Episode 9
Love only deepens
As time passed everything normalized between Karthik and Naira. They were back to their normal bickering selves. Karthik kept playing pranks on Naira and Naira reciprocated with irritation as usual. The only thing that changed was Karthik’s behavior towards her in times of her troubles. He made sure that she wouldn’t forget that he was in love with her. With time, he grew to be more caring and slightly possessive.
A couple of days after Naira’s health condition Kishen and her had patched up. They were back to being friends but Naira said that she would never be able to give him his old place back.
That day Naira had the scolding of her lifetime from Karthik. But then, because he realized it was vital for Naira’s happiness that she would want to be friends with everybody, he mellowed down and was then on speaking terms with Kishen.
In fact, every evening, Naira, Karthik, Gayatri, Kishen hanged out together.
A year later everything was still the same. Naira and Gayu had both scored distinctions in their first year and were happy to be second year medical students. Kishen had passed with flying colors too. Karthik was in his final year of engineering and got busy with placements and preparing for his entrance exam for MBA.
That evening, Kishen, Gayu and Naira waited for Karthik at the coffee shop. He was running a little late because he was working on a project with his partner.
Gayu was smiling continuously and was repeatedly looking at her phone.
‘what are you so happy about?’ Kishen asked poking her by the elbow.
‘let Karthik come. I have something to tell you guys.’
At that very moment, Karthik ran into the coffee shop with a laptop in his hand. He was drenched in sweat.
‘oh my God. Did it just rain on you? ‘ Naira asked.
‘ oh no. Aaru and I were busy with our project. The last date was today. So submission and sucking up to all the professors to this long. ‘
Listening to his partner’s name, Naira’s anger flared up. All he did was talk about how his project was going with Aaru. Aaradhya Malik was now Karthik’s close friend and Naira didn’t like it one bit. She had secretly caught herself addressing Aaradhya as chudail in her thoughts. She couldn’t decipher why she particularly hated her, but for some reason she did.
As if on cue, Aaradhya walked in. She had seen her on various social media sites before, but never in person. Aaradhya never failed to click selfies with Karthik and post them on her timeline with #project, #bestie, #besttime. Naira couldn’t help but wonder why she would do that. They were supposed to work together and not post pictures together. And anyway, she always stood too close to Karthik. Why did this bother Naira so much?
But today, when she walked in, Naira was stunned. She was much more beautiful in person. A perfect girl, one could call her. Impeccable dressing sense, a figure to die for, long locks that were gracefully tied up in a bun. Everything was just perfect. When she walked in, Karthik smiled at her. It was a genuine smile, didn’t compare to the smile that he’d give her, but still it was sincere enough. Why is he smiling at her like that? Is it because she’s beautiful?
Naira caught herself before she got too involved in this train of thought. She was getting possessive about him.
‘Gayu now that Karthik is here, what was it that you were gonna tell us? ‘Naira asked in a weak attempt to divert herself.
‘ so Manoj asked me out yesterday. And I said yes! ‘Gayu said.
‘wow’ everybody yelled in unison, well except Aaradhya. She looked puzzled.
Manoj was Gayu’s childhood best friend. They’d suddenly bumped into each other a couple of months ago, in one of the local stores and had been in touch ever since. Texting changed to phone calls and then proceeded on to watching movies together. Everybody knew this day was coming, she was head over heels.
‘he will be here in a couple of minutes. Let me just call him’ Gayu said and walked away from the table because she knew the guys would definitely tease her.
The waiter Walked in and took their orders. Kishen and Karthik were talking about the latest bike out in the market, when Aaradhya got up from her seat between Karthik and Kishen. She sat between Karthik and Naira.
Karthik looked up for a second wondering why she did that but continued talking to Kishen after that.
Naira couldn’t help but glare at her.
‘hey Naira. I wanted to introduce myself formally to you. I’m Aaradhya. Karthik must have told you about me no?’ she asked looking all innocent.
‘yeah. He told me about his project partner’ Naira said faking a smile.
Aaradhya just quizzically looked at Naira.
‘he’s told me all about you! He totally adores you ‘ Aaru said.
‘of course. I’m his best friend.’ Naira said being as assertive as she could.
Why was she so rude to this girl who was being nothing but sweet to her? She seems like a perfectly nice girl who’s sweet and caring. Yeah, that was the problem. She was too perfect. And around Karthik too much. Naira didn’t like that.
Gayu walked in hand in hand with a handsome looking guy.
‘guys, this is Manoj ‘
‘ I’m the boyfriend ‘he said and grinned at everybody.
They joined everybody at the table while the waiter Brought in their orders. The waiter placed Karthik’s black coffee in front of him.
‘ since when do you drink black coffee? ‘ Naira asked.
Before Karthik could utter a word, Aaradhya interjected.’ oh this project has changed all our habits. We used to work on it for hours together and that was the only cheap option available in our college canteen. Anyway, milk would make us feel sleepy. So black coffee is our thing now! ‘ Aaradhya said looking all chirpy.
Why was she answering for Karthik? What did she think of herself? His best friend? Naira was now visibly irritated.
Karthik was her best friend, and she wasn’t ready to share him yet. This had happened before, her being possessive about Kishen. But that was different. Then, she had accepted her fate and just felt sad about it. Now it was as though she felt she had a claim on him. What was going on?
Her cold coffee arrived at that instant. She thought Karthik would snatch it before she drank it as usual, but he was busy with his phone now.
She offered it to him.
‘oh yeah. Thanks two feet ‘he said. He gulped down half of her cold coffee, leaving behind a mustache of coffee.
Aaradhya giggled and wiped the moustache off with her finger.
This was the last straw. Naira wanted to bang her head with a rock by now. What was Aaradhya trying to prove by doing all of this?
They had their drinks and began To leave. Gayu and Manoj went their separate way for their first date together. Aaradhya bid goodbye to them and went to the other side of the road. Kishen had to rush back because he had to get some food for his roommate.
Naira began to walk away from Karthik with a fury, each step a stomp.
‘hey yo! Where are you going? I’m your ride, remember? ‘
‘ oh why? Don’t you have to drop Aaru?’ she asked. Her disgust was visible on her face.
‘Aaradhya has her own scooty. Why would she come with me? ‘Karthik asked, slightly confused.
‘ does she like you?’ Naira asked.
‘what? Where is this coming from?’ Karthik asked.
‘just answer my question. Is she in love with you? ‘
‘ I don’t know. We haven’t really talked about it. ‘ Karthik said.
‘ and do you like her? ‘ she asked.
Why was she so worried about him liking her? Of course, he was her best friend. She wouldn’t want him to be with somebody as overtly sweet as this girl. Such people always had many faces.
‘ you know who I love. There’s only one. Why are you asking all this? ‘ Karthik asked. ‘ oh my God. you’re jealous, aren’t you?’ he continued
‘why would i be jealous of her? ‘ Naira asked.
‘you’ll have to tell me that, cutie pie. But you clearly are jealous. You’re practically green with envy!’ he said as he pinched her cheek.
‘come on now. Let’s drop you back before you’re late.’ he said as he draped his arm around her shoulder and dragged her along to his bike.
Precap: texting
———author’s notes – – – – – – – – – – –
Hey guys
so this was another episode today. I just had this thought in my mind and wanted to post it right away, because I was too excited about it. This has been my most favorite episode yet. Let me know what you think about it.
The number of comments are going down a lot. Is there something wrong guys? Please comment. Because there’s nothing more discouraging for a writer than to see no comments. Constructive criticism is also welcomed, although please don’t be mean.
Have a great day:)