Chapter 16
2:16p.m. [I am starting rehearsals for the next round from today. At Galleria, it's five mins from yours. You could come, if you're not baby-sitting Om of course."
Anika stared at the message, it was from Shivay - she was hurt at his cutting tone. He really was going out of his way to be mean to her, and she was really becoming annoyingly sensitive to each and every move of his, she thought irritated as she rubbed of the hot tears spilling down her eyes. No, she wasn't going to let Shivay be mean to Om when his anger was at her for whatever reason - he wasn't going to trouble Om, who was going through a low patch in life anyway.
2:20p.m.[Would have come, but guess I can't. Not with Om tonight - instead, completing the revision notes for you - I suppose it is baby-sitting anyway - one way or the other. But you carry on]
Shivay's fist curled at her sarcastic tone, oh so now she was bitter doing his notes? Why? Because it was coming between her "Om"time, he wondered in irritation.
2:31p.m. [Don't worry about those notes Anika, Tia here will take care of them now. You suck up to your Om.] he typed furiously and sent it.
Anika sighed, of course, why would Shivay behave nicely with her now? He didn't need to anymore - he had Tia now who would do her bidding, who was Anika to him? She laughed at herself cruelly, how dumb was she? He never considered her a friend, he only acted friendly when she had snapped last time, such that he could get her to help him and support him - her game was over in his mind now she thought as fresh tears threatened to come out.
Shivay sat down on his couch with force after holding his phone and waiting for a response from Anika for the last five minutes - she didn't revert back. He scratched his head with a frown on his face, did he overdo it this time? He unlocked his phone and re-read the message, oh-ho, he did go overboard with the "go suck up to Om" bit. Now he was feeling low, arghhh Anne! He sighed, and then decided to make truce with her - after all she didn't really do him any harm, on the contrary she had always helped him - what was wrong in dating Om? And what was wrong in wanting to spend the time with her new boyfriend? About not confiding in him, who knew, maybe she did try but he was only too busy with rehearsals and his confession to Tia then - what if she never got a chance? In fact wasn't she trying to tell him something that day in the auditorium? When he left suddenly because Tia was waiting? Was she going to tell him this? SHIT.
"Hey dude, whatsup?"
"Hey bro" replied Om nonchalantly over the phone.
"Help me. I got your girlfriend to be really mad at me, help me fix" even though he had forgiven them for not telling him, somehow, referring to Anika as Om's girlfriend was not quite right, she somehow didn't fit it, something was off about it, and it made him jittery. Om's head shot up, how was Shivay so cooly referring to Anika as his girlfriend? Was he really not bothered beyond friendship?
"Err..what have you done with Anika now?" Om asked shakily.
"God Om, I haven't DONE anything to YOUR Anika. AS YET. Just snapped at her bad. Can you help me fix this, or not?" he asked annoyed. What did Om think? Anika was sole his property now? How could he ask about her with so much authority? Wasn't he - Shivay, a friend too?
Om smiled at Shivay's retort - that was definitely not friendly protectiveness. He could hear Shivay's jealous voice, when he used his authority over Anika. He grinned, and replied on the phone.
"Don't worry dude, she will forget to be upset at you. We are going for our first movie date tonight! And if she does happen to remember which is unlikely and mention it, I will cover up for you! Chill now"he said and hung up.
Oh, so she has a movie date, and she had told him she was going to do his notes? Om-time finally won over Shivay-notes-time eh? Oh and of course when there is a movie date to attend, why reply to Shivay's petty messages? And here he thought she was upset, according to Om, it is not even likely for her to remember him huh? He thought hot headedly. First movie date...hmmm.
***
"Anika please don't refuse, you have to come for a movie with me!" Om urgently requested on the phone.
"But Om, I need to finish these notes---"
"No No you have to come. My ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend are going, we need to be there too. Please? Pleaseee?" he coaxed. Anika sighed, after quite some time Om didn't sound down, she didn't have the heart to refuse.
"Okay" she sighed.
***
When he entered the multiplex with Priyanka, he stopped dead on his feet - she looked like "him" thought Rudra, but "he" never had a cousin as far as he knew - they must be family, cause she was standing with Shivay, Tia, their batchmate Mallika and their senior, what was his name, Daksh - Rudra remembered, and their senior batch topper Reyaan. And if all were here, why wasn't Somz there? wondered Rudra. His own concern for Somz troubled him more. But before he gathered his thoughts, Mallika looked at them, and then there was a precarious scream from next to him.
"Mallluuu" screamed Priyanka with all the air in her lung and Rudra flinched, but before he could ask why she screamed, Mallika came hurriedly towards them and hugged Priyanka. Well Rudra was used to Mallika's outrageous loud behaviour in class sometime but she acted timid today - it felt like role reversal. While Mallika and Priyanka hugged each other, it dawned to all of them that they knew each other. As the girls caught up,after explaining to the rest that they were childhood best friends, Priyanka noticed, Mallika wasn't her usual self and for some reason her Daku looked visibly agitated as he kept darting glances at Tia. What was going on? Thought Priyanka.
