|the naive rebel|
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xviii| revenge is best served spicy
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word count- 2106

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FINALLY :-)

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INAAYAT
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"I will tear your assignments with this knife," I squint my eyes looking at the culprit in front of my eyes.

"That is a butter knife." The culprit looks at me, flashing a full-blown smile.

"I will still tear it. Give that or I will run the knife across your hard work." I warn pointing my knife at her.

"Aayat." She sighs, striking her forehead with her palm looking at me in disappointment.

"I will count to three." I threaten holding her blue file in my right hand and the butter knife in my left.

"Tear it." She challenges and I struggle to find words.

"I will do it, trust me.." I trail off. Striving to bring the most threatening tone I can muster, I present her with a tricky look.

"I did say tear them, didn't I?" She scowls at me.

My nose flares in anger as I scrutinise my eyes at her. Pouting in anger, I keep gawking at her.

Keeping the file on the table with a loud thud I mutter, "I hate you," I huff twisting my mouth.

I stare at the glass kept in front of her, filled with coffee and froth floating on top, the flavour aroma hitting my nostrils-hypnotising me.

"One sip, please?" I beg and muster a puppy dog face trying to coax her.

"No."

"Ruthless." I sneer at her while all she does is to pick the glass up and takes a huge sip of the cold coffee.

"You can not keep coffee away from me." I declare openly.

"I am going to keep it away from you." She alerts me and I think of booking the next ride home. I don't want to stay with this female modernised version of Hitler.

"Mishti, you are committing a crime keeping a beloved away from its lover. It's a sin, a crime. Just imagine what your family and friends will feel when they come to know that their very own Mishti, doesn't let a girl convene the love of her life." I stand and filmily phrase the dialogue.

"Oo, shut up and sit down. Stop creating a scene. You can do whatever you like but I am not letting you drink any more cups of coffee. Aayat, you have already gulped down three cups, right in front of me while I am still on my first. You have already consumed enough caffeine for two days."

"But I-"

"No. Quiet, and sit down." She commands and I have no other option than to sit down defeatedly, whacking my foot at the table's leg.

"Ouch!" I whimper holding my leg.

"You are the reason for my injury." I point my finger at her accusing her.

Mishti and I have been sitting in the cafeteria for about an hour now, waiting for others to come. Our first lecture had already been completed, and strangely Nikhil and Shaan had missed the lecture.

I have been stressed thinking about the students and their relation with drugs which was the reason behind my monstrous coffee intake.

I hadn't seen both Nikhil and Shaan since the previous day and wasn't aware that they would be skipping a lecture today. Sameer, on the other hand, had already informed us about his leave owing to the fact that he had overslept this morning.

While Garima is in her lecture room attending her class. "When are they going to come?" Mishti asks ignoring my indictment.

"I am not talking to you," I scoff and move my head to the left side, ignoring her.

"Oh, that's nice. I'll finally be able to get some peace and silence in my life."

"Wait, you mean I am more talkative? Have you seen yourself? Between you and me-"

Before I can complete my sentence Mishti intervenes and shows me the entrance where both Nikhil and Shaan are seen entering the cafeteria. Walking weirdly they have their heads hung down as they make their way towards our table.

They limp all their way and sit awkwardly, with their face holding a constant grimace.

"What happened to you both?" I bite hard on my lips to prevent a giggle leave my mouth.

"Don't you dare laugh at us," Nikhil warns us. He looks angered and I can sense an emotion of rage being radiated out from Shaan as well.

This might be the first time I have seen emotions being displayed on his poker face.

"But what happened...at least tell us."

"Fevicol." Shaan sneers.

"What do you mean?" I ask inquisitively.

"Today morning when Shaan and I left our room to attend the classes, we both skidded as soon as we left the room." Nikhil starts.

"Wait, you both joined my team?" I enthusiastically put in.

"Shut up and listen." Nikhil continues, "No. We slipped because of the pool of Fevicol that had arisen outside our room, overnight."

"Pool of Fevicol?"

"Yeah, and that was a fall." He closes his eye, remembering the incident that had taken place in his hostel.

"How was the experience?" Mishti asks laughing.

"Of?" This time Shaan asks perplexed.

When I turn towards Mishti waiting for her explanation, I see her sitting with jaws drop, eyes widen and mouth fully open.

"You'll catch flies," I playfully remark.

She doesn't move and continues looking at Shaan and then at me. "He knows how to talk?" Mishti tries to whisper but flunks miserably.

This girl.

Shaan suddenly goes all silent again and sticks his gaze at the table before him. Fidgetting with his fingers it appears that he has cut off the world again.

As a cue, Nikhil starts conversing again, "So apparently we both slipped and it took us an hour to remove the glue from our body, and that shit bloody pains." He winces and laughs.

Nice, finally the jungle on your arms are
waxed." Sameer enters the cafeteria and takes a seat next to me.

"Shut up." Nikhil rolls his eyes at him.

