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Chapter 2
Present Day...
"Natasha...Nat...hey Nat! Wake up, sleepy head! We're gonna be super late for our lecture today...and do you know? Of all day, today Mr."Spitting" Patel is taking the morning class!! Do you know what does that mean?" Aarti said teasingly to the sleeping Natasha.
At the mention of Mr.Patel's name, Aarti witnessed a sudden ruffled movement on the bed. In a split second, Natasha sprung to her feet in lightning speed clutching her cheeks with a horrified look on her face "A face full of paan infested saliva for late comers...oh noo", shrieked Natasha sprinting towards the bathroom.
Aarti had an hearty laugh watching Natasha's comical act. She wiped two drop of tears that had streamed down her cheek, the result of her hard laugh. While waiting for Natasha, Aarti made up Natasha's bed and got hers as well as Natasha's notes ready for the morning lecture.
In less than 10 minutes, Natasha appeared all clean and fresh carrying her sling bag. With a slight smile on her lips, she marched towards Aarti and gestured her to hurry. Aarti shook her head disbelievingly at her gesture and a slight smile appeared on her face seeing Natasha's childish antics. Once both had stepped out of the room, Aarti locked up their room door and ran behind sprinting Natasha. "Hey Nat! Wait up, what is this rush for? We still have got 30 minutes before Mr.Patel shows up. Can't we just walk rather than running like kids?" said Aarti slightly panting, once she caught Natasha's arm. "I don't know about you, but I am not going to get my face infested with free paan facial from "Spitty Patty", said Natasha glancing at Aarti. "Me neither, but we still got plenty of time, and look...we've almost reached our lecture room", said Aarti pointing towards a large room ahead of them.
Just then, they heard some loud laughing sound coming from their back. Natasha turned and saw a group of six boys walking towards them. To Natasha's pleasant surprise, one of them happened to be her "dream" boy...well, technically the "dream" boy of the entire girls community in the University! Natasha almost crushed Aarti's fingers in anticipation and nervousness. She nudged Aarti's arm, asking her to have a closer look at "him". The group was fast approaching them, increasing both Natasha and Aarti's racing heart beats. Aarti just couldn't lift her head up to look at those chattering group of boys, when all of a sudden someone from the group bumped Aarti's right shoulder while walking past her. The slight shoulder brush sent 100 watts of power into Aarti's already shivering body and instinctively made her to look up while her eyes searched for the shoulder's owner. The impact of the "accident" stirred some long forgotten feelings in the shoulder owner's body as well, causing him to turn his head impulsively towards Aarti's direction. Both their eyes met for few seconds and both muttered "sorry" simultaneously, much to their surprise. Their eye-lock was broken harshly when one of his friends held his arm and pulled him away. He started to walk away with slight upturned lips while still gazing at Aarti and raised both his right index and middle finger together towards his temple and gave her a "saluting" gesture as if apologizing for the "accident".
"YASH SCHINDIA" gasped Natasha loudly, enough for the entire group of boys to turn around and look at them. Aarti's reverie broke when all the boys started chuckling and gave Yash a pat on his back. Aarti felt her face turning into a deep shade of pink and stood rooted once again when all of them gave one last glance to both Aarti and Natasha and continued walking towards the lecture room.
After what seemed like an eternity, Aarti blinked her eyes and looked at salivating Natasha. Aarti smacked her forehead smilingly seeing Natasha. "Hey Nat, drooling session is over, now get a grip of yourself and wipe those saliva, will you? Come on...Mr.Patel may walk in anytime...chalo na" Aarti pulled Natasha towards their lecture room.
Both Aarti and Natasha walked up to their respective seats, when suddenly Rakesh, one of Yash's friends walked up to Aarti and handed her a piece of folded paper. "From Yash", he said smilingly. Aarti's eyes almost popped out from its socket. She just stared at him and the paper not knowing how to react. Natasha immediately got up from her seat and snatched the paper from Rakesh's hand. "What's this? Love note? Are you from "Flintstone" era? Oh come on...this is 21st century for heaven's sake! Wake up! Be a man, will you? If you wanna profess your love, face the girl in person and do it...not by sending some "wingless kabootar" to do your deed", Natasha said loudly for Yash to hear while giving her "infamous" deathly glare at Rakesh then at Yash, who was laughing at some random jokes by Vineeth not suspecting a thing that was going on two rows before him.
Rakesh smirked at Natasha and snatched the paper off her hand. "This is NOT for you or Aarti alone, and it is definitely not a LOVE NOTE. Yash just wanted to know whether you girls by any chance would be interested in joining Mrs. Richards surprise farewell party", said Rakesh in a serious but with a mischievous look. "Waise, why would you think that Yash would pass a love note to Aarti? You do know that he has got a girlfriend, don't you? Unless...umm...you're interested in him yourself? Are you...by any chance?" asked Rakesh eyeing both of them suspiciously with a mischievous smile still lingering on his lips.
