10 Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Scorned

"Done checking out your buddy's girlfriend, Mr. Avyan Oberoi?" Nitya asked teasingly.

"What nonsense are you talking about? As if there is anything worth checking out!" Avyan snorted as soon as he heard her words.

"Aww Avyan, don't you find me pretty today? You see, today is the first day of my first ever relationship with someone and I thought to dress up for him. Will Tarun not like how I dressed up for him specifically?" She teased him by tilting her head to one side and sporting a fake sad expression on her face. He could see the amusement swirling around in her eyes.

"What are you trying to do, Nitya?" He asked resignedly.

"Why Avyan, I haven't even done anything yet to make you accuse me of something. Let me at least do something first, then I'll accept all your accusations." She replied as she patted his arm.

"Nitya, this person... this is not you." He sighed. Even when he used to bully her, he hadn't seen this avatar of her. It seemed as if a switch had been flipped on in her that night.

Maybe the saying really was true.

'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!'

Nitya let out a sarcastic laugh at Avyan's words. For a moment, her inner pain was being reflected clearly on her face.

"Oh, Avyan! You seem to have figured me all out, don't you? You know my likes and dislikes. You know what's better for me and what's going to ruin me. You seem to know everything, isn't it Mr. Wise?" She asked.

'She knew. She knew what he'd done and why he had done everything.' That was the only thought in Manik's mind as shame and guilt gripped his heart tightly. He could feel her pain oozing through her words which were stabbing through his heart, ripping it apart. However, he was the one holding the dagger in his hands. He was the one who had stabbed both of them in their hearts.

"How?" Avyan was flabbergasted. He didn't know who had told her about his plan.

"I'm not a fool, Mr. Oberoi." She said before turning away from him. She knew if she stood there for even a second longer, she would cry and she didn't want him to see the vulnerable side of her, at least not for now.

*******************

Half the day passed with Nitya attending her regular classes. Unlike other times, she was alone all day. It wasn't like she had no friends but things were awkward between them since Apache night when their band lost to Elements. Her group consisted of Rushabh, a new freshman who had taken a fancy to Rushabh, Sonia, and another one of Rushabh's friends.

Back in the days when Rushabh used to stand up against Elements' [1] bullying, she believed Rushabh to be a kind, outstanding person. Hence, when he had offered her the position of a violinist and female lead singer, she had jumped up immediately at the opportunity. However, after coming to know Avyan and his friends, she had learned about the multiple masks Rushabh put on to get what he wants. Although she didn't like Elements members ragging others for their entertainment, Rushabh's actions were much worse. For his achievements, he had no qualms about endangering someone's lives in the process. At least Elements were better than that!

She still didn't all about the Oberoi family drama much but from what she had gathered, she learned to be at least six feet from away from the mother-son duo, i.e. Drashti and Rushabh. Sonia, however, was not that lucky. Despite Nitya's warnings, she was quite enamored by Rushabh's charms and well, she didn't have to ask Rushabh to return her affections. Being the naive little thing she was, she refused to see that he was just playing around with her.

Nitya didn't know to which stage Rushabh and Sonia's relationship had reached on Apache night since she wasn't that close to either of them. Moreover, her band members had blamed her for their loss since she couldn't sing properly, with her being recently heartbroken. The others didn't know about her familiarity with Elements members since she was always discrete about it as the other three had expressed their immense hatred for them on many occasions. She could only pray that Sonia didn't fall into Rushabh's trap.

Quite bored and hungry, she entered the cafeteria and ordered a vegetable sandwich with mint spread along with lemonade for herself. Grabbing her order, she was about to grab a seat near the large windows that framed one off the walls, when she heard Tarun call out to her. She looked towards him to notice him sitting along with his other three friends at their reserved table, right in the middle of the cafeteria.

She knew she was Tarun's girlfriend but that doesn't mean it wasn't awkward for her. For one, she liked him just like a friend only and now the equation between them had turned to be pretty weird for her. Two, she was involved in a complicated game with his best friend. Hesitatingly, she walked towards them with her stuff in her hand and came to stand beside Tarun's chair.

"Hi." She whispered nervously to him with a small smile. He returned the gesture while grabbing a chair for her.

"Come, sit." He motioned towards the chair.

Nitya knew she was still not on good terms with the other three and thus didn't want to make the situation uncomfortable for anyone.

"No, I don't want to impose myself. It's okay, I've to find Sonia anyways." She answered. Prashvi didn't like Nitya much and was relieved when she shot Tarun's invitation down. But then she saw Tarun's gloomy face and sighed.

"It's okay, Nitya. Sit down. And Sonia is busy with her boyfriend, anyways." She shrugged non-committally.

"What, boyfriend?" Nitya asked shocked at these new developments that she was unaware of. She grabbed the seat next to Tarun, curious to learn more about what she'd missed. It was a round table with Tarun on her left and Prashvi to her right. Avyan was sitting right opposite to her while Shanaya had seated herself between Avyan and Tarun.

"Yeah, it's Rushabh. You didn't know?" Prashvi asked with a poker face.

"What? Rushabh? Why didn't I know about this?" Shanaya asked to no one in particular, clearly shocked by the news. Shanaya was the only one among Elements who believed in Rushabh's kind soul. When she was a frail little girl, new in the unfamiliar environment of the school, it was Rushabh who had first approached her and helped her wade through bullies and mean girls. He used to share his lunch with her when her parents were too busy touring around the world and had left her in the care of nannies. Since then, she had come to respect and care for Rushabh as an elder brother. Not to warp her view of the world too, the Elements had decided not to disclose much of the dealings between Elements and Rushabh. She knew he had cheated on Prashvi and how he always opposed Avyan but she always felt that he must have a reason for doing so. Her friends also didn't get behind her because of this because God knows why but Rushabh somehow genuinely cared for her. The dynamics of their 'sibling' relationship was something way beyond their understanding.

[1] Elements= Avyan's music band with his four friends. For simplicity, to refer to the group, I'll be using Elements to represent the five of them collectively.