Sameera waited with bated breath. Her phone was in her ears, waiting for Raghav to take the call. The ring continued on and on. She sighed and cut the call herself. Might as well text Nur, she thought.
Sameera: Hey Nur! Could you please explain the last 5 questions on the physics worksheet?
Nur: Hey Sam! Yes, dude. It's easy. They are trying to make you confused by those questions. I can't take any pictures, my camera is in smithereens, but I can explain them to you.
Sameera: That would be okay too. Thanks a lot.
The next half hour flew by with Nur desperately trying to make Sameera grasp their fabulously convoluted physics concepts.
Sameera: "Not hard" indeed.
Nur: I didn't know that you haven't understood the previous lesson! With that concept in mind, this one in easy only.
Sameera: Ya, right... Wait till you have to write Chemistry, then you will understand my position
Nur: I already do babe. Btw, how's practice going?
Sameera looked at the message, uncertain. Until then, they had stuck to the subject of studies, nothing else. But now, Nur, out of all people, was reaching out to her. It could not be genuine interest, anyway. Becoming closer to Nur was also an effective way to get back on track with Raghav. He was becoming more avoidant each day, though Nur had said that he would come around in a few days. She shook herself and went back to the conversation.
Sameera: Practice has been okay. Not a lot to say. To be honest, Indu is fine inside practice, you know?
Nur: WHAA... I thought you hated her!
Sameera: I don't know. I still hate her for the whole Raghav thing - but outside of that, she's okay. Again, okay. Not nice, not a friend.
The "yet" at the end of the last sentence was only in Sameera's thoughts, not in her words.
Sameera: But she's also super annoying. Like, she talked and smiled on one day, the next day she acts like she has never talked to me, you know? I tried talking to her today, and she gave me such a huge cold shoulder. I was SO ANNOYED. She's never consistent with her behaviour. I hate people like that.
Nur:... You are contradicting yourself here, Sameera. Why do you care so much?
Sameera: I don't know man! She is annoying, okay? That's my final stance.
Nur: ok, ok!! calm down maaraythi!* You're really touchy about this girl, aren't you?
A/n - maaraythi is a slang used to call out to a woman. Often said in an exasperated tone, it is prevalent in the Dakshina Kannada district of the state of Karnataka.
Sameera rolled her eyes and ended the conversation there. Truth be told, a part of her was already begging to forgive Indu for all the drama with Raghav.
On the other end, Indu was eating lunch with her mother. With each mouthful, she could hear her phone beep. Siddhu was spamming her on WhatsApp, and it was annoying. Her mother kept glancing at the phone and then at Indu. Not being able to take more, Indu got up from the table and kept her phone in another room. She sat back down at the table with a huff. Her mother looked at her with concerned eyes.
"Puttani, it's okay - tell him you are eating. It will be rude if you ignore him. "
"It's okay Amma. If I ignore him now, he won't text as often."
Her mother frowned. "Indu, you shouldn't do that... I know you don't like talking to people, but that's the only way you can make connections."
"Ya, whatever." Indu shrugged her shoulders.
"I'm being serious here" Indu's mother pursed her lips.
"Ya, ya, I know. I've managed to be closed off for an entire year. It's amazing, I'm telling you."
Her mother's eyes narrowed, and eyebrows shot up.
"Oh really? You've never had something nice happen and wished you had someone to share it with? Or wanted a hug when you're low?"
"I've got you na?"
"Putta, I'm not your friend, even you know that. Don't argue for the sake of arguing."
"So what, I'm supposed to make friends? What if I already have friends?" Indu pointed a finger at her mother.
"Then you aren't treating them right," she said in a matter-of-fact voice. She took a few breaths and took Indu's left hand. Indu looked up from her plate, surprised.
"Indu, I know that whatever happened with Kritu was bad. But you can't base all your relationships on one awful experience."
"How do you know that?" Indu's breathing quickened. "Amma, you don't even know what happened."
"I know how you felt about it..."
"No, you didn't! Nobody really knew, did they?" Her voice rose in volume now.
"Indu, I know that you felt like every person on earth was like her, that nobody would love you, and that somehow, all the mistakes that she made were your fault. I saw you crying every day that year, putti. I know it hurt." Indu blinked her eyes, unable to meet her mother's soft gaze, and unfailingly calm voice.
"Because I've experienced that!" she said with a small laugh.
Indu turned to her mother with surprise, unsure of what to do. Her mother gripped her hand even more fiercely. "I wouldn't have survived if I did not have the courage to open up again. I need you to survive, putta. Please." Her waterline glistened, and Indu found her own cheeks to be moist. She gave her mother a small nod and got back to eating. Her hands never left her mother's.
