07: About all the Dates

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Smiti and Antara were sitting with Armaan, listening to his GI Joe stories.
"You know, once my GI Joe punched Puntoo's" said Armaan. (Yeah, Puntoo was his childhood buddy's name)
Smiti and Antara appreciated with half open eyes.
"I tried to give his GI Joe a-" he went on.
"Hey guys!" Kanishk greeted. "Wassup?"
"Heeyyyy!" celebrated both Antara and Smiti.
"You got some story, eh? C'mon, c'mon! Tell us..." Smiti said.
"Uh, if you want me to.." said Kanishk and began. "Last night, I called up Pratigya. She was with her sisters. She told me how much she liked my new song. You know, the one I wrote about how love changes life? She really liked the lyrics. What do you think about the song?"
There was a silence for a minute. Finally Smiti said "Yeah! So you were saying that his GI Joe could just not take the blow, right? Carry on!"
Taking the hint, Kanishk turned to Antara. "You heard the song, did you?"
"Ofcourse huney, I did! I really loved the part where you used 'Love' very, uhmm- you know, the word you used uh, 'Love'-"
"The song was all about 'Love'. You didn't hear it either, right?" Kanishk said.
"Yeah!" Antara affirmed and left.

[Vineet and Rishab were sitting in the Library, hunting for entirely different objects]
Both of them found something out and together started with
"Hey! Check this book out." (This was Rishab) and
"Hey! Check that chick out." (This was Vineet)
"I cannot have said that." said Rishab, repeating pronouncing "Book" to confirm he said "Book". "You said that? No, you can't!" he added.
"I know! But I think I need to change. Look at Armaan!" said Vineet brushing his hair with his fingers.
"And how about me? Why don't you look at me?" said Rishab.
"I do 'that' too. Whenever I'm feeling low and need some confidence, I compare myself to you!" mercilessly replied Vineet.
Rishab angrily stared at Vineet with a "How dare you? You mean I am dumber than you?", and Vineet looked back with a "Duh!".
"See, in their early twenties, guys rather check the girls out. What do 'you' do? Check the 'books' out-" said Vineet and grabbed the book from Rishab's hand, looked at the second page and continued. "-that have not even been written by a girl."
"That's not true. I did check a girl out." Rishab replied, implying Smiti.
"And from what I remember, you've not received any confirmation to your girlfriend registration with Smiti as yet!" said Vineet, his eyes moving around searching for some eye-candies.
"Dude!" exclaimed Rishab. He didn't like Smiti being referred to as 'girlfriend'.
"C'mon! You have to move on. See, I did! Girl's don't need so much time. And if they take it, you take the hint.. You're just not on her mind." explained Vineet. "I proposed Sunidhi, she ran away. The other girl proposed me, I ran.. uh rejected. I moved on. Now I'm checking new girls out." Suddenly his phone rang up.
"Call from home. Listen, you just find yourself a date for this evening. Party hard, or keep reading these highly distasteful books like a loser." Vineet said and left.
Rishab gave it a thought and decided to find himself a date for the evening.
Outside, Vineet was apologizing on the phone. Psst.. The call wasn't from home. Read on.
"Sorry, sorry! I'm very sorry. I promise, from next time, I'll take a book and keep reading it. No more checking girls out anymore. Love you! But where did you see me from?" he said, paused for her reply and then continued, "Yeah, ofcourse, that doesn't matter. Such an idiot I am." and concluded with a "Muaaaah, miss you too, Barbie!"
And then the smile disappeared and he went away mumbling swear-words.

