The Grease Story (Completed) - A SanDhir FF *A/N - Page 103* - Page 31

Part 18

"Come in, Farzi!" Randhir shouted through the door.

The silent war of spurious smiles and purported smirks commenced. As Sanyukta entered the room, she saw slices of bread and a few biscuits kept on a plastic plate.

What does he want me to do now? Make bread out of biscuit and biscuit out of bread?

"Randhir, if this is some food transformation type of task, I'm telling you that I'm not going to..."

"Calm down, Agarwal. Be a little patient and sit in the chair in front of the table," he said contemptuously as if she were a small child.

Sanyukta indeed proved that she was a small child and humphed and sat down in the chair.

"Wait a minute," she interrupted Randhir while he was emptying more biscuits on the plate.

"Kya hai?" he asked, clearly annoyed.

"I'm allowed to ask you a question for each task that I complete, right?" came her rhetorical reply.

"Haan, toh?" pat came the reply.

"See, I've completed two tasks, right? Naming more than 30 countries and making my awesome audience laugh. So I get to ask two questions," she smiled as if she had discovered the answer to the toilsome paradox of what came first: the egg or the chicken.

"How prodigiously intelligent of you, farzi! Ask on!" his voice full of derision.

"Very funny, Randhir. Answer me this. Why are we having this elaborately imbecile treasure hunt? I could very well be studying in college for our exams next week and you know that!" she asked, her voice rife with rage and crossness.

"How sad for you, Agarwal. My condolences," he said feigning pity.

"I don't want your wisecrack answers, Randhir! If you have two rare virtues called courtesies and manners my question!" Her vexation was increasing by the moment.

"Today is a very special day, Agarwal. Don't ask me why because I won't tell you. You'll come to know in the end. Happy with my very cordial answer?" he asked, his face curled in his idiosyncratic smirk.

Sanyukta shot him a look that was fraught with incredulity.

"Sweet Child O' Mine, I thought you didn't want to waste time. Lets get started with the task?" he asked, referring to another of Sanyukta's favorite songs by another all-time-favorite band, Guns N' Roses.

In response, she looked up at him from the chair and asked him what the task was.

"You have to finish eating these slices of bread and biscuits in exactly 5 minutes. Also, you don't get any water in the middle. Ready?"

Her countenance was radiating ecstasy from each pore. She moved her chair closer to the table, indicating that she was ready.

Such an easy task! What does Randhir think of me? Do I look like a child filled with petulance?

She picked up a slice of bread and ripped a bite off, under the influence of the stopwatch in his hand. She quickly gobbled the first slice down and went ahead to pick up the second. As if a particularly funny spirit had invaded her body, she was convulsing back and forth in her chair, profound mirth smack on her face. She was chortling so loudly that Randhir was startled and the stopwatch fell from his hand.

"What the bloody hell is so hilarious, farzi? The stopwatch fell and I have now royally lock track of the time because of you!" he screeched.

Sanyukta was still guffawing when she pointed to the plate containing the food she was supposed to finish.

"What is wrong with the plate? Did it just tell you a joke?" he screeched again.

Sanyukta couldn't contain herself at what he just said. She was doubling over in laughter now.

She pointed to the plate again and after an eternity of passing time, she uttered, "Pi...ka...chu..!! His...picture...on...the...plate..!!" in between breaths and laughter.

"What is wrong with that? I used to love Pokemon when we were kids!" he defended the picture as if she had accused him of committing a felony.

"I still love Pokemon too, Randhir! But I can't understand why you would have a plate with Pikachu's picture!" she exclaimed and let out a series of chortles again.

Invariably, he started laughing too. He didn't notice the picture on the plate before. He wouldn't have sensed its presence if she hadn't pointed it out. She pushed the plate away while he was still laughing. He didn't resist when she pushed it, so it was understood that the task was called off by silent agreement.

"Listen, don't go to the canteen. I'm wrapping this "imbecile" treasure hunt up. I'm too bored of watching you suffer now!" he said genuinely yet mockingly, still under the influence of the laughter.

"How kind of you, Mr. Shekhawat. I'm flattered," she replied in the same manner.

Her reply was met with the visual of an occupied Randhir on the phone. He was whispering something discreetly, so she looked away, and out of the window.

"If you will allow me, I must escort you out of the room for a moment." His very chivalrous tone snapped her back into the room.

"Why are you being so nice to me suddenly? And why am I being used as a passing-the-parcel toy, oscillated in and out of this damned room so often?"

Obviously, there was no answer from him. There was only his strong arm on her wrist, leading her out of the room. Before he shut the door on her face, she gave him an exasperated sigh. He replied with a disapprovingly amused shaking of his head.

"How long before I get to see the beautiful interiors of your hospital room again?"

"Why don't you go and have a cup of coffee down the corridor? I'm sure that much time would suffice."

She turned her back and with slow, heavy steps, she made her way to the coffee machine. She waited as patiently for her coffee as she could, with her back to his room, unaware of her mother and all her friends silently tiptoeing, entering his room.

She got her coffee, and made her way to the bench outside his room, waiting to be called inside as if she had an appointment with the most proficient engineers on the planet. Tick, tock. Tick, tock. She finished her coffee and plonked herself down on the bench. It seemed like there no end to her wait. She was bored out of her mind, so she started playing games on her phone. She played one game and got bored. She played the second one and lost her mind again. She got up and took a step back because of the sight of an amused Randhir.

"What the hell were you doing ogling at me like that? And for how long were you smiling like a fool?"

"An eternity maybe?!"

"Very funny!" she remarked and brushed him aside and entered the room. What she saw there was too much for words to describe. Tears of joy and reminiscence were flowing down her cheeks.

Randhir MCP Shekhawat did all this for me? Only for me? W.H.Y?