After lunch, she took her phone and apologised to Siddhu for ignoring him.
As the sun rose the next morning, Sameera was lying on the bed with wide-open eyes. She had woken up the previous night at 2, and her brain would not let her sleep after that. Her thoughts? Raghav. She was exhausted. This was not how she wanted to feel about him. She had tried multiple times to talk to him, but he was adamant about his distance. This was not about what she had said anymore. She had apologised multiple times for it now. It was his ego. His unwillingness to go back on his actions. As she cried into her pillow, she heard her alarm ring. Startled, she switched it off, her exhaustion finally creeping in.
Resigned, she got up, cleaned herself, and got ready for school. She made herself coffee instead of Horlicks, hoping it would get her through the day. After coffee, she went back to her room and did her makeup. Makeup wasn't allowed at school, but she had spent a lot of effort on learning how to wear it without it being too obvious. As a result, she had hidden most of her acne breakouts, amplified her attractive parts, and hidden the unflattering ones. Since 8th grade, nobody in their right minds would have called her ugly.
She thought her day at school would be normal, but the first thing she saw was Indu giving her a smile as she got onto the bus. Sameera had to blink several times before the fact set in, and she could smile back. Weirdly enough, her cheeks went beet red, too. Indu's smile was unexpectedly cute, just like her laugh. Indu, on the other hand, was not expecting it to be a normal day at all. Her mother's requests reverberated in her mind as she resolved to be less cold. Her first act was smiling at Sameera. Sameera's surprise was almost enough to make her break her resolve. Embarrassed, she sat down and glanced back, thankfully seeing Sameera smiling back at her.
She sat at her desk during breakfast, but had other plans for lunch. She cautiously made her way to Sameera's desk.
"Umm... Hey" she whispered. Sameera, who had been opening her lunch boxes, looked up in surprise.
"Uh... So... " Indu struggled to form words. Why was it this hard?! Sameera looked at her expectantly, almost about to finish her sentence for her.
"Do you... uh, maybe want to eat lunch... with me?" 'Oh shit, why did that sound like I'm trying to ask her out or something!' Indu's was slapping herself multiple times in the head.
"Not just us two!! Like, with me and the others!!" she quickly clarified. "I just thought that you're sitting alone here, so you may not have people to sit with..." Oh shit, that sounded rude. Sameera's eyebrows went up, and a small smirk appeared on her lips.
"I don't need pity, you know?" she chuckled.
"I know, I know! It just came out wrong! I swear to god, I did not mean it that way!" Indu smiled for the second time in the day, and felt her jaw unclench.
"Ok, I'll grace you with my presence then," she said, her overly theatrical voice taking over.
"See, now you're becoming a proper theatre kid!" Indu joked.
Indu and Sameera walked on to the field, joking about a teacher of theirs. Swara was the first to notice them. She waved from the corner of the field, and Sidhu and Mirzab joined in, too. Both awkwardly smiled at the group and walked up to them.
"Planning to join us, eh?" Mirzab asked.
"Um... If you don't mind?"
"Hey! Why would we ever mind?! Come, come, sit down!!" Siddhu moved aside and made space for the two of them. The two sat down and opened their lunch boxes. Sameera opened a box of half dried Maggi, which was generously doled out to everyone. Swara even jokingly sang the Happy Birthday song as Sameera used her spoon to cut what was essentially the Maggi cake.
"You usually get much fancier food to school, na? How come you are getting Maggi noodles today?" Indu asked.
"Oh... That.... I made it myself... My mom is still angry with me for the whole ice-cream outing thing, so I'm cooking for myself to curry favour," she laughed a little laugh, but nobody else did.
"Do you need a hug, Sam?" Swara asked, concerned.
"No, no! This is normal only. I don't mind it." Sameera looked like she was trying to convince herself more than anyone.
"Also, Indu - how did you know what type of food Sameera brings? I thought you two weren't friends?" Siddhu asked in a conspiratorial tone. He had a small but mischievous grin.
"Oh! I just knew... I've seen her lunches sometimes, and I'm good at observation, okay!" Indu blushed at Siddhu's tone, well aware of what he was trying to imply. Sameera, on the other hand, was quite oblivious. She frowned for a couple of seconds at both Indu and Siddhu, and when she realised that she would not be getting an answer from either, she went right back to her food. Before they knew, the twenty minutes of break were up, and the five set out to clear the impromptu potluck set up they had created while eating. It was new to Indu, and she felt quite overwhelmed through most of it, but she held through. Swara looked at her with a smile on her face, making a mental note to talk to her later. They all made their way back to the classes to brave another four periods before school would be up, and they could go relax for a while at home.
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