"Hey, have you seen Nikhil?" I asked Parth. He shook his head and I went to the basketball court to search for him. I haven't seen him since morning. I tried calling him but his phone was switched off. Where could he be?
"Hey, what are you doing here?"
"Mind your own business Ved."
"Your boyfriend is not here."
"Where is he?"
"You are supposed to know that. Why are you asking me?"
"Do you know where he could be?"
He shrugged his shoulders. Wasn't he supposed to know since they were in the same team? Whatever. I had to talk to Nikhil about yesterday. The doubt was eating me.
"Nikhil. Look, your girlfriend came here for you," Ved shouted and I turned around.
"Nikhil! Where were you? I have been searching for you since morning. And why is your phone switched off? I thought you were not feeling well or something. I even called aunty to ask about you. She told me you had left for the college in the morning itself but I didn't see you anywhere. Where were you? Oh yeah one more thing I had to ask. Where-"
"Whoa. Calm down. Easy there," Nikhil cut off my rambling.
"What?"
"I was out for some work. You told mom?"
"Uh...no. Why?"
"She would worry unnecessarily. I had some urgent work."
"What work?"
"Ummm.... Just work. Please don't tell mom. You know how she is."
"Okay..... But I had to ask you something."
"Yeah, what is it? Just make it quick, okay? I am already late for the practice. If coach saw me now, he would kill me."
"Where were you last evening?"
"Huh? Last evening?"
"Yup."
"At home, why? You needed help with something?"
"No. Nothing like that. Just confirming."
"What confirming?"
"I thought I saw you with Karthik yesterday at Vijay chowk."
"Oh!"
"Yeah. I thought it was you, smoking and all. It wasn't you, right?"
"Of course! I told you I was at home." He laughed a little and I nodded my head.
"Okay then. Sorry for the misunderstanding."
I gave him a small smile and left. If he wasn't lying then why did he look nervous? He kept fidgeting too.
Stop judging Sandhya. Why would he lie to you? Yeah. He won't. He was my friend. There was nothing to hide. Then whom did I see yesterday? A doppelganger? But then, I was sure I saw Karthik too.
Stop it Sandhya! You are overthinking again. You are doubting Nikhil and it's not good. How would he feel if he got to know that you didn't trust him about such a simple thing? Hmm... Okay. I will stop now.
"Where did you run off to?" Surbhi asked.
"I was just checking something."
"All okay?"
"Yup."
"Let's eat then. I brought Snickers and Bournville."
"Ouch!"
"Sorry," Karthik apologized.
"It's okay," I replied and he left after glancing around.
"Did you look at his eyes?" Surbhi nudged me.
"Yeah. They looked bloodshot like he didn't sleep for days."
"He was drunk too."
"He was? How do you know?"
"I can tell."
"Why would he come to the college drunk?"
"I don't know. His choice. Why should we care? Here have some before I finish them all." She handed me a Snickers.
I took it and we soon got distracted. Tanya and Divya were arguing about which movie we should watch this Friday. Rashi was busy in her phone and Surbhi was applying nailpolish on her nails. I took out my novel to read but couldn't concentrate at all.
You know how a small doubt creeps up and as much as you try to squash it, it still lurks around at the back of your mind. Yes. I wasn't convinced. There was something wrong and I wanted to know the truth.
Brrrring!
The bell rang and we all left for our homes. Today was really tiring. I was searching for Nikhil for half of the day and running to submit my assignments. I spotted him getting on his bike and talking with Karthik.
I approached him and tapped his shoulder. He turned towards me and asked me what was the matter.
"Can you drop me home today?" I asked and glanced at Karthik. He looked even worse now.
"Umm.... I would have but I need to go with Karthik today," he said and I narrowed my eyes at him.
"Where exactly?"
"What's with all these questions Sandhya?"
"Just tell me where you are going."
"Don't act like my mom."
I pursed my lips and exhaled loudly. He wasn't telling me. I looked at Karthik who was smirking. I knew he was upto something. I couldn't believe I tried to flirt with him that day to help Tanya.