Rudra slowly walked up to the crowd and caught up with Shivay - he had invited him for the movie saying it would be a double movie date for fun - but it seemed like it was a multiple date thing. Shivay-Tia, He-Priyanka, Mallika-Daksh (as he saw her going and joining Daksh and holding his hand) and aah, so this girl who looked a bit like him, must be Reyaan's date Rudra rationalized. As he nodded at everyone, their eyes caught.
"How are you Rudra?" she asked - well not only her face, her voice was also very familier to "his" wondered Rudra, and how did she know him? Rudra noticed even though her hair was short, it wasn't as short as "him"ofcourse, they were a cute pixie crop, she had beautiful eyes and in contrast to her face, a rather broad shoulder, she must be obsessed with gyming he thought. She was wearing a peach coloured tank top and a loose palazzo that went until her ankle - her body was well covered, but she still managed to look feline. Rudra realized in response to her greetings he was just staring. He cleared his throat unnecessarily and replied,
"Hi, I am fine. And you are?"
She looked surprised for a second, her face froze, but the next moment she smiled, "Soumya. Soumya Singh Oberoi"
Rudra stood there blank for a few moment, was this some kind of a joke they were playing on him? He looked around to see everone was busy making conversation; no one was looking at them - what was this? Who was this? But soon he heard Priyanka calling him from beside Mallika, he stole one last glace at the woman before him and walked away - Soumya sighed as he saw him leave.
***
When Anika and Om entered the multiplex, Anika seeing the crowd before them - they all were there - Shivay, Tia, Mallika, Daksh, Rudra, Soumya, Reyaan and Priyanka!?! She looked at Om who just about managed to conver his smirk to surprise - God Shivay you're so predictable - he thought.
"If they all are coming then why did you get me Om?"
"It's a coincidence Anika, I never called them - and remember we have a mission, we can't be with them, how will my girlfriend understand who I am dating if I am in a group?"
Before she should respond, Soumya greeted them, "Look the new love-birds" she squealed making Anika very uncomfortable. Om answered for her, "Hey what are you all doing here?"
"We came to watch a movie, bhai invited us all saying it will be a good stress breaker, so all agreed" replied Soumya innocently.Now Shivay spoke, "Surprise!! Guess what? We all are here and the bigger coincidence is that I have two extra tickets too!" he smirked and everyone laughed realizing they were gate-crashing Om and Anika's date. Only Mallika tried very hard to hide the lone tear that was surfacing again - of course she was happy, for her di.
It was when Mallika was walking away from the crowd to the ladies that Om finally noticed her - all the colours in his face drained, he forgot about his charade and was about to follow her when he saw Daksh follow her - he stooped - he was rebound after all. He sighed and turned around with a fake smile plastered in face - if not him, at least Anika will have a happy ending.
As Shivay came to him and Anika, he handed Anika the tickets, he looked at her as Om held her by the shoulder, it irritated him, why were they always together? Couldn't they keep their hands off each other? He thought, there was a slight frown that Anika didn't catch but Om did and smiled internally.
Shivay focused on his words to Anika, "Sorry about those texts. Just wanted to make-up and have some fun together" he said that and handed her the ticket, then he looked at Om with a victorious grin for spoiling his date and turned to leave. Who knew why he felt so happy at accomplishing such a silly feat. But Om's smile broadened, he took the tickets from Anika's hand as Shivay watched and left them behind to go to the ticketing counter. As the whole group watched confused, Om came back with a change of seats.
"Shivay! It was an awesome plan to spoil my amazing evening with the love of my life, but I can't let that happen! So we are sitting separately. The smile vanished off Shivay face as Om held Anika's hand gently and took her away from them. On his way he noticed the awkward faces of his friends, but he was doing this for Anika - when he crossed Mallika he almost stopped, but Mallika only grabbed Daksh's hand harder, hence he didn't stop.
"What if Anika wanted to sit with me? I mean us? Mallika, Soumya and all?" he heard Shivay ask with jealousy evident in his voice. Om stopped and waited for Anika to respond with baited breath.
"I can catch up with them later, but tonight is Om's" she replied without the slightest trace of remorse that she felt at that point, with her back turned towards them. Then she turned to Soumya and Mallika and mouthed "Later Guys!"and left.
Shivay stood there silently. Something was suddenly hurting bad. Real bad. As Mallika bid her di to go, she noticed Om trying to hide his ashen face, she sighed - her di really must love Om, otherwise she wouldn't ever have gone like this. She tried her best to smile.
Anika sighed, if not her, at least Om would have a happy ending to his story - this was for him. And amongst all this, holding Priyanka's hand, Rudra noticed none of these as he stole distant glances at the creature a little far from him, claiming she was "him"
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