Someone Like You (19 page)

‘Come here,’ he says as he sits on the bumper of the car. Gingerly, I walk up to him and he holds my hand and makes me sit on the bonnet of the car. Strangely enough, unlike my father’s Maruti Esteem, the bonnet is surprisingly cool.

‘What?’ I ask.

And I realize that I shouldn’t have. It becomes obvious what’s on his mind. He pushes me onto the bonnet and steps forward. I am kind of dazed as he leans into me and I move a couple of inches forward. His lips touch mine and then he moves slowly, kissing my lower lip. I feel all warm and lightheaded. I put my hand on his shoulder for support. I can’t make sense of half of what’s happening; it’s all too quick to grasp. He places his hands on my waist and slowly caresses it. Soon, the kiss turns more intense and I start breathing heavily.

From the little light we have here, I can see him look into my eyes. I stare right back. He breaks the kiss and moves down to my neck. I gulp. He pushes away the neckline of my tee and plants a kiss there. Slowly, his lips travel lower and linger there.

I feel a shiver. Not in a good way. As his hands start to get more exploratory, my breathing becomes strained.
I’ve to stop him.
But before I can do or say anything, he slips his hand inside my T-shirt and I start to feel even more uncomfortable. I have to stop him.

I jerk back suddenly and he is taken by surprise. He looks at me, his eyes asking a zillion questions. I freeze.
What the hell?
We look at each other, not knowing what to say. This shouldn’t have happened. I slide down the hood of the car and he steps back. I turn away, adjust my clothes and walk out of the parking lot, crying, without looking at him at all. He doesn’t say anything either.

What on earth just happened?

I find myself asking the question for the next few hours as the tears keep flowing.

I keep walking around till my feet are tired, my mind visualizing a thousand worst-case scenarios. I shouldn’t have kissed him. Simran has not asked about Akshat yet, but what if she does? I have never lied to my sister and I hate doing that. A harmless date is acceptable, but we almost made out. He had his hands all over me. Worse still, I don’t know if I hated it. I was uncomfortable, that’s for sure, but I am not sure if I hated it like I should have.

I sit on the stairs, where Tanmay and I had spent the first day of college, and hide my face in my palms. Somehow, the tears don’t stop. Seconds later, I hear some footsteps coming towards me. They keep getting louder and more hurried.

‘NIHARIKA!’ I look up to see Tanmay shout at me, running towards me.

‘What?’

‘COME. You’ve got to see this,’ he says, sweat dripping down his brow.

‘Huh? What?’

‘Just come,’ he says, takes me by the hand and starts to jog again.

I try to resist, but his grip is way too strong and he doesn’t let go. I have no choice but to follow him, even though all I want right now is to be left alone. The episode with Akshat is way too fresh in my mind. My heart starts to race as we walk towards the parking lot I have just come from. As we get closer, I see a crowd of people—at least thirty—standing in a huddle and there are shouts all around.

I look at Tanmay and shout, ‘What’s happening there?’

‘KARTHIK AND AKSHAT!’
he shouts back.

We push through the crowd and it takes me a second to register what I see. Karthik’s hand flies through the air and lands on Akshat’s already bloody jaw. Akshat staggers back and falls on the ground. Karthik walks a few steps forward and swings again at his face just when Akshat is about to get up. The fist lands on his inner jaw and he spews a stream of blood out of his mouth before he crumples on the ground. I look at Karthik—his shirt is torn and his nose is bleeding slightly. Akshat seems to be beaten black and blue. He is clearly disoriented and is about to pass out.

‘STOP IT!’ I shout the minute I gain control over myself.

Before I can move, two security guards come running towards the commotion, raising their batons. The crowd immediately starts to disperse and Tanmay drags me away from the scene. I try, but I can’t loosen his grip. We stop some distance away and look back to find the security guards scratching their heads, since the place is now almost empty.

‘What was that?’ I ask, shocked, my face flushed red and my mind numb.

‘I don’t know. I just called Karthik and he told me where he was. I was walking to the canteen when I saw these two exchanging blows. Karthik was beating the shit out of Akshat. I heard Karthik take your name so I guessed you would know,’ Tanmay explains hurriedly.

‘How would I know?’ I say and hold my head. The tears start to flow again.

‘Did something happen?’ he asks and pulls me into a hug.

‘No, nothing happened,’ I say and hug him back. ‘Can you walk me to the hostel?’

‘Sure,’ he says and helps me to my feet.

As I walk back to my hostel, possibilities of what might have happened a few minutes ago cloud my head. Did Karthik and Akshat fight about me? Did Karthik see us kissing? And me crying? But why would he care? Why would he fight?

I reach the hostel and Tanmay asks me if I need him around. I thank him and ask him to go for his practice. I have half a mind to go and ask Karthik about what just happened but I am too messed up to think clearly.

In the room, I see Pia ferociously marking and underlining parts of her book. She looks at me enter the room and immediately senses that something is wrong.

‘What’s the matter?’

Almost instantly, I break down and tell her everything that has happened since the morning. She listens to me and like a good friend, she hugs me and tells me that everything will be all right.

‘So? Are you going to talk to Karthik about it?’ she asks.

‘I don’t know who to talk to. Karthik or Akshat.’

‘I think you should talk to Akshat first. Was he hurt?’

‘Much, much more than Karthik … much more,’ I say.

‘Talk to him.’

