Bus#126W - Chapter 25

Arpit made me spend the lunch hour with Sneha. He thought it would be nice if we all could get along. We stood around the corridor eating and smiling politely.

“Well, you basically need to get your profile to look good, you know, with stuff like co curriculum activities and stuff.” I parroted the gyaan Dhruv had given me.

Sneha nodded, hanging on to my every word.

“I have read online forums and stuff,” she said, “but it’s so much better getting an individual perspective.”

I nodded, “My thoughts exactly.”

“So can I meet him?” she asked eagerly.

I turned away slightly from her and looked at Arpit, “I’m sure he’ll meet you. Just have to figure out when. He’s a busy guy.” I said half-heartedly.  

Arpit was positively beaming that the two girls in life were getting along famously.

“I won’t take much of his time, I promise.” She said as the bell rang. And shocker of shockers! She leaned in a little and gave me a slight hug. “Thanks!” she whispered before she walked away.

If I thought I was caught off guard, you should have seen the look on Arpit’s face! His jaw was practically mopping the floor!

“What was that?!?” he asked, once we were out of earshot. 

“How should I know? She’s your girlfriend.” I commented.

I shook my head. I had to admit, Sneha did have a certain something about her. She left me so shaken up, I can only imagine what effect she had on Arpit. I placed a sympathetic hand on Arpit’s shoulder. “I think I just got a slight heart attack. From passive hatred to a hug. In a blink of an eye! Some talent she has.”

He smiled a little, his eyes following Sneha as she walked away. “She’s genuine. Does what she feels is right. But you’ll never see that.”

“Oh don’t go all soppy on me now! Come on, class time.” I walked inside.  

Arpit walked in after me, stopping to chat with a couple of other people. Popularity wise, Arpit was skyrocketing upwards. He stumbled a little as he came towards his desk, dropping all his books on the floor. But deep down, he was the same. Maybe Sneha hadn’t changed who he was. Maybe she had just polished off some of the dust which had gathered.

He caught me staring at me, “What? Is there something on my face?” he asked wiping his mouth vigourously.

“Yes, confidence.” I smiled warmly at him and turned towards the teacher who had just walked in.

I took a peek at Arpit during class, he had this goofy smile on his face that he just couldn’t get rid of. I knew he was pleased with what I had said. His happiness made me smile too and that’s how we sat throughout the second half, grinning like idiots.

Of course, the teachers spotted it too. Some of them smiled back at us and some of them threw us out of class because they thought we were laughing at them.

All in all, a good day I’d say. Felt like old times.

I met Dhruv in the bus as usual.

“Hey,” he said as he got on, “How was practice?”

“Oh, the usual. Coach is losing his initial excitement.” I looked around in my bag for the letter. I could feel my heart starting to race and breath shortening. I just hoped it wasn’t too obvious.

“You okay?” Dhruv placed his hand on my shoulder.

“Yeah,” I turned around and smiled at him. He was concerned about me. Yay! “I found this in one of your books.” I handed him the envelope bristling with excitement.

“What is…?” Dhruv’s eyes showed confusion as he took the envelope from me.  He opened it slowly and pulled out the letter. His eyes widened. In surprise or shock I couldn’t tell.

A smile touched his face as he touched the letter almost reverently. He had recognized it without opening it. Without any explanation he put it inside, “Thanks, so what do you want to study today?”

I didn’t want to pry, but I was dying to know what the letter was about. I sighed, I wasn’t the kind of person who invaded someone’s privacy.

“Sneha wants to meet you. She’s wants to know about St. Peters too.” I said, looking outside, trying to hide the disappointment on my face.

Dhruv misunderstood my reaction and laughed, “Look at you all sad! If you don’t want me to meet her, I won’t.” he said.

I half smiled at him, “I guess one meeting won’t kill you.”

He started talking about the volunteering act he thought I should do. I couldn’t pay attention. I was distracted by the letter which now resided safely in his jacket pocket.

Eventually, my stop came. I got off, incredibly pissed off that Dhruv didn’t think it was important enough.

“Hey what’s wrong with you?” Dhruv asked as I brushed past him.

I got off the bus and looked up at him, “Just tell me the story behind damned letter!” 

Bus#126W - Chapter 24

Arpit nodded benevolently at both of us. I rolled my eyes and glanced at Sneha. She had the same irritated look on her face which was mirrored on mine.

I caught her eyes and shrugged my shoulders.

She murmured under her breath, “Seriously, can you believe this?”

I shook my head. The bell rang and Sneha glared at Arpit and walked off.

“What happened!” Arpit called out after her, utterly surprised how two people who were clamoring for his approval had suddenly turned against him.

I threw my head back and laughed loudly. “Come on, she’ll be okay.” I said, pushing Arpit into the classroom.

“What just happened? Everything was just peachy one moment ago and then both of you are glaring at me. What did I do?” Arpit said, talking more to himself than to me.

I laid a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, “Won’t you tell me?” he asked woefully.

“Nope!” I replied almost immediately.

“At least show me that letter!” He said putting out his hand.

I stared at him, my face creasing into a smile. “I knew you won’t forget!” in a jiffy, I whipped out the envelope and handed it to him, “Careful!” I reminded him as he took it from my hand.

He read through it, a wry expression on his face. “This is why you called me in the middle of the night?”

I nodded excitedly. “Uh huh. What do you think?”

“It’s pretty lame.” He said folding it and put it back.

Furious, I snatched it back from him. “Just because you’re not that thoughtful!”

