Dil Jaanta Hai | ✔

sixty-seven

||CHAPTER 67||
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The school uniform was mandated for the flight to Udaipur, which quite obviously did not settle well with any of the students. Brooding and complaining early in the morning was, however, unnecessary, but the girl-gang that had initially planned on befriending me for luxurious purposes, didn't seem to understand that.

"But Ma'am," Roshni, I suppose was her name, pouted, trying to make Mrs. Negi understand, "The security check's over! Can we please go and change now?"

"No, you may not," Ms. Negi replied, not bothering to elaborate further. From our seat in the third row, Ishita and I kept refreshing our Instagram feed, bored out of our minds. For a flight that departed at eight in the morning, we were summoned two hours prior to the departure. The fact that the flight was delayed by forty-five minutes more didn't sound smashing either. Behind us, Ritwik, Vansh and Arnav were playing some stupid game. I don't know if matters were settled between Vansh and Arnav, but for the trip, we were pretending nothing ever happened. We were pretentious, and we were pretty good at it.

"Girls," Ishita nudged me when Thakur Sir intervened in the matter concerning uniforms. The crowd addressing the meagre issue mainly consisted of three Malibu Barbies, but hey, we were silent supporters too. "It's only for security purposes. Once we reach the hotel, you can change out of your uniforms after the routine head count, but ID Cards are must. You are old enough to understand what security reasons I'm hinting at. Please don't counter the issue further."

"Head count se yaad aya," Ishita spoke looking around, "Avni nahi dikhayee de rahi hai. Karan pe line maarne ka kitna sahi mauka hai. Is she not coming?"

I pursed my lips, shrugging. "Pata nahi." Yawning, I stretched a little before standing up. "I'll go ask Karan. Yaha baithe-baithe neend aa rahi hai."

At the charging station by the pillar nearby, I found Karan was charging his phone and swiping through random memes. I stood beside him, grabbing the pin of a random charger and inserting it inside my phone. "Avni nahi aa rahi kya?"

"She isn't responding to any of my messages," he replied monotonously.

"But Ishita bol rahi thi ki kal raath bara baje taq you guys were tagging each other in memes. And not just the cat ones."

He passed me a glare. I smirked it off.

"Don't worry," I dared to fist-bump his biceps. "Ooh, you've been working out, huh? Solid lag rahe hai."

"Stop teasing me."

"I'm just trying to make a conversation," I shrugged innocently. "But okay, I get it. You're worried about her. Aa jayegi, pareshaan math ho."

"Ek aur word bol Avni and mere baremein, and I promise you mai un ladkiyo ko penthouse-suite mei bula loonga," he warned me, pointing towards the whining ladies.

Alright, that was a tough bait. He caught me there. I mimed zipping my lips, preventing myself from claiming them to have a clichè Bollywood Airport confession scene.

"When do we leave?" He asked after a minute.

I glanced at the time on my phone. "Half an hour tops? Jitne jaldi ho utna achha, theen ghante se yahi par hai."

"Great," he muttered under his breath. "Isn't that friend of yours coming?"

Assuming that he was referring to Armaan, I clicked my tongue. "Nope. Family issues."

"You mean his family couldn't afford-"

"His father is in the hospital, Karan. Be a little sensitive," I snapped. I had could have offered him the money for the trip, but Armaan was desperate to stay near his Abba Jaan. I couldn't take his time with his father away just for selfish reasons.