Episode _ 4

8

The train journey from Goa to Delhi and back to our hostel was uneventful except for the

huge fight we had over Kabir where I was being unreasonable, and we spent twenty-odd

hours staring outside the grilled windows of our train.

The company we had done our internship with had offered both Kabir and Avantika jobs

in the same department. It was a little hard for me to accept that the two of them would be

working together after a year, and it drove me nuts.

Kabir had even asked if they could find a place in Mumbai to live in together later.

Avantika said she would talk about it when the time came. She should have shot it down,

there and then! And how could he ask something like that? He knew that Avantika was

dating me. We slept that night without talking to each other. Train journeys are extremely

romantic, but the fight had drained the romance out of it.

We had the most hectic semester staring right at our faces.

Things were a little easier for Avantika since she had better grades and she already had a

job. I scrambled inside the class at the last second and looked for Avantika. I had overslept,

but my body still wanted more.

‘This class?’ the strategic management professor grumbled.

‘Yes, sir,’ I said meekly. I looked for Avantika in the class.

‘Firstly, you are late for the class! And then you can’t find a seat to sit?’ he growled. ‘No

attendance for you. You can leave if you want to.’

‘Okay, sir.’ I decided to stay and not piss off the professor any more.

‘Sit anywhere and stop disturbing the class,’ he said sternly.

I sat on the first bench and cursed myself. Not the brightest start to a semester, I thought.

I still tried to spot Avantika from the corner of my eyes but I could not. I texted her and

asked where she was.

Right behind you. Last bench.

I waited for the professor to write something on the board so that I could look back. Last

bench … she sat right next to that son of a bitch, Kabir. She was laughing. Nice. Just perfect.

It was a terrible start to the semester. I had missed attendance and Avantika was sitting

with the guy I hated the most. I texted her just to make sure she wasn’t talking to him, and

she replied in a single ‘K’ and it made me even more uncomfortable. The next few messages

met with the same treatment. I stopped sending them, and I kept looking back at the two of

them. I heard them laughing again. Bastard.

‘You two,’ the professor pointed at the last bench. The class looked at Avantika and

Kabir.

‘Get up,’ he said.

They were still smiling.

‘Can you please share the joke with us too?’ he bellowed.

Avantika looked down, embarrassed, though I could tell that she was still smiling.

‘Get out,’ the professor said.

Kabir immediately collected his books, pushed back his chair and left. Avantika

followed. They were still laughing when they left the class.

‘If anyone has any more jokes to share they can do that outside the class,’ he said and got

back to telling us about some consulting project of his. I sat there and tried to concentrate on

what the professor was saying to keep my mind off what Kabir was doing with my

girlfriend. Where would these two be? What would they be doing? I was being paranoid but

I could not help it.

I could not shake the thought off my head. Time stopped. Five minutes seemed like fifty.

The more I stared at the clock hung above the blackboard, the slower it moved.

I fiddled with my pen and fidgeted in my hair. It became hard to keep sitting in the class.

The last few minutes of that lecture were the most painful ones I had ever been through.

I messaged her, asking her where she was. ‘Room,’ the reply came. I felt relieved and

slowed down my steps as I entered the girls’ hostel.

Room No. 203.

I opened the door to her room. I hadn’t bothered to knock.

‘Hey,’said Kabir, sitting on her bed, one leg crossed calmly over the other, at home in

Avantika’s room.

‘Where’s she?’ I asked, wanting to throw my hardbound register in his face and smashing

his skull open. What the **** are you doing here!

‘She has gone to the washroom,’ he said as he flipped through Avantika’s magazines. That

bastard had made himself comfortable in Avantika’s room. How can he even touch the

magazines that she touched!

‘Deb, did he ask for our roll numbers?’ he asked.

‘I didn’t notice,’ I said and went out into the corridor. I walked around the corridor and

waited for her.

‘Where the **** were you?’ I asked as soon as I spotted her.

‘In the room,’she said casually.

‘Get him out of here right now!’

‘What? Why?’she asked.

‘Because I am asking you to do so.’

‘Don’t be such a kid, Deb.’

‘Just do it, Avantika.’

‘Okay, I will do that,’she said, a little miffed.

I waited outside the room for him to leave and he walked out after a couple of minutes. I

was being unreasonable but I could not bear the sight of that man. I hated him with every

cell of my body.

‘What was he doing here?’ I asked her.

‘Nothing. We were just talking,’she said.

‘Here? Is this the only place you got? In the whole campus?’

‘It is hot outside, Deb.’

‘Did he suggest this place?’

‘Yes, kind of.’

‘Why didn’t you say no?’

‘Why should I?’she asked innocently.

‘As if you don’t know what he wants from you!’

‘He doesn’t. Why are you being so possessive?’

‘Possessive? You bring a guy to your room and you expect me not to react?’

‘Deb, what do you think he was doing here?’

‘I don’t know! You tell me!’ I accused her.

‘Deb, if you think I had some wrong intentions, I don’t think we should have this

conversation. Do you really think—?’

‘I am not saying anything. But we fought over him just yesterday! Is that not a problem?’

‘I trust you, Deb. You don’t …’

‘That is because I don’t keep hanging around with random girls and get them to my room.’

‘Kabir is a friend.’

‘Raghav has never come to your room and he is a better friend of yours. Nor has Ravi or

Kumod! Why him?’

‘I am not talking about this,’she said and looked away.

‘How convenient.’

I left and banged the door behind me. She must be crying now, I thought. And like every

egotistical guy, I didn’t go back. I acted like an asshole and I did not like it but I hated him

more; I wanted to make that clear, once and for all.

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