[Antara, Smiti and Sunidhi were sitting in the cafeteria]
"So, I think you took Vineet's proposal really well!" taunted Smiti.
"I-WAS-NOT-READY!" angrily replied Sunidhi.
"Yeah, my lip-color was fainting out, my eyes were sleepy, my heels were an inch shorter, my nose was an inch longer, darararaaah, tarararaah! You girls and your tantrums!" 'Grandma'ishly commented Antara throwing her hands in the air. Smiti and Sunidhi stared at her. They were confused whether to give an angry look or confused look. Antara looked at their faces and said "Fine! I just thought of taking part in your discussion. I'm sorry if you don't like my participation!"
She went back to reading the notes that she had stolen from the 'secret notes repository' near the cafeteria, as she called it. Yeah, when Sunidhi came to know that Antara called it "Secret Notes Repository", she tried to explain to her that it was rather public. But before she could tell her that, Antara warned her of getting jinxed if she said anything bad about the "secret Notes Repository".
"So what does it really take to get ready?" asked Smiti, looking at Sunidhi.
"See, if he did it in a better way I would have accepted his proposal. By the way, now that you are talking about Love, why did you break that poor guy's heart? And if you really don't like him, tell Rishab that you don't." said Sunidhi.
"Uhh, I- I- It's not about me, and you're not good!" cried Smiti. Tears were as if ready for the command, and began to drip on the first complaining sound coming out of Smiti's mouth.
"O-M-G, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Don't cry. Please don't." said Sunidhi giving her the shake she had and grabbed a tissue paper kept on that table for her.
"That's alright" said Smiti still crying.
"No! No! I'm really sorry. Here, wipe your tears. Please don't cry."
Smiti pushed the tissue paper and the shake away.
"I said I'm sorry! C'mon. Please" said Sunidhi, when Smiti did not accept this friendly gesture.
"No, it's not thaaaaat." Smiti explained, her words hardly understandable in those cries. "I have just cried, I don't wanna puke around, and can't you see, that's Chocolate Shake made in our Cafeteria?"
"Oh! I'm sorry" gently said Sunidhi and kept the shake away, and brought the tissue paper near her face and tried to wipe her tears. Smiti bounced out of her seat and stood up a little away.
"Don't bring that near my face." Smiti warned, putting her crying on a temporary halt.
"Why?" said Sunidhi calmly.
"Because Naresh has cold, and he sneezed multiple times into it." replied Smiti.
"Yeah! He left it here to dry. Didn't it feel wet?" Antara said casually, still reading her notes.
"It did. But I thought it is just water. Ewwwwwwwwwwwww" cried Sunidhi and threw the tissue paper away. Coincidentally, the other end of the projectile was a secret admirer's drink.
"Hey Naresh!" he said.
"Yes?" Naresh replied and blushed.
"There's a tissue paper in my drink."
"Oh, I'll remove it" said Naresh. He planned to keep that tissue paper with him as something coming out of that guy's drink.
"No no! Can you just throw the drink away and give it to me?" the guy said.
After a few minutes he received the tissue. He looked at it with his eyes filled with love, kissed it and kept it in his breast-pocket.
This time, really guys, even I would say 'Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww'!

[Two hours later. Kanishk was on a call outside the classroom, while inside the class only a few students were sitting]
"Guys, don't you think Kanishk has started to spend too much of his time on phone?" said Smiti, feeling concerned (about the people on phone).
"Atleast he is doing something! It's better for the World's safety than waiting to be doomed by his unstoppably producing 'Musical' compositions" commented Antara.
"That's rude, Antara!" said Sunidhi.
"Why? You want me to start talking about your unreasonable complaints?" bluntly replied Antara.
"O-M-G!" began Sunidhi.
"Yeah! Nujifew!!" replied Antara pronouncing it as 'NOO-ji-FIU'.
"What?" Sunidhi and Smiti said all confused.
"So you don't get this, but you understand her 'O-M-G' everytime. I said 'Now Use Just Initials For Every Word'." explained Antara.
"Bravo, Kanishk! Bravo!" celebrated Kanishk as he entered the class after completing his call.
"Great! Everyone's doing that." Antara said pointing at Kanishk with her hand.
"That's a word! Bravo means-" started Sunidhi.
"Ofcourse it is. You will obviously support your like." grumbled Antara and then said to herself. "Phhhua.. Now bravo is also a word. Wonder what it means... 'Because Rebirth's Are Very Obvious?'" and then her eyes got all bright.
"Why? What happened?" said Smiti talking about Kanishk's celebration.
"Pratigya said she's coming to meet us all tomorrow." declared Kanishk.
"What?" Sunidhi said. It was just not clear whether she was happy about it or this was a tragic news to her.
"Kanishk, are you sure you wanna do this?" Smiti said.
"Hell yeah! Give me one reason I should not date this girl." challenged Kanishk.
"One-Exams are nearing. You can't afford to spend time-" began Smiti, and Kanishk began to give looks which conveyed 'Oh Come on! Not that exam stuff again.'
"I knew that won't work for you." snapped Smiti. "Two-Have you really told Zarine about your break up?"
"Uhh.. Wh-Why do I-Why should I be the one to tell her? Why can't she break up?" argued Kanishk, fumbling a couple of times. Smiti and Sunidhi kept looking at him.
"Why don't I think before I speak?" grizzled Kanishk and went away.

