~~~
“Chalte chalte
Yunhi koi mil gaya tha
Sare raah
Chalte chalte”
~~~
“Come on bro! You can’t give in like this!” Veeranshu exclaimed a little too loudly, making a few heads turn towards him. “If you believe in it, then you must go for it!”
Bani who had been walking through the corridors to reach her next class curiously looked over at the source of the voice with a sigh. She smiled softly seeing how Veeranshu was trying to cheer up his friend. Then shaking her head at her own behaiviour she continued on her way towards her class.
It had not always been this way. They say first impression is the best impression but he had proved it wrong in his case. The first time she had actually noticed him was during her first semester exams. And to say so, her first impression of him wasn’t a very good one.
Unfortunately or fortunately her seat was pretty close to his that all his actions were seen to her. She had a hard time writing her exams because this dude could not sit straight for a second. He was always doing something, calling out to someone, talking to someone and it made her wonder why the teacher failed to notice it.
Those were the days when she wished her seat had been away from his. But it was after that she started to notice him- his positive outlook and how he was always a bundle of joy who never stopped smiling. But he was also everything she didn’t expect to like. And yet here she was, feeling attracted to someone for the very first time in her life and out of all the people in the world, it had to be him! Someone so different from the man of her dreams!
Things took a slight turn when he met with an accident and had a fracture in his left arm. When the news reached her, she couldn’t help but slide into his DMs.
It had all gone smoothly and she thought they were starting to become friends until he resumed coming to college and stopped showing interest in their chats making her stop herself from putting any effort. From then, they just acknowledged eachother’s presence. They were back to square one.
On reaching her class she realised she was early.
“Bani, I swear to God! I’m going to resign from this job!” Neil, her best friend exclaimed in exasperation making her frown in confusion.
“I can’t deal with these people every other day. Don’t they understand Hindi and English or what?” He grumbled furiously. “Should I learn Chinese now? Just so I could explain it to them?”
“But Neil tell me, what happened?” She asked, trying to divert her mind from Veeranshu’s thoughts.
He glared at her for a few seconds before he decided to speak further, “WHAT HAPPENED?! I’m planning on not coming to college because of your secret admirers!” He exclaimed rolling his eyes.
Bani just signed shaking her head in disappointment. “Seriously? What is even there in me!?” She asked in disbelief. “Are they so blind!?”
“I bet they are!” Avni exclaimed as she took her seat beside Bani. Neil and Bani turned their attention to Avni who looked at them with a smile.
Avni and Bani were bestfriends since the start of college and a while later Neil had joined their duo, making it a trio. Although Avni and Neil seemed to have an obvious interest in eachother, both clearly chose to ignore it. Or maybe they were just dumb to never notice it.
“Oh come on, they have really good eyes!” Neil said rolling his eyes at Avni. “She is one hell of a heart stopper to most boys!”
And yet he doesn’t care! Bani’s brain whispered to her as her thoughts drifted back to Veeranshu. But as soon as the thought came, she scolded herself for even thinking something like that.
“So who is this new chicken?” Avni asked with a teasing grin earning a glare from Bani.
“Ashish.” Neil muttered.
“Him!? Oh God, I thought at least his standards were better!” She joked.
“Ashish? Seriously?” Bani asked in surprise, like she did everytime Neil revealed to her about one of her secret admirers. God, she was surely oblivious!
“He’s been eating my brain since a week! Asking me to convince you to accept him!” Anyone who wished to approach Bani with a proposal, had to go pass Neil first. “He wouldn’t listen when I told him there’s no force on earth that could make you fall in love.”
“Hey come on! What if someone already stole her heart?” Avni asked making Bani look at her in shock.
“I doubt that.” Neil replied. “But then again it’s Bani we’re talking about. She’s unpredictable.”
“Exactly. So my theory could be true.” Avni replied with a shrug.
“Yeah, there’s a chance I suppose.” Neil agreed as he got into thinking. Avni watched as his long fingers started to graze the bottom of his face.
“You guys do realise that the person you’re talking about is right here, right?” Bani asked, her displeasure clear in her tone.