"Let's go man!" Nikhil said and Karthik got on the pillion seat.
As Nikhil drove off, Karthik turned around and winked at me. I will investigate what's going on. I was having a bad feeling about all of this.
I reached home and took a shower. After getting refreshed, I called Surbhi.
"Hellooooo!"
"Hi Surbhi."
"Spill it. What's troubling you now?"
"Nikhil has been acting weird recently."
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"Yesterday, I saw him and Karthik with some boys at Vijay Chowk while I was returning from the gym."
"So?"
"I saw them smoking and checking out some girls."
"What?! That's what you are worrying about?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Come on Sandhya. They are boys. Of course they will check out girls. And as far as smoking is concerned, kids our age do that. It's not that surprising."
"Hmmm... that's true."
"See. You are really thinking about useless things nowadays you know."
"I was just worried about Nikhil."
"Ooooo~~~ so you really like him."
"This is not the time dumbo." I rolled my eyes and heard her laughing on the other side.
We chatted for a bit and hung up the call. I sighed in relief after talking to her. I was really exaggerating this. Smoking was unhealthy but it was common for teenagers to do that. Even Mayank and Rajeev smoked so what was so different with Nikhil doing it.
Silly me. I was worrying over nothing. Today I had a holiday from the job so I took a much needed rest. Later, I went for the dinner and watched some soap operas.
Ping!
I checked my phone.
"You awake?" ~Nikhil
"Yeah. It's just 9 pm now."
"Actually sorry about afternoon."
"What for?"
"I couldn't drop you at home."
"Oh that. Don't worry about it."
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
"Cool. Bye Sandhya. Mom's calling."
"OK, bye."
See? He apologized for that. He was such a good boy and I was doubting him? Not good. I relaxed, all of my doubts vanished in the air. I went to my room and mom retired to hers.
Okay. One more thing to remember. Never doubt your friends. Why would they lie to you? Right? Nikhil was one of my trusted friends and I knew he won't do anything wrong. So what was that white thing I saw that day? Hm?
Not again Sandhya. Just sleep. It could be anything. I jumped in my bed and opened Instagram. Wow. So many updates. I scrolled down and smiled at Shreyas' status. He had finally agreed to making an official account for his alias S'Flow.
Oh right, I forgot to tell. Last month, while discussing a song in the library, it accidentally slipped out of my mouth that I wanted him to emerge as a winner. I quickly brushed it off but then the next day, I accidentally addressed him as S'Flow. Infront of my friends.
He grabbed my hand and took me to an empty classroom. He was afraid that I would blow up his cover. He made me promise I wouldn't tell anyone. Why would I?
So many secrets I had been keeping now. Would my stomach be able to digest all of it? First, Tanya confessed to Ved and our friends still didn't know. And now, Shreyas knew that I knew his secret but he also knew that I was the secret admirer who was sneaking letters-which were mainly short poems or encouragement thoughts I remembered from motivational novels- in his books.
He knew it from the start and he didn't even tell me. He was enjoying it a lot. When I asked him why Shree was bunking his classes, he shrugged his shoulders. They didn't go along that well as I had assumed. They lived in their own worlds.
Shree! I instantly zoomed the pic. I shut my eyes tight and scrunched up my face. Just what in the hell was he wearing? Neon pink shirt? Was he crazy? That didn't suit him at all. He looked like a traffic signal.
He was head over heels for Mahek. I got to know from Divya that, whatever changes we were seeing in him were all because of her. He cut his hair because she said she liked guys with short hair. His dressing style changed too.
How far was he planning to go for her? He was totally whipped. Love can make even a sane person lose his marbles. Not that Shree was sane to begin with. I laughed remembering our first meeting.
After scrutinizing his every pic, I shut my phone off and closed my eyes. Surbhi said it was common for youngsters to smoke. Hm? How does it feel? Would I become cool too if I did that? Should I try one myself?