Part 5
________________________________________________________________________________________
One week later…
I turn on the faucet for the cold and hot water and drop my towel. I step inside the shower and slide the glass door shut. I shiver a little as my naked body starts to get used to the mixture of the hot and cold droplets of water bombard me. Once it gets familiar, I relax my muscles and stand there for a few minutes letting the water massage my sore body. Over the last few days I was starting to get aches in places where I never thought was possible before. As I close my eyes, the hard and vigorous dance moves that we learnt from the strictest teacher at the university, flashes through my mind. Okay, so she might not be strict to everyone else in the building, but she sure as hell is to me. It's like she has taken out a secret vendetta in making sure that I never smile. I grab the shampoo bottle and squirt some in my hair. I start lathering it thoroughly making sure all the cafeteria food got out of it nice and well. Yes, I had another incident in the cafeteria. But it wasn't like the first one. This time, I wasn't in a daydream. This time, I actually knew what I was doing.
So I was sitting down with Atul and Rahul at our regular table eating lunch when I heard snickering behind me. At first I didn't think much of it as I thought they were laughing on something else. But as soon as I heard Shilpa's name, my ears automatically tuned into their conversation.
'So, what do you think?' Asked one of the guys.
'What's there to think? I'm pretty sure it was done on the first day.' The respondent said.
'Naahh… If it was then there's no way they would still be seeing each other.'
'Of course there is. Might be teaching him things he never knew of. I heard the other day he was telling Atul that he was sore in places where he shouldn't be.' He laughed afterwards.
'No. I'm telling you. There's nothing. Everyone knows how rudely she behaves with him.'
'That's what I'm saying!! He's the ONLY one that she behaves rudely with. Why not with anyone else? Special treatment, I'm telling you.' The other guy shook his head in dismay. 'Man… if only I was as horrible as Armaan. Then even I would get to feel her hands all over my body. Damn it! I just feel like going up to her right and f-' Before he was able to finish stating his desire, the man was grabbed by his shirt and forced to stand up. The look on his face was one of horror, and terror combined.
'What did you say?' I asked him with gritted teeth.
'Armaan leave him!' Atul had said trying to stop me from getting into trouble.
'No Atul. I want to know what he said.' I told Atul without taking my eyes off from the scoundrel in front of me. 'Tell me. Why are you so scared now? If you have the guts to say something one step away from me behind my back, then you sure as hell should have them to say it RIGHT in front of my face. So, what was it that you were gossiping about to your girlfriend there?' The other man, who was sitting in front of him, looked up and his face went to a deep shade of red in embarrassment.
'Look pal,' He started and I lifted my head a little to let him know that I'm listening, 'it was… we… we were just joking. We didn't mean any of it. Y-you can keep her. F-for yourself. I-I don't want her.' He gulped while I stood there glaring at him.
'Shilpa…' I stopped talking and looked down, realizing that I had taken my teacher's first name. I looked back up and started again. 'Miss Malhotra is my dance teacher. She teaches not only me but everyone in the classroom. The only reason that she touches me is to perfect and fix my mistakes; and she does that with EVERYONE. And for the matter of after school; then I'm not the only one there with her. There are many other students that practice in the room. So sorry for you, but even if you wanted you wouldn't get a chance to make a move on her. And if you did,' I let him go now and straightened out his collar with a smirk, 'then may God bless your soul.' I pushed him slightly and started to march away from there. I was just out the door when I heard that same rascal make another dirty comment.
'See, I told you. Shilpa. Hmph. My teacher my foot. More like my wh**e.' To that comment, he received a hard punch right on his cheekbone. He plummeted to the ground like a weak dead weight.
'Get up!' I grunted. I picked him up and threw him on the table while everyone backed away a few steps. I kept on punching him repeatedly in the ribs till I got tired. I grabbed him by the collar and dragged him on the floor and took him to blue metal doors. I ignored the mercy calls that he kept on beckoning from me. I had given him a chance to escape; I had given him the mercy that he was pleading on about right now; but he refused to accept it. And for that, he was gonna have to pay. I looked at him briefly before grabbing him by his shirt.
'My wh**e huh?' I grabbed him by the back of his neck. 'How is this for wh**e?' I took his head and smashed it into the glass window that was on the blue metal doors. The glass shattered into millions of pieces and crumbled to the ground staining the porcelain floor with specks of blood. Grabbing his limp head, I smashed him into the glass window that was found in the other door. I took in deep breaths as I tried to regain control of myself. But with the comment that he had made, it was going to be difficult.
'Armaan stop it!' Atul held onto my arms from the back in an effort to restrain me. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't as strong as me; so when I shrugged my shoulders he lost grip. I saw the display case that was in front of me. It was holding many items in there including a sharp object. I stepped over him and ignored his moaning. I smashed my arm against the case and broke the glass that was protecting the items. I grabbed the long wooden sharp object and took the two steps that were distancing me from him. He looked at me dejected knowing that his end had come. I squatted down so that I was on eye level with him. His words that were ringing inside my head kept the fire from distinguishing inside of me. My hand holding the weapon went up and came down and would have pierced right through his throat, soaking me with his dirty blood that would have gushed out if I hadn't heard her scream out my name.
