"Class dismissed."
As soon as the English professor's words reverberated in the massive lecture theatre, the silent ambiance suddenly broke into incessant, incoherent banters coming sporadically from the bevy of students that filled the huge space.
"Jesus!"
The 50-year-old professor muttered to himself with furrowed eyebrows, seeing the condition of the 19-year-olds in front of him as he looked flabbergasted at their reaction to something he had announced just 10 minutes back.
Helplessly, he made his way out of the classroom, hoping against hope that they don't just commit homicide right in there or even worse, destroy the whole building of the college.
.
.
"Okay, enough!"
The husky voice from the crowd overshadowed the now mildly audible murmurs and arguments that had previously made at least 3/4th of the total contribution to noise pollution in the milky-way.
"Neil! It's final! It has to be OUR stream that represents Hillridge International at the West-Gala!"
Vidyut spoke blatantly, addressing the owner of the husky voice, the heartthrob as well as angry young man of Hillridge International College, Neil Khanna.
Another chain of protesting voices broke out at Vidyut's words, while Neil gave a warning look to the direction those voices came from and soon again the noises started diminishing.
'Finally.'
He said to himself, all set to be the Mark Antony of the modern era to make that one concrete speech, when his verbal stance faced a glitch in the form of a female voice, that said,
"No way in hell!"
.
.
He didn't really need to lift his face to recognize that voice, but he did it anyway as Avni looked at him and Vidyut, with a stern expression etched to her face.
"What the F!"
Neil gritted at the audacity of the girl who now stepped towards him and Vidyut, her fearless eyes unblinking with her penetrating gaze.
"Avni . Mehta."
He enunciated each word from her name to create the impact he intended to, as they now stood opposite to each other, eye-to-eye. The people in the same stream as Neil stood behind him as an aggressive army on a chess board, while the same happened on Avni's side.
"What!?"
Avni retorted, while Neil stared at her with a piercing look, his anger levelling up exponentially seeing the guts of the petite girl in front of him to dare speak in that tone with him.
Neil took another step towards her leading to a sudden and dangerous proximity between their bodies, when Ali's voice intervened the heated verbal battle.
"Guys! Guys! Let's take it down a notch, okay?"
He said, trying to bring truce in the intense spat, but whoa! Can you really succeed in that when you got two of the most aggressive souls out there to deal with?
"Stop it, Ali!"
Avni averred, turning her gaze away from Neil, now looking at Ali--the poor soul who always tried to be the peacemaker. He kept his hand on Avni's shoulder, knowing very well how the temper of this topper of Psychology Major rises most of the times; a gesture that didn't go unnoticed by Neil Khanna.
Ali tried to reason and say something further when the next words from Neil halted him.
"Psychology stream WON'T represent Hillridge. We would. Science Stream always represents the college, and this year shall be NO DIFFERENT."
He spat, making around 30 pairs of eyes look at him awestruck, all of which belonged to the Psychology Major group.
"Yeah! And that's the reason we haven't attained the FIRST position till date. Maybe, it's time to break the JINX after all! And hence, Science students should be barred from West-Gala!"
Avni said in an aggressive tone, not forgetting to back her words with the fact that Hillridge always bagged the second or third position at the internationally acclaimed West Gala inter-college fest, where one stream represented one college, and competed in cultural as well as artistic and literary activities.
Neil felt his ego attacked by the feisty female in front of him, his gaze now fixed on her, he gritted through his teeth,
"Well, at least with us participating, Hillridge managed to bag the second place. If you guys were to represent our college-"
He paused as he darted his finger towards the Psychology batch, and continued,
"Then I can sign on a blank paper, Hillridge won't even qualify for a consolation prize."
He blurted arrogantly.
Avni's mouth flung open at that declaration from the monster that was this mighty Neil Khanna, before she plunged forward, her feisty demeanour speaking volumes as she lifted her hand to almost punch him and as a reflex, Neil immediately lifted his hand and grabbed her tiny one before she could even hit him.
"Uh-uh!"
He mocked her as she helplessly tried to get rid of his hold, but his steel-like grip wouldn't let her do that despite her efforts.
The crowd stared in shock at the ferocious confrontation, wherein the lecture theatre seemed to be a deadly battlefield, which until yesterday used to be the place where the common English class for different streams used to take place.
"You bloody-"
She tried to say, before Neil left her hand abruptly, making her automatically step back in motion by two steps at that unexpected act.