"There's still glue on my feet, do you even know how difficult it is to walk when your feet stick to the sole of the shoes every time you take a step forward."

"Our sympathies are with you," I comment as we finally get up to attend our lecture.

Nikhil and Shaan still totter, as we reach our classroom. Mishti and I take our assigned seats while the boys go to theirs.

"What are you thinking?" I ask Mishti who is staring at her books.

"Why would someone bring so much glue in a hostel and spill it?"

"I-" Before I can present my doubts the professor walks into the class and we all get up to greet him.

"Sameer Mehrotra come here." The professor yells. I look at Sameer and then at the teacher confused at his unexpected outrage. From the periphery, I see Sameer moving towards the podium, looking unaware of the situation.

"Yes Sir?" He questions looking at the professor while he stands before him. We all sit down with our scrutiny clipped to the conversation that is taking place.

"How dare you!" The professor shrieks, his voice resonates in the room.

"What Sir? I didn't get you."

"Get out of my class!" His voice was so loud that it almost pierces our ears. I can hear murmuring and hushed voices from the students.

"Aayat, didn't he just come to the college? What did he do?" Mishti points out in a hushed voice.

"I have no clue," I reply seeing how Sameer tries reasoning with the professor but he pays no heed to his requests or explanations.

"Leave my class!" He shouts for the last time before Sameer leaves the classroom dejectedly.

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The class ends with me understanding not even a word from the lecture while Mishti was surprisingly contented with today's lecture. Though, the reason why Sameer was ousted from the class remains unknown to all of us.

"Why did the professor shout at Sameer?" Nikhil inquires once we all stand in a group outside the class.

"Will he be in the cafeteria?" Mishti asks and we all decide to check the cafeteria before we leave.

"It's so strange," I mutter.

Before we take a step forward, we hear a feminine shrill voice calling Mishti's name and we turn around to find a breathless Garima running towards us.

"What?" We ask seeing her puffing state.

"This," saying this she shoves a white pamphlet in our faces. Mishti reads the contents of the paper and her eyes turn as wide as saucers.

'The college girl who is already married.'

-Mishti Sayal with her picture.

I read the paper yanking it from her grip. One by one Nikhil and Shaan read it too. I look at Mishti who is now trembling and shivering, her body twitching with fear.

I quickly pull Mishti in a comforting hug, rubbing a hand over her spine trying to calm her. I whisper words of assistance in her ears, trying to soothe her.

"H-how? I am- am not married." She stammers while I reply with an 'I know'. I guide her towards the exiting passage.

As we pass the corridors, I see other students looking at Mishti with the pamphlets in their hands, while I resume pulling Mishti's still body.

We reach an empty corridor when my eyes fall at the people before us. I come to a halt and because of that, everyone stops behind me.

"Hello, my favourite people." Varun greets us in his venomous voice.

"You all are here! Did you see the-" Sameer enters the corridor heaving.

"Why are you all here," Nikhil shouts at the Devils who stand at the opposite end of the hallway, looking at us and smiling like idiots.

"How did you find the design of the pamphlet? Colour choices were good, weren't they? His laughter echoes in the empty aisle and I feel disgust creeping into me hearing their questions.

"Aayat Mishra, how did you find our surprise?" Varun walks forward while the other members of his group stand rooted to their places.

"So it was you." I leave my hold on Mishti and walk towards Varun, who is standing with his arms crossed across his chest.

"Bingo."

Both Sameer and Nikhil stride forth, standing on my either sides.

"Tsk...Tsk...Are you all this dumb?" He innocently utters but we know that he is anything but innocent in this situation.

"First we targeted these two idiots." Varun commences pointing his finger at Shaan and Nikhil.

"Then we complained to Prof. Rathi about Sameer spilling glue in the hostel...which was a lie and then these beautiful pamphlets. Aah. Such a nice plan, right?" He pats his shoulder.

"You fuc-" I start when he interrupts me and I almost launch at him when he stops me and informs me that there is one more thing that is left.

"What?" Shaan shifts a little forward too.

"So you do know how to talk, nerd?"

"Answer him." Nikhil sneers at him while Varun turns around and loudly walks away joining his group.

He keeps mumbling something about how his main target isn't my friends but me. He tells me that it isn't easy to get away from him especially after I had crossed a line.

"If your target is me, you should have enough guts to hurt me. Hurting my friends just shows how coward you are."

"Oof. This confidence. It kills me." Keeping his palm over his heart, he winks at me. I shudder at his cheap tactics.

The very moment he fishes a rubber ball out from his pocket and twirls it between his fingers.

"You are trying to scare me with a rubber ball?" I mock at him.

"Let's see how great you are at catching a ball." He comments after which he aims and throws the ball directly at me.

Before the ball can hit me, a body slips right in front of me-shielding me from the ball. As soon as the ball contacts his shoulders, a small grunt leaves his mouth and I look around trying to process the things that happened.

When I see down, I notice how the rubber balls have tiny pieces of glass attached to it which would have easily injured my face if it did collide with me.

What the hell?

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