It takes Pia an hour to convince me to call Akshat and ask him what happened and why it happened. Three calls went unanswered and the fourth was rejected. I look at Pia, blank-faced when my phone beeps. It’s a text.

Can you meet me in the library? Ten minutes. :/

I show the text to Pia and she says she wants to come along. We both get ready to leave. On our way, Tanmay keeps asking me to keep calm no matter what happens, and despite trying hard to prepare what I would say to Akshat, I draw a blank.

We enter the library and see that it’s filled with students picking out huge books from the shelves, scribbling on their pads or peering into their laptops. A few couples hang around here and there, laughing, smiling and holding hands, waiting for a chance to disappear behind the racks for a stolen kiss.

I look around for Askhat on the ground and the first floor and find him nowhere. I guess he must be on the third, where all dusty old scientific journals are kept, since no student usually goes there.

‘There,’ Pia spots him.

As we walk towards him, I notice that Akshat isn’t alone. My eyes widen when I see who he is with. It’s
them
—the ones from the canteen. The college-fucking president—Chetan Mehta—and his cronies. They don’t look happy, neither does Akshat. His pretty face is all screwed up with cuts and bruises and a bandage stuck across his head. I feel sorry for him and had he been alone, I know I would have cried. But now, I am just scared.

‘Sit,’ Akshat says and places two chairs for us. I can see Pia looking a little unsettled at seeing seven heavily built guys around us. I am glad she came with me. Akshat smiles at me with his now crooked jaw.

‘What happened?’ I ask and my voice quakes.

‘We’re GOING TO KILL HIM!’ one of the college president’s cronies almost shouts and the rest of them join in unison.

‘Calm down,’ Akshat tells them.

‘But he messed with you!’ Chetan argues.

‘Let’s first try to understand why he did it,’ Akshat says and looks at me. His eyes have a strange concoction of anger and distrust in them as he stares, ‘Did you tell him … something? Did you ask him to?’

‘What? Why would I? I had no idea about what was going on until Tanmay told me.’

‘Then why?’ he relaxes a little.

‘Maybe he saw … what happened and saw me crying,’ I reason.

‘Niharika,’ he says and takes my hand into his, ‘I want you to tell me the truth. Did you or did you not tell him?’

‘What the—? I didn’t tell him anything. You have to trust me. I was equally shocked,’ I say, almost offended at the allegation.

‘Fine,’ he says and looks at the college president who nods. Then the rest of his cronies nod, and all have devilish smiles on their faces. A few of them even punch their fists into their palms.

‘What … what are you going to do?’

‘We will see,’ Akshat says, with a look so cunning that I am a little scared.

‘Akshat, look at me, and promise you will not do anything. Please.’

‘How can I not? Why would I not? He beat me up, in front of so many people, Niharika! I have every right to destroy this bloody guy’s life.’

I have not heard Akshat swear and it’s strange to see him do that, although it looks like he is very comfortable with
it. But I have to stand my ground, ‘I don’t want any fights. Not because of me at least.’

‘But, I want my revenge,’ he says and the rest of the guys nod.

‘No, you don’t! I am sure it’s a misunderstanding. Just let it go,’ I say frantically. I look at them and wonder what they will do to Karthik.

‘How can I let it go? He needs to know that he was wrong and we know just the right way to make that happen,’ he says and looks at Chetan, who smiles gleefully.

‘Akshat, you can go have your revenge or whatever. But if I get to know anything about it, trust me, I will never talk to you again. NEVER.’

‘What? You’re defending him?
He
picked up the fight.
He
beat
me
up! How can you—? Wait. Are you guys …? Is there something between the two of you? Is
that
why?’

‘
NO!
Shut up. There is nothing between us. I hardly know him. I just don’t want any fights because of me. And Karthik is friends with my best friend, Tanmay. I don’t want anyone to get hurt. Do you get that?’ I say angrily and this time he gets it.

‘Fine. Fine. I get it, no fights,’ he says and the shoulders of the guys around him—who had been warming their knuckles for a fight—droop and they shake their heads in disappointment.

‘And I am sorry for what happened, really. I didn’t know something like this could happen.’

‘Yeah, whatever,’ he says and points his finger towards the door. I have never seen him act so rude.

‘I am sorry.’

‘Fine. You can go now,’ he says, his eyes still smouldering with anger.

Pia tugs at my hand and we leave the third floor. As soon
as we are out of hearing range of those guys, Pia says, ‘He is rude, isn’t he?’

‘He is just angry, he is not usually like this.’

‘I don’t like him.’

‘You can’t blame him. Karthik beat him up really badly. You should have seen. I feel sorry for Akshat. It shouldn’t have happened,’ I say as feelings of pity make their presence felt in certain parts of my heart.

‘But don’t you think it was incredibly romantic of Karthik to beat him up like that?’ Pia says, ‘I mean I would love it if Tanmay does the same for me.’

‘Umm … Tanmay?’ I ask. She looks shocked. She had said Tanmay … not Vishal, but Tanmay.

‘Huh … Vishal. I mean Tanmay is here, that’s why I said Tanmay. And whatever,’ she says, her face red with embarrassment.

‘Okay, leave it. And I don’t think it’s romantic, Pia. It’s stupid and I will let him know that,’ I say.

‘Had I been you, I would have kissed him!’ Pia says and laughs out loud, back to her normal self in less than fifteen seconds.