Those Bonafide Teens

22. Thrown Out

"You've ruined our show! You backstabber!" Zoya cried hysterically.

"But Zoya..."

SLAP! She had deposited a solid slap on Reyansh right across the face.

It was the last period and me, Zoya, Varun, Abeer, Lisa, Omkara and the rest of the Fine Arts Club were all standing in the cafeteria after confronting Reyansh.

Reyansh had looked beyond shocked when Zoya had walked up to him straight and accused him of the short circuit in the store room. He had tried to cover up for himself but Zoya followed by Lisa, Varun and the other club members had shouted him down and refused to even let him speak. Only I and Omkara couldn't say anything. We were in too much shock.

"Riya, Om bhaiya at least you believe me. Why would I do this? Besides I really like being in St Xavier's. Why should I try to sabotage the festival?" Reyansh had asked.

"Because you are a psychopath!" Zoya had pointed her finger at him dramatically. "You did everything and accused Aaliyah. Of course Aaliyah is far from my friend, but I couldn't let a wrong person be punished. We thought you're a good person. We thought you were our friend. But you are a filthy brute!"

"Zoya do you think I'd really go that low?" Reyansh had asked.

"Well you just did. Just because you wanted to leave this school, you thought you'll create a short circuit, steal the laptop, frame somebody else, do some hero work, get all the credit and fly back to your stupid academy! We should have realised! You obviously wanted to frame someone else before anybody considered you! But you're not new to it, I suppose. You have a criminal record, after all!"

Reyansh had looked at her like she'd slapped him. "Zoya that is preposterous!" he said angrily. I was seeing him lose his temper for the first time.

But Zoya had been way too vexed up to listen to him. "You cheated on us. You cheated on this school. You cheated on Mishti too!", she had almost broken down.

"Zoya please, don't drag Mishti into this. I have been true to her."

I had suddenly started feeling angry for the first time that evening, "Reyansh I don't know about the short circuit thing. But if that relationship was a facade, and you faked your love for Mishti.."

SLAP! Reyansh had slapped me right across the face. Just great! I had spoken for the first time since we had assembled in that cafeteria and I had been slapped by my best friend's boy friend.

I had stared at him in anger, our eyes had met for a moment. Then he had turned away and it was complete chaos after that!

The scene had drastically changed. Everyone had started abusing Reyansh. Now Lisa was also crying. Abeer was speechless. Varun was still shouting at Reyansh when Omkara finally took an upper hand, "Silence!" he shouted. The room immediately went quiet

"Reyansh, as head boy, it's upto me to decide whether to report you or not."

Reyansh looked at him beseechingly.

Omkara ignored him and continued, "And I am deciding not to report you. No listen to me everybody", he said as Varun and Zoya showed signs of interrupting. "We have only two days to organise the show. We shall do whatever is to be done after the show. And Reyansh" Omkara said finally turning to look at him, "I hope you will have some dignity and resign from the club on your own."

Even in the chaos, Omkara's composure was impressive!

Reyansh looked at Omkara disbelievingly for a second and then stared around at all of us with an unreadable expression and then finally said, "Fine" and walked out of the cafeteria.

Zoya collapsed into the chair with her face in her hands. Lisa was still crying. Abeer looked shaken. Varun was pacing up and down the cafeteria.

Just then the bell rang, indicating that school was out. Omkara turned around to look at me, "Riya, I'll call you. We need to discuss the costumes and other stuff."

"Yes bhaiya" I said bleakly.

He nodded and led Lisa out of the cafeteria. The others followed suit. Abeer and Varun bid us goodbye and left, "We trusted him, you know. We really did" Abeer told me wistfully before going while Varun strongly looked the other way.

"Let's go" I told Zoya. She slowly got up and together we walked back to class.

"You should have backed me up better" Zoya muttered to me, "Personally I have a feeling you still don't accept, Reyansh is guilty".

"Oh yeah? I opened my mouth once and Reyansh slapped me. And anyway he wasn't going to accept his guilt. So why did I have to embarrass myself?" I asked scowling at Zoya.

Zoya scowled back at me for a moment and then suddenly banged her forehead with her fist, "Riya, what will happen to Mishti now?".

Since Mishti was not a member of the Arts Club she was not yet aware of any of the drama and I and Zoya had convinently kept her out of it.

"We have to tell her. Shouldn't we? It won't be fair to keep it from her anymore. Besides the news won't stay quiet anyway. So it's better that she gets it from us" I said. We looked at each other helplessly.

But as we walked into 11 B, there was no sign of Mishti. She had already left! Just great! Now she was bound to get the news from someone else and there would be a whole lot of more drama!

"Riya! There's only one chance left to explain things to Mishti. Go home quick. Find her and tell her everything before somebody else tells her" Zoya told me gravely.

I said goodbye to Zoya before leaving and couldn't help noticing the slight frostiness in her tone.

A/N : Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed this one. Thank you so much for coming this far. It really means a lot. Don't forget to push the vote button before moving forward. Thank you, again. Much love as always!