Fake Apologies

Ever faced a situation where you are not happy with someone, but you don't know how to live without that someone?

The next day with a little sleep I woke up, still, eyes partially closed, I found Gaurav still on the bed & Ishaan was combing his hair, talking to himself while looking at a mirror. I went to wake Gaurav up too, but he showed a middle finger while on his bed,

I was a morning person & it was a cool breezy morning. A strong gust of wind blew against my face & on the contrary, the sun rising up touching its golden rays towards my skin gave me a warm feeling, it was refreshing & soon I was energized to start my day and too excited to meet Shyla.

Last night I wanted to text her but I also don't want to show myself a despo, But today I was all set to meet her again. As soon as we entered the gate, the scenario was little different than I expected, everyone in the college was gazing at me, at first, I thought that I was still famous because of my previous incident at the party but then someone came to me, He put his hand onto my shoulder & with a little grin he said, 'YOU ARE SOO DEAD DUDE'.

Before I could ask, I saw Shyla, Red-faced she was, bolting towards me. She pursed her lips and raised her hand, whipping it across my face. The crack of her hand on my face echoed through space. The vibrations of pain started on my face and spread all the way across to my eardrums. her palm was bright red & so was my face.

She stared at me with her eyes wide, & slowly she turned back and took off by saying, 'I didn't expect this from you'. Before I could get my conscious back the whole crowd was laughing at me & I knew from that moment I am going to be that "guy who got slapped"

Sahil with the group of his friends were watching me from a distance, giggling in themselves I knew this was their work but I was too embarrassed to confront them, Ishaan looked at me & said, ‘maybe we should take a day off from college, come on, let's go back’, his words made sense & In the “Booing & the shouting” we traverse through the crowd back to our hostel.

she broke my heart now & a single thought of her was making me cry, and somehow and I was passing the moment with lifeless eyes. I wanted to ask her the reason but I guess some words are not meant to be said.

As soon as I reached my room, Gaurav came to me and hugged me like a brother, ‘All will get well brother’, He said.

He was a stranger but his comfort was the only thing left for me to held on,

Gaurav told me to sit and he rushed out the room in anger, he came back with his hand on Sahil’s collar, ‘Apologies, he said to Sahil’.

‘It was just a prank, we had no idea she would react this way’, Sahil replied.

‘Do you want me to prank with you too’, Gaurav said while protecting me like a big brother.

Sahil faced me and apologized, ‘I am sorry, he said.

Gaurav asked him what he did & and he explained that he took my phone and bombed her with inappropriate messages when he got his hands on my phone during yesterday’s ragging.

Gaurav with Sahil’s collar in hand pushed him out of his room and told him roughly to apologize to Shyla and explain everything to her right then.

To be honest, I wasn’t angry with him as this was expected of him, but how Shyla could believe something like this, and even if she did, how that justifies hitting me in front of everyone else.

My crush on her just crushed me now and then, I decided not to talk to her ever again, but inner me was hoping that some magic will happen and the love and fun part comes again, it was those situations where we are not happy with a person and not happy without that person,

Suddenly my phone ringed, it was Shyla, I was not surprised as Sahil must have told him,

I picked up the call & said, ‘what now?’, I wanted her to know that I was angry,

‘Can you please come and meet me now at the new girl’s hostel, I want to talk to you’, Shyla said.

I should have taken some time to think but instead like a puppy I said yes, I was cheering up from the inside that I’ll just get some guilt love,

Gaurav looked at me & said, ’are you happy now?’.

It was all because of him, I hugged him, thanked him, and ran out of the room to meet her.

The sun was getting down & as soon as I reached the closed girl’s hostel, there was a change in the wind, the atmosphere and the wind was cool enough to give goosebumps, I forgot about Shyla and started thinking about the girl who died there,

I never believed in ghosts, but going to an abandoned place where someone died, my heart started racing, I started walking faster and reached to the gate,

A large board with No Entry was on the gate, ‘Psshhh Pshhhh’, I heard a noise coming from nearby, I looked around and found a hole through the wall,

‘Jump you idiot before someone catches us, jump’, some guy started shouting at me.

So without thinking, I Jumped across the wall into the hostel, as soon as I jumped, there she was with her friend and that guy, they saw me and waved me to run inside the hostel & I ran while they gave torch lights to my way with phones.

‘Hi Dev I am Shirin, Shyla’s best friend and this is my boyfriend Karan & we are very sorry dude for whatever happened, that was nobody’s fault’, her friend said to me.

‘what nobody’s fault, she practically embarrassed me and scarred me for life, I said to her while pointing at Shyla.

Shyla lowered her eyes, I could see, how bad she was feeling but then,

‘I am not going to apologize Dev for morally doing something right, but I could offer you something else if you get pasts this’, Shyla said.

‘What can you offer now’, I asked as I was ready to forgive her & wanted to be close to her.

‘Our friendship and a chance to pull a prank on the people who laughed at you today, she replied.