[In a few minutes the news had spread around]
As if "WE-HATE-SUNIDHI" wasn't enough, girls had come up with a "WE-HATE-KANISHK" group too. Guys wanted to make a "WE-LOVE-KANISHK" group but then they how the "Pervert & Co." would interpret this, and dropped the idea.
"How can he do that? Who leaves a girl and never tells her?" said a girl to another.
"That is a real 'Guy' thing. Date her, Leave her, Date next, Leave the next..." giggled a guy to another.
"He's such a jerk and an idiot. Every guy is after Zarine, and he's leaving her!" complained another girl.
"He's such a jerk and an idiot! He's leaving Zarine." celebrated another guy.
"For God's sake, leave me alone. I never dated her. I have only met her online. We have never seen each other!" explained Kanishk.
"And soooooooooo, you can just stop calling her and think that the matter is solved!" snapped Anish.
"Then what do I do?" said Kanishk. No one said anything. "Question mark!" continued Kanishk.
Everyone remained quiet. Nobody had an answer. Antara broke the silence.
"Exclaimation mark, Ampersand, Pound sign, Asterik, Question mark!"
They understood what she meant and started to find a solution.
Rishab got a call.
"Shhhhhhhhhhh. Not everyone's blank as you, Rishab! People are thinking." shouted Smiti.
"I am sorry!" apologized Rishab and went out to take the call.
After five minutes, he came back celebrating. "Woho! Yehe!"
"Everyone's like that! Omg, Bravo, Woho. You guys are-" complained Antara.
"What happened? The reason has to be good enough to justify disturbing the thinking session.. in which 'Armaan' is participating too!" said Sunidhi. Armaan was still busy thinking.
Rishab looked with a "Really! He is." in amazement, but then he returned to his celebration.
"I have a date this evening." he declared. Everyone remained quiet waiting for the name. ".. with the blonde Librarian."
Everyone gave the 'It was expected out of you' look.
"Cool! Where? In the library?" taunted Smiti. Rishab looked at everyone, and then cried.
"What can I do if she feels comfortable only in the presence of books?"
Rishab went away.
"I got it!" said Armaan. Everyone looked at him expecting some words of wisdom. Duh!
"Some plan?" said Vineet.
"Yes! A Plan. The ants had already planned that. I saw them hitting each other with the tentacles under my sweet box. I hate ants! GRRR.."
"O-M.. I mean Oh My God!" said Sunidhi.
Finally Kanishk came up with something. "I know what I have to do."
"What?" said Smiti. She knew it was not good. She could read Kanishk's expressions.
"Don't worry. You just take care of Pratigya till I return tomorrow." Kanishk said with an evil smile.
"Let's go!" Kanishk said and they all started to leave for the day. Smiti was still wondering where Kanishk was going, but she had already had enough for the day.
"Now you do it all the time" mumbled Antara. People didn't care. They didn't even stare at her and left.
[The day concluded]