Part 3-
As aashi slowly jogged along the jogging track, she could feel mehers eyes on her.
After about 12 rounds of continuous running she was exhausted and she ran into the park and broke down in a lonely corner where there was no one.
She lay there and cried. Cried till she dint feel better.
Somehow she felt alienated from sid, tia and yuvi. Yuvi had long ago created a barrier between them which was unbreakable. But what about tia and sid?
As she thought about them, it suddenly hit her, sid had not talked to her even once since they had met.
He had directly started walking with tia. And tia seemed so engrossed with the others. In fact all of them. They were all so engrossed with each other, having fun, giving each other high fives that they hadn't even asked her to join them. They had just walked off. Why?
Was it because yuvi had been there or was it something else.
She felt herself burning with anger. She felt a sudden hatred towards the 4 of them. She felt an urge to go and give each of them a tight kick. And yet she felt so helpless. There was no one who could understand her.
She dint feel well enough. She wanted to go home. But her car keys were with tia.
Great, she thought as she got up and went into the tennis court where yuvi had his arms around meher and they were all laughing like someone had cracked the funniest joke ever.
Aashi without giving a second glance to yuvi, went ahead and approached tia. As soon as the 4 of them saw aashi, they all cleared their throats and started playing again. In fact she had a strange and sinking feeling that she was the topic of joke on which all 4 of them had been laughing. She dint wanna go there. Yet she dragged her legs along towards tia and said in her normal voice trying to keep her calm-
'tia, can I have the car keys. Im not feeling too well. Ill send the car back here with akhil.'
Tia- nahi its ok aashi you take the car. We'll come with meher. Itll take some time.
She said handing aashi the car keys.
Then without a second glance at aashi they all continued their game.
When she reached the parking lot. She couldn't help but wonder how her life had become lopsided all of one.
***
As she reached home, she saw akhil standing outside the house playing with bruno. Somehow she felt so calm and relaxed when she saw bruno, as though nothing had happened.
She went in with a smile on her face. She took bruno from akhil, to feed him.
Then she took it into her room and put him on the rug where he sat and watched dog shows. The only thing he did apart from cuddling with aashi and eating.
She quickly went into the bathroom and took a shower and changed her clothes to a nice half white shirt with a knee length same shaded skirt. She left her hair open.
then she went to get her kajal from the bathroom. As she was coming out of the bathroom, out of the corner of her eye she saw yuvis window open. she peeped through the window, in an urge to know whether he was with meher. What she saw made her want to strangle meher.
Meher and yuvi were hugging each other tightly. As she was peeping through the window she heard someone say—
'You don't hav any other work apart from peeping through other peoples windows?'
As she heard this aashi turned in a hurry to see tia on her door.
Tia- your worse then what I thought. first I thought you just spread things. Now I see you have no other work but to bitch about people on their backs. You're such a snitch Anvesha Ray Bannerjee. for gods sake get a life.
She said as she banged the door close.
Leaving aashi standing there with her mouth wide open.
What had tia meant? What had she spread? Snitch? Why?
A million questions propped into her head at that moment but then she couldn't understand a thing.
***
As she was coming out of her room, she saw tia and sid going out through the door into the car with meher and yuvi. She walked down the steps into the garden. And she decided to walk to college. After all it was pretty much near by. Just a few blocks away, she thought.
As she was walking, she saw a guy coming out of a house near by to hers. She had never seen that guy before. Gelled up hair, manuevered shirt and ironed jeans.
Neat, she thought and then continued her walk.
***
Aashi quickly ran upstairs to class, mr. raghavs class, and scanned the room for a seat. She saw tia, sid, meher and yuvi sitting together in a foursome in the 1st row. That row was full. The only seats available was on the 4th row, on the second last seat behind which sat a cute pinchy looking girl with a cute chink sort of a guy.
She went and sat there. As soon as she sat mr raghav came inside with everyones progress report and the rank list. he started announcing the ranks. Rank 1 yuvraj Dev. Rank 2 siddhant. Rank 3 Meher. Rank 4 Tia Ray Bannerjee. And rank 5 anna mathur.
Anna mathur was the girl sitting behind nupur.
The foursome who had been giving each other high fives suddenly looked around at aashi.
If anna had come 5th then what was aashis rank. then sir turned to the black board and started teaching, to which aashi half heartedly listened.
Everyone soon got over the shock that aashi wasn't in the top 5 ranks and continued their work.
When the class got over and everybody left. Mr Raghav stopped aashi and made her sit in front of him.
Raghav- whats wrong aashi? is everything alright?
aashi- ya
Raghav- I dint want to tok to u bout this in front of everyone. Your one of the brightest students of my class. But suddenly you've just started going down. If theres some problem then im always here you know you can tell me anything you feel is disturbing you.
aashi- no sir. Theres nothing like that.
Raghav- aashi I just hope you're ok. Anyways I don't want you to be late for your next class. Get going.
aashi- okay sir
she said as she got up and left.
As Raghav saw her leaving, he knew it was something regarding her friends. They had all suddenly deserted her. But why???
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Pyaar Kii Ye Ek Kahaani
