Page 134 - The World's Best Boyfriend

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Aranya’s life had crawled back to being awesome and unfit; samosas and

cupcakes were being eaten without guilt, questions about thermodynamics were
being answered in a flash, her dominance in class participation and internal class
tests was on an all-time high, and most importantly, Raghuvir was happy about
her comeback. He had even expressed interest in enrolling her as a student

researcher in one of his projects, which was the kind of thing that turned Aranya
on. It was a montage of life throwing good things at her.

She sat in her usual seat, the first bench, alone and sharpening her pencils,
smiling. The first register of the semester was filled up and today she was
breaking in a new register. The smell of new registers, and sharpened pencils
always filled her with a sense of eagerness and anticipation. It was Raghuvir’s

class today and she hoped he would walk in wearing a niqab for her to
concentrate on his words better.

More often than not Aranya was content placing herself at the centre of the
universe and not caring about the insignificant people orbiting around her, but
today was different. On the stairs outside the class, Ritika sat crying, bawling,
snot running from her nose, looking like nothing anyone would love. In the past

few days, she had become rather ghostly. She had lost weight and looked pale,
one could find her standing unblinking on empty balconies and walking listlessly

through empty corridors late at night, and since Aranya lived right next door, she
heard howling from her room every night. Aranya told herself that it wasn’t her
fault but Ritika’s and that the girl was cuckoo, and it would all be over and time

would exorcize the ghost soon. But today she took it on herself to be the priest
and show her the cross.
She walked out of the class, cursing her feminine instinct.

‘Ritika?’ said Aranya.
‘Get lost!’ snapped Ritika, her face streaked with tears.
If this wasn’t an example of overreaction, she didn’t know what was.

‘I’m sorry it had to be like this between the two of you, but you have to know
that there’s nothing between the two of us,’ said Aranya, trying hard to sound
concerned but this entire situation was a little too stupid to be taken seriously.

‘Nothing?’