Unedited

~Playlist for this chapter~
Oh, Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison.

~For all my Hindi listeners~
Tere mast mast do nain - Dabangg movie.

****

Chapter 3: Confessions and Memes

~Yash's Pov~

Few days later...

I stepped out of my rickshaw and got immediately swept away by the bustling crowd of students.

I felt few eyes drilling holes in my head, however ignoring them, I hiked my bag higher and continued on.

There was a lot of commotion going on, few looked around unsure of what to do and the others, more familiar with this place, walked straight to their business. Following the crowd, I entered what I thought was the main foyer. I had to check my allotted classroom for the further admission procedure but the bulletin board was swarmed with hoards of students who looked like they were fighting over the last piece of chocolate in the world.

I cringed, sensing the approaching struggle, pain, and sweaty bodies by entering that crowd when my eyes fell on someone, a tall someone, who could easily help me out.

"Hey!" I lightly tapped his arm from behind.

When I got no response, I called out louder, once, twice, thrice, until I had grabbed the attention of everyone in the foyer, except his, of course. The commotion died down and people stopped and stared at us, few laughed and others simply gave a rude look for blocking their way.

Miserable from the sudden attention, I decided to play it cool and walk away when the stranger turned around.

"Oh, did you say something? Sorry, I couldn't hear you."

I stared at him in disbelief. I was screaming right behind me and he couldn't hear me? He would need a high hearing impairment to ignore my calls.

The next thing that caught my eyes was his T-shirt. It was slate grey with 'Great Farter' printed in bold and a yellow cat farting beneath the text. I was amused at how comfortable he looked sporting it. Suddenly I felt overdressed in my biker leather jacket and Timberland boots.

"That's a dope T." I complimented and watched as his face lightened up.

"Thanks, mann. Haven't seen you around here, Are you a fresher?"

"Yes."

"BA, BMM, BMS, or Business?"

"BA, Economics."

"What's your surname?"

"Uhm...Mane." I said confused with the direction of our conversation. "Look, can you just look at the board since it would be easy with your height—"

He waved away cutting off my question. "No need. The drills are the same since our FYJC days here. BA admissions are done on the first floor. Surname initials A to M are allocated room 103 AKA you and I are in the same class. Hi, I'm Shlok Dande."

"Wow. I'm Yash Mane." I said as we did a casual hug.

"Aye Dandi, practice today at 12." A bypasser casually patted Shlok on the back before moving away.

"Dandi?" I asked as he led the way towards our classroom, walking through the crowd.

"Yeah, it's my nickname cuz this—" he gestured towards his stick-thin body "—resembles a stick. It's something I've been called since my school days. I hate it!—"

"Just tell them off then—"

"Telling them off will only irk them to do it more. Seniors are a pain in the ass. Anyway, I'll make them pay for it in the practice today. Nothing like shutting them up with a good hit on the face."

"Which sport?"

"Volleyball. I've been playing in the college team since my eleventh grade and if everything goes right, then I'll be elected as the captain of the degree team. Oh, that's our main auditorium, we'll have our seminars there and over there is a medical-cell, the door at the end of the hallway is student counselling cell—"

I tried to memorize the map as he pointed at ten different locations rapidly. We turned right before ascending the stairs. His phone pinged, halting my tour as he retrieved it before snickering loudly.

"Oh, this one's good. You wanna hear a joke?" He asked.

"Go ahead."

"Ok. The teacher asked her students to give one example of active and passive voice. So one student replied with—" He paused and I peered at him curiously, urging him to continue. "—Tere mast mast do nain mere dil ka le gaye chain, mere dil ka le gaye chain tere mast mast do nain."

I barked out a loud, boisterous involuntary laugh, with Shlok following suit. We didn't stop until an angry-looking peon threatened us to kick off the campus. Soon we were both heaving out of breath, snickering here and there as we reached the class.

"Hey, Aadi!" Shlok clasped a person on the shoulder, halting him on his way out of the door. Standing behind him was a petite girl who was glaring at Shlok in anger, not so subtly. She looked too young to be in college.

"Oye, Dandi! I'll hear your jokes later, pacca promise! Not now!" He said as he waylaid us in a hurry before disappearing down the hallways. However, his friend wasn't so lucky.

Shlok lazily stretched his long leg, leaving a very narrow space in the doorway which wasn't enough for any human body to squeeze past. 

"Will you excuse me, please?" She said as she cranked her neck high to meet Shlok's eyes. She had a lot of courage packed in her tiny form.

"I will if you list me all the documents we need right now, Pragati." 

"But I had posted the list on our WhatsApp group." Shlok had to practically bend down a little to hear her tiny voice. 

"I might've deleted it. I don't know." Shlok shrugged as Pragati's glare intensified. 

"A self-attested copy of aadhar card, pan card, tenth board's mark sheet, JC mark sheets, and the print out of your online filled form. Along with your originals and two passport size photos of your monkey face. Now, let me go." I doubt if Shlok even felt her feather-light shove on his chest but he complied, unblocking her escape. 

"I bet they are rushing to the canteen to hog on misal pav. I'm surprised Aadi survived the entire summer vacation without it." Shlok laughed.

The similar sensation of being watched tingled my back, ignoring them, I followed Shlok in the class.

****

True to Shlok's words, we did spot the two in the canteen.

"Wha—da—gu—saw—lo" Aadi struggled to speak one coherent sentence through his mouth stuffed with bread.

"What took you so long?" Pragati asked the question for him, coherently this time.

