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#1
||Ignorance
He ignored her again. She sighed defeatedly, biting her lip to stop the lump from escaping the confines of her throat.
Her eyes stung as she lifted her eyes to watch his retreating back turn around the corner and disappear. Leaning back on the granite covered sill, she picked at her nails.
Why isn't he talking to me? she wondered, before straightening and looking away, when she saw a figure clad in a saree walking by her from her peripheral vision.
"Good morning, Ma'am," she mumbled, before clutching her bag closer at her shoulder and walking down the corridor.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Exhausted from the day, since they had gotten another week worth of homework, to keep them busy and not even let them breathe easily, she threw her bag onto her bed. Chatters were echoing off the walls of her dorm, irritating her.
She opened her mouth, but paused, when she remembered that it just wasn't worth saying anything to them. All they would do was turn up their noses at her and continue their jibber-jabbering.
She scoffed mentally, Yeah, like you wouldn't do the same if they told you to shut up!
Sighing heavily, she headed to one of the bathrooms to change.
"Honestly, I feel ashamed that you think that way about someone who is sick." Mr. Mehra's voice echoed inside her head.
Her fingers combed through her hair, following her brush as it untangled the strands. Her eyes darted to Angela's bed, but before she knew it, they automatically stared at the said girl's trunk.
Her vision blurred as she felt herself reliving the moment when she found the diary in there. Her eyes sifting through the round-ish handwriting of the girl, who now lay in the emergency room.
"Krissane!! What's your problem?! Why'd you drag me out here? She is in there, unconscious and you-- Are you out of your mind?!"
"--and anyway, she shouldn't have said it such a manner. Angela must've kept it a secret for a reason and she had to announce it out loud to the world!"
Krissane's eyes darted around, as the voices cleared the fog in front of her eyes. She found Niti shaking her head with disgust on her face, while Siyali faced away from her. Glancing around, she found the other girls, including Prerna, whispering among themselves and glancing at her once in a while.
Setting her jaw, she was about to storm out of the room when Siyali's voice stopped her. "Poor Utkarsh. He is taking this very hard. You know the other day, he told me how he hated Angela calling him 'Alia Bhatt'. But I could see that he didn't mind it one bit. He has already started considering her a close friend, you know. He really likes her."
"I know.. she's a good person--"
The door behind her shut off the rest of whatever Niti was about to say in reply.
Dehra Dun's cool evening air, made itself known by having the trees sway, and the leaves rustle. She inhaled deeply, before walking straight to the windowless puncture in the wall facing her and looking out.
Down below, she saw the flower garden that they had tend to twice a week for their S.U.P.Ws and common room time. The plants were slowly growing, well, as slow as they can since she saw not much of a difference in their growth every other third day. Leaning on her elbows, she peered down more, when her eyes caught movement at the end of the flower garden.
Quickly, moving her eyes to the spot, she saw a mop of dark hair and set of blue pyjamas disappear into the dark. She frowned when her gaze was obstructed by a bunch of leaves, while trying to follow whatever was left of the figure.
Straightening, she wondered if she should go down and investigate.
"Utkarsh?"
Her head whipped to the side to see Parth looking around the corridor and also leaning out one of the windowless arch in front of his dormitory.
"Utkarsh!"
He turned to meet her gaze. He was about to open his mouth, as if to ask her something, but he looked away and went back inside the doors.
Her chest constricted. And she didn't know why. Or maybe she knew. She had done something bad.
"--arth?! Is it you?"
She snapped her head down to see Utkarsh peeking out from under the leaves and his gaze running to and fro at the windowless arches of the first floor where their dorms were housed.
Utkarsh, she thought to herself. And before she knew it, she had flew down the stairs. She was at the middle of the flight of the steps that led to the ground floor, when she paused to see those pair of black eyes watching her.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
What hurt was the fact that those eyes instantly turned hard in a few seconds of staring into hers. The air shifted around her, and she felt something passing her by, making her break the stare and follow the retreating back of Parth, who was jogging towards Utkarsh.
Looking back at the guy in question, she found him staring at her in anger. Her eyebrows furrowed. It looked like Parth was trying to get his attention, but Utkarsh seemed to be lost somewhere, with anger reflecting in the pair of coals.