Natasha spoke almost immediately on behalf both of them. "Oh Hello! We're not some despo girls okay! Why would we be interested on some "second hand" goods? Just because he's the most popular and drop dead gorgeous guy in this entire University, that doesn't give him the liberty to expect all girls to fall on his feet begging him to date them, samje? We still have pride intact in us, got it Mister?" Natasha said snapping her fingers at dumbstruck Rakesh.
"Good morning students", the loud and stern voice of Mr.Patel broke the "almost" start of an argument when Rakesh opened his mouth to counter-react to Natasha's accusation on his best friend. The whole room immediately fell into pin drop silence thereafter.
After almost half a day of back to back lecture, all the students gave a relieved sigh when their last lecturer for the day walked out of the room. Aarti and Natasha quickly gathered their lecture notes getting ready to head towards their University's cafeteria. Tigers and lions had been groaning from their stomachs since mid morning as both of them had skipped their breakfast in the morning. "Aarti chal na! My stomach is hurting so badly. You know, I can gobble up an entire roasted lamb, like right now! Am that hungry" complained Natasha clenching her stomach. "Ok..ok..am done. Let's go" Aarti got up and started walking down the stairs in hurry with Natasha towing behind her.
Once they got their lunch and sat at a rather secluded table, both almost instantly feasted on their food without a word from each other. Within five minutes, both had polished off their plates and gave a satisfying burp much to the disgusted look from some girls sitting on the next table. Natasha burst out laughing followed by Aarti seeing the look on those girls faces. "Besharam, have some manners Ms. Aarti Sharma" said Natasha still giggling. "Oh, look who's talking" Aarti retorted nudging Natasha's arm. Both started their laughing therapy again.
"Come, let's go to the library and finish off those assignments" Aarti said getting up from her chair. Natasha gave a nod and follow suit. Aarti has barely taken two steps when she heard the sound of crashing can and someone's cursing under their breath "Dammit". Aarti froze and slowly turned to look at the owner of the familiar voice. Aarti clasped her palms to her mouth seeing the spilled Coke on the owner's shirt. "I..I'm so sorry...oh GOD...I swear, I..I didn't see you coming. I'm sorry" Aarti said immediately pulling her handkerchief from her pocket and started wiping his shirt.
Yash grabbed Aarti's hand firmly, stopping her from wiping his shirt further. Aarti looked up at him nervously and was surprised to note that Yash was staring at her intensely with a slight smile on his lips. Both were looking into each other's eyes for GOD alone know how long, until Natasha slowly edged towards Aarti's ears and squealed "Aarti, what are you doing? Get a grip of yourself". Aarti jerked slightly and broke their eye-lock immediately muttering a soft "sorry" once again.
"What is going on here?" a sudden boom of voice echoed near them. All three of them jumped slightly hearing the thunderous voice. Nida walked closer to Yash and slid her arm to his and stood provocatively next to him. "What is going on Yash? Oh, and what happened to your shirt?" Nida shrieked on top of her voice much to Yash's annoyance. Both Natasha and Yash rolled their eyes while Aarti looked down.
"Nothing is wrong, Nida. I accidentally bumped into Aarti and spilled my drink on my shirt" said Yash looking at confused Aarti.
"I knew it Yash, she must have done it on purpose, so that she can get a chance to talk to you. This are cheap tactics Yash, this desperate girls na!, I tell you, they do this all the time in order to get some attention, especially when it involves you kind of guys, the handsome, rich, smart and well bred ones" sneered Nida staring at both Aarti and Natasha.
Aarti was shocked hearing Nida's derogatory remarks and Natasha opened her mouth to give Nida a piece of her mind, when suddenly Yash spoke up. "Shut up Nida! Nothing like that happened. In fact, it was ME who bumped into Aarti", said Yash emphasizing on "me" with a disgusted look at Nida. He quickly said sorry to both Aarti and Natasha, pulling his arm away from Nida's grip. He gave one last longing look at Aarti, smiled sadly and walked away in a rush with Nida sprinting behind him. Aarti nod her head and returned that longing look at Yash until he disappeared from her sight.
Natasha, who was looking at the whole drama unfolding before her, gave a quizzical look at Aarti as if demanding for an answer for that final look and smile from Yash and Aarti's longing look. Aarti sighed and her shoulder drooped knowing that Natasha will never leave her in peace until and unless Aarti spill the whole truth to her.
YASH...the name that once meant the world to her...well, it still does but, alas! Aarti can never forget the incident that had happened four years back which drew her away from her Yash...her first day at senior high...
TO BE CONTINUED...
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