AT THE PARIKHS' HOUSE

Jay's POV

It is now the 3rd of July, it's 5:30 A.M, what am I doing up so early? Well, it's Guru Purnima so I, Aastha and the team have to reach at 6 A.M. for all the decorations we've prepared. Ugh, waking up so early for school is one of the things I hate. But, at least I get to see Aastha a little more. Wait, oh, shit. She asked me to wake her up and here I am fantasising about her.

I ran upstairs, to her room and knocked on the door taking a deep breath. She opened the door after a minute, rubbing her eyes and yawning. Oh, how cute! She saw me in our school uniform and blinked. She slammed the door close on my face. Rude.

"Shit, hu taiyyar thai ne aavu chu, you go downstairs to have your breakfast." She said, from inside the room and I smiled for a second and went downstairs.

(I'll come after getting ready...)

It was 5:50 when she came downstairs. Came? No. The Flash'ed her way downstairs. She immediately saw my mother, who made us breakfast today, near the kitchen when she was wearing her shoes sitting on the sofa.

"Jay Shri Krishna, kaki." She took a second to look up at my mother in-between tying her shoelaces. How sweet!

(Hail Lord Krishna, Aunt.)

"Jay Shri Krishna, beta. Chal fatafat aa doodh pi le tu, bilkul natak nai, ho?" My mother too smiled at her and greeted her but then her tone changed to that of a boss who is determined to make their employee do anything because she knew that this employee or Aastha wasn't really a big fan of milk.

(Hail Lord Krishna, dear child. Come on, drink this milk fastly and I don't want any drama, okay?)

Aastha nodded at my mother's bossy tone and ran to her to take that glass of milk. She chugged it in a second like it was some vodka shot and she was out partying with her friends. We then left for school, and she apologised to me on the road for getting late, by blaming me that I didn't wake her up. Typical Aastha.

AT SCHOOL

We reached the school at 6:02 A.M. and to my dismay, her beloved boyfriend, Prick Sharma was already here with one of his friends who was in the team too, no one else was, though. She ran to him and hugged him. I rolled my eyes and wrapped my hands around my chest.

It isn't like I'm jealous or anything but it's honestly just that someone like Prick Sharma does not deserve my Jalkukdi, I don't either, but that's for right now, I mean come on, how am I supposed to say no to the face a girl who's being nice with me but obviously has a crush on me? I'm not supposed to do that. And that's why she thinks I'm a player, there ain't no way I could be one though. Has she seen Ravindra Pandya?

I laugh a little internally when two other team members, well one really, the other one was just Dhruvit whom I asked to come for company. Who was the other one? Ishika Desai, Aastha's closest friend after Priya. Ishika went towards her friend and her friend's boyfriend when Dhruvit came towards me and the two of us headed inside the school. Dhruvit called Aastha, Ishika and Prick Sharma inside too. We decided upon starting to work and not wait for the others to arrive as it was already a little late.

We decided to split into pairs of two to start working. It looked as if it was going to be paired like Aastha with Neel, Ishika and the other guy and Dhurvit and I. But, no. Neel suggested that he should go with his friend.

"I'll go with Aastha, then." I said, immediately walking towards her. She had a tiny frown on her face. Seriously, Prick Sharma? I fist-bumped her into smiling.

Dhruvit looked over to me as if he was going to kill me. I paired him up with a random girl, not random really, a nice girl. But, he was expecting the both of us would go together. He said something under his breath and I immediately understood that he was cursing me by calling me a simp. I'm a proud simp.

We, I mean I and Aastha first went to her class to set that class up. I turned on the lights and fans and she started decorating the board with the cute doodles and a text that said "गुरु पूर्णिमा". I took out the cut-outs we made in the past 5 days, cute looking pencils, pens, books and what not. And all thanks to Ishika and Priya, they already had the double tape stuck on them.

(Guru Purnima in Hindi)

I got a text from Anshi, a junior who was clearly in love with me. I checked it and it said that she had reached the school for the preparation. Aastha saw me using my phone and came near me crossing her arms around her chest. She looks so cute when she's angry.

"Kon che?" She asked and literally snatched my phone while I was typing a message to Anshi. She saw who it was and immediately rolled her eyes and put? No, slammed the phone away.

(Who is it?)