'ARMAAN!!' As if that name was the password in stopping a mechanical robot, I stopped. I stopped and froze as I started to realize what I was about to. I stopped and realized that I was almost about to commit murder over a comment that an idiotic person had made about a teacher that I despise and me. I was frozen but I felt the weapon being thrown away from out of my hand. I was frozen but I felt being pinned down to the ground and being handcuffed. I was frozen but I felt myself being led away by the police officers. I was frozen but I felt how scared and disappointed Shilpa was in seeing me in this state. I was nothing but frozen.
***
I spent the whole night at the police station locked away in a cell. Atul had come to give his testimony in my defence to try and lessen my charge. Taking in regard of my past traumatic history, I was put under probation. I wasn't allowed to go to university for in fear that I might hurt the other students. So whatever homework or assignments were assigned I had to get from Atul. I felt sorry for the chap. He had to do double the work only for me. Seeing that I would be staying away from Shilpa and finally getting some peace of my mind, I was shocked to see her at my doorstep.
'Sh… Uh… I mean.. Miss Malhotra. What are you doing here?' I asked her perplexed.
'Here to drop off your assignments.' She answered walking in.
'Wh… What? Uh… come in…' I offered a little too late. 'You could have just given it to Atul. He would have dropped them off.' I said, understanding as that was what we had agreed upon.
'I know. But he had to go home. His mother fell ill. And besides,' She turned around to look at me, 'it's only this one time. It's not like I'm coming here every day.' She smiled and started to leave. Personally, I had no problems if she did.
'Uh… Sh…' I cursed myself for keep on using her first name. 'Miss Malhotra…' She stopped walking and turned her head a little, letting me know that she was listening. 'Do… I-I'm sorry for what happened.'
She turned around looking confused. 'Are you? What are you sorry for? Are you sorry for beating up that poor kid? Are you sorry for sending an innocent man into a coma? Are you sorry for damaging the universities' property? Are you sorry for hurting yourself?' She asked me all these questions that made me feel shameful about myself. I looked down avoiding her accusing eyes. 'You're not sorry. You're just pretending to be so that you don't face the reality. So that you don't accept the truth and deal with it. It's not to me that you should be apologizing; it's to yourself.' With that she left shutting the door and taking away my mask of courage with her.
***
The assignment that she had left behind was really straight-forward. Apparently, we were going ahead with the musical and we had to practice dancing on a couple of songs. Luckily for me, I only had to dance on one song. I grabbed my laptop and downloaded the song and didn't even bother to listen to it. I threw away the assignment sheet and relaxed as now I didn't have to worry about loud, obnoxious comments from idiotic kids.
***
I opened my eyes as I didn't want to remember the incident that had taken place later. But just like I always, I didn't get what I wanted. The images of that unfaithful night kept playing inside my head. I made my hand into a fist and punched the teal-colored tiled wall. I closed my eyes and let the water droplets act as my tears as they poured down my cheeks. What happened that night shouldn't have happened. I shouldn't have been there. He shouldn't have been there. She shouldn't have been there.
***
I was sitting down in a Chinese restaurant with Atul and his girlfriend Anjali. They had decided to take me out of my coop hole and make me enjoy some fresh air and quality time with them. It was a nice change. Atul and Anjali were the same. They behaved as if I wasn't a criminal, just ordinary same old Armaan. I don't know if it was an act or for real. If it was an act, then it was played out really well by them. Atul had a piece of noodle on his upper lip and had his eyes squinted and was pretending to be an Asian old man. It totally cracked us all up. His failed attempt in speaking Chinese made it even funnier. My never ceasing laughter stopped when I saw Shilpa's face looking at me in a harsh way. I turned around and saw her smiling openly with a man sitting in front of her. I don't know why but my heart sank in knowing that she was with someone else. I felt like tying that man up and locking him in the storage room and sitting down there with her. But I knew that was risky and she would just get up and leave as soon as she saw me. I turned back around and was only able to smile weakly at Atul's impression of a Japanese person. Suddenly I found myself stealing glances of Shilpa while eating. It was funny how I had once thought that she was the one who had to look at me like a thief. As the man sitting with her, excused himself from his seat, I quickly got up and left from the table leaving Atul and Anjali shocked. Seeing that I was heading towards the washroom, they stopped worrying.
Inside the washroom, I saw the man with Shilpa relieving himself. The urinal beside him was being used. Wanting to use that same one, I pushed the man using it aside and started doing my business. The man beside me gave me a bewildered look after looking at the other man cursing at me. He then went on to mind his own business.
'So, you're with Shilpa, huh?' I asked him. He looked left and right checking to make sure that I was talking to him.
'Yeah, I am talking to you Tiny.' I said looking at him.
'I'm sorry my name is not Tiny.' He answered. He zipped up his pants and went towards the sink.
'With that small of a size, what do you expect me to call you? Big Giant?' I retorted. I zipped up my own jeans and started washing my hands. When he was about to step out, I pushed him up against the wall.
'Wha-What are you doing?' He asked me bewildered.
Cricket
Bigg Boss 19
Arjun
Hindi TV Shows
Aami Daakini
9