Monday mornings always feel like a fresh start, like you can put all the last week's crap behind and move forward.
May got ready after her daily jog to start her new day, excited to ask for the weekend's details from Bosco, she even woke Reha and Sophie up before their usual time to leave early for college.
"Has anything good happened to you in last few days?" Sophie chuckled as she was trying to keep up with May's lively steps.
"Yesterday she was smiling the whole time, even when someone wasn't picking up her calls." Reha said while recalling it and grabbed her arm, "Are you going out with someone without telling us?" she pouted.
"Noway! Is that why you avoided Kevin?" Sophie got more curious while saying, "I thought you were just playing hard to get!"
"Guys!" May raised her hands and said, "Stop your wild guesses, I'm not seeing anyone." She paused and then added, "And don't let Kevin come close to me if you want to..."
"What happened here?" Reha broke in seeing a commotion outside their class.
"Hey Bosco! Do you know anything?" Reha asked sitting beside him, "Why everyone is giving us weird looks?"
"Come on! You should talk to us too" Sophie said genuinely when he didn't respond, "You can't act so partial towards May."
"Where is May?" Bosco suddenly asked with sparkling eyes.
They pointed outside, he smiled and replied, "Eric Wron was proposed by a girl just now" and left in a hurry.
"He talked to us just now!" Sophie chuckled.
"Yeah but" Reha shrugged her shoulder and remarked, "Doesn't Eric rejects every girl. Whats new in that? Why everyone looks so hyped up today."
"I don't know." Sophie sighed, "I just know, I feel jealous of Arshi Sahaay sometimes."
May was talking to some seniors outside her class, this year's freshers would be handled by HS group. So they warned her to be careful, it was the first time a SS was going to work with HS but Arichit liked her spirit and has talked to HS president himself. So May had no choice but to give her best.
May thanked seniors and was about to walk into the class when Bosco appeared in front of her.
He dragged her to a corner and said, "What happened between you and Eric after you left that night?"
May laughed a little, "Thats not important." She sqeezed his hand and said, "You tell me what happened between you and Ross? Why didn't you answered my calls? Don't tell me you were with him the whole time!" Her eager face made Bosco flinch.
"Yeah kindof" He uttered in a low voice, running his fingers through his hair.
"What!" She chortled at his face turning red, "I can't believe you" she hugged him tight, "Damn! Why am I so happy?"
"Exactly!" Bosco freed himself saying, "Stop being dramatic."
Seeing this from far Eric smirked, striding towards them he said, "Taking a ride with me will tarnish someone's image, but hugging a guy in front of everyone won't."
"What...is he talking about?" Bosco whispered to May.
"That night" May giggled, "I told him I have an image to keep and took a cab instead of sitting on his bike."
"Ah! I need to tell you.." Bosco remembered what he wanted to say but May had already turned to reply Eric, "You know what, it was just an excuse" she stepped forward and said, "Truth is, a cab driver can be trusted more than you."
"And you know what?" he furrowed his brows and said, "I was going to stop at this but now I won't" and walked past her saying, "Don't forget, you started this."
"Bring it on!" May shouted after and with a huge smile turned back to Bosco, who has covered his face dismayingly.
"What?" Mayra asked.
"He announced his love for you today" Bosco stated, seeing May's puzzled face, he patted her arm and explained, "He said he likes Mayra Sen to the girl who came to ask him out today, in front of everyone."
"What rubbish! Everyone knows about him and Arshi." May sneered.
"But he never confirmed their relationship" Bosco sighed and concluded, "Now you are a love rival of most of the girls here and you even challenged him for more."
"Don't worry. I'm not scared of such pranks" May waved her hand, while thinking, 'Is he trying to spoil my image?'
And her bad intuitions turned out to be true when Eric feigned hurt and asked other girls to stop bullying her, though May was completely ignoring them and was least concerned about their mean remarks.
It was his creepy attitude which was giving her goosebumbs, he started calling her 'wifey' in front of everyone, he started sending her lousy messages and even sat next to her in every class. For someone who is always aloof, he has proved everyone how he has become completely bewitched by her.
"Miss Mayra Sen! You are not allowed to take my lecture." Prof. Swan said as soon as he saw her in the lecture theatre.
May stood up and walked to him asking, "I'm sorry, Did I do something wrong?"
"Asking this after skipping all the discussions last week" Prof. said, "Don't waste my time and leave." and gestured her towards the door.
She glanced at Eric who was smirking at her, "Sir, I haven't been told anything about it" she said.
Prof. asked Eric and he replied that he informed her everytime through webchat.
May broke in, "But I've blocked you from everywhere and you know that."
"No you didn't, we chat all the time." Eric said briskly and told prof. he can check her phone.
May knew she can't show him their conversation, "He could have told me himself, he's always sitting next to me but he didn't" she gasped out.
"I thought you don't like it when we talk in front of others" Eric said with straight face, "I didn't knew you were waiting for it!"
"Since when did you care? You say all lousy..." May stopped in the middle of her sentence, she could hear giggling sounds from behind and knew what he's trying to do. She bowed down to the prof. and left the room in fury.
She can't even snap at him now, he makes it look like a lover's tiff to everyone, even the people she never talked to started anticipating their bickerings. 'You shouldn't entertain others' she uttered to herself again, 'Avoid talking to him.'
"Soph, soph wake up now." Reha shouted throwing her blanket aside.
"What is it?" Sophie got annoyed.
"It started raining and May isn't back yet." Reha was walking around half-crazed.
"Just calm down! She isn't a kid, she'll come back in a while." she pulled the blanket again, "now let me sleep please."
"Soph its 7 am she never jogs that long I hope she hasn't fainted like befo".....before she can finish her sentence the door opened with a thud.
"I hate it, I swear I hate it" May entered the room in a frivolous mood, Reha was looking at her with puzzled face when May noticed her, "Sorry! did I wake you up?" May regained her composure and said.
"No! What took you so long?" Reha asked with worried eyes, "And why are you so mad?" .
May sighed, "You know what, this guy is getting on my nerves now." she shooked her head saying, "I can't stand him anymore."
"You met Eric? At this time?" Sophie got up and asked, she can't sleep when they are talking about something this intresting.
"Why you woke up now?" Reha snapped at her.
Sophie ignored her words and asked May, "Tell me exactly what happened?"
"Nothing much. A guy got a bad leg cramp on my way back so I walked him to infirmary. There I saw Eric limping, it looked bad so I asked him genuinely if everything was fine but he bellowed at me."
She opened her drawer and then closed it again without taking anything out, "Even if he was in pain he doesn't has to shout at me like that." she took her clothes and slammed the washroom's door close, "He can die for all I care" .
'No its not. So what are you going to do? Are you going to walk me to dorm 1 now.' she recalled his words and realised, it was the first time she saw him so pissed off.
"Why don't you just ignore him?" Reha shouted from outside.
May opened the door and peeked in, "I tried to so many times but he never stops until I react" and banged the door ones again.
Sophie was smiling by herself. "What is it?" Reha raised her eyebrow.
"Don't you think something is going on between them." Sophie said in a hushed tone.
"Hasn't she just told us, what exactly is going on. Don't read too much in between the lines." Reha responded to which Sophie nodded and pulled her blanket back to sleep.
May got the approval from Sana sr.(HS president) to work with them but she hasn't been updated anything by other HS members, so she decided to confront her herself. She went to medical science department and asked around for her.
"Hey!" a tall handsome guy with light brown hairs stood in front of May.
"You helped me in the morning today, don't you remember?" that guy said seeing her confused look, "to the infirmary..."
"Oh yes, sorry I was just engaged in some other thoughts" she smiled a little and asked, "Hows your leg?"
"Its alright now. I just wanted to thank you, you left without giving me a chance to say it properly" he smiled and offered his hand, "By the way I'm Danish Saigal."
"Mayra Sen" Mayra returned the shake.
"Are you a frosh? Haven't seen you here before?" he asked casualy.
"Yes but not from this department. Actually I was looking for Sana sr." May replied with the hope to get some help.
"Sana! Why do you want to see her?" his eyes sparkled, "Umm.." before she can reply anything he called a number and said, "she'll meet us in cafeteria. Lets go there."
May looked skeptically at him without moving an inch, he realised the situation and explained, "She's my sister, Sana Saigal. I asked her to meet us there.I can also offer you coffee that way" he flashed a sly grin.
"You don't have to" May said straight-faced and stepped away.
"Wait! Don't think the other way?" he said deadpan.
"Well I don't need to think anything at all" she said looking straight in his eyes.
"I saw that coming." he snickered, "Look Sana is doing some lab work right now and I've to leave in 10 minutes. If you are going to wait for her then lets do it in cafeteria, I was about to get a coffee anyway."
"Then let me make this clear I'll pay for myself" May turned around to walk.
"You can have your coffee, I'll see what I want" she said after placing her bag on an empty chair beside her and picked up the menu card.
"Do you act this weird with every guy or I'm a special case?" Danish chuckled seeing her uptight self.
She looked up, "Don't run your imagination wild. I just don't find any reason to act all friendly to you."
"And I don't find any reason why not to" Danish quipped,"Or do you like to play hard to get."
When Mayra didn't respond anything he asked, "Ok, Can I ask you something?"
"No you can't" Mayra placed the menu card aside.
"Why you put me down when I first asked you for coffee" he left her words unheard.
" 'cause I don't like people taking advantage of a situation" she replied.
"Then why you agreed after that?" he asked again.
" 'cause I was deciding it for me, not you" she stood up and went to grab her drink.
'She isn't as easy as I thought' Danish smiled at himself, 'I am amused after a long time.'
Danish was gone by the time Sana came and greeted, "Arichit talked to me about you himself. You must be very close to him" although she said this straight-faced, May sensed a sting of jealousy in her voice.
"Maybe because he doesn't agree with the present friction between our groups" May stated her opinion in his name.
"You must be here regarding freshers right?" May's words got unheard as Sana started explaining her things.
'These Saigal siblings are strikingly similar' May felt.
"Since participants' training is starting from day after tomorrow, you'll report to me in the auditorium from now on. You won't be involved in planning of the event but it doesn't mean there will be no work for you" Sana stated clearly and reminded her to be on time before leaving.
"Hey May, what time are you called tomorrow?" Sophie asked lying on her bed at night.
"10 am and you?" May said cheerfully jumping beside her.
"12 pm" Sophie smiled back tossing her phone aside.
"Are you guys that happy?" Reha jumped between them on the bed.
"Yes" they said together and laughed.
"Ahh!! Are you trying to get me jealous?" Reha laid down on her stomach, "I wish I had something fun to do as well."
"Why don't you come with me, you can check out hottest guys of our university" Sophie winked.
"Only participants are allowed in" Reha said thinly.
"How about volunteering with me?" May suggested, "You can ask to join art team!"
"Damn you May! I love you!!" Reha perked up and hugged her.
"Now get back to your beds both of you." Reha pushed them aside, "I've got a lot to do tomorrow."
Friends are truly the most caring mean creatures by our side.
May reached auditorium thinking finally she'll get to work for freshers, it will take time but she knew she'll definitely join the planning team.
She was looking for Sana when Arichit came to her, May greeted him saying, "I didn't know I'll find you here" it was relieving, as if she met a long lost friend in between strangers.
"Why? Are you nervous?" Arichit smiled and said, "Don't worry, I'll be here. I can't let my junior get bullied afterall."
'Bullied?' May knew she wasn't accepted by everyone in HS but, 'Isn't bully a strong word for the problems I'll have to face' she thought.
"Just remember one thing Mayra. If you really want to do it then don't take any task less seriously and don't take yourself too seriously." He said just the right thing she needed to hear, "Aye, aye, captain" she smiled brightly.
"Arichit!" Sana walked towards them, "I had no clue SS group will be so serious about it."
"I thought its time to introduce some changes" he replied.
Even when they both were smiling during their whole conversation, May was getting chills while standing there.
By 5 pm in the evening practice was about to be over. Reha got an approval from seniors and joined May and Sophie by noon but she had nothing to do so she left earlier. Sophie was busy the whole day in flirting with her partner.
May was asked to do only some chore work like getting coffee for everyone or turning the music on and off. It was at the end of the day when she was asked to do something she has expected from the start, to clean up the hall by herself after everyone leaves.
"Are you sure you want to do it? Aren't they going overboard?" Sophie asked.
"Maybe they are but it won't last long" May replied.
"Atleast let me help you" Sophie said.
"Come on, I'm here to prove myself such small things aren't even a problem." May waved her goodbye saying"You just go first, I'll join you guys soon."
She put her hair in a bun, turned the music on and started tidying up the place. It took her hardly 30 minutes to finish but she missed the last campus shuttle bus. She locked the hall and decided to walk to her dorm.
'Overall it was a fine day, everything went smoothly' she wondered why her day felt so peaceful, is it because she finally get to do what she wants. Or is it because she hasn't run into Eric Wron.
It had to feel different, for someone who bickered with her even on weekends it was strange not seeing him from last two days.
'Is he alright?' her steps stopped in the halfway.