10: About Sunidhi's crush

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It was New Year already. The exams had just concluded, and the 'crying around' was ebbing out.
Antara and Armaan were sitting in the cafeteria enjoying the start of a new semester. It was a ritual. No classes were to be attended in the first month. If 'Exams were stressful' wasn't enough, they had another excuse. "I think these lecturers are already frustrated after checking the answer sheets. Why give them another dose right away?" Anyway, FYI, the results were not yet out, and self-analysis was a usual activity.
"Oh My God!" cried Antara, looking at the question paper. "How'll I pass? I didn't answer any of these questions!"
"What?" said Armaan, all worried. "Why?"
"I don't know!" exclaimed Antara and began to cry out loud.
Sunidhi, Rishab and Kanishk had just reached college, and cafeteria was the first stop. When they reached near cafeteria, on hearing the loud crying Sunidhi said, "Did they sell the cafeteria building to Maternity home?" Kanishk and Rishab did smile, but were more concerned about what this crying was about.
When they entered, they saw how a girl was crying very loud. Naah! It was just not Antara.
"O-M-G!" exclaimed Sunidhi."Antara!! Why did you-uh- Oh God! What have you done to her hair? What happened, Antara? Why did you beat this girl?" A fat girl was standing there crying like a baby, and her hair all messed up.
"I was jealous!" bluntly replied Antara.
"I think you'll have to think really fast to give a satisfactory explanation" giggled Armaan. However, he immediately got serious when Rishab gave an angry look.
"Uhm.. So you're jealous!!" said Sunidhi looking carefully at the fat girl from head to toe, and then turned to Antara with a "Is any of your explanations valid and understandable? If yes, give it!" expression..
"Arrgghh! Who am I kidding! I was just upset about my exam and this bi*** showed up!" explained Antara.
"Wohoo!! Now that gives us two questions to ask.." said Sunidhi, here hands waving gently on both sides.
"I choose exams!" said Armaan so quickly that it seemed to have been shot right with the question.
"Hey!!" said Kanishk. "There's this", whispered "fat, clumsy, and horrible", and continued with the normal volume "girl sitting 'and crying'!"
"Dude, didn't you hear? She's a bi***. She'll go!!" said Rishab and went to hear Antara's story.

[In the Chemistry Lab]
"How can I be getting such a low score?!" complained Smiti to Mrs.Kaushik, who had given her unbelievably low scores for Internal Assessment!
Clever as fox, Mrs.Kaushik replied "Just the way they did who made an effort to attend my lectures and pay attention to the lady standing in front, that was me!"
"Yeah!" said Anish, agreeing with Mrs.Kaushik to flatter her. "Just the way I did. I remember how you'd explain each topic so well"
Tough as a stone, Mrs.Kaushik blew Anish's castle of cards down too.
"Do you, by any chance, remember anything from the topics I taught?" snapped Mrs.Kaushik. There was silence for a minute and for all this while Mrs.Kaushik was staring at Anish as if he was the only leaving creature there, and he had asked Mrs.Kaushik to give her kidney to Anish for eating! Finally the silence was broken by Anish. But after what he said, hell broke loose on Smiti.
"She calls you Caustic!" he said pointing towards Smiti and Mrs.Kaushik couldn't understand what next to say!

[Minutes later, in cafeteria]
"Hey! I have something to tell." said Kanishk.
"Is it interesting and not out of this world? Because after solving Antara's problem I am not left with much energy to waste" said Sunidhi. Words were hardly audible but clearly conveyed how exhausted she was already.
"Yeah!" said Rishab, who btdubs had been talking on the phone to the OOP instructor during the time Sunidhi, was trying to decide what to do about Antara's problem.
"Well it really is!" insisted Kanishk.
"But how did you solve Antara's problem?" said Rishab who, although, was interested in knowing Kanishk's problem, but things had not been going well between them ever since the 'divorce', and he wanted to exhibit how Kanishk's issues just didn't matter to him.
"Pratigya is coming today" Kanishk said and stared at Rishab angrily.
"Oh! Nice. Did you ask her if she was the one who got shut up by us?" said Armaan. Clearly, he was very excited.
Kanishk stared at Armaan for a while, and then with nothing meaningful to say, he replied with "Yeah! That is how I plan to introduce her to you guys!"
"But make sure to be here when she comes this time. You see, we can't afford another out of the world story about you!" said Sunidhi. At this Armaan got up with a lot of force, and again sat down, and then explained why he did this, to Rishab. "Her story was nice. She was telling about the kids of my secret society!"