Neil and Avni looked at eachother and then back at her. “Well, we were just calculating, you see.” Neil replied.
“Bro, don’t you think this no relationship until marriage is going to fall heavy on you?” Avni asked Bani.
“You both better be quite. And look who’s talking, huh? Everyone can see it other than the two of you that you’re both obviously into-” but before Bani could complete her sentence someone came in making everyone’s eyes fall on him.
Bani’s heart skipped a beat seeing him in her class. He walked into the class, directly towards her smiling at everyone else and waving at people who may be his friends. This guy had friends in the entire college!
“Neil! I needed to talk to you, bro! Girls, sorry to interrupt you, but I’m borrowing him for some time.” Veeranshu said with a smile.
Avni and Bani nodded their heads with a smile.
“You’re taking me with you but asking their permission?” Neil asked rolling his eyes.
“Don’t tell me, Bani!” Avni exclaimed when Neil and Veer left. “That my doubt was right!”
“Doubt? What doubt?” Bani asked in confusion.
“You like Veeranshu don’t you!” Avni exclaimed in shock. It wasn’t a question, the way she said it made it seem more like a statement.
“WHAT?!” Bani exclaimed in shock.
“You like him, don’t you?” Avni repeated, this time more like a question.
“Chup rehegi kya tu!?” Bani exclaimed as she looked around to see if someone had heard Avni.
“So it’s true?” Avni asked curiously.
“It’s nothing like that.” Bani replied in a dismissing tone.
“For the first time in your life you liked someone and out of all the boys in this huge college, you had to like him?” Avni asked in disappointment.
“What’s the problem in him?” Bani asked, not liking the fact that Avni didn’t like him much.
“Problem? I have no problem with him but he’s so different from you, Bani.” Avni said feeling bad for her friend. Veeranshu Singhania had a heart of gold but was a small flirt and it just didn’t seem like the guy for soft spoken friend who was anything but outgoing.
They were just way too different from eachother to even find a common ground.
“Avni, you’re thinking too much. I just admire his positive outlook, nothing else. Your brain is going places that’s far away from my reach.” Bani said shaking her head.
“I can clearly see where this is going.” Avni said still in shock.
“See what going?” Neil asked as he returned.
“You’re back?” Bani asked in shock.
“I can’t come back?” He asked in confusion. Then, he exchanged glances between the two girls feeling suspicious at their weird behaiviour. “Mere bina kya kichdi pak rahi hai?”
“Kichdi nahi, yaha toh pura biryani pak gayi hai!” Avni muttered still unable to reel from the shock.
“Biryani?” He asked in confusion.
“Neil, she’s mad, you leave her. Your talk with him got over so quickly?” Bani asked him not wanting Avni to say anything more.
“That was just a short talk. He just wanted to ask something.” Neil replied with a shrug.
Before anyone else could speak the professor had entered the class, making Neil go back and sit with the guys while Bani sighed in relief.
“Sahi kehte hain yeh ladke, ladkiyon ko kabhi deserving ladka dikta hi nahi, unke toh dil un ladko pe lagte hain, jo…” Avni trailed off with a sigh making Bani roll her eyes.
“What’s wrong in him? He isn’t bad. He’s really good.” Bani defended him.
“He’s good and all but he isn’t the ishq material. Have you seen how he keeps flirting with anyone who belongs to the female species? His day starts and ends with flirting!” Avni said in disapproval.
“Haan toh maine kab kaha mujhe ishq hai?”
“You think I don’t know you? It’s clear you’re in that kuch kuch hota hai wala phase already. God, how did I miss this till now?”
“You shut up and listen to the class!” Bani said dismissing her. She already had enough reality checks to know that Veeranshu and she could never be together. He probably didn’t even care about her existence, and here all her thoughts would lead to him.
Bani, you have to stop thinking about him. She thought to herself.
~To be continued~
So how was the first chapter? This story was a request given by @Jasminearun to write a college love story on Vani. Hope I didn’t disappoint you. I’ve also added Neil and Avni to this as @Jiya had requested me to write a story with Zain in it.
Sorry for the delay in completing the requests guys!
Do let me know you’re views in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
~Stay safe!~