Chapter 10: Chapter 10

Punit scrunched up his face and stayed under the table, hoping that they would spare him. He didn’t have the guts to face her, not after promising a stellar performance and giving muck in return.

“Punit, drop it man, she’s gone,” came Vaidehi’s voice after a while.

He pulled out, his face red and sweaty from bending over for so long. “She’s gone?”

“Yup!”

He sighed, feeling so flustered. “See! What did I tell you!!? She’s still mad at me! Or else she would have talked to me. But she didn’t! See!!!”

“Why do you want her to make the first move? Even you can talk to her, right?”

“And get myself killed? No ways!”

“She won’t do anything,” replied Vaidehi.

“Right!” His words were dripping with sarcasm. All the while, he couldn’t help but notice the familiar smell of barfi in the air. “What were you people munching on anyways?” he asked out of the blue.

“We?”

“Uh huh.”

“Barfi, what else?” She shrugged.

“What barfi?” he asked.

“Besan.”

“Oh,” he said, sounding a little disappointed. Sweets and milk powder were something he could never resist. Thankfully for him, he was blessed with a super high metabolism. He could eat all the junk in the world and still look like a stick.

“Why? You wanted a piece, right?” she smirked.

“Nah!” He waved dismissively.

“Come on, Punit, I know you love sweets.”

He chuckled.

She knew that he wasn’t being honest. “You can still get one if you’d like.”

He snorted. “Yeah, right. From where?”

“Over there...”

He turned to the spot on the table where she’d pointed at and noticed the box of sweets that Ankita was carrying before. “Whoa! Isn't that....” The words trailed away as he noticed the very person he didn’t want to see at the moment: Ankita. She was sitting right beside him all this while, and he didn’t even know it!

Vaidehi smothered her laughter.

Punit wasn’t even breathing.

Smirking, Ankita quirked her eyebrows.

He flinched a bit. “H-hi...”

She returned an amused smirk before saying, “hello!” She sounded determined as she turned to him and placed an arm over the bench’s back rest.

“When... did you come?” he asked sheepishly.

“I never left,” she shrugged.

“Oh,” he mouthed before looking away and screwing his eyes shut.

Vaidehi burst out laughing.

Ankita sat there waiting, her twinkling eyes never leaving him. She thoroughly enjoyed herself as she watched him twiddling his fingers. “Do you want to talk about the other day?” she asked when he said nothing for a while.

He let out a long puff and opened his eyes. Still not looking at her, he opened and closed his mouth a few times and struggled to spit it out.

“Hmm, Punit?”

He turned to her with the guiltiest puppy face ever and uttered a feeble “sorry...?”

She couldn’t help but smile. He looked so innocent and adorable.

“I’m really very sorry,” he whimpered, “I didn’t mean to that day, I swear, it... it just happened.”

She chuckled and so did Vaidehi.

“What? Why’re you laughing?” he asked with the same adorable expression.

“Nothing,” she nodded, and softly pulled his cheeks, surprising him. Her face shone red from grinning so wide.

“So, you’re not mad at me anymore?” he asked hopefully while feeling his cheeks, right she’d yanked on before.

“To be honest, I was. I actually wanted to slaughter you that day, but then, I figured things out.”

Punit let out a deep sigh. “Sibal was there,” he confessed.

“So?”

“Don’t you get it? Sibal!” He was incredulous. How can she take his name so calmly, as if he didn’t matter at all?

“Yeah, so?”

“So what? Dude. He was laughing at me. And making faces!” he whined.

“And next time, he might flash his little thingy at you. But you shouldn’t be bothered.”

He scoffed. “Yeah, easier said than done!”

“No, seriously. You’ve got to learn to ignore these people. If you keep paying attention to them, you’re never going to reach anywhere. And you’ll forever be terrified of the stage.”

Punit sighed. In a way, she was right. But he didn’t see an easy way out. Pretending that they didn’t exist was definitely not going to work, not with all the names they were calling him.

“Here’s a solution. For our next performance, you turn to me.”

“What?”

“Yeah, you turn to me. You look at me. Show your back to them if you must, but you will do what you’re meant to do. And nothing, absolutely nothing should take that away from you!”

****