Bus#126W - Chapter 16

He led the way, walking slightly ahead of me. Turning back ever so often to see if I was following or more importantly listening. He was giving me some gyaan about St. Peter’s.

I pretended to listen intently. Nodding intelligently and laughing appropriately. I wondered how he could be so normal.

“You’re not listening Naina..” Dhruv had stopped, he was leaning against his cane observing me critically.

“Of course I am, I heard every single thing you said.” I defended myself vehemently.

“No.. ” he limped over to me, “You are more interested in the people around us. You’ve been looking at them forever. Why is that?”

I grimaced. I had been distracted by other people. Everybody was reacting to him, everybody in a different way. I was curious. How’d he handle all that staring? I didn’t know whether it was okay for me to ask such things. After all, I didn’t know him too well.

“Come on, out with it! What is it?” He cajoled.

“Its..” I hesitated, thinking of a polite way of putting it across, “nothing.” I decided to let it go. Shouldn’t start off with the heavy stuff, I reminded myself.

“Nothing?” He made a face at me. Then a little more gently, “What is it?”

I grimaced, “People. Do they always stare at you?”

“Oh, thaaat!” he laughed as though it was the most normal thing ever. “You see,” he continued, “There are three different groups. One, who openly sympathize. They give me way, offer to help or sometimes just stare at me with pity. Then there is the second group, people who for some reason don’t like people like me, they usually try their level best to avoid any interaction. And the third category, is what I like to call the confused category. They think they shouldn’t be giving me special treatment, so they pretend like they’re not, but secretly, in their own way, they do extra things for me. Claro?” He said throwing in a little bit of Spanish.

“Wow,” I exclaimed, “And you’re not bothered by it at all?” I was amazed.

“I have had some time to get used to it..” He said flagging down a passing bus. It stopped immediately. As I brushed past him to get inside, he murmured “The driver falls under the first category.”

I had to laugh. Here I was feeling sorry for him, maybe I fell in the 3^rd category of people, the confused kind.

As he got in and chatted up to the driver, thanking him for stopping at an undesignated stop, I realized that my infatuation with him wasn’t mostly curiosity as I had earlier assumed. I couldn’t understand why he fascinated me so much by just being normal. Somewhere in my mind, I had taken it for granted that the calm exterior was just a façade and once I dug deeper, he would have insecurities that I knew someone like him should have.

So wrong. I was so wrong.

Bus#126W - Chapter 15

I stared at him blankly. I hadn’t expected him to be so direct. 

He must have seen the dazed expression on my face because he smiled a little and said, “Oh don’t look so surprised. Your mom told me you might want to talk to me.”

My mum knew??? Wait a minute, knew what? There was nothing to know. Was there?

I kept my cool, I think..“Oh, she did huh?” I managed to stammer.

“Yes, don’t look so surprised Naina. You’re not the first one.”  At that moment, I had no idea what he was talking about.

“Huh??” summed up what I had to say.

“St Peters? Your mom told me you and Arpit wanted to get in and that you might ask me for some pointers.” He looked around. “Where is he by the way?”

“Who?” St. Peters, sure. Yeah, that’s what I had in mind. I think.

Dhruv gave me a quizzled look, “Ummm, Aprit? I thought he also was interested. I have some time to spare. I can help point out some areas you guys can work on.”

“Ya, about that.. He’s not coming.” No sooner had the words left my mouth did Arpit make an appearance.

“Naina! What the ..” He stopped abruptly when he saw Dhruv. “Oh!”

“Arpit! There you are! We were looking for you! He agreed..” I faced Arpit, desperately signaling him to play along.

“Oh he did? That’s great?” Arpit played along. I’ll admit he wasn’t very convincing but Dhruv didn’t seem concerned.

“But I told him you can’t come along.”

“I can’t?” Arpit started, confused. On seeing my face, he changed tracks quickly, “Of course I can’t because of.. because of..” he stuttered.

“Sneha. You have to take her out right?” I completed his sentence quickly.

“Oh yeah.. Sneha.” Arpit looked at my quiet desperation and then at Dhruv. He smiled softly and leaned forward. “I don’t know what’s going on, but be careful okay? Some of his friends looked creepy.”

I nodded. “Thanks.” I whispered. “Let’s go?” I turned towards Dhruv.

“Sure, this way.” He adjusted his sling bag and pointed with his cane.

I gulped a little, maybe it was apprehension, maybe excitement. I couldn’t tell.

Bus#126W - Chapter 14

“Who is this Naina?” Arpit had appeared by my side, a diabolical grin on his face. “let me guess, you’re the guy she met on the bus.”

Dhruv smiled, “She told you about me.”

The way he said it, felt like it meant something.

“I just told him how I made you give up your seat.” I said quickly. A little too quickly perhaps.

“I’m Arpit.” Arpit put out his hand.

“I know, Dhruv.” Dhruv said taking the outstretched hand.

“So..” Arpit said. Awkward silence descended upon us.

“Why don’t you guys carry on. I’ll see you later Naina?” Dhruv said while backing away.

Later?????

I nodded dumbly.

“What did he mean by later?” Arpit whispered as soon as we were out of hearing range.

“Noooooooooooo idea.” I said, exaggerating the “no”.

I was introduced to all of Sneha’s friends. At any other point of time, I would have been overwhelmed hanging out with these people but today, I was just so aware of the fact that Dhruv was there and that maybe, just maybe he might be observing me.

I tried to sneak a glance or two but Arpit’s disapproving gaze stopped me. “He’ll get the wrong idea if you keep trying to catch his eye.” He said.

Wrong idea? i wasn’t sure what “idea” I was trying to give to Dhruv. All I knew was, even as I was sitting next to my best friend with a whole group of his new friends the only place I was deriving comfort was from Dhruv’s presence.

I kept an eye on his table, lest he disappeared without saying goodbye.

“So, Naina.. How come we’ve never met before.” One of Sneha’s friends was talking to me.

Maybe because you’ve got your head in the sky!

“It’s a big school. Lots of students.” I commented intelligently. “Uh, excuse me.. I’ve to go..” I stood up as I saw Dhruv and his friends go out.

Maybe he wasn’t even going home. Isn’t that what college students did? Hang out till late?

I hid behind the door watching them say their goodbyes and then walked over to Dhruv.

“You’re leaving too?” I said casually.

“Yeah, I have a couple of things to do unlike the others.” He hadn’t seemed a bit surprised to see me standing next to me alone, without all my friends. Mine, Sneha’s whatever.

“Oh, like what?” I was disappointed. He wasn’t going home. I couldn’t think of any way to persuade him to take me along without creeping him out.

“Right now,” he said softly, “It looks like I’ll be dropping you home.”

Bus#126W - Chapter 13

Arpit was happy I had made my peace with Sneha. He knew I wasn’t too thrilled about their relationship, but he respected my opinion enough to not try and change it.

“Come out today with us?” He asked once classes got over.

“Oh I don’t know. I have practice and stuff.” I shuffled my feet.

“Try..”Sneha placed one hand over mine and tugged it lightly.

“Try.” Arpit repeated as he escorted Sneha out.

I sighed, I had escaped twice with my excuses. I couldn’t see any way out of it. I kept whining about it throughout the practice session.

“Just go.” Pooja snapped at me after hours of listening to me complain about it.

So I went. To meet Arpit, Sneha and a group of people I had branded as arrogant.

“Look who’s here,” Sneha exclaimed as I walked into the coffee shop near Arpit’s place.

I smiled a little, looking around for Arpit. The who’s who of my school was there. All of them were staring at me. I took one step towards them and then hesitated.

“Naina!” A voice called out. I turned around in surprise. It couldn’t be!

“Dhruv?”

“How are you feeling now?” He made his way across the room, two very different sets of people watching us.

“Better..” I mumbled.

“You certainly look much better.” Dhruv commented, unaware that just as his friends were staring at me, Sneha’s friends were staring at him.

“Maybe we should talk later. I mean, you’re here with your friends and I’m here with..” I turned towards the table, “well, some people.”

A crooked smile touched his face, “Let me guess, you are here with Arpit, if I recall the name correctly, and his girlfriend?”

I wasn’t even surprised at how astute he was. He just had some strange radar which picked up things I wouldn’t have even noticed.

I leaned in a little closer, “And her friends!” I whispered.

“You’re kidding me!” He laughed as he took a peek at them. “Tough crowd.” He said.

“I know, I didn’t want to come.. But Arpit insisted, and I couldn’t say no again.” I explained.

“You can come join us if you want.” He offered, indicating towards his friends.

“Did you know they’re staring at me?” I could feel their eyes burn right into me.

“Of course they are, a pretty girl like you, talking to a guy like me. Naina, everyone in this coffee shop is staring at us.” He said as a matter-of-fact.

Pretty? Me?

I looked over his shoulder, he was right. All eyes were on us.