Darting a glance at the other guy, she found him staring at her too in confusion.
"Utkarsh!"
That seemed to snap the boy out of his thoughts. "What? Oh, Parth! What happened?"
"What happened? What're you doing here?" his eyes motioning the spot they are standing on.
The boy's eyes crinkled, as gestured to somewhere behind him. "Just talking to Ma," he smiled.
A soft smile seemed to creep its way onto her lips, as she saw Parth smiling back at him too. It was hard not to smile at the moment.
She felt something small burst inside her gut, when Utkarsh glanced her way, before pulling Parth into the flower garden.
Swallowing, she decided, now was not the right time. Yeah, it isn't, or she'd just embarrass herself.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Morning came very early for her, in fact for everyone in the dorm. Groaning and yawning, at the same time, her eyes involuntarily landed on Angela's empty bed.
Today was Saturday. They had no classes, but the teachers had offered to take extra classes for any subject they wanted help in, since their mid terms were in less than week. She remembered taking that impromptu extra class on Vibha Ma'am's birthday.
"What're you smiling about? Are you done preparing for the exams, Krissane?"
She hadn't even realised when her lips had curved into that of a smile. "What's it to you? I smile or I don't, it's none of your business."
"Hypocrite," even though the girl had mumbled to herself, she had heard it. She was about to reply to the girl, when she stopped herself.
She's not wrong.
Shaking her head, she got ready in a set of casuals, which was a pair of haram pants and a fitting top. She was about to touch her hair to make a fancy hairdo, when she realised she wasn't in the mood. Pulling her hair into a side braid, she started looking through her bag for the books she wanted to study today.
She smirked to herself. Studying and Krissane. A very unlikely combination. When her eyes caught onto her Maths textbook, she realised she hadn't done any of the exercises Ma'am had given her and Utkarsh to solve.
Shit! I've got to finish it. She wondered if Utkarsh had done it.
~*~*~*~*~*~
The library was doused in nothing but silence. Of course it is, you doofus! Krissane thought to herself. Huffing, she looked at the Librarian's desk. Chaitrali Ma'am seemed to have gone out for a while.
Few of her classmates had decided to study in the common room, but she knew that no one would be studying there. And he wasn't there either, when she had given a few glances around.
A few were sprinkled around in the lawn, under the shades of the trees, which would only get her clothes ruined.
She had poked her head into the classrooms where extra classes were being held, but no such luck.
She even saw Siyali and Niti, revising with Parth and Simran, but let's be honest here. She didn't want to talk to them. Or rather, she was too embarrassed to even ask them, let alone talk to them.
She had thought of asking Sid, who was currently loitering around the lawn with Charlie, but she would only further embarrass herself and give Sid another reason to hurt Utkarsh.
Her heart seemed to be pounding in anticipation and also fear. It only worsened when Kamini Ma'am had caught her loitering around aimlessly and asked her if she was fully prepared for her exams. Spluttering a negative answer, she briskly walked to the nearest door and sighed in relief on reading 'Library' at the nameplate.
And here she was, standing in the middle of the rows of the benches, staring at the shelves of books. A thump of a book behind the shelves, broke into her aimless thoughts. Walking around, she saw the retreating back of the familiar lean figure of the boy she had been looking for all over school.
"Utkarsh," she squealed without thinking. Her grin faltered when the boy turned and stared at her with empty eyes.
~*~*~*~*~*~
She was frowning deeper than usual, as Utkarsh was ignoring her as much as he could.
Not even a 'Hi.'
"Hey did you finish Vibha Ma'am's homework?" she tried. She saw him pause his actions. Glad, she could get a reaction out of him, she stepped forward, all the while watching him pull out that same notebook out of his bag pack that he had had during their extra class.
"I knew you hadn't finished! You know I hadn't even started! Have you started?"
She looked up to see him placing his other books at the side of his desk, while pulling out the Maths textbook from his bag and placing it on the desk.
"Hey, Utkarsh, if you haven't started, then maybe we could do it together--" The rest got caught in her throat, when she saw him shifting the other books from the table to the seat beside him, where she was about to place herself on.
"I--" she stopped herself and picked up his books setting it at the bench behind them and settled herself beside him, only to see him get up and sit two benches away from the previous one.