"Uhm...I was missing a document and—"

"—and then you decided to crack a joke to distract teacher but it didn't work out in the end. Same old same old." Pragati finished for Shlok who was blushing red by the end of her statement. 

"My jokes aren't that bad! We just had a communication problem! Anyway, guys, he is Yash and Yash, they are Pragati and Aadijay, my friends from JC. We've all been wasting the last two years of our life here and since we are too attached with anna's vada pav here, we've decided to waste three more with our graduation here." Shlok introduced me before lightly nudging me ahead. I tensed being the subject of their sudden scrutiny, however, there wasn't anything judgemental about their stare. Just plain curiosity. 

"Welcome to Tatti group!" Pragati said. She surprised me by engulfing me in a short side hug which didn't last long, thanks to a 6'5" tall someone who wedged himself between us.

(Tatti - Punjabi word for poo.)

"Tatti group?" I asked in amusement.

"It's our squad name." She sheepishly admitted.

"Quite... unique, just like you." Blushed bloomed on her cheeks and I stealthily averted my eyes when I caught Shlok's glare.

I couldn't help it, sweet-talking was my second nature.

I rolled my neck a little, trying to relax my tensed muscles by flexing it when I heard a few whispers behind me. Brushing it off, I settled at the table beside Shlok, facing Pragati and Aadi. Aadijay had successfully managed to swallow down all the content in his mouth without choking over it. "Hey, cool jacket. Is that real leather?" He asked.

"Uhm...yes. Goatskin." I answered awkward under his scrutiny.

"Seems pretty expensive."

It was. It was one of the exclusive custom-made piece by an Italian designer, gifted on my eighteenth birthday by my mom.

Its cost in Indian currency was ringing close to six figures and that wasn't something I was about to disclose.

"Nah. Got it on a sale," I said casually raking my hand through my hair.

I heard a few giggles from the adjacent table and caught two girls staring at me unabashedly. Not to appear as rude, I returned their smile with one of my own. They blushed before looking away.

I was painfully aware of the attention I was attracting. I wasn't exactly dressed to blend in the crowd of plain Ts and denim. Ever so often I caught few people staring at me, who immediately averted their stares away too afraid with the sudden eye-contact.

I was used to the attention but with attention came judgements. I wanted none of it.

"I come to college an hour late and my best friend is already at the canteen, hogging on food when he promised to wait for me and share it with me." A new voice entered our conversation.

The stranger landed a solid, merciless punch on Aadijay's arm, making him fall over Pragati who yelped in surprise with sudden weight. Settling down at the newly acquired space at the table, she extended her hand towards me.

"Hi, I'm Ahana."

"Hey, I'm—"

"Yash. I know, College is practically buzzing with your name. It's been a while since we had a looker on campus. Attendance is going to shoot up this year." She winked at me.

The other male members scowled at the table. I reeled back in amusement, a bit creeped out by the revelation."Is it?"

"Confession page is flooding with your name all over it. I would go private on Instagram if I were you." She said as her elbow casually hit Aadi's shoulder, almost dunking his face in his misal.

"Confession page?" I asked as I quickly unlocked my phone to find hundred something new notifications, all from Instagram. My followers had shot up and some of the random comments under my photos made me turn pink.

"I want those fingers to open me with the same firmness and tenderness he is dicing that onion with" Shlok read while peeping in my phone. The comment was made under one of the cooking videos I had posted. Yes, I loved cooking.

"Woho, thirsty bro." Aadi was enjoying the time of his life while Pragati just sat back, glaring at him.

"Here, check this out—" Ahana passed her phone to me "—VZ memes and confessions is a Instagram page dedicated to our college students. Here, anyone can make an anonymous confession, describing their secret crush, how he looks, the class he studies, falaana dhamkana, and then, if anybody knows that person, they tag him in the comments. 90% chances are of your friends tagging you cuz they want some drama to spice up their life."

(Falaana dhamkana - etc etc)

True to her words, the page was flooded with hearts and roses which made my head spin. The word 'black jacket' popped out in every other anonymous text and I cursed the second I decided to don it to the college today.

The giggling and laughing around me continued and it was starting to get on my nerves. They stared at me like I was the biggest, thickest slab of meat

"He doesn't know anyone here, except us and I swear Yash, we haven't tagged you there for any drama." Pragati stared at me and my heart warmed at the thought of them looking out for me. It felt good to not be lonely.

"I trust you guys...ugh! this is making me sick." I said as I pocketed my phone, my eyes burning with some of the messages I just read.

"Hm, he was tagged by the admin herself. Now, take a guess, who is she?" Ahana asked while staring at a gaping Pragati.

"Meme queen." Shlok said as I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around to tell that person off but froze mid-way when I recognised who she was.

"Tanvi?"

"Yash!!"

Standing at a distance, behind her, was a pair of familiar aqua green eyes that had kept me up since last few nights. She wasn't smiling, no, she was glaring at me with a ferocity that made my heart beat.

Agni.

This couldn't get any better.

****

•g l o s s a r y•

The education system in Mumbai goes something like...

Till 10th grade - school

Junior college

11th grade - first year - FYJC
12th grade - second year - SYJC

10th and 12th grade are national board exams.

Shlok and his friends are together in the college since their JC years while Yash has now joined them in their graduation years.

I hope this clears out some confusion.

*

Misal Pav

*

Vada Pav

****

It's quarantine and my food craving is all time high.

I pray for you and your family to have a safe and happy quarantine ❤️

VOTE

COMMENT

READ

RE-READ

SHARE

And make me happy.