Page 112 - The World's Best Boyfriend

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Aranya felt nauseous about how he had used the word dude—wannabe and

gender-inappropriate—and how honest Dhruv was in declaring her an ugly toad.
She missed her dinner that night and thought of going for a run but settled for
quantum mechanics instead. She didn’t want to be seen running. It was too
embarrassing. Instead she would jog on the spot for thirty minutes in front of the

mirror and slump on the ground, crying and exhausted and hungry.
She could feel a wave of depression washing over her. It happened every few

months for a couple of weeks. She wouldn’t eat, she wouldn’t be able to
concentrate on work and she would spend hours in front of the mirror wishing
she looked better.
For the next few days, Dhruv was too involved in pandering to his pretty

girlfriend’s wants and kept out of her way. She had been avoiding Raghuvir too,
wondering if he felt the same way about her as Dhruv did—an ugly, loathsome

toad.
She went on another one of her depressing crash diets that made her weak,
irritable and cranky, and crushed her feminist, beauty-is-skin-deep soul. Her
class performance started to dip infinitesimally which no one but Raghuvir

noted.
‘What’s up with you?’ asked Raghuvir having called her to his staffroom.

‘Nothing, Sir.’
‘You’re slowing down in class. What’s the matter? Only weeks ago you were
up in arms about a guy burning your assignments and now you’re listless even

when on the first bench?
Raghuvir led her to a chair and his touch was strangely comforting. ‘What’s
troubling you?’

For the next ten minutes, Aranya stayed mum and Raghuvir waited for an
answer.
‘You wouldn’t get it, Sir.’

‘Do I need to read out my CV again? People think of me as quite intelligent,
you know.’
Aranya sighed. ‘There’s this girl, a cousin of mine. She just got married.’

‘Okay. That seems plausible. What about it?’