Her eyes stung. Blinking hard, Don't be a cry baby, she thought to herself, she set her bag and pulled her books out and went and sat at the bench in front of his, facing him.
After a few seconds of silent contemplation over the questions, she looked up to see his dark mop of hair bobbing up and down as his hand furiously rubbed against the pages of his notebook, his eyes darting up and down the page of his solution.
"Hey, do you know how to solve this?" she thrust her book right below his nose, only to have it pushed back into her roughly.
When she looked up hurt, about to yell at him, she found him holding a hand over his eyes. She glanced down and saw his mouth agape painfully.
"Ah," a hiss escaped his throat.
Dropping her book, she pushed at his hand, "Sorry, sorry! I am so sorry, Utkarsh!"
Her attempts to see his face ended up being just that. Attempts. Because as much as she tried, he pushed her hands away and stood up hastily, dropping his pen.
"Utkarsh! Let me see that, please! I am really sorry, I didn't know! Utkarsh!" she went up to him and pulled at his shoulder to face her. But her breath caught in her throat, when he jerked her hands away with his arms.
She gasped when she saw a sliver of blood at the bridge of his nose and also right below his eyebrow.
"Leave me alone Krissane!"
"Utkarsh, I'm so sorry, really! Please, let me help you, I really didn't know," she tried again, stepping forward and reaching up, while pulling at his wrist.
Jerking away her grip, his nose flared. "That is what!! You never know!" his voice taking an angry-sarcastic lilt at the end.
Her eyebrows furrowed. "Wha--"
"You never know, how people will get hurt just by words! You never know how it will hurt others when you insult them! When you announce their secrets! When you interfere in their lives, read their secret diaries!"
All she could do was stare at him, her mouth agape. "Utka--"
"You know, it's called a 'secret' for a reason, Krissane!" he tilted his chin, narrowing his eyes at her, which were both angry and sad.
"I, she--"
"What?"
Gritting her teeth, "If I hadn't read her diary, you would have never come to know that your 'good friend' has a disease!" she countered.
"So what?!" he raised his voice. "She is my friend! It doesn't bother me if she has a disease or not! But it does bother me if she is in pain or not! You clearly are heartless! What if you were the one with AIDS?! What if everyone in school avoided you like the plague, huh?"
She blinked. Her chest was constricting. She swallowed hard.
"I am not HIV positive," she said weakly, in an 'as-a-matter-of-fact' manner.
"Yes, but what if you were?! Wouldn't it hurt you if nobody wanted to be friends with you? Wouldn't it hurt you if I read your diary and announced it to the whole school that you have AIDS?!"
She opened her mouth, but nothing came up. She looked up again to see him watching her, with those angry embers.
"I thought you were a good person. After all what you did, I thought maybe you had some good in you, no matter how bitchy you can become."
Tears stung her eyes. She bit her lip. Hard.
"But as I can see," his stance hardened, as he tilted his chin up, his voice becoming cold, "you are nothing but a petty person, who doesn't know the meaning of friendship or secrets and are just too caught up in your world of exacting revenge, vanity and dishonesty, to even see the brighter side of Life."
Licking her lips, she looked up. And she gasped quietly, when she saw it in his eyes. Disappointment and shame.
Shame oozed out of her pores in waves, and so did the tears flow down her heated cheeks.
"To be a better person, you do not pull others down. In fact, you help them up when they are down and stand by their side, no matter what. Without any conditions. That is what makes you a Friend."
"What is happening there?"
She didn't realise when Utkarsh' presence left her, being replaced by the librarian's.
"Child?"
She whirled around when a hand pressed down on her shoulder and stared at the hollow cheeks of the librarian. "Why are you crying? Are you okay?"
Crying? She lifted her hands and felt her wet cheeks. Rubbing the liquid off of her skin with her fingers, she stepped back and around to gather her books.
Registering Utkarsh's absence, she quickly high tailed out of the confines of the silent dungeon of paper and dust.
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I know the title is really stupid, but.. meh.. Couldn't think of one fast enough. So.. Yup. I was about to write more, but.. thought I should just end it here.
Anyway, do let me know if you liked it.
Annie😛
Love Friendship Dating and Relationships