I nodded positively, I know should have asked for the apology, I should have put my foot down when I felt she was wrong, but I didn't, I thought if I asked for more, I'll lose whatever I am getting, & I thought that maybe she is worth this.

She held my hand and we all ran to the terrace of the building, I was rushing with adrenaline, maybe it was the ladders or maybe she holding my hand,

Her friend Shirin took her bag off and took out a white saree, I was so shocked to see that & it all started making sense, Shyla wore that saree and Shirin started burning a candle,

‘Fuck that was you guys I saw yesterday, I started laughing.

‘keep it quiet and watch & have fun baby’, Shyla replied.

‘Oh boy, I knew she was trouble, but this much trouble into the restricted zone, I did not expect at all,

‘watch this, she said.

She took the candle in her hand started roaming onto the terrace, I was laughing so hard, I saw her yesterday and she was the ghost,

‘Aaaa!!!!’, someone started shouting from the boy’s hostel & soon more than one voice can be heard, the boys were shouting so hard, and here we were laughing our ass off !!,

I was in that moment, Laughing & watching her laugh, I forgot that I was angry with her,

All of the hostel from the terrace started their torch and Shyla blew the candle off,

She came to me and we all ran downstairs to stay undetected. She held my hand and was laughing so hard with me & like that candle I melted away.

Shirin and Karan just vanished into one of the rooms taking privacy, while Shyla & I went to the balcony of the top floor,

She was looking at the sky which was freckled with stars, She took out a cigarette from her pocket, I was a little surprised as I never saw any girl smoking before but I stayed silent, She lighted her cigarette and made a big cloud of white smoke in the darkness,

I liked how in the dark, white smoke was touching her face like I wanted to, Shyla smiled and passed the cigarette to me, ‘Take a puff’, Shyla said politely.

I wanted to look cool so I took the cigarette as if that was no big deal, but that was my first cigarette, the smoke came out of my nose, mouth & from every possible space from my face, I coughed hard.

She took it out of my hand and put the cigarette off under her feet & soon the smoke vanished, & white moonlight moved across the corridor making every detail of Shyla visible.

She came close to me and with a flirtatious tone, ‘what other things are you new at Dev’.

I dropped my jaw and my senses, I saw into her eyes and felt them calling me close, acting in the moment I put my arms around her waist & without uttering a word, I pulled her towards me,

She was so close to me, I held her face gently and her lips came close to mine, I saw her lips opened while she was breathing fast, I leaned in and touched her lips with mine, I pushed her to the wall & started kissing her on the neck, my hands were around her waist & I could see her moaning, she was breathing fast while braising her fingers through my hair, something inside me changed, which will never be reversed. This new feeling could be dwelled upon later, because, for now, I was content to feel her breath come and go with mine.

Suddenly, the hostel block gates opened, We opened our eyes slowly, but we didn’t stop the kissing, we never wanted to, I heard some people entering through the gate and stopped but I couldn't stop smiling, maybe it was a side effect of a kiss.

We moved slowly to the balcony while holding hands & looked two people coming in, one of them was leading & was wearing a suit, While the other one was following him, He was a little old and was wearing a white kurta, and a gold chain necklace around his neck both of them, the noise of their shoes were the only sound present in the whole building.

Both of them moved into the building & made their way across the ladders to the 3rd floor where I and Shyla was hiding, I heard them coming towards us so slowly we went into one of the rooms, we both knew there was no place to hide, In the rooms, there were steel cabinets for the new students, I opened a cabinet & It was big enough to fit at least three people, Shyla went into it, & I closed the room door and followed her into the same,

We remained silent looking into the eyes of one another, smiling, I took both her hands in mine. But, at this age, I knew that my greatest enemy in this world was my luck, always against me,

The two people who entered the hostel block, entered the same room, Shyla was peeking from the keyhole of the cabinet & I was staring at her.

'That's the CFO of our college, Mr Raghav. & the other guy, ‘I think he is the corporator of this area’, “Shyla whispered”.

'I need more money, I need to leave this place once and for all, the investigation of CBI is still on & the officer is not leaving the case by any means, I don’t know but if I went down, I will take you with me.

Before the corporator could say anything else Raghav went straight, slapped the man hard as he could, Echoing the room with the voice of the slap.

Shyla clenched my hand.

Raghav took the politician’s collar and said, 'Shut it down, take me down, will you? you are equally responsible for whatever happened’,

‘You will get your money, when I say so, until then don't try to contact me', Raghav added. Without any more words, they left the hostel room and went to the different exits of the hostel.

Shyla and I got out breadth back and fast as we could we regroup ourselves with Shirin. Shyla in low pitched voice said to me, 'we heard nothing, we want no trouble'. I nodded. She came close & with a little peck on my cheeks, she took off.

The guy who helped me entered the hostel, gave me a lift back to my hostel. He said, 'what were those two were talking about man?'.

Shyla told me not to say anything, 'we didn't hear anything, I replied.

Karan said, ' I don't know what she saw in you, anyways you are lucky, good luck man'.

'Thanks for the lift', I replied.