She was glad to have her hand free, but the after effects of the steel grip were still lingering on her.
"Give it a rest, Mehta!"
Rhea spoke from Neil's team, as she animatedly flipped her hair, coming closer to Neil, and continued,
"Neil is right, like always. East or West, Science Stream will always be the best."
Avni rolled her eyes at that lame remark of Rhea, the femme fatale of the college, with the fabulously voluptuous body but a puny brain.
'How did she even make it to the science stream in the first place?'
Avni thought to herself.
'Oh right! Hefty money-wale Daddy!'
Her mind answered instantaneously.
"Listen bimbo! Nobody asked for your comments, so you better keep your pea-sized brain and gibberish thoughts out of this!"
Avni scowled as she said that without a pause, making Rhea's mouth flung open in shock, while Neil looked at the two women with a straight face.
"Guys! Listen!"
Suddenly DD stepped forward in the main arena of fight from the crowd behind Neil and tried pouring in two cents of his sensible mind that made him the perfect companion, the best friend of Neil Khanna.
"There's no point arguing like some 8th graders here. We can all be a little reasonable and take a good decision unanimously. Can't we?"
He said in a calm tone, as the room filled with sighs of exhaustion and exasperation.
"Thanks for that olive branch offering, dude, but there's going to be no two ways about it. We have the best debaters, artistic people, as well as cultural performers in our stream and this time we are totally gonna bag the winner's trophy at the gala. We have won majority of the intra-college competitions too this year, remember?"
Vidyut stated, as a matter of factly, breaking hell break loose for Avni Mehta as she gazed at Vidyut with a vexed look, and Neil simply enjoyed her annoyance with his signature smirk.
"No bloody way!"
She spat, making all eyes dart towards her and she frustratingly stepped ahead looking at her opponents, and averred,
"Just because your mighty, arrogant, weirdo, self-obsessed Neil Khanna led you to win that scholastic decathlon and the basketball tournament, doesn't mean you guys are entitled to represent Hillridge everywhere! This is no monopoly!"
Her reasoning clicked well with her team as they nodded and verbally affirmed their compliance. She felt relieved at that as it boosted her morale and she gazed at Neil with an I-know-psychology-and-can-beat-you-with-logic look.
Her victorious feel was only short-lived though as before she could even live it, Neil spoke,
"Are you really sure, Miss. Avni Mehta, that you are in Psychology Major? Actually, it seems the subject has made you psychotic or maybe it's just your anger management issues!"
Avni's eyes went wide as if they would pop out of their sockets anytime as Neil's words registered in her mind and she stomped her foot and lashed out of the class while the remaining people joined the whole bandwagon of arguments once again.
"Chill guys! Let's not make decisions hastily. We all can discuss this in a mature way post lunch. We all have other classes to attend to right now, isn't it?"
DD spoke in a convincing tone as everyone began leaving the big room and heading towards their respective classes for the rest of the day.
**
There are some things in life that are globally wrong and feel bad to the power of infinity.
Like slow internet.
Loving an outfit to Pluto and back but not being able to buy it looking at the price tag.
The sounds of nails screeching on the blackboard.
Being called psychotic.
Well, today, the last instance had gotten the worst of Avni Mehta as she stormed inside the empty library, dumping her bag on one of the big tables and proceeded towards the big racks housing those dusty old books on criminal psychology, a branch of her major she had always wanted to pursue.
She took a deep breath as she flipped through some of the pages of the giant book that appeared to be bigger than her own frame, trying to distract herself from the events that happened sometime back.
It didn't even occur to her that in the whole adrenaline rush, she even missed the class she should be attending right now.
The topper herself bunking class, that too without realizing?
Whoa! Calls for some serious damage control.
She carried the giant book in her hand and walked through the passage where dwelled many tall racks, all filled with endless books, when suddenly she heard a sound of some footsteps.
.
.
Her brows furrowed as she gazed through the little gaps between the racks and saw that the whole library was empty as it had been from the moment she entered, and that raised her confusion.
"Anyone there?"
She enquired, her voice reverberating in the empty space, where the silence was deafening, thanks to all fans being switched off and of course, no souls around except her.
Getting no reply to her query, she brushed off her previous thoughts and once again tried delving herself in the books when the sudden change in the atmosphere made her gasp as she looked upwards.
