Page 83 - Half Girlfriend

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We had practised for less than ten minutes when she got a stomach
cramp. She held her stomach and gestured to stop the game.

‘I'm not fully okay after the viral attack,’ she said.
She walked off the court and sank to the ground. She buried her

face in her hands.
‘I need to rest. And I’m a little cold in these.’ She pointed to her

extra-small red shorts.They barely covered her upper thighs.

‘You should have told me. We need not have played today,’ I said.
‘I’ll be fine,’ she said. She removed her hands from her face and

smiled at me.
It had been a week since my panel recommended taking Riya to

my room again.‘Make Bihar proud, else you don’t matter’ is what they
had repeated to me all week. Today, I had the chance.

‘Hey, you want to rest in my room?’ I said.
‘Sneak in?’

I played it cool.‘Yeah.You rest.Take a nap. I can study, or will even
leave the room if you want me to.’

‘You don’t have to leave your own room.’ She stood up.
She had said I didn’t have to leave. It meant she had agreed to

come to Rudra. Girls never tell you anything straight out anyway.You
have to interpolate and extrapolate their responses to figure out what’s

on their mind.

*
I smuggled her in again. As I shut the door of my room, I knew

my moment of truth had come. Make Bihar proud, make yourself
count, I repeated in my head.

Riya sat on the bed, legs extended straight.
‘Lie down,’ I said.

‘I’m not that sick, just need to rest,’ Riya said and smiled. ‘I see
you’ve cleaned up your room.’

‘Well, it’s still not as fancy as yours.’