretty well.'
So she was told.

'You're the smartest girl in tenth grade after all.'

She remembered how he had looked back at her the day before. The way the soles of his shoes had slipped. The way she had clutched his arm.

Then, without further hesitation—
'Fine.' She replied. One crisp, firm word.
And that sealed the agreement. An agreement that was to last between the two.

Between Akanksha... and her first male friend.
~~~