In a fraction of second she saw all the fans spinning, breaking the silence of the atmosphere as the sound from the fans enveloped the extensive room.
It only takes one switch to start all the fans.'
Avni thought to herself and immediately turned towards the direction of the switch board, but to her surprise, there was no one in there.
She gulped at the whole occurrence, her right hand now fisting the side of her knee length dress as she took a step ahead, panic rising in her mind.
Mustering some courage, she licked her dried lips and began to speak in a tone blended with fake confidence,
"Listen, this is NOT funny, if you think you can-"
And before she could speak she felt two strong arms snaking around her torso from behind and she was swept off her feet in one swift motion, regardless of her squirming.
.
.
"What- Who-"
"Ssshhh.."
He shushed her with a finger on her lip stopping her from enunciating the 5Ws.
Her hitched breathing due to the whole surge of adrenaline rush and panic got to a sudden ceasefire as she looked at him and sensed an inexplicable relief flood through her veins as she threw her hands around him and pulled him closer to her.
"It's you! I- I got.."
She stuttered to speak but couldn't finish it as she heard him say while caressing her back in an up and down motion,
"Sssh.. It's okay. It's me."
She snuggled closer in his arms as she felt peace and relief overtake her mind and body at his touch and inhaled his manly cologne that only depicted one of the many elements of his charismatic and magnetic persona.
He slowly pulled her out of the hug, keeping her body still close to him as he tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and she kept looking at him.
A sudden realization dawned in her head as the entirety of relieved expression from her face went with the west wind and she pursed her lips, looking at him accusingly.
He gave her a "What?" expression while she placed both her hands on either side of his chest, trying with all her strength to push him away.
Was her effort fruitful? Na-uh! He didn't even budge. He only gripped her more tightly.
"You know the harder you try, the stronger the grip will be. I thought in the last one month you at least got to know this."
He stated seriously, but a tinge of amusement was an added flavour in it.
She stopped struggling knowing very well what he meant was right, but that didn't give away the annoyance from her face.
"I hate you!"
She barked, while he only chuckled at that remark, pulling her closer with a force so strong that her chest collided with his.
"I know, I hate you too!"
He said plainly as he cupped her face with one hand while the other held her tightly from the waist and he brushed his lips against her, making her gasp at that sudden action.
.
.
What started as a light kiss turned into an urgent moment of desire and passion as he plunged his tongue inside her mouth, devouring every inch of it, her sweet taste, her hitched breaths, her irresistible scent, and so much more, while she wrapped her arms around his neck, standing on her toes so she could reach up to his height, to have better access to him.
.
After what seemed like eternity, they both parted for oxygen, as he rested his forehead against hers, his signature smirk adorning his countenance, while a small smile now curved her lips as well.
"You know I love you."
He whispered against her ear and she could feel her cheeks turn scarlet at those words; words which she had heard him say a month back but even now they had the same, magnifying impact on her.
"Calling your girlfriend psychotic in front of the whole class doesn't really validate that you love me at all, Mr. Khanna."
"And calling your boyfriend arrogant, self-obsessed, weirdo, does?"
He replied immediately, while she gazed at him with mock anger.
"You are all of that. It's true. You can go to any psychologist out there, and those adjectives are inevitable to show up on your personality report."
She said, trying to sound all rational, but Neil only looked at her smugly as he raised an eye-brow, staring at her with eyes full of desire."
"Well, in that case Miss. Mehta, the psychotic adjective sits well with you too."
Avni's mouth widened and formed a perfect O shape, while Neil couldn't help but chuckle at her reaction, loosening his grip on her body finally as she gazed at him with two judgy eyes!
"What? Don't be so judgy now, Avni! Bimbo, weirdo, et cetera, et cetera? That was some stunt you pulled! I know that we hated each other, but now we are secretly seeing each other since the past one month, that doesn't mean you will be this feisty! You were really going to punch me? Seriously?"
He said, making an innocent face at the last line, while Avni shrugged, portraying that he deserved it.
"Whatever! You deserved it! We have better and talented individuals this year in our stream. The juniors too are good at the cultural stuff. Much better than your arrogant science freaks. So, we should represent Hillridge."
Neil looked at her with surprise, but it lasted only for a brief moment, as the usual smirk replaced the shock on his face and he said,
"Science freak? Whoa! You really are so feisty, Avni!"
