Page 61 of Storm
‘Yes...’ What else was I supposed to say? Argue about meal times?! Why was he sounding so nervous any way?
‘So...ah...God...Actually, I thought since I have ordered food for myself, why don't you to join me? We'll have lunch together and discuss the grades of your last test as well.’
Lunch with him! Again?
Before I could say anything he went on, ‘Oh and I wanted to talk something about...um...Zidaan. Yes!’
‘What about him?’ I was curious now.
Aariz did not divulge,
‘You coming? Later I will drop you home. As you can see, the weather is bad today. It has been raining continuously since morning. Trains will be a problem for you.’
Seems like, we really are friends. Not bad...
My heart fluttered at the idea of spending time with Aariz.
That is why it killed me to answer.
‘Thank you so much. But I have some pending assignment work. In addition, I want to go home for lunch today. So I’ll be leaving soon now.’ explaining regretfully, I tried to lighten up the moment adding, ‘sorry friend?’
I could hear a grin in his voice,
‘No problem. You take care of yourself while travelling. Bye.’
I was supposed to meet my group in the library. Then we were gonna go into one of the study halls and research for the assignment. The group contained six people including me.
About two hours later, we came out still discussing things. I was about to go home when one of my group members, Sahil, turned to me cracking another one of his jokes. Sahil was the soccer champion of our college and a complete charmer. Hence, like always, Sahil's jokes had everyone in fits of laughter.
I felt uneasy, as if something was hurting my eye. While I rubbed it, Sahil came close without permission and cupped my cheek, blowing in my eye.
“There...you’ll be okay now.” He whispered, still holding my cheek and not moving his face at all.
His thumb caressed me and I guess I was supposed to feel something romantic by this gesture and deep stare, but all I could do was scrunch my nose at his breath on my face, which was eating away my pure oxygen. In addition, the blowing thing had not made any difference to the irritation in my eyes, had simply irritated me more with his sweaty breath on me. I was just about to push him away without coming out as rude, when at that very moment Aariz stepped into the corridor. He saw it all—we laughing and enjoying, Sahil holding my face (that I was not enjoying).
I met Aariz’s gaze and smiled, but he did not bat an eye. As if, he did not know me. He passed us in silence.
Was he mad, that I ditched him? I did not feel any guilt. Why should I? He gave us the assignments after all. I had told the truth. We were just discussing the assignment in the library.
I guess it was not that simple. As a few minutes later, I received a text from Aariz. It read,
‘I saw how busy you are Sani, and with whom. There was no need for you to lie to me.’
I was shocked reading it. I could not understand what the hell did he mean by this? I found it wierd.
It made me stay up all night thinking about his t
ext. I texted him back several times, asking what he meant. He did not reply.
Morning arrived with Aariz scolding anyone and everyone over silly stuff during classes. In the first lecture, he asked us, which topic we were doing last time. At what point had he left discussing the topic last time? When people started answering him, all at once and no one was accurate enough, he became frustrated and yelled at all of us for being inattentive. Then he started asking us questions based on the topic he had explained a day before. Out of habit, like always my hand went up in the air. Along with me, a few other students also raised their hands.
“Do you have a monopoly in this class? Every time only you have to come forward. Do you have a problem in giving others a chance to answer?” Aariz shouted at me badly.
Although, a few others had also raised hands, but he yelled at me and me alone, insulting me in front of the whole class.
I felt humiliated and ashamed. Rest of the lecture, I sat quietly, controlling my tears.
After that, in every class I stayed silent.