She then went back to decorating the board without saying anything. When she was done with it she went towards the switchboard and turned all the lights and fans off.

"Jay?" She finally spoke. Oh, how sweet does my name coming out of my mouth feel! I hummed. But it seemed like I was too busy simping around that I did not notice her tone. The next sentence out of her mouth confirmed that.

"Tari tari girlfriend saathe vaato pati hoy toh bijo class decorate karva aavi jaje. Hu jau chu." She said angrily and picked up both of our bags and went to the next class.

(If your talks with your girlfriend are over then come to decorate the second class. I am going.)

I ran behind her but decided that I wouldn't be giving her anything justification. If she thinks Anshi is my girlfriend, then so be it. Wait what? No. Wait, no. Yes. If she can have a boyfriend then why can't I have a girlfriend according to her.

We then quickly finished up with the second class and moved to the third, the one where I asked Anshi to wait for me so that I could give her some of the supplies. Aastha entered before me and immediately came outside and guess what? I was going inside. We bumped. Only if that happened more often. But she was angry, why though?

One thing I knew for sure was that these two couldn't ever stay in the same room. Maybe Aastha would still tolerate the old me or Dhruvit, but never her. Anshi could definitely get annoying. At least that's what I've heard, because she can't say a word in front of me. LMAO.

She pushed me aside with a force that expressed her anger perfectly. I went inside the class trying to hide my surprise and laughter from Anshi. I gave her the supplies and checked at the time on my phone. It was 6:37 AM. We had plenty of time to decorate everything, but we had to make the Tinkering Lab the best of all. So I went out of that class and just told Anshi that I had got to go.

I knew Aastha would be there, so as soon I entered, I saw Aastha, Neel and his chamcha. I rolled my eyes. Aastha and Neel were decorating the walls with the cute cut-outs Priya and Ishika made. Aastha was laughing at some bad joke Neel cracked. I rolled my eyes again.

(Sidekick)

Just then someone pushed me from my back. I almost fell but then balanced myself. I turned back to see Dhruvit and Ishika. Ishika was laughing with her hand covering face and Dhruvit was laughing shamelessly at my face.

"Abbe saale!?" I punched him on the shoulder and stared at him. He couldn't stop laughing. I just walked away and started helping Neel and Aastha out. I can't believe I was doing that.

(What, you idiot!?)

END OF POV

All the high school classes were decorated and so was the Tinkering Lab at time. It was 7:10, so all of them went downstairs for the long, boring speech of Pragnesh Sir. Then, it was time for the teachers to see the decorations and the speeches they made. It was amazing and all the teachers loved it, even the rather stricter ones. This went on till 11 AM, as there were some other activities for the students too. And as it was their lucky day, they got off just after that.

AT THE PARIKHS' HOUSE

The day was going perfectly and it was time for lunch, all of them were having lunch. It was an even better day for Jay now as his favourite food, Shahi Paneer and Roti were made for lunch.

(A gravy with cottage cheese, Flat Bread)

"I heard your speech today, Aastha. It was really nice. I like your confidence." Ravi said, and then took a bite of his food.

"She made a speech?" Birva said, in an excited tone and she also had a huge smile on her face. "I was so busy last week that I wasn't able to catch up with how you guys' school is going on. So, Jay and Aastha? How is it going on?" She continued.

"It's going, yeah. Em toh maja aave che pan ghani vaar bau boring boring thai jaay che. Toh bi badha friends saathe hoy ne toh kaam chali jaay che. Nai, Jay?" Aastha said, and took a sip of water from her glass. Jay nodded like an obedient child.

(It's kind of fun but sometimes it gets very boring. Although, I'm with friends so it works out.)

After lunch, Aastha and Jay were going to be doing their homework together in Aastha's room. So, they went there and talked for a while and started working with some vibe-able background music.

(her outfit)

(his outfit)

That's when Jay got a call and the music was interrupted. Aastha also put her pen down and started waiting patiently for him to resume the music. But then she took the pen back again and started writing after realising she had a lot to do.

"Haan, bol."

(Yes, say.)

"Kya bolu? Hein? Saale simp. Ladki ke liye dost ko chodh diya tune, haa?"

(What should I say? Huh? You simp! You left your friend for a girl, huh?)