"Well, I still feel we are better than you guys. The juniors in our stream too are great this year. So, considering our previous wins, and the fresh bunch of talent this year, I believe it should be us science freaks representing Hillridge."
He spoke arrogantly, making her shocked once again before she rolled her eyes and tried to leave from the spot giving him a vexed look. But she failed at her attempt as he held her wrist and pulled her to himself.
"Why are we fighting?"
He asked looking at her affectionately.
"Ask yourself!"
She spat back, struggling under his grip as usual, to which he gave her the same old stop-struggling look, and she immediately stopped, knowing it was futile. What followed after that was a fine wordplay, in a complete rapid-fire mode.
"I'm asking you something, Avni!"
"You should know better!"
"Avni!"
"Neil!"
"What?"
"Nothing!"
"Nothing what?"
"Nothing, nothing."
"Nothing, nothing?"
"No!"
"Yes"
"No!"
"Yes"
Mmmuah!
And he slammed his lips against hers, knocking all the air out of her lungs, a bunch of butterflies flying in sporadic directions inside her tummy, as he lifted her off the floor and pinned her against the wall, her legs wrapped around his torso. They kissed each other senseless as his hands explored her body over her dress, placing butterfly kisses on her throat, arms, breasts, and everywhere.
He brought her right hand closer to his mouth, kissing her knuckles softly, which he had held in that steel grip when she was all set to punch him.
A crimson shade rose up her fair cheeks at that gesture and she smiled.
Her chest heaved as they looked into each other's eyes, his forehead against hers, and she merely whispered,
"You too bunked your class?"
He smiled softly at that question before nodding in approval as he said,
"Had to! The way you lashed out of the classroom, I thought I had to get to my girlfriend first before she probably moonlighted into a cold-blooded murderer killing all the science students!"
She playfully smacked his chest at that comment, chuckling simultaneously. He slowly placed her feet back on the ground as he pecked her forehead.
".. I love you."
She said softly making him feel the gush of happiness pumping in him at that admittance.
"I know. And I love you."
He replied, making her smile wholeheartedly like always.
.
They stayed in each other's embrace for another minute before Avni spoke,
"But Psychology stream it is, Mr. Khanna! This time, it's going to be us to participate from our college, not you guys!"
Neil lifted his gaze at her, smiling inwardly at her confidence, and also admiring her feisty self before replying,
"Challenging much, eh? Cool then! We still have 10 days for final names submission of chosen stream. Let's play fair and see who truly deserves it, Miss. Mehta!"
And Avni was all charged up for the challenge that her stream rival slash boyfriend threw at her. There was no way she was going to back out from challenges.
"Sounds good to me. Bring it on then, Mr. Khanna!"
Neil gave a lopsided smile at her high spirit and lifted his hand to graze her lips when she stopped him with her hand midway. He looked at her questioningly while she said,
"No touching me till the challenge is over, Khanna! It's only fair, that way!" She winked as she spoke, making Neil shocked.
"What the F?" He retorted while she gave him a take it or leave it look, making anger pool in his eyes.
"Oh! So, I can't touch you, but that bloody Ali gets to touch you anywhere, huh?"
He spoke in a vexed tone, jealousy certainly etched with that. While that made Avni happy in a different way seeing him possessive, she immediately let her defence mechanism do the talking as she said,
"Yeah! Just like that bimbo Rhea keeps cosying to you and you don't bother to push her away!"
Whoa! An eye for an eye! This crazy, feisty, cute girlfriend of his had fifty shades of sparks in her if not anything less.'
Neil thought to himself, as he said with a smirk,
"Jealous, are we?"
Avni rolled her eyes at his words before turning to leave and this time Neil only followed her till they reached the exit of the library.
Their steps halted mutually as they stood at the door, the silence speaking volumes, the forbidden attraction between them still evident in the air.
.
"10 days, Avni Mehta. Aana toh uske baad tumhe mere paas hi hai." (You have to come to me only, after that).
Neil bragged in his own loving, arrogant tone.
.
"10 days it is, Neil Khanna. A challenge! And about coming to you, keep dreaming!"
Avni said in her signature feisty tone, with a thin line between maturity and childishness, as she turned to one end of the corridor and headed towards it, leaving Neil with a smirk on his face, both as a challenger and a lover as he turned towards the other end of the corridor and left the place.
This was gonna be fun.
**
Members Lounge
CID