[Meanwhile, Antara was in Ms.Deepti's room to tell her about the issues she had with the Digital Circuits questions]
"So!!" said Antara. That's it! She stopped after this. Ms.Deepti looked at her for a while, and with absolutely no meaningful expression or statement coming out of her, Ms.Deepti got back to her work.
"I hate this attitude! Do you want me to report you?" said Antara very angrily.
"Huh?" exclaimed Ms.Deepti. She couldn't believe her ears. She put her pen into her ears to clear it.
"Why?" said Ms.Deepti.
"Why? Do you remember that it was 'my' exam on the 24th of December?" said Antara in a voice as firm as she could make it, before starting to sound operatic.
"Yeah! And did someone else take the test?" said Ms.Deepti sarcastically.
For a moment, Antara got confused by her weird reactions. (They were weird from where Antara was watching.)
"Nooooooooooo!" said Antara. "I took the test. But who told you to show how good you are at Algorithm Analysis? Not one question from Digital Circuits!"
After this Ms.Deepti only stared at Antara, and nothing was said by either of them for the next 5 minutes. All they did was changing expressions!

[On the backside of the building their class was in, Vineet, Smiti and Anish were sitting on the stairs]
"Guys!" said Vineet looking at Smiti and Anish sitting on two opposite sides. "You have to speak something. It's really very abnormal of you two to not be speaking."
"What do I say? I have a friend who does not like me. I have been loved by my family throughout the last" started Anish and began counting on his fingers.
"500 years?" snapped Vineet. "Stop acting like Grandma. It's not about someone liking or disliking you. But what you did was not right"
"I was under pressure!" said Anish to justify his act. Meanwhile Antara arrived, eating her mango candy.
"Oh my God. Stop flaunting. Are you talking about that story again?" shrieked Antara.
"I can't believe I don't wanna hear it right now, but I think we'll have to wait for some time to hear 'that' story" said Vineet, pointing at Antara. "Right now, it's not about that" he continued and looked at Anish for explanation. "So, you said Pressure. Did Caustic sit on you and told you to tell about her nickname?"
"Well, she was looking at me" replied Anish immediately.
Vineet and Antara were looking at Anish with a 'So you think she rarely looks at people?' Infact, never ever in her history had Antara ever stopped eating her mango candy before it was all eaten. She didn't do that on this either, but her speed reduced slightly. Anish looked at them and understood nothing was working.
"Oh my God!! See that is what I mean. Nobody loves me. You guys just keeping questioning me" Anish started wailing.
Vineet tried to control this. "No No!" he began.
"I know! You think I am always wrong. Each one of you has someone. And Smiti? She has like a Combo pack. Neither of Kanishk and Rishab ever says a word to her. But you all are always after my life." he cried and cried on like a jobless Nanny sitting in her chair crying over the cat ruining the sweater she knit fifteen years back. Finally Smiti's burst opened her mouth.
"ENOUGH! You think there's no one for you? Sunidhi! Sunidhi likes you, you jerk! Sunidhi.. Now tell me who likes me. Do you have a reason to cry? You have none! And you still cry!"
The next thing she could really understand was Anish and Vineet standing there were there jaws dropped.
"What?" they said, with different expressions however.
While Anish didn't know how to hide his excitement about all of it, Vineet's world had just been struck by a meteor, and all his dreams had suddenly been shattered.
So this is how their brains were speaking.
"Decide! Decide! Decide! Do you wanna cry more? Or should I rather talk to Sunidhi about it? Dude, finally someone falls for you. Go for it before she changes her mind!" said Anish's, well, brain.
Vineet's brain however could stop crying. It took him a couple of minutes to talk in an understandable language.
"Wwhaaafaauu... No! He deserves no better than.." it began, and Mahesh, the 'any guy will do for me' canteen boy, passed by and winked at Vineet. ".. Thanks God! He deserves no better than 'him'. And he gets Sunidhi!!!"

[Unaware of this 'bigger than world war 3 beginning' revelation, Sunidhi was still trying to deal with Kanishk's excitement about Pratigya coming to meet everyone.]
"See! You gotta stop this. You have started acting really crazy" said Sunidhi, trying to stop Kanishk from laughing and running around their table singing 'Pratigya is coming'.
"Really? Acting? Believe me this is not acting. He's a very bad actor. He really is crazy!" said Rishab, stared at Kanishk and then started looking elsewhere.
"Suddenly, I can see a little of me in him" whispered Armaan, looking at Kanishk.
"So, are you going to parallel-date Zarine, and piss two girls off again?" said Sunidhi as she took a sip of the shake Armaan had got custom made from the cafeteria. With just one little sip, she almost felt like puking.
"Armaan got it made for himself. You should have known" commented Rishab, as he came forward to help, clueless about how to do that. Armaan too helped. He took the shake away from Sunidhi... Alright, he took it away because he did not want Sunidhi to waste another sip.
Kanishk finally stopped running around and came to Sunidhi. "I don't know if it will help in any way, but please take care of yourself. Pratigya will be here any minute. I don't she'd appreciate to see a girl puking on her date."
It was right then that Sunidhi officially threw up. "Good!" taunted Rishab, looking at Kanishk. "So she was hanging well in there. She was about to, but we brought things in control. And you pushed her over the edge"
Kanishk didn't know what to be upset about; that he was getting scolding or that Rishab thought talking about Pratigya caused Sunidhi to puke.

[At the backside of the building]
At last, Smiti got up and stormed out of the place. She did stop for a while to warn Anish from following her. Anyway, she reached the Chemistry lab. Mrs. Caustic was in her chair, looking in the other direction. Smiti was really upset, and by now, tired too. She saw Mrs. Caustic’s hair, and somewhere inside her a tune was playing. "Ta tara rara.. Pull those hair... She will scream, but I don't care..."
Anyway, she finally broke the ice. "See, I have had enough of it. I go through the books sincerely even when you say your notes are enough, I solve all the assignments even though you give better marks to those who just solve them namesake, I perform all the practicals in lab sessions..", after this she whispered "that I attend" so as to be honest on record, and returned to her tone "with all sincerity. Just because I refuse to take all the torture in your worthless, far from facts lectures, you are taking all my marks!?"
Her face was red with anger. And it was then that she showed the characteristics of a chameleon for the first time as her face suddenly turned pale. The chair rotated and the lady in the chair was the Head of the Chemistry Department staring at Smiti.

[In the cafeteria]
"Damn you!" screamed Antara as she toppled over the stack of pamphlets kept next to the door. "'Who' kept these here?" she said and looked around.
No one said a word. The canteen was filled with silence.
"What is she upto?" whispered Anish.
"I don't know! Does she think someone will jump out of his seat and say 'I did'?" said Rishab.
Antara looked around, changed her expressions to smiling one, and continued. "I just love this club printed in the pamphlet. Who's are these pamphlets? I would like to ask the hunk out for a date!"
The next thing they saw was guys jumping out of their seats and screaming "Me! Me! It was me", "Take me. It's mine", "My club, my date", etc.
"Alright, alright!" smiled Antara. "So each one of you" she continued and then screamed "PICK YOUR BLOODY CRAP UP AND THROW IT AWAY!"
Antara proudly walked to their table and sat.
"Hey! Nice one, Antara!"
"Good one, Sweetie!"
Everyone greeted her on her huge success at the door.
"Oh Come on" said Antara and started reading the new book she had just bought.
"What are you reading, Antara?" said Sunidhi.
"Nothing, just a story about a girl who kills every guy she thinks could be related to her mother's murderer in anyway. In this particular chapter she is finding this guy, who by the way happens to be a girl disguised as a guy. She comes to know that she , uhh he, is sitting in a bar. So she reaches the bar, is stopped by the guys on the door, and she kicks one of them so hard that he.."
Right then they all looked at the gate where a guy had just fallen. He was holding three glasses of shake, and he still had the glasses. The shake was all over him. It was the same guy who had lost his shake when the 'donation' girl crashed into him.
"Oh my God. The story is coming true. The man downstairs was right. The girl is here. And if my intuition is right as always she is after me" screamed Antara and gathered her belongings.
"I'm sorry!" said the girl and helped the guy get up. She was the nicest human being that had ever been to the campus.
Everyone was looking at her. Antara by the way was staring at her with her jaws dropped. "So true! She'll be nice and then she'll come to her prey absolutely unaware of her presence. She thinks she's smart!"
"She's Pratigya" said Kanishk in a low, but exalted voice.

[A few minutes later]
"Isn't she beautiful?" said Kanishk, looking at Pratigya, who was chatting with Sunidhi and Smiti. Antara was taking her time.
"Yeah baby!" said Armaan checking Pratigya out. Kanishk realised this a few seconds later, but before he could scream at Armaan, he was gone with his order. Kanishk had to carry it for the rest of them.
Kanishk finally reached the table with all the orders, looking like a waiter. But as if that was not enough. An even more embarrassing situation was all set to blow off.
"Kanishk, I just heard a story you never told me" said Pratigya and looked at Kanishk. It looked like she was not speaking but asking Kanishk to tell her if there was something she was supposed to know.
"Uhh.. Story?"
Kanishk had sensed trouble. Argh! Who would not. He would have been a dim-wit if he had not.
"So Pratigya, your Burger!" said Kanishk and gave Pratigya's order to her.
"When did you and I date?" said Pratigya, strongly pushing the burger away.
"Neve.. Actually" said Kanishk, and used an 'embarrassed' smile as fillers.
"And I asked you out?" screamed Pratigya. No one uttered a word.

[Hours later]
The rest of them had never been hearing one person talk for so long. Kanishk had been on with his 'sad-story' for hours. Smiti got and left for lab to check her marks.
"See, I never thought I could be good for any girl. So I decided to date you" cried Kanishk.
"So is he telling her she's good or that she was best of the bad ones that he could get?" whispered Smiti to Sunidhi, who was woken up by it.
"WHO? WHAT?" she said in confusion.
"Pratigya! Love" answered Armaan with dull expressions.
Finally Anish decided to change the topic.
"So," he began. "This conversation reminds me of something. Sunidhi, did you have a crush on me?"
Suddenly all eyes were wide open. Sunidhi looked at Smiti, and then coldly said "Sure!"
This was the weirdest response to the question. But no one went further on the topic. Kanishk took the opportunity and began crying about the dating business with Pratigya again.
At this Pratigya screamed, "Listen! I am committed, and I was just your friend. Had I known this was where you were trying to reach I would have never even talked to you." And then, she left. Following this they all got up to leave for the day. Kanishk was really quiet. Weirdly, Sunidhi was absolutely fine and was talking to Anish normally. Smiti was not fine. She couldn't believe Sunidhi and Anish were talking so normally after the revelation. Rishab and Armaan were looking at Kanishk and that was it. No smile, no concern. That was the end of the day. Nothing was solved, and life had worsened for some, and was all the same for the rest.