"Arre bhai, tujhe aata tha board decor? Nahi na? Toh kya karte apan dono? Tabla bajate? Woh bhi nahi aata chomu humein."

(Ugh, dude, did you know board decor? No, right? Then what would've the two of us done? Play Tablas? We don't even know that, you idiot!)

"Teri baat toh sahi hai waise, but bhai yeh teri crush ki dost kitni alag hai uss se. Mai toh kehta hu isey hi pata le toh, uss ke jitna chapad-chapad bhi nahi karti."

(You are kind of right, but bro this friend of this crush of yours is way different than her. Hear me out, date this one, she doesn't even talk so much.)

"Haan, haan, whatever. Tere iss sawal ka jawab mai tujhe baadme dunga. Abhi busy hu, bye."

(Yeah, yeah, whatever. I will answer this question of yours later on. I am busy right now, bye.)

With this Jay cut the phone and found Aastha, who was writing, trying to control her laughter.

"What?" He asked and blinked his eyes as soon as her eyes met his.

"Nothing, just tamara banne na banters." Aastha said, giggling. Her eyes glistened because of how much she giggled. Then, her glistening green eyes met his honey brown ones.

(You guys' banters)

But this time, he didn't look away or anything, he just blinked and then got lost in the deep beauty of those dreamy green eyes. Hers too were caught in the spell of the wonderous forest-like brown ones. For a second, they both were feeling the same. Oh, how beautiful the combination of this green and brown would look!

That's when the green ones looked away, it was then that they realised that it couldn't be possible and that it was wrong. It was then the glisten in them turned from a glisten of laughter to a moisture of sorrow. So they found their way to the book they were once seeing, pretending not to care one bit about the brown ones for that moment.

While, on the other hand, the brown ones were still stuck there, even though the green ones changed their focus. They wondered if what was felt in the moment by them was felt by green ones too? But then, their enemy, the brain, broke the beautiful delusion. It told them that that could never happen, not knowing that it actually did happen. It ordered them to get back to what they were doing, and they did what was told to them.

"Uh, so..." Jay dared to speak. "How's Yug Sir's tuition going? He is after all an expert in the subjects he teaches, you know?" He tried again, wanting to break the awkward silence.

"He definitely is and it's going good—" Aastha spoke and then stopped for a moment. "You know they say, curiosity kills the cat. But I would say— Yug Sir's expectations kill this cat." She let out a dry chuckle before letting the room fall into the same awkward silence it was in before.

Jay started playing some music again just to make it less awkward and then took a glass of water to drink some of it. He did not really think about his song choice and just played the next song in the queue after the one that was interrupted by Dhruvit's call. But, it seemed as if nature wasn't in either one of them's favour. The song choice couldn't have been worse for this specific situation; it was 'Treat You Better' by Shawn Mendes. He choked on the water. She looked at him for a second and then looked back at her book.

Aastha finished her homework as soon as she could and then took the phone to text Priya. Although she knew whatever happened was nothing but she needed to make sure and her delusional self needed a reality check. And who could be better at reality checks then one of Aastha's very own two best friends? Absolutely no one. No one could beat Priyadarshini Thakur when it came to being realistic.

Babe! Help needed. Be here at 4 PM.

What happened? Aa toh jaungi par tu bata.

(I will come but you tell me.)

Reality check chahiye mujhe.

(I need a reality check)

dw. I'll be there at 3:45.

a/n~

hellu jiii

Kaise hai sab?

Kaafi der ho gayi na chapter daale, nai?

Chota hai par that's what you get if there's a tense moment? I mean profit dono ko hona chaiye na 💀🤌

HOW WAS THE CHAPTER???

HOW WAS THAT EYES WALA SCENE? 👀

Accha wese I might or might not have hinted at something related to a spin-off, and that is *if* I ever do one because I also have other things going on in this stoopid mind to idk what I'll give preference to. Ya idek if kuch aur likhungi bhi, lmao.

accha also this is one of the chapters jo ek baar proofread toh kiye hai but i aint sure toh koi galti ho toh bata dena correct kar dungi aur khudse jab time permission dega tab dekh lungi isey aur 11 ko

Also I noticed pichle chapter mein there are kaafi grammatical mistakes and shiz mai pakka se ek din free hoke edit kar dungi <33

Love,

Tithi <3