“Hey Naina!” He grabbed my wrist as I was putting it away, “I hope you remember it’s not meant for you.”

“What has that got to with anything?” I said carefully tucking the envelope inside a book.

“You’re being unreasonably sentimental about it.” He commented and turned away.

I looked at the letter and then back at him. Okay, I was sentimental about it. The poetry wasn’t great, but something had touched me. Maybe it was the honesty and bravery with which a wavering hand written it that had struck a chord in me. Or maybe it was just the mystery surrounding it that had made it so special.

All I knew for sure was it had been important to Dhruv. Maybe it was still important. Maybe the other person in the letter was still important.

Bus#126W - Chapter 23

There was more, but I couldn’t get myself to read. It seemed far too intimate and personal for me to pry. I folded it back and put it in an envelope. I wondered who it was for and who had written it or even how old it was.

I tapped my fingers on the envelope, ask or ignore? I knew I had to ask. It was driving me crazy. I called Arpit and told him about the letter.

“Naina, do you know what time it is?” I could hear him stifling a yawn.

“Its 1, so what do you think?” I didn’t care if it was way past our bed times, this wasn’t the first time we had spoken so late.

“Some girl gave it to him, since he kept it, they got back, end of story. Good night.” I heard a click on the other side. Arpit had hung up. I put the receiver down slowly and crawled into bed, pulling the covers up to my chin. The letter was resting in its envelope on my side table. I touched it reverently and turned it around a couple of times as though that would get me some answers.

I don’t know when I fell asleep, but when I got up, I was still clutching the envelope tightly in my hand.

I told Pooja about the letter and about what Arpit had asked me to do.

“Noooooooooooooo!” Pooja exclaimed in a low voice. “Just tell him Dhruv refused. As if he’ll ever know the truth.”

“That’s what I thought I’ll do. But I’ll feel awful lying to him. It’s difficult. I’m hoping Dhruv actually says no.” I said, winking at her.

“Yeah, and it’ll mean that he wants to spend more time with you.. Just you.” She remarked.

I had to admit, Pooja sometimes stole the words straight from my mind.

Arpit and Sneha were waiting outside class for me.

“I’ll talk to him.” I reassured Arpit as I walked past them.

“Hey Naina!” Sneha greeted me. I stopped, took steps back and then looked at Sneha who guiltily looked at Arpit. A sort of crooked smile appeared on my face.

It looked as though Sneha was getting doses regarding me, just as I was getting regarding her. Maybe they were arguing? Was I one of the topics? I couldn’t tell.

“Hey Sneha!” I forced chirpiness into my voice and greeted her and realized that I had automatically turned towards Arpit, probably with the same look, on my face.  

Bus#126W - Chapter 22

Arpit took one look at my discomfort and started to laugh his head off.

“Its not funny!” I said huffily.

“Okay..” He tried to say with sincerity but couldn’t suppress a snicker.

 His contagious laughter got to me too and soon we were laughing uncontrollably sitting on his yellow scooter. I can only imagine what a sight we would have made.

“Okay, I’m going in. My mum must be wondering where I am!” I got off the scooter and picked up the books. “Bye!” I said cheerfully.

“Hey, will you do me a favor?” Arpit asked as he put on his helmet again and turned his scooter around.

“Sure, anything.” I said, mildly curious.

“I know Dhruv is trying to make your profile look good for St. Peters. Do you think he would mind helping Sneha too?” he asked.

I didn’t know what to say. I torn between wanting Dhruv’s time all for myself and hatred for Sneha and Arpit’s unwavering faith in me wanting to help out.

“I’ll ask him.” I, of course had no intentions of doing that, but I didn’t want to be the bad one here. Arpit didn’t know Dhruv much. For all Arpit knew, Dhruv didn’t want to waste his time on Sneha.

Yeah, I think I could convince Arpit with that.

“I’ll ask him as soon as I meet him.” I reassured Arpit. I didn’t feel good about my plan, but it was all about self preservation. Sneha had already proclaimed her right over Arpit, there was no way in hell I was letting her anywhere near Dhruv.

“Thanks Naina, you’re the best.” Arpit smiled broadly as he waved me goodbye.

I stood there waving, till he all but disappeared from view, wondering when exactly I had sunk so low. I bit my lip as I thought of my dastardly plan. Childish, immature, silly, I could attribute a zillion negative adjectives to it. I pushed all thoughts around it out of my head, I would face that moral bridge once I got to it.

I heaved the books inside.

My mom was ecstatic that I had finally become serious about my future. Though somehow I knew she suspected my real motives behind it. Mothers always know. She didn’t say anything about it though. I guess as long as I was studying it didn’t matter why.

Up in my room, I flipped through the books, hoping to find a glimpse into Dhruv’s personality. I liked the fact that he kept his books clean, without any scribbling and underlining. I hated that books had dog ears, but I could look past that. A couple of times, I came across I came across some small pieces of papers. I had been thrilled, till I found they were just a list of formulae.

I was just about wrap up for the night when I came across a little folded note. It was slightly tattered at the folds, as though it had been opened several times.

I opened it slowly and read it out.

I can’t believe that what we once shared is forever lost.

Because what we had was special, it was something which mattered the most.

I know you don’t want me anymore, still hopelessly into love I fall,

With your every breath, your every smile, your every call.

I wish you’d forgive me, what I did was wrong.

If you could see me now, you’d know how much for your love, I long.

I tried, but I know I can’t write poetry like you do,

But you’ll never find someone to love you as much as you know I do.