When It Rained...

Hello, people!

It's Arpita this side! I know how much you all must miss Swarnali's posts, and I thought I would try to keep to you entertained until she gets back to blogging. I am nowhere as good at this as she is but I do hope you'll enjoy reading my posts and bare with me for a couple of weeks. This is the first part of a story I am writing about a couple of friends who decide to spend some time together on a rainy day and how an ordinary day turns out to be so different from what they expected. Do leave your comments and suggestions. Happy reading!

We were sitting by the window, watching it rain, when Riana’s phone rang. She quickly turned down the volume of her iPod and the music of “Careless Whispers” by George Michael went into the background as she answered Vedant’s call.

She listened to him talk for a few moments, and then she startled me by suddenly screaming into the phone, “THERE’S NO WAY YOU’RE GOING TO DO THIS TO ME!!!”

Riana looked at me, her pretty, big eyes turning wide. “Shivam and Vedant are half way through and now they’re saying they’re going back home!”

“WHAT?! But that’s completely insane!” I yelled, jumping off the desk that I was sitting on. “Give me the phone.”

“I know it’s pouring,but WE’RE here, aren’t we? There’s just no point turning back NOW!” She said to Vedant, looking disgruntled. “Here, talk to Pooja.”

I grabbed the phone and marched out of the class.

“Listen-to-me-Vedant-you-had-better-be-here-if-you-like-your-nose-the-shape-it-is-Do-you-understand?” I said, in one breath.

He kept quiet.

“Hello?”

I shook the phone out of frustration. Then I realized that he’d hung up.

Then he called on my number but I could hardly hear him due to some stupid network problem. I handed Riana her phone and tried calling him back.

After a few minutes, Riana received a text message from Vedant:

“No connectivity. Don’t worry, I was kidding. We’re already at the gate.”

How humorous.

It was a Thursday that day, and there was a DUTA strike. A few classes were anyway being held, so the college wasn’t absolutely deserted. But the second year English and History Honors students didn’t have a class so my friends and I thought we’d hang out together for a few hours. Most people from our group didn’t turn up because we hadn’t been able to decide where to go, and had agreed to meet in college and make plans there and then. So it was just Vedant, Shivam, Riana, Vanessa and I who spent the day together. I was wondering how long it was going to take Vanessa to reach, when Riana interrupted my thoughts.

“Okay, he says he’s parked just inside the gate. Let’s go.”

“I still can’t believe you’re meeting Hotwheels TODAY of all days,” I grumbled.

Who breaks up with her boyfriend on such a rainy, romantic day?!

“Hey, listen. I have to get it over with, sooner or later. Better sooner than later, right?” She reasoned.

“Right.” I mumbled. “But promise me you won’t take too long!”

“I promise, now let’s GO!”

Riana pulled me out of the class and down the flight of steps. Just as we were about to reach the ground floor, we saw Vedant and Shivam running up the stairs. Vedant reached us first, and he had a big grin on his face as he said, “I’m here, Riana!”

SMACK! Riana slapped him across the face. For fun. Most of us were used to her antics by then, but when Shivam and I saw the bewildered look on Vedant’s face, we nearly collapsed, we were laughing so hard. The phrase, “I did not slap you-- I hi-fived your face!” ran through my mind. Poor Vedant.

After we’d (finally) stopped laughing, I told the boys that Riana was going to go have a chat with Hotwheels. If that hadn’t annoyed them enough, the reason Riana gave them for dragging me along definitely had. She wanted me to bring back the one umbrella we had so that she wouldn’t have to carry it with her when she’d get into his car. Why? Because she wanted to look cool.

I used to think I could never loathe Hotwheels any more than I already did. That day, I changed my mind. Now, the reason behind the growth in my hatred might not sound very reasonable to you. In case it doesn’t, just spend five whole hours wearing Converse and socks that got COMPLETELY soaked because you stepped into puddles and got drenched in the rain while escorting your friend to her boyfriend’s car.

And trust me, it doesn’t help if your friend keeps tugging the umbrella away from you. The most excruciating part comes when her MORONIC, PIG-HEADED AND ABSOLUTELY DEMENTED BOYFRIEND KEEPS WATCHING YOU STRUGGLE AND DOESN’T EVEN UNLOCK THE DOOR FAST ENOUGH.

It’s at times like these when you really wish you could hand people a one way ticket to HELL.

                                 

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“I SO hate Hotwheels!!!” I yelled as I stomped into my classroom.

Vedant and Shivam looked up from their textbooks. I dumped the umbrella on the floor.

“Look at the state of me!” I said, waving my arms wildly.

They grinned at each other as I kept whining and whining.

“And WHAT is taking Vanessa so long?!” I complained.

“Listen, Pooja,” said Vedant, looking serious. “I can’t go with you people. I really have a lot of studying to do and Shivam and I were thinking of spending some time in the library today.”

“Whaaaat????” I groaned.

How can he do this to me?!  Why is everyone so hell-bent on getting under my skin today??

“But that’s totally unfair! You’d said you’ll come with us! And you can sit in the library any day, but we hardly ever get to spend so much time together what with classes and stuff.”

“I’m sorry, Pooja.” Said Vedant. “But I really have got to make notes and there’s an important book I want to issue before someone else does.”

“Urgh! Shivam, tell him to cut the crap!” I demanded.

Shivam just shrugged and kept watching Vedant, a slight smile on his face. I turned away in frustration, and called Vanessa for help. Thankfully, she answered the call-- her phone had been engaged for almost an hour.

I told her about Vedant’s new tantrum and immediately got her to talk to him. She couldn’t have spoken more than a few words, but he smoothly hung up, telling her that we’ll meet her at the gate in five minutes. I narrowed my eyes at him, though he didn’t see it. I couldn’t belive he’d been saying all that stuff just to see me getting all worked up about him not coming along. Now I understood why Shivam hadn’t taken sides during our argument.

(To be continued…)