Segment 7
Chahat tossed and turned on the bed. She might have stood strong in front of the whole school in support of Aryan but deep down, she was sad. She was cool with Aryan being gay, but she didn’t like the way she found out about it. She would have been so much happier if he, himself would have told her. Now she understood why was he forced to marry her at such a young age. His father knew. That’s why he forced him.
The day’s event kept revolving in her mind. She was worried about how their other friends and the students of the school were going to behave with Aryan. It had not been a nice day, the worse was when Saheel hit Aryan.
Saheel. The sadness in his eyes, the concern in his voice flashed in front of her eyes. Chahat might be crushing over him for months now, but she never thought that someone other than her brother Prateek and best friend Aryan would genuinely care for her. She loved her mother but she could never forgive her for trying to marry her off when she was underage. And with Saheel, she had started to see a future.
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Aryan hit the punching bag with all his force. He had never been so angry before, not even when he father disregarded him and tried to forcefully marry him off with Chahat. But today, he felt hurt, felt disheartened, felt humiliating. To add to his woes, Saheel hit him because that ba*ta*d Vikram dragged his name into all this.
He used to cherish the smallest moments with Saheel. They sat together, ate together, got punished together. And today seeing him so angry, his heart ached. Aryan started punching the bag harder remembering how Saheel had pulled Chahat into in arms and showed concern for her while he was nose was bleeding. Was this going to be a heartbreak for him? Or with Saheel, he could see a future?
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Saheel buried his head inside the book but he didn’t read a word. Whenever he saw the letter 'A', his thoughts turned towards Aryan. He regretted hitting Aryan today. He knew Aryan and Chahat were best friends. He knew they lived in the same house, but still he felt jealous. Since the time he had known about attraction and feelings, he had felt it towards guys. No-towards Aryan.
Aryan listened to him even if he was blabbering nonsense, he laughed with him at his stupid jokes. His smile always took Saheel's breath away. He had liked him since the day they met. But he wasn’t sure how he would react to it. And seeing his comfort level with Chahat, he always thought that they were in love. So he had decided to bury his feelings and tried Grindr only to get the biggest shock of his life – Aryan. He had a dp where his back was facing the camera. But Saheel had recognised him. But he was more shocked when he saw the writing on the wall at school. He was terrified but if once Aryan had said he didn’t mind his name tagged with him, he was ready to confess his liking towards him. But he didn’t do that. He told his dad that Chahat was his girl. And Saheel couldn’t handle his temper.
But wrote all on the wall and tried to humiliate Aryan? He was determined to find him, no matter with Aryan he had a future or not.
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Meera was having a migraine. The day had taken a toll on her, even though she wasn't a part of the whole drama. She knew how he must be feeling, coming out is not easy and outed by someone was worse. No one can ever imagine how that felt. But atleast Aryan was lucky to have Chahat, she was a nice girl so Meera decided looked out for her. Meera had been judgemental about Aryan, she had been dismissive of him and thought that he wasn’t a good influence on the girl. And after past day’s fight, there wasn’t any doubt, they were good for each other.
What Meera Bansal felt for Chahat was surely not love, but she really cared for her a lot.
Chahat was staring at her book, not reading a word, when her phone rang. She picked it seeing her brother's name as the called I’D.
"Pack your bags, I am coming to pick you," Prateek said and disconnected before she could answer.
Financial markets and global